Balloons and Crayons and Dolls, Oh My!

My last post was an overview of the workshops and other fun things that kept me busy at conference. Today I thought I would go into detail with a few of the workshops.

While I enjoyed just about every workshop, I don't necessarily believe that all of them would work as a lesson for my students. Which I plan to explain.

Since I had a request for the directions, I thought I would start with the Ugly Dolls.  I enjoyed learning about their history, I sew and it went really smoothly for me. It was the only project I finished at conference.

The workshop was taught by Michelle Varley-Crosby, she supplied directions, paper, felt, thread, needles, buttons and scraps. Everything was available to make an Ugly Doll. Michelle even had a sheet of Dojo characters to inspire us. Class Dojo is an app that tracks student behavior. Students create their own avatar, so if they want, they can actually use that to make their doll.

 

Anyway I was so involved in making my doll I don't have many photos.

Basically, I used a small piece of paper to make a pattern, pinned it to felt and cut out the front and back. Did arms on a separate piece of paper. Cut some scraps for the front and sewed them on, then sewed the front and back together, sewing in the arms when I got up to the shoulders.

I have a bunch of this foam in laptop boxes I plan to use for the stuffing. It rips really easy. I am hoping to do this with 3rd or/and 4th grade. Not sure I would go younger, unless it was a small group, I had help or students had some practice with sewing. The hardest part of this lesson is teaching students to thread a needle.......

Crayon Mosaics was a blast. I am just so excited to find a way to use up all the old crayons. It was taught by Steven Miller. Below are some of his student examples. Steven uses old records he finds in thrift shops as the base for the design. And he gets them really cheap when he mentions he's an art teacher. Steven supplied us with records, crayons and glue to do this project.

   

You can actually draw on the record to help you with your design and then you glue on crayons.

 

 

It is really pretty easy. I am attempting to finish mine up in school and have peaked the interest of many of my students.  Even though CD's are on the small side, Steven did say that using them might work as a good color wheel lesson. To get the label off the crayons, let them sit in a tub of water overnight. Don't know who came up with that wonderful advice, but it WORKS!!

I had a lot of fun doing this Cotton Yarn Sculpture, but this is one I wouldn't do with students unless I had a small group and lots of time. Or I could figure out a way to it as a collaborative lesson or in smaller chucks. This workshop was taught by Aliana Ochoa, a very lovely soft spoken woman who hasn't been teaching for very long. Kudos to her for sharing with us so early in her career!

Aliana supplied everything we would need including hand held pumps (from the Dollar Store) to blow up our balloon, which we then proceeded to make into a dog.

 

 We tied off each section and then untwisted our dog in preparation for wrapping it with yarn.

 

 Yarn was soaked in a combination of white glue, corn starch and water. And since it would take a few days to dry, Aliana brought us finished pieces to assemble, with a partner, to make sure we knew what to do.

I didn't finish in the 2 hours and took mine home.  I had to make sure to finish it before the balloon shrank too much. This reminded me of the Easter eggs with crochet string from years ago. So I could change it out for my students if we use oval balloons.

 

 

I have more to share in future posts. Hope you enjoyed what I have shared so far. I would love to know what you plan to bring back to your students from your state conference!

Thanks for reading!