Progress: The Parade is Coming!!

Do you see the above image and how wonderful it is? 😍 Shouldn't everyday begin with a ticker tape parade? It's like magic!!

I thought I would give everyone a sneak peek of what we've been doing in our parade workshops! You can learn more about how these workshops came about here. And just a quick reminder that these are FREE workshops sponsored by the City of Thomasville and hosted at You're Maker's brand new studio space on Madison . . .  

Workshop #1: Noisemakers and Flags

The theme that we've been given for the parade is loosely focused on community, volunteerism, and helping hands. Our first workshop focused on making flags and noisemakers. The flags will be attached to painted dowels and the noisemakers will be decorated with festive streamers. 

To make our noisemakers (pictured above), we used a simple glue solution to papier-mâché plastic eggs to small dowels. The plastic eggs were filled with popcorn kernels, so they can be shaken like a baby rattle. Next, we will attach fun streamers to the egg shapes of the rattles so that they look exciting when shaken in the wind.  

Above, Edie is holding a cup that we made into a jingle bell shaker. The handle is made with two pieces of masking tape, and the streamers are made out of recycled plastic bags (all the way from Singapore, y'all!!). Hidden in the streamers are tiny bells that jingle when the kids shake the cups. We will finish these off during the workshop we have this week!

For our flags, each student came up with their own word that they think sums up community. We had everything from happy to hello, and give and peace. Each student decorated their flags and cut out felt letters of their descriptive words to finish them off. The flags are roughly 2 feet long and about 1 foot wide. Aren't they fun? I can't wait to see them on dowels and being carried and waved around during the parade! 

Workshop #2: Hula Hoops and Banner Painting

Our first workshop involved 9 students. And somehow we grew to 14 for our second workshop! Yeehaw!

Our second workshop involved hula hoops--always a crowd pleaser! These hula hoops are for waving in the air, and not for hula hooping. The students used all sorts of fabric scraps, plastics, and metallics to tie onto their hula hoops. We had the older students pair up with the younger students to get the hula hoops completed. Some of the younger students were even exclaiming that they finally learned how to tie a knot! It's such a simple project, but yields such beautiful results! 

The kids had so much fun making these!!! At one point it was so quiet that I asked if everyone was doing okay, or had they fallen asleep. Neither! They were just completely focused!!

We are also in the process of making a giant banner that says Volunteers Rock in giant colored felt letters. This banner is roughly 8 feet long and about 4 feet wide The students spent the last half hour of our workshop color-blocking the banner. These color-blocked areas will be outlined in black, and then the letters will be put in place. It's going to be crazy colorful!

I just love this hula hoop project so much!! I can't wait to show you what they look like while the young people are marching and walking! But that will be a surprise revealed only after our parade at the end of April! 

Next up will be another interview with a fabulous art teacher out of Fargo, North Dakota. She is amazing, you guys! More soon!! XO