A Day at the Museum

It is such a treat for us to be able to work with such a large group of children as well as an honor to partner with such a respected institution as the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.  We spent the day in their gardens today creating clay figurines with children of all ages. The event coordinator, Marisol, asked us to put together a workshop inspired by the exhibition Grandes Maestros.

After seeing the exhibition using clay seemed like an obvious choice.  Clay being one of the oldest materials for sculpture. The exhibition has some incredible ceramic figurines by contemporary artists. to be inspired by. 

So along with colorful fabrics, beads, buttons, yarn and pipe cleaners we set out the materials for kids to come and create.  Children from ages 3 to ages 16 stopped to make bowls, creatures, dancing figures and more.

Bug Collecting Boxes

 We did some bug collecting during our Spring Break Camp this year. This is such a fun project to get the kids to interact with their surroundings and to get out into their neighborhoods.

After looking at images of all kinds of insects and beetles the kids drew bugs with oil pastel and used watercolor to add color to the bodies.

We then hid the bugs around the neighborhood for them to find, saying the insects escaped and flew away. Kids love a scavenger hunt. They love to solve problems and the finding of an item is a great way to solve a problem. Like looking for clues.

Using mint tins that were generously donated to us the kids found and collected their own bugs from around the neighborhood. They had to really look closely and notice their surroundings in order to find their bugs.

The kids then decorated the tins using all kinds of decorative papers to make a place for the bug to live.

Happy Bug Collecting!