What did you do this summer?

Great summer fun!

As always, I had a great time teaching in the Newtown Public School’s SMART Program. This summer, I started a new class on Puppet making. We talked about the history of Puppet making and the different types of puppets. Although we didn’t have time to make a marionette we did make paper, stick, glove and sock puppets. It was amazing to see everyone create puppets from the same basic materials and yet come away with their own unique and quirky looking creations! Then the children made up stories and put on plays in a puppet theater I made from a refrigerator box.

Turtles were again very popular in Paper Mache creations, the children also made some great chickens! We also tried a new idea by making a faux stone plaque and creating a faux-cave painting on it. I like showing the children how to make the armature and then watching how each sculpture becomes the artists own interpretation of the subject.

Mosaics is never dull, this year I wanted to give the students a quick easy visual way to create the feeling of a mosaic. So I made sponge stamps and had them create mosaic designs on paper the students had fun and really came away with a good understanding of how to make a mosaic. They had fun exploring some traditional an nontraditional materials to create mosaics like plastic beads and gems, foam squares twine shells pebbles and of course ceramic tiles.

For now; I’m back at my work bench creating some new jewelry. I’m also looking forward to my fall adult continuing education classes, meeting new students teaching them and watching them learn some new skills.