Yesterday E and I took the end of school gifts to her teachers. Because I was out of town last week, I had to finish them up over the weekend. I was disappointed that I couldn’t get them together while the kids were still in school, but I know everyone understood. This is the third year I’ve helped coordinate these, but coming up with an idea was tricky. I solicited some help, and we ended up with the idea of a summer calendar with ideas for fun activities that the kids compiled. The top portion of the calendar is a collage of sketches that the students submitted, and they represent many of their favorite studies, practical arts lessons and field trips from the school year. We assembled them to look like a paper quilt and finished off the design with painted “stitches”. When the summer is over they can cut the top portion off to keep.
They started the school year off with a giant indoor tree sculpture that they worked on for several weeks. We gave them both small fig trees to plant in their yards, and watering cans with all the students signatures transferred on in paint. All the sketches were transferred onto colored paper for the quilt collage, and the summer ideas were re-written by E (twice – for two teachers!). I kept her busy this past weekend.
Thanks to all the kids for great drawings and ideas to work with, and for your patience and understanding when the project took a few extra days. The teachers loved them but I wasn’t surprised. They truly love everything those students do. What a great year.
Beautiful! Great ideas!! Lucky teachers as well as lucky kids, and what about that “third”grader in the picture?