KidzArt, Part 2

Time to share more of the projects I made during my time as a KidzArt instructor. First up, a chalk pastel drawing of a cow.

I should mention that part of the KidzArt philosophy is that there are no pencils and no erasing. You draw with a black sharpie, so you are committed to every single mark you make. That's frustrating at first. I could tell right away which kids were new to KidzArt and who had done a previous session. The cow was a challenge because everyone knows what a cow looks like and there aren't many good ways to hide a wayward line or errant mark.

I preferred the weeks when I taught more whimsical projects. The kids had a blast using their creativity to design candy castles using Prismacolor markers. So did I.

KidzArt was divided into approximately 8 week sessions. We used different media for each lesson within a session. There was always a clay day (which, inexplicably, I never photographed) and often some sort of fabric craft (like a tote, banner, etc). The rest of the time we'd use other artist-quality materials.... usually. Occasionally, the lesson plan had us using ordinary markers, like on this project. It was frustrating after using alcohol-based markers to return to water-based ones that leave streaks and pill the paper. 

Speaking of lesson plans, we were expected to follow them EXACTLY. We received what was essentially a script, with detailed instructions of what to teach, how and when. While this was helpful, it was also frustrating. Every KidzArt instructor, regardless of whether they were teaching kindergarteners or middle schoolers, had to follow the same lesson plan EXACTLY, teaching the same vocabulary words, using the same skill set, and introducing the same terms. This didn't make sense to me. How could a kindergartener who is at her first KidzArt lesson need the same instruction as a 7th grader who's been in KidzArt for 8 years? I was used to being able to customize my lessons to meet my students' needs, so it was hard being told I couldn't.

Sometimes the projects were very challenging for my 5-7 year olds, like this jester. We used sticks to scratch our design onto Bateek-O paper, then used metallic watercolors to paint it. It was a difficult project, even for me.

 More tomorrow...