Weeks of 12/8/25 and 12/15/25 - 3rd rotation with 4th and 5th graders

This week, 4th graders returned to create glue Batik bugs! I had implemented this lesson with 4th graders 2 years back and have been working on tweaking it so the final results would be better. 

Batik is a fabric embellishment involving a resist process that originated in Indonesia. Artists use hox wax to cover areas of white fabric, dip it in dye and then melt the wax so the areas covered with wax remain white while the other areas have color. This process is repeated with several colors until the desired effect is reached. 

In the past, I have had students use white glue instead of wax on cotton fabric and acrylic paint instead of fabric dye. The result was beautiful, but it was a lot of work scraping the white glue off the cotton handkerchiefs.

This year I had students used 12" white satin napkins with white glue and a brand of fabric dye called "Dye Na Flow" that my awesome colleague Ms.Kathi introduced me to. The resulting works had vibrant colors, and it was easy to wash off the glue simply by soaking the fabric in hot water for about 30 minutes.

Students created 3 sketches of bugs, selected one, traced it on a 12" white paper with chisel tip Sharpie, taped the fabric over it and traced it with white glue during the first class. 

During the 2nd class, once the glue had dried, they used a variety of colors with brush to paint over the glue and cover the entire fabric with paint. I soaked their works in hot water once the paint was dry and scraped the glue off by scrubbing the fabric and rinsing in clean water. The pieces dried QUICK in the drying rack!

5th graders returned to create teapot sculptures! I have been having our community donate yogurt containers since August and I finally had enough containers for all 5 5th grade classes to work on this lesson. 

During the first class, we looked at images of teapots and the different components - lid, handle and spout. Students stacked the yogurt containers in the order they wished to, taped them with masking tape and covered them with strips of tape. 

Next, they used cardboard strips with paper towels and covered them with tape and attached it to their teapot. They then rolled an index card, taped it so it looked like a cone and attached it to the teapot and also covered it with tape. They also added a bead/ glue stick lid to their teapot lid so it would resemble the part on an actual teapot that people lift to add water into the teapot.

Once done, students started painting their teapot using acrylic paint. Students will finish their work during the next rotation. They have worked so hard on this lesson, and I love seeing how the shape of the teapot, handle and placement, the spout and colors are all different.