Clowns and Gingerbread Men

 Another collaborative post with my mum - and this one's full of whimsy. ;) First up - paper plate clowns. For a creative writing assignment in English class, my mom's first graders had to write stories about the circus - and what better way to display these mini narratives (we're talking two-sentence stories here) than with clowns?

Silly clowns made his 'famy' happy! Well, he used enough letters to get the point across. ;)

Draw Head and Neck on Underside

Aw, isn't it clever? While the one above came out pretty well, they all had their own uh, personalities - haha. Mom found the idea of creating people from paper plates in The Mailbox magazine (it was originally paper plate witches for Halloween) and adapted it to suit her Big Top needs. It's a pretty simple craft - you just take a paper plate (she used dessert plates), draw a head and neck on its underside, and cut along the pattern (see right). Blue plates worked well for the clown bodies and offered a nice contrast with their white undersides.

Flip Plate - Attach Head Opposite Break in the Circle

After cutting the plate into two pieces, flip the semi-circle part back over (blue side up) and attach the clown head directly across from the break in the rim, creating a clown figure with a head, shoulders, and arms. Then it's time to decorate! Kids drew on facial features with crayons and learned the tricky art of clown mouths (my mom showed them that they are like hot dogs). The crazy clown hair is made of crinkle cut paper shred (what a mouthful!). Finishing touch - they drew and cut out mittens for hands to 'hold' their circus stories in place.

You know what they say - no two clowns are alike! I personally think the one below is hilarious and slightly mischievous (and check out the one in the lower left-hand corner!).

Here's another thing they say (or they should): no two gingerbread men are alike! Or at least the ones my mom's first graders made. Let me tell you the story of *echoing voice* THE EPIC GINGERBREAD MAN COMPETITION.

Gingy from 'Shrek'

It all began when my mom's students read the classic story of the gingerbread man in their reading book (the link is a reading by John Krasinski, which means it's awesome). Mom thought that giving her first-graders gingerbread men of their own to personalize would be a fun tag-along craft - she made 8-inch die cuts of gingerbread men using brown construction paper, then passed them out to her students with the instructions to decorate them any way they wanted. She fully expected them to be little mini-me's of Gingy, however her kids surprised her by how ridiculously creative they are - she had swashbuckling gingerbread men, dressed-to-the-nines gingerbread girls, and even a ninjabread man! Because they did such a great job, she decided to turn the activity into a contest in order to recognize those who worked so hard on their gingies. She numbered all seventeen gingies and placed them on a table outside her classroom with a sign that said "Vote for Your Favorite!" The voting stand was complete with pens and slips of paper upon which voters noted their favorites, then tucked them into a little collection box. And as you may have noticed, letting the will of the people decide the winner saves the teacher from having to do so. ;)

The turnout was enormous, especially given the complete lack of advertising (though Mom's single sign was in the imperative mood). Beyond her students, who went around campaigning for their gingies, other students eagerly took part in the democratic process, with entire classes filing by and voting on their way to specials. Then it reached beyond the school - one father was dragged from his car by his daughter before school one morning to vote for her gingerbread girl, and when he discovered that the paper slips had run out (which happened a few times), he improvised a ballot with his business card. A two-year-old even cast her vote - when her older sister asked if she was allowed to do so, my mom asked how the toddler would communicate her selection. The sister's response was simple: "She grabs the things she likes, so whatever gingerbread man is her favorite, she'll just grab it." Which is exactly what happened.

At the end of the week, the votes were tallied. In a mere four days, 477 votes were cast. That's over 100 votes a day, in a PK-8 school of roughly 450 students. And I should note that my mom's classroom is not really in a high-traffic area. Who won, do you ask? Before placing the gingies out for voting, my mom took a picture of the ones she felt were the most original - turns out that the top three made her cut. Now, does that lady know her gingies or what? :) Check them out below:

1st Place went to our grass-skirt-wearing Native American (9), Ninjabread Man (8) came in 2nd Place,
and our pig-tailed Gingy Gal (3) came in 3rd Place

Hmm... anyone else in the mood for cookies and milk?