When you pour your heart and creativity into a group of precious children it is so hard to see a semester come to an end. I dearly love each of my students and I seriously hate to say goodbye to them, even for a summer break.
This is my last week of art class for the semester, so we are ending on a high note of puffy glitter paint. I forget how much they love this stuff. The autistic kids love squeezing the tubes of paint, the sensory challenged crew love smearing the paint around the foam canvas, my special down syndrome friends express utter joy at the gift of a paint set to themselves, the CP kiddos are proud to manage the project all on their own…you get the point. Fun for all!
My sweet students were happy to end the semester with puffy paints, but for me…well,I am seeking a bit more closure. I am proud of my students and their art work. We have done some super fun projects, the kids have pumped out some amazing art, and I am thrilled that they have learned a few new skills along the way. I want to share the joy of all of that with you. Wish I had a gallery where I could proudly usher you around and tell you about each masterpiece and the amazing child behind it. Since I lack that – how about you pretend and indulge me by peeking through this virtual gallery.
Project: Oil pastel on black paper
Artist: a CP superstar who has mastered holding crayons and paint brushes this year!
Love doing this project with our kiddos who thrive in the abstract! It might look like scribbles, but this really is a masterpiece of a child who struggles to use his arms due to CP. There is victory in this finished product! He was so proud of his color choices and doing this all by himself.
Project: coffee filter butterflies
Artist: a creative thinking teen
Washable markers, coffee filters and a spritz bottle helped us to create butterflies after reading the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. I am thankful that I found a bookstore that offers some of the classic children’s books I am familiar with in Chinese! We have been reading the books together and using them to inspire our art. During this project the kids felt like they were making magic as they watched the colors of the markers blend together as we sprayed the creations. The teachers loved the cute finished projects which they used to hang from the ceilings to decorate the classrooms.
Sometimes a blank page and a tray of paint can seem overwhelming, but with a stencil and a fun painting tool my special students feel free to dig in. I love watching them choose colors and ask for more and more and more paper!
Project: Stencil sponge painting
Artist: autistic sweetie who loves texture
The kids have been loving the Crayola watercolor trays that were donated for our classes. Usually, I print off some “coloring sheets” for the kids to paint. Then once they are “warmed up” I give them white paper and see what happens. This student came up with the idea for this painting on his own. He called it “Birds Flying on a Summer Day” It is such a happy painting. It makes my heart soar!
Project: Watercolor
Artist: A 13 year old creative thinker
You can tell watercolor is one of my favorites too. Here is another watercolor project – Crayon resist paintings. This project was so super fun! We drew on white paper with white crayons then painted over the drawings with watercolor paint. The paint makes the crayons creations pop! This was like magic for some of the kids! I can still hear the oohs and ahhs! I also was excited to see how clever some of my kiddos are as they tilted their papers to better see where the crayon marks were!
Project: Crayon resist painting
Artist: A special DS sweetie who LOVES color!
If painting is a favorite why not take it outside? We enjoyed a warm sunny day outside with our paint brushes and some cups of water. The teachers enjoyed the simple no mess nature of this project. The kids were thrilled with the endless canvas of the pavement. I LOVE, LOVE these Melissa and Doug paintbrushes with super sized handles – all kinds of fingers can get a grip on them!
Project: Outdoor water painting
Artist: A joy filled superstar with CP
We do scratch art about once a semester, but we could do it even more. The kids love tracing hands, coming up with their own designs, or just spending a whole class period removing the black and making a clean colorful paper! Each creation ends up so unique.
Project: Scratch Art
Artist: 10 year old buddy with a muscular disorder. He might walk slow, but his art work sure soars!
These are just a few of my favorites! Thanks for taking a peek at our gallery. I hope you see the heart of some special children in each of these creations. Pretty amazing to be doing art with these little people. I am truly blessed.
Casting A Stone 
You’re a good teacher 🙂