Possibilities

As I research projects for my younger students I love the ideas that I've been coming across. What does an art teacher do with all of those toilet paper rolls that have been donated to me? You could make simple Martha craft ideas from them, gag. Maybe even stand them on end, glue them to a surface creating a relief sculpture. But, is that fun for my students and myself? What I thought about was and have started developing is turning the toilet paper rolls into marionette puppets! Yeah, thats right marionette puppets. Think about it, long tubes for neck, shorts tubes for legs-even cut the tubes in half attached a piece of yarn in the middle to resemble the knee joint now your studying the figure and movement. Cut up the middle of them, tapper them glue down and paint. The more I think about this and how the possibilities are endless and I love it. Its this type of thinking that provides me as an artist and my students opportunities to get out of the box and explore our ideas. Students don't realize the amount of problem thinking strategies they go through in the visual arts and by leaving my lessons open ended I introduce them to many. All I can hope for is that, as ideas come to me and I pass them that my students they continue to explore every avenue in front of them realizing they have the potential to do anything they want. So, let the creative spirit run through your mind and come out through your figure tips.