This Spring, one of our favorite projects has been one students display on their actual person: wearable costume art. After discussing the idea of costumes as art and considering sources of inspiration like theater and film costumes, Halloween costumes, and of course Nick Cave's celebrated sound suits, the kids set to work designing costumes for invented characters, attaching fabric, paper, ribbon, pom-poms, felt, and other materials to a plastic poncho base. They were challenged to try to transform the poncho into their character as much as possible in the short time they had, and I was so impressed with how creative they were with the materials at their disposal.
One of my favorite moments during this project was when I overheard one student say to another, "You know what I love about this class? You can throw out ideas," meaning the kids are allowed and encouraged to suggest, discuss, and attempt new, exciting, and even strange ideas in the course of our projects. That melted my heart a little, since it's exactly the kind of environment we hope to foster with these classes! It's also one of the most fun aspects of teaching for me - when I'm excited to go to class to work with kids who feel like collaborators and buddies who are excited to see what they can problem-solve and create from scratch, and the whole room feels like a crazy experimental lab with scraps of color accumulating everywhere.
In addition to the actual creation of the costumes, some students also found time to work together on mini plays, which they performed in costume for fellow students and parents. These tended to be funny because, duh, kids are hilarious! Check out the pictures below - a few costumes including fantastical birds, dark wizards, living artworks, and lots more. One kindergartner originally told me she was going to make a "tongue" costume, but changed her mind and made an animal costume instead. I will always wonder how that might have turned out!
