Creating using cardboard boxes and trash is the Number One activity in my opinion for kids.
I had the opportunity to work with children going into First and Second Grades at the 2021 Sitka Fine Arts Elementary Camp. This was over five days, in which (this year) groups of eight children came in for 45 minutes, also also went for 45 minutes each to three other classes in music, movement and ceramics.
The first two days, we looked at slides of paintings and then painted. On the next two days, we made constructions/houses/sculptures/environments/stories, starting with a shoe box, and using hot glue and Elmer’s, fabrics trims and yarn, papers, railroad board, and trash, such as toilet paper cores and interesting packaging (like the boxes phones come in).
The second day of this we had parents send special trash in with their kids, because what I had brought in was exhausted. Some of the things were surprising, like a used Subway drink cup, and a squeezed out tube of toothpaste – but the creativity of these kids knew no bounds: a drink cup became a cannon, the toothpaste cap a cup.
The second day we also gave them paint the last 10 minutes, if they wanted it.
The last day we all presented the work, which was amazing as well, the work and detail and humor that went into these creations.
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