I was in charge of 2 art days at Garrett's school this year. This includes coming up with an art project for the whole school to do but you go around to a grade at a time and send parents in each room to help them do this project. For the second art day on Apr 1, I asked my cousin Michael Bingham to come and do an assembly for us to inspire our creativity. You should know, he is known as the Imagination Guy. He is a professional artist from Logan, UT who also teaches art at a high school. He was so fun, every aspect of this day was great! He taught the kids that imagination is a super power-(see his t-shirt that looks like the Incredibles? It actually says Imagination). Imagination is getting to be downplayed in our kids generation. We have standardized tests to teach to, and benchmarks to achieve, wii's and i-pads and ipods to play...does it leave enough room to imagine and be creative? Imagination can cure a disease, create a fabulous kids movie, reinvent travel, you name it...
Check out Michael's website sometime: www.weneedimagination.com
Kindergartners show Michael their 2 handed drawings. In fact, try this at home with your kids: starting in the middle of your paper have both hands draw at the same time, doing the exact same thing (think of leading music with 2 hands), and the result is a symmetrical picture. Now add eyes, tentacles, fins, whatever you can think of to turn this drawing into a monster or creature. 2nd idea we did: Draw a 2 second scribble with a crayon. Now decide what it looks like and add to the scribble to turn it into a _________ (funny face? rocket ship? bear?)
Garrett explains his scribble drawing-turned swimming pool.
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| Miss Thomsen's 2nd grade class with Mike. Mike also brought his 7th grade son Jace. What an awesome kid! He didn't make it into any pictures, sadly. He did a great job as camera man and all around helper. |
A picture of the assembly. He had 2 teachers come up and try the 2 handed drawings. They were surprised how easy they were.
