I volunteered to help with crafts at "Camp Saint Philip's," our church's vacation Bible school, which will be held July 17-21. This year's theme is "Barnyard Roundup: Jesus Gathers Us Together." Here are the crafts projects I came up with: four paper sculptures (two "breeds" of pigs, an ear of corn and a carrot) a couple of corn-husk dolls, and a rooster made from paper cut-outs. I hope the kids enjoy making them as much as I did in creating them.
Two other women are also helping with crafts. One of them won first prize in a Washington Post crafts contest for a box crafted from paper she made herself. The other is a kindergarten teacher . She certainly has a more realistic idea than I do of what kids can accomplish in 45 minutes. I've only seen their ideas on a spread sheet. They have plans for small farm animals, a barn, a chicken coop, egg-carton bees, flowers made from prints of the kids' hands, marble paper, a bee house and a barn-owl mosaic.
One of the challenges we'll face with the paper sculptures is getting the individual sheets of craft paper to lie flat so that the kids can trace the patterns and cut them out without too much frustration. I've already cut out 24 sheets of craft paper for the fronts and backs of a dozen paper sculptures. Since craft paper comes in rolls, the cut-off sheets immediately sprang back into tight rolls. I ended up with 24 "scrolls" instead of 24 flat and cooperative sheets. I've been trying to get them to lie flat by stacking the sheets and placing heavy books and gallon paint cans on the stack. We'll see if that works.
I'm sorry to say - that doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. I'm too picky. I don't have the patience to teach crafts to the little ones.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I do either. I guess we'll see.
ReplyDeleteI bet you will have a lot of fun! Just like my teaching of college students, when you volunteer with little kids (or teach college students for that matter) you just have to accept they will do what they want. It helps make the experience more fun. With the college kids, they can always earn an "F" too if they stray too far. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right about their doing what they want. Only a few pigs turned out as I expected--the rest had outlandish colors with stripes and dots. No one got an "F" although one child tore up her pig in frustration. We have some spares, so things should work out on Friday when we finish the project.
ReplyDeleteI hope all went well with the crafts at Vacation Bible school. It looks like you had some great projects!
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