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I am pretty much an experienced stamper but am looking for ideas on how to teach middle school children who are beginner stampers. I have offered to teach an after school enrichment class at my middle school for 1 hour each week for 6 weeks. Does anyone have ideas on where to begin, which techniques are good, etc.
Any feedback is really appreciated.
__________________ Beth: Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is God's gift, that's why it's called the present.
My Gallery CAS Summer 2011,2012,2014 Challenge - Guest Designer
Aside from the basics, I'd try using some of the 1-sheet wonder templates. It'll make the most of the supplies you'll have and challenge their creativity.
I have worked with kids as young as four and up as well as a mentally and physically handicapped man over the last five years. Choose fun but simple images. They didn't care too much about the details of supplies, they were anxious to "have at it." Simple techniques are fun too, like the wrinkle free distress. They ooh and ahh doing things like that, although messy. After creating a background, they can just simply stamp it with images and black ink. I have no idea how you intend to structure this but what a fun age to work with! Die cutting is another easy idea for them. They get so excited while creating. Some can color but quite a few cannot so images should not be too detailed.
I would be willing to send you a box of paper for you to use with the kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greenmaytag
I am pretty much an experienced stamper but am looking for ideas on how to teach middle school children who are beginner stampers. I have offered to teach an after school enrichment class at my middle school for 1 hour each week for 6 weeks. Does anyone have ideas on where to begin, which techniques are good, etc.
Any feedback is really appreciated.
Let me know if you want some and please provide shipping info.
blessings
Amber
Please don't include colouring for children. Encourage them to be creative (e.g. to create their own background with a couple of different stamps) rather than following someone else's lines!
I teach middle school as well. Here's my thoughts. Maybe discuss a theme for each week and decide what kind of cards you want to make each week. Another idea is to find a "cause" for your cards I'd let them do their own backgrounds and get them to get their creative juices flowing. Definitely let them do some simple masking with sticky notes, blending, etc. At their ages their more than capable of doing this! you could also let them come up with own sentiments - maybe something they're studying in language. Point of view, idioms, poetry... my thoughts would be to provide the materials, give some basic instruction on masking, blending, how to use the stamps, blending tools, inks etc, and then let them go to town. If I were doing this, I'd let them simply create! Show them the very basics and then take a step back and see what they come up with!
If they're anything like the teens that have been present at SU demos that I did, don't be offended if they don't put their cards together the way you had planned! They like to do things their own way.
Another hint from letting my DD's friends use supplies at sleepovers, you need to watch out for ink pad contamination from not cleaning off the stamps before going for another color. Same thing with sponges ;). The other thing they did that drove me crazy was punching out shapes from the middle of a large sheet of paper or one punch on one end and then punching from the other side....they'd make a sheet of paper unusable for anything but punching! Liquid glue is another hazard.....when we do gluing at VBS, we put out milk bottle caps at each place with paintbrushes to control the amount of glue. If you let them use a bottle you get an ocean instead of a drop! Markers are also in danger of having the ends pressed down hard and ruined. You'll for sure want to put down a cheap plastic tablecloth or have large sheets of paper at each place to make cleanup easier at the end.
All that "negative" stuff said, I'm sure it will be a lot of fun for you and them.
Thanks to everyone for your comments. Everything is very, very useful. I will definitely use your advise. Sprtchick, thanks for you offer, but I am all set on paper. There is a printing factory that gives teachers free paper and I have a boat load.
BTW, I will reverse the offer and send anyone of you some freebees as a thank you for your advise. Just PM me with your address.
__________________ Beth: Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is God's gift, that's why it's called the present.
My Gallery CAS Summer 2011,2012,2014 Challenge - Guest Designer
Gail, SO true! I usually give them the drill before they start. Most of them comply but a few need additional reminders. Great points you brought up! Squished markers make me nuts too (grin).
I have only one middle schooler in my own home and the markers seem to get squished! The exception to that is the copics, which for some reason, she takes really good care of!
__________________ Jennifer
Live each day with kindness, happiness, and a smile.
Thanks to everyone for your comments. Everything is very, very useful. I will definitely use your advise. Sprtchick, thanks for you offer, but I am all set on paper. There is a printing factory that gives teachers free paper and I have a boat load.
BTW, I will reverse the offer and send anyone of you some freebees as a thank you for your advise. Just PM me with your address.
Thank you so much for your kind off er of paper! If you look thru my gallery you will find pics of my paper stash. I have so much I seriously could open a store! I have it in 4 rooms now! If there is anything else you need to work with the kids, please let me know. I can get almost anything wholesale...thats why I have so much paper. I would love to have you pass the paper to someone else here who has a cause helping others. Hugs.
My gosh Amber! We have a paper surplus store that used to sell for 50 cents a pound and I thought I had a lot of paper! Wow, how lucky for you! Took a look at your gallery and have no clue how you stored all that SO neatly!
__________________ Beth: Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is God's gift, that's why it's called the present.
My Gallery CAS Summer 2011,2012,2014 Challenge - Guest Designer
I've been teaching a week long class to middle school art students for a couple of years, the week before Mothers Day. The kids make a card that will receive a grade from the art teacher. Because we are limited to about 45 minutes per class we keep it fairly simple. The first day we talk a bit about design, how to use the stamps and how to care for the stamps and supplies. I have some samples that I've made up to show them how different element change a card, such as simple coloring and different fonts/sentiments. Second day is easy and fun techniques like kissing, simple masking, adding texture with fun stuff like bubble wrap, rubber shelf liner, etc. Day three they pick their stamps and start working on their design. It's hectic, but lots of fun and the kids love it. I've been amazed at what they come up with!
__________________ JodyLynn - "Love me - love my cats!" DTGD12, DTGD14, HYCCT12, HYCCT13, HYCCT14, HYCCT15, Love Fest 2013, Love Fest 2014 CAS and CC guest designer QFTD 258
I did cards with 4th graders both boys and girls. They loved using the embossing folders with my Cuttlebug. I gave them very clear instructions prior to using them. They also loved embossing powder with stamps. I was one to use the heat gun so they couldn't burn the paper or themselves. I used small amounts of glue and paints because they waste a lot. I worked with small group of 6-8 kids at a time. They loved the projects we made. They were gifts for certain holidays.
I've done stamping with this age group too. One thing I found was that they did not want all their cards to look the same - most of them did not want to closely case a sample.
What I used to do was choose a relatively simple card design or sketch, two or three colour schemes, and then two or three images that would all work (and I tried to have one image that was more "guyish" and one more "girly" and one neutralish). I would try to make 2 or 3 samples as well, all using the same supplies, but all different - so they could see that they could be creative with what they had to come up with their own creation. I found that having limited colour schemes and a few images kept the supply thing under control, but allowed them the freedom of creativity they craved. If you have lots of patterned paper, I found that having a card which used a piece of it was a good way to allow individuality, as I would cut the pieces to the right size, but bring at least a dozen more pieces than there were kids, so there was lots of choice.
I found simple but fun results techniques were best.
Heat embossing was a huge hit, and all were VERY excited to watch their own piece come to life under the heat gun.
Doing a background with the marbles & re-inkers technique was popular also.
I did the slider card that uses the pennies once, and that was a big hit as well.
__________________ "You may not have lost all your marbles, but there's definitely a hole in the bag." Grumpy Cat
What a fun opportunity and how nice of you to do this.
I'd work with postcards so if they mess it up, they can just toss it and start again. They can attach it to a card base at the end. Keep it to 4 stages or less. Background, image, sentiment, attach to card base.
I like the idea of EFs-that age group likes to see "ta dah!" And EF folders are not expensive if they mess it up somehow. If they run a metallic paper in it, many EFs could stand alone if they include a sentiment like Happy Birthday. Darice makes inexpensive ones like tire tracks that could interest the boys.
Dies worry me. They can be expensive and easily bent/ruined. I'd go with punches instead. Unless you want to pre cut some die stuff like words on double sided adhesive sheets and then they just have to pull the backing off to stick them on. Kids that age can be responsible in small groups in your house but a big batch of them together can get a bit rowdy.
Brayer. They can brayer color on and then EF it or silhoutte stamp it. If you use distress inks the pads will be more forgiving and brayers dont hold that much ink anyway. They can spray it with water for fun. This was actually one of my first classes. Brayer on glossy paper and then use Stazon with Stampscapes to build a scene. But I wouldnt play around with Stazon with kids. Too permanent. I'd stick with water based inks.
ie They could do a batch of solid wildflowers with a sentiment on a brayered postcard.
ATF trading cards are hot now. They can make those and then trade with each other.
ATG guns are too expensive to take chances with. Use the little rollers for tapes.
Stencils. Very hot now and you can do a lot of collage look with them. Allows them tons of freedom to build their pieces. That will be sponges but maybe limit how many colors.
Stations. I might have different tables set up as stations. Like an EF table, a Stencil table, a brayering table...so they move around. You may discover which techniques they like a lot by which ones they crowd for future classes. You could do a challenge-they need to go to every station and do something on their project. Encourage them to walk around the stations before starting to think about what they want to do.
Another challenge could be for the boys. Say people dont know what kind of cards boys like. Challenge them to make a card they would like to get themselves. (then take pics and show the rest of us here! LOL)
Then have a final stage table where they attach their postcard(s) to a base card. Have a bunch of different colored bases or they can brayer a white card base to match.
Factor in enough time for them to have drying time when they need it. Have a lot of cleaner and rags arond. Papertowel too.
Again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to post some amazing ideas. This is so very helpful.
__________________ Beth: Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is God's gift, that's why it's called the present.
My Gallery CAS Summer 2011,2012,2014 Challenge - Guest Designer
Thank you so much for your kind off er of paper! If you look thru my gallery you will find pics of my paper stash. I have so much I seriously could open a store! I have it in 4 rooms now! If there is anything else you need to work with the kids, please let me know. I can get almost anything wholesale...thats why I have so much paper. I would love to have you pass the paper to someone else here who has a cause helping others. Hugs.
Reminds me of my husband's CD collection. He used to manage a music store... I think he has culled his collection to less than a thousand now. Your unopened paper is what triggered the thought. When people look at our CD shelving, a lot of it has never even been opened! My sisters used to come and visit, and drop hints of what they liked. He'd start pulling stuff off shelves and just tossing it at them, lol. Once in awhile I'd get to surprise my staff with not-yet released albums by their favorite artists. The look on their faces was always priceless.
I always have great success with triple stamping. There is a tutorial under that name here. For my three year old, I set up the paper and let him stamp wherever he wants. My 7 year old can set up his own paper now. (I still pre-cut it). They pick the stamps, they all look different and the cards always look amazing whether they choose to colour or use images that don't require stamping because it has a bit of dimension.
Yes, I was thinking about the triple stamping technique also but I haven't seen the tutorial. I will do that ASAP. Thanks for the reminder.
__________________ Beth: Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is God's gift, that's why it's called the present.
My Gallery CAS Summer 2011,2012,2014 Challenge - Guest Designer
Teaching Ideas
