The Joy's of Teaching Kids!!

I promised a blow by blow description of my Gelatin Monoprinting experience with 40 4th graders and 40 fifth graders, so here goes. I only had two hours,so the time went very quickly but we all had a wonderful time! I always feel that I get so many rewards after an experience like this, I find myself wondering if the kids enjoy it as much.

The morning did not start off well at all. It was bitter cold -12 degrees- for VA that is darn cold!! I went out to load my car after following the list that I had made for myself the night before. I noticed that my right front tire looked a touch low. I park on the very steep driveway and so I usually don't notice this. Fortunately Tom was home from work and he insisted on pulling out the air compressor and filling the tire.. I was late but I did not want the tire to go dead flat on rt 95 and totally miss the class- I would never have forgiven myself.. So Tom filled the tire- he siad that it was indeed flat> SIGH!!

So I got on the road and got to the school and found the room and got set up and then the kids trooped in with very expectant faces. Several teacher wandered through having heard about the gelatin printing and many were making jokes about jello wrestling and wanting to watch!~! the kids wanted to know if they could Eat it- yuck , no it is only plain unsugared gelatin!!

We got right down to it as the clock was ticking and we turned out some wonderful prints. I did a quick demo, we talked about different stamping tools and off they went!! I had promised lots of pictures but in the last minute rush to get out the door and with the tire incident, I forgot my camera!! ARGHGHHHHH!!!

So Mirinda Reynolds the fabulous ARt Teacher at Fredericksburg Academy took some shots and forwarded this one on to me.

THese prints ( on Navy mulbery fiber paper) will eventually become covers for the book of art that each student creates for the artworks generated as they participate in the year long Artist In Residence program. In the lower left corne you can see aparticularly nice print that this girl made using a plastic doily for her patterning!

The kids really did a great job. They were very curious and asked lots of great art questions by trying all sorts of things to make patterns with. We had a very messy, creative and rewarding time!! I certainly hope that the funding for this program is not cut, as I am really looking forward to participating and working with these kiddos again next year!!!