What We've Been Up To in 2017

ACAS has been up to a few things these past months, and it has been super fun! 

In September we created painted drip pots for our AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING Mount Washington Made craft extravaganza! That was awesome! The pots were displayed during the Pancake Breakfast, and the little makers got to take them home after the event. It was fantastic. 

In October we had the incredible Sayde from Makers Mess host our pom pom making craft event, and it was an overwhelming success. I know every kid that came through created a pom pom, Makers Mess provided them with rings for mobiles or little keychains to hang from back packs, lanyards, or even hats! 

Next Month we'll have Capoeira in collaboration with Michele Czernik hosting an open studio for PTA Reflections. This will be a great day to make some noise, bust some moves, and create a work of art for the upcoming contest, PTA Reflections. 
Please add us on Instagram 

https://www.instagram.com/artscollectiveafterschool/

More posts to come! I look forward to seeing parents and students alike. 

Hack Your Plushie with LA Makerspace

LA Makerspace visited Mt. Washington Elementary on December, Friday 16th and presented Hack Your Plushie!, an e-textile workshop, in partnership with Art Collective After School. The workshop was sponsored by the Kids Made student artists.

LA Makerspace's instructor, Amanda Horowitz, demonstrated the basics of circuits, sensors and switches, and then the students created their own sensor-activated buzzers using a lithium battery, reed sensor and piezo. They learned how to create closed circuit with a switch. The reed sensor in the circuit was triggered when a magnet got too close. Once the sensor was triggered, the switch turned on and the buzzer was activated. The circuit portion took concentration and patience, and all the students rose to the challenge.

Once the kids made buzzers, they participated in the sewing component of the workshop. They used felt to create pockets, capes, satchels, patches and necklaces to conceal their buzzers on or in their plushie. The workshop was challenging and the kids stuck with it, bringing their own solutions and hacks to their individual project. The participants took home their unique creations for the holidays.

Lonnie Marshall – RUBBABoX PlAySHop - 11/4/16

For our most recent Arts Collective After School, we had artist and musician Lonnie Marshall do a sound and building workshop with the kids. First the kids decorated a box top in any way they wanted - they then added rubber bands as strings and a strap so they could play hands free.
 

 

 The kids had a great time building their instruments and then getting to play them with Lonnie hooked up to a amplifier. 

Karate & Caligraphy 7/10/16

For our past Arts Collective After School we had Pacific Marshall Arts come and share their practice and teachings with the kids. The event started with a demo of Karate, then the kids could either take part in a karate class or practice Kanji Caligraphy. The students were encouraged to think about the ways they move their bodies both when practicing karate and practicing Calligraphy.

In the Kanji Caligraphy, the students practiced drawing the symbol for water, they could only draw each stroke once.

Fabric Forms 9/16/16

For our first Arts Collective After School of the 2016/17 school year we had a in-house project to make fabric forms to use as decoration for our upcoming pancake breakfast.

The kids started with a wire hanger, they could change the shape by bending the wire or leave it the way they found it. Then they could choose from baskets of fabric strips,  colors and textures to add to the form - tying or looping  them on to the wire. 

There were quite a few creative solutions to the simple prompt and selection of materials, some children wove into the center of their wire form and some created fringe with the material. 

We had quite a lot of white cotton (from tearing down sheets) which I worried would be less exciting to the kids.
Several kids commented on the small of clean laundry that the white had and decided to use only that material for its sensory qualities, and some children found the white to be a excellent canvas for adding their own images.

Caltech Education Outreach Program 5/6/16

At our last Arts Collective After School of the year we had Caltech's education outreach program on the campus to run a event on Neuroscience. The event started off with a quick talk on Neuroscience, focused particularly on the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect is when the brain has difficulty reading a color word in a different color pigment. Here is a link to more information on the Stroop effect test if you are interested, 

http://www.onlinebraingamesblog.com/online-brain-games/a-very-cool-brain-game-the-stroop-effect-test
  
Kids were able to print t-shirts using stencils that referenced the Stroop effect during the event. There were also two other activities, one with visual illusions based in Neuroscience and one where kids were able to look at, handle and watch dissections of sheep's brains.
Caltech had three students and a researcher at the event who engaged and interacted with the kids, answering all sorts of questions.

Thank you so much to Caltech's Educational outreach program for coming to the school, and to Friends of Mt Washington with help for the funding of the shirts and to Philip Soderlind for cutting the stencils.

Cal Arts Community Outreach Program - Dance & Movement 4/8/16

Our past Arts Collective After School had Cal Arts Community Outreach Program running a event focusing on movement and dance, the event took place in the MPR as it was a rainy day - it was a crazy mix of rain boots and dance moves! Thanks so much to Cal Arts for coming out and giving everyone a way to release some pent up energy during the rain.