Final Day of Session 1

During the last week of Session 1, Annie was away at a family reunion, so this blogger was a bit distracted filling in for her! My apologies. Here's some of what you missed last week!

The Blue Group putting final touches on the centerpiece for their PowWow performance in the afternoon!

The Orange Group's Mia and Amelia stomping into yet another creative art project, brought to you by Sara Dolan.

The Green Group's mining hats and shovels are finished! 

After the last of the projects were finished, it was time for the Art Shows! But first, Pauline's group performed their PowWow for the parents, staff, and some of the other campers.

The PowWow musical march!

Gianna was in charge of the rhythm of the PowWow.

The story telling introduction was brought to us by Amanda!

The Orange Group/captive audience.

Thunder-hawk and Feather-boy, or as we like to call them, Dean and Declan, actors extraordinaire! 

Keegan (of the Red Group) posing with his fabulous collection of art!

The Turquoise Group got creative with our theme for the summer, and took a trip back in time for their art show!
Can you Dig It?

Amelia, Sophie, and Maeve proudly displaying their can-people!

What a great end to an awesome first session!

Afternoon Adventures, Day 1

The fun  of Magic Mornings doesn't have to end at noon! Every day, we have our Lunch Bunch of kids who hang out with our wonderful aides from 12-1pm before Afternoon Adventures begins. When 1:00 rolls around, the kids go off into their groups and launch into three more fun and art-filled hours! Scroll down to check out some of the things the campers did this afternoon!

Dean of the Turquoise Group selecting materials for his habitat...

Here, Pauline assists Melissa and Declan (Turquoise Group) in building their habitats.

Jen can't decorate the Red Group's room all by herself, so Lucia, Mia, and Mira help out by making name tags for their cubbies!

Keegan's helping out too by painting a mini mural.

Josh's Outdoor Games special gives the kids a much needed chance to let out some energy in the side yard.

We also hold teen classes for children older than 5th or 6th grade in the afternoons at Summer Spree. This session, we are offering Digital Photography and Pottery Wheel classes at 1pm and Handbuilding, Drawing & Pastels, and Homemade Beauty Products classes at 2:30.

Some down time during Digital Photography, pretending to be a butterfly!

The Digital Photography class exploring the scenery around the parking lot.

Two of the teens in Carol Seymour's Wheel Class getting to know the pottery wheels.

Suzanne Brophy teaching her class of teens about the natural benefits of herbs from her garden.

Another Summer of Art Begins!

The first day of Summer Spree is finally here! It's been a long winter and all of us here at the Arts Center are thrilled to be back for another art-filled summer.

Magic Mornings kicked off to a great start! Our specials this session are Gardening with Margery and Ceramics with Juanita, as well as Tie Dye on Thursday (for the Red & Orange groups) and Friday (for the Green, Blue, and Turquoise groups).

Mia & Mira of the Orange group stretching their imaginations during snack time.

Dean, Gianna, and Emily hard at work in Ceramics, making Piggies with Personality.

The Blue group is listening to their teacher, Pauline, discuss her Piggy's personality.

Lucy and Liam of the Green group working in their sketchbooks.

Finn and Emma (Green group) pose with the paper mache they worked on this morning. Can't wait to see what these balloons will turn into by the end of the session! 

Session II: Morning Art Shows!

Session II comes to a close today at Summer Spree! And the art shows these teachers and kids have put together are amazing! This is the most fun for me as the blogging intern because when the camera comes out, 9 times out of 10 there is a child who is more than thrilled to show me all of their favorite pieces on which they've been working so hard for the past 2 weeks.

Follow along with me in this post for some highlights in rainbow order (youngest to oldest) from today's Magic Mornings Art Shows!

Red Group!

Jenn's Red Group is always super fun to visit! These Pre-K kids have so much energy and were so excited to see their families coming through the door, I could barely get them to stand still long enough for a group shot in front of their tie-dye stage. 

Here they all are with some of their artwork in the foreground- clay octopuses, tie-dye, ceramic tiles, and more, these kids have been busy busy busy in Session II!

The Red Group they can pose for a picture but no promises all 10 will be able to find the camera at once!

Orange Group!

I popped into the Bridge Room to see Sarah's Orange group while their Art Show was in full swing! From life-sized self portraits to plaster cupcakes, rainsticks to printed fish, Sarah had these soon-to-be Kindergartners working with all sorts of materials to get their creative juices flowing this session.

Treasure boxes decorated with paint, googly eyes, sequins, and other glue-ables are just one of the many projects members of the Orange group got to take home this morning.

The Orange Art Show was the place to be! Look at all that amazing artwork! Cameo blog appearance by Sarah, Jane, and Bob Deane in the background!

Pinch-pot octopuses made in the ceramics studio with instructor Andrea, and plaster cupcakes in the back, yet another Sarah Original Idea!

Yellow Group!

I got to get specially introduced to some members of the yellow group, waiting for their parents to arrive, who were very excited about their artwork! Teachers Megan and Emily did a great job with their soon-to-be first graders this session!

This little sweetheart was jazzed to show off her jellyfish (hanging over her head) which she made in ceramics class.

Sophia wanted to get a picture with her whole wall of artwork. Great work, Sophia!

When I asked Jake where his favorite thing was, he ran over and grabbed this mosaic tile he made. Too cute!

Green Group!

Always an adventure, I found Pauline and her Green Group in the gallery having story time and waiting for their parents to arrive, before singing all the way back to their art show, parents in tow. They have been busy busy kids working from cultural inspirations from all over the world to make some awesome artwork!

Parents look on as their kids listen to one last Story Time from their teacher, Pauline...

...before singing their way out of the gallery...

...and back to their Art Show. Look at all that amazing art! From bird sanctuaries to Chinese scrolls to ceramic octopuses, so much creative energy!

Purple Group!

These almost-third-graders have been working hard this session with teacher Martha in their room on the third floor. Georgia, Dean, and Grace gladly showed me some of their favorite pieces they've been working on this session!

Georgia, representing the color of her group today with those purple shorts and flip-flops, poses with her artwork.

Always full of personality, Dean exclaimed "Can I get a picture with my snail?!" as soon as he saw my camera. Of course, Dean! Here ya go.

Grace, also in some awesome Purple shorts, stands with her wall of artwork. Good stuff, Grace!

Collectively, the purple group was very excited and prompted me to get a picture of the jellyfish they made with Andrea in their ceramics special. Don't these look amazing?!

Turquoise Group!

Last but not least, we've got our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, led by teacher Pat, in the turquoise group right next door to the Purple Group on the third floor. Still setting up for their show when I arrived, they all lined up next to their "Turquoise Group" wall and posed for a picture.

Looking good, girls! 

Black Elmer's glue and watercolors make the colors on these paintings really pop!

More turquoise artwork with a reminder of our Summer Spree Theme this summer, Grow With the Flow! Hope to see some of these friendly faces again soon!

Session II: Awesome Afternoon

This afternoon, I went upstairs to check out what was happening with Martha's Purple Group on the third floor. Turns out, they've been super busy! They were all hard at work on their accordion books. Earlier this session, each camper designed their own character and made a stamp of him/her to use inside of their book. They are making collages with tissue paper and other materials, and have stamped their character numerous times to be cut out and incorporated into their book. You could almost feel the creativity flowing around the room as the kids were working.

(Above & Below) Purple group works on their accordion book collages. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Next, I got to sit in on a couple of the Afternoon specials here at Summer Spree! We have another musical special this Session, led by the stylings of Jack and Emily. The duo teaches the kids songs and rhymes with messages about unity and oneness with the Earth. The kids learned the words "I am Earth, I am air, I am water, I am fire, I am everything and all is good, so I sing." The Red Group picked right up on these lyrics and learned hand motions to go along with the song.

Red Group learning the symbol for "water"...

and "fire." Get those hands up!

For my last stop of the afternoon, I went down to Andrea's Ceramics Studio and found Sarah's Orange Group working on a new project making ornaments with a sgraffito technique, meaning the color is applied before the clay has dried. Each child got a ball of clay, which they flattened out and then chose a base color to paint on the top of the flat disk. Then, they made designs in their piece by scraping out a drawing with a pointed wooden tool. 

Members of the Orange Group working on their sgraffito ornaments! along with Andrea (far left) and her visiting daughter Sophia (far right, opposite side of table).

Lucy and Hannah, of the Orange Group, hard at work on their ornaments. Look at that concentration!

Can't wait to see everything come together at the art shows on Friday!

Session II: Green Group Gets Busy!

On day 1 of Session II, on my travels from room to room, I was psyched to see that Pauline, the energetic and extremely engaging pied-piper of a music teacher from Session I, is teaching her own group this session! Her Green Group was bopping along the path on the first day with sticks, leaves, pinecones, rocks, all sorts of found-nature objects, so I knew they were up to something awesome. 

This morning, Pauline's room was my first stop, and "awesome" was a pretty accurate assumption on my part. They have been working on all sorts of historically inspired projects that the kids are really excited about. First, they showed me what they had been doing with all those twigs and leaves a couple days ago. They made bird sanctuaries out of recycled wood, corks, and an assortment of natural materials they collected in the woods behind the Arts Center. The plan is to hang them outside and put bird-food (seed and peanut butter, the kids told me) in hopes that the bird sanctuaries serve a purpose.

Members of the Green Group show off their bird sanctuaries.

They've also been hard at work on some artwork inspired by ancient Asian art. They made their very own ancient Chinese Scrolls, inspired by an authentic one hanging in their classroom. The kids used ink to paint scenes in black and white, before mounting them on brown paper and adding red and green accents to their pieces.

Kayla poses with her Ancient Chinese scroll.

The final project I got to see from the Green Group today, although they have much more in the works, was inspired by a Japanese tradition of a children's festival during which, historically, to mark the beginning of summer, the young boys of the village make kites shaped like large fish and parade them around to celebrate the rainy season. This project could not be more fitting for Summer Spree right now, what with all the rain and high temperatures we've been seeing. The green group have hung their kites up in their room, made from construction paper and paint, with streamers attached to the bottom. How great are these? Keep up the great work, Green Group!

Members of the Green Group showing off their Japanese festival kites.