Papel Picado 9/18/15

Our first Arts Collective After School for the 2015/16 school year was Papel Picado with Maricella Sosa, the children made multiple sheets of colored cut tissue paper. Each child started with a template to cut and then when they got comfortable with the process they cut a pattern of their own creation.

They took home half of what they cut and then we used the other half to decorate our lunch pavilion for the pancake breakfast. It was a stunning transformation of the familiar space and the kids are all quite protective of it at the moment.

This was a wonderful project to use to decorate a large space because multiple sheets can be cut each time one cuts a pattern. It has been great fun for the kids to pick out their individual  contributions from the many. 

Scarves from our last event up at school!

We made a banner from a few extra scarves that the kids made and it is now hanging on the yard to celebrate spring.

Colorhue dyes & silk scaves 4/10/15

On our last Arts Collective After School, we had artist Connie Rohman showing the kids how to work with Colorhue dyes and silk, each child got a silk scarf to dye. The dye colors were so beautiful and set instantly with the fibers of the silk and then were neutralized. 

 We played with different techniques for applying the dye, it was a lot of fun opening up the scarf at the end and seeing what you had created.

 

We had scarves hanging to dry all over the campus and many of the kids who took part earlier in the event stayed to help teach the kids who came along afterwards. Thank you so much to The Arroyo Arts Collective and to The Mount Washington Neighborhood Association for their help with the cost of the materials for this project.

 

Bookmaking 3/6/2015

We did a workshop on Bookmaking with artist Linda Ravenswood that was a huge success, each child sewed a small folio (book) and then was able to turn it into whatever they wanted. There were joke books, journals, sticker books, cook books, books of mystical creatures and so many more.

The Exploratory, Circuit Blocks 2/6/15

   We were so excited to have The Exploratory (theexploratory.com) come and do a project with us on electricity. The kids worked with circuits blocks and alligator clips to work out the function of a circuit, teamed up in groups of two they added complexity to their circuits as they gained understanding. Working with supplied materials the design challenge was then to build something around their circuit that would make someone laugh.

thinking process behind program

There is a copy of the mindmap I used when coming up with the ideas behind this program.

Iridescent 12/5/2014

For ACAS on 12/5 we hosted the organization Iridescent (iridescentlearning.org), Iridescent is a science education non profit. They organized a project making Cam mechanisms with the kids, a Cam mechanism is a mechanism that takes rotational movement and turns it into linear movement.

The kids worked inside cardboard boxes, to help stabilize their mechanisms. Once they got the basics working they could decide how they wanted to design around this motion.

Here is one kids "head bopper" when the handle on the side is turned, the head on the top pops up and down.

Our first ACAS was a huge hit!

Our first ACAS event was held on 11/7 and it was such a hit. We played with form and shape and thought about the structural integrity of various shapes when used in building.

Students started out making shapes from straws and pipe cleaners to test what shape was the strongest.

Then students were given PVC and connectors,  they were asked to work together to see what the largest structure was that they could build.

We were able to talk about the flaws in some of the structures they had built and what they had discovered through their experimentation with the straws and pipe cleaners.
 The students then built a geodesic dome together from PVC, we were able to talk about the strength of triangles and forms held together with tension.