What is YOUR Armor?
We are excited to share a series of blog posts created in collaboration with the Curriculum in Early Childhood Education students at Holyoke Community College! The HCC students completed a Service Learning Project with Carle Art Educators this fall, continuing a partnership developed over the past two years. Students worked in groups to develop At Home Art Studio projects inspired by illustrations in The Carle’s online exhibition Now & Then: Contemporary Illustrators and Their Childhood Art. Students planned the projects, experimented with materials, and documented their process for the blog. The following is Dawn Haskins, Logan Deni, Myriam Diaz, and Samantha Montanez’s description of the project.
Our group read the book I will be Fierce by Bea Birdsong and illustrated by Nidhi Chanani, and we were inspired by the book’s focus on kindness, and promoting confidence in yourself. Early in the story, as the main character is getting ready for the day, she selects an outfit and says “I will put on my armor.” We liked this idea and want to invite you to create your own armor. You can use anything you have at your house - paper, boxes, anything to create your own armor to show off! Let’s see your armor and what makes you feel the best when you wear it!
Samantha used construction paper, scissors, and glue to create her armor. Her inspiration for her armor is her colorful hair. She wanted to create something that would stand out just like herself.
To create her armor, Samantha cut different colors of construction paper to begin making herself a crown. After cutting the strips of construction paper, she glued them together to fit the crown to her head. Once she found the perfect fit, she cut more construction paper into triangles and glued them to her crown to give it more color!
Samantha’s favorite thing about herself is her hair. She created a crown as her armor because she wanted something to match her red hair! She felt most confident in wearing her colorful crown as her armor to show off to the world!
Logan used construction paper, scissors, paint, a paper bag, tape, and star stickers to create her armor. She already had an idea in mind to create something she feels most confident in.
To create her armor, Logan cut the paper bag in half and made the top of the bag open. She also cut two arm holes on the side of the bag to make herself a vest. After cutting the paper bag to the shape she desired, she painted the front and back of the vest light blue, keeping the sides and top brown.
After painting the bag blue, Logan added black detailing to the vest. She then added a gold star, a white star, and a silver star. Logan created a vest as her armor because she loves fashion and clothing. She felt as if she could walk on a fashion runway with the vest she made! She felt very confident wearing her blue vest and can’t wait to show it to her friends and family!
Dawn used construction paper, scissors, glue, and markers to create her armor. She used materials that were already in her house to create a crown. She chose to create a “Soap Princess” crown because she likes to help people feel confident in their own healthy skin by making and sharing homemade soaps.
First, Dawn cut a large piece of construction paper lengthwise to the width that she wanted. Then she picked another color of paper, cutting out a heart and writing “Soap Princess” on it. She then cut pink paper and white paper into squares to represent soap bars. After she glued her heart and squares on, she then cut a thinner piece of paper to make a strap to fit around her head, gluing that piece to the main piece.
Myriam used construction paper, scissors, glue, and markers to make a bracelet. She first cut a piece of construction paper, wrapped it around to form a circle, and glued it together at the ends. She then started to decorate her bracelet with her name and symbols she enjoys, such as hearts and butterflies.
We all enjoyed creating our own armor out of materials found around our homes. When we put on our wearable art, we felt confident and ready to share our personalities and kindness with others. We hope you enjoy making your own armor too.
We have shown you what makes us feel powerful and confident. We are excited to see what you come up with! Now it is your turn!
The Carle wants to thank the students of EDU 210, Curriculum in Early Childhood Education, for sharing their knowledge and creative responses to picture books. We hope you enjoy exploring books and materials!