It’s good to get things done. I just finished up the two auction projects for my daughter’s first grade class. Neither of these projects was my idea. The first is a scratch foam printing project that I saw at Glitter Goods. Ours is a night time scene of Atlanta to fit with the auction’s Starry Night theme. The children made drawings, traced them onto styrofoam and I printed them. Hint: Remember that words will need to be mirror image for the prints, so you can scan in the drawing, reverse it and print it out again for the kids to trace. I forgot this, so had to make some fixes. Or you could just skip the letters in your project.
And the wall hanging/table runner is a batik project that I saw on Swallowfield, but the tutorial can be found at That Artist Woman. The kids glued on the fabric, let it dry for a day, painted it, then I washed off the glue and sewed the pieces together. I gave them some ideas about patterns, but they mostly came up with their own designs. I debated if each square should just have one color, but in the end I let the kids decide. As you can see, most kids decided to use multiple colors. Hint: These first-graders found it tiring to squeeze the glue bottle and you do have to squeeze pretty hard. For younger kids, you could cut the tip off the bottle to allow the glue to come out easier. Also, I was going for a brighter color palette, but the fabric paint does fade a bit so be sure to go darker with the paint.
Both of these were manageable projects for kids and weren’t too overwhelming. Good auction project ideas. Thanks to Glitter Goods, Swallowfield and That Artist Woman for the creative inspiration! I can’t wait to show these to the kids today. For those of you with younger children, I have found first-grade to be sort of a magical year — they can do things for themselves, can understand much about the world, and they get jokes. But they’ll tell you that sarcasm is rude and that you shouldn’t use the f-word. Everyone needs a first-grader around.
awesome projects! you took it and ran – i love them both!
These are GREAT projects and they turned out so well! I’m the art doecent for my daughter’s first grade class and I would LOVE to do these. And you’re right– first graders are so fun and clever. Thanks so much for the tips– you’ve really inspired me! : )
Wow, these came out really cool! I would totally bid on one of these!
Super cute projects! Where did you get the frame in the first one?
Great projects! Beautiful!
These are both just terrific. I’m the veteran of many a school auction and I’ve never seen any kid-participation project that holds a candle to these. A+!
They both look amazing, but I really really loooove the scratch foam printing project. How inspiring! I want to go make my own.
Thanks for sharing the ideas!
Great batique idea…I’m thinking…this could be a great Christmas present to grandparents at the end of the year. One block made by my little pirate each month! (I might have to be sure to keep one for myself…or at least take lots of pics!) Great idea! Thanks for the idea and inspiration. (The colors of this one are fantabulous!)
These are both really great projects. I love school auctions……they bring about so much creativity!
love this! thanks for the links to the tutes. the batik project is fantastic.
Looks amazing! The colours really pop!
Hello!
What a nice blog you have here, found you on the swedish website “mönsterarkivet”. it´s so nice to find and read blogs outside sweden 🙂 /Vicky
Absolutely stunning. I am inspired!
these look great, well done you and you must be so proud of your kids!!
I love that batik wall hanging…especially the colors. Just beautiful!
Please please email me and let me know where I can go to bid on the Atlanta scenes one! I would love that for our little one’s room. You did such a great job!
These turned out fabulous! I love how the colors look together – what a lovely showcase of kids’ creativity.
I recently blogged about the ‘magic of age six’ too. I have a first grader too and I love this age! Many people who read that post told me that it only gets better so I guess we have a lot to look forward to!
Love, love, love the Atlanta night scenes piece! I live in the ATL and keep squinting trying to identify the landmarks/scenes. Excellent way to showcase the city from kids point of view and great piece of art to boot!