Rainbow Dreams and Art Blog

Today at the North Oakland YMCA was a special day for me. I look forward to the now familiar faces of the children in our YMCA Day Camp’s aftercare program. The kids and I are getting to know one another and I am growing to appreciate and cherish them more as the summer goes by.

This afternoon they were SO patient as I described our art project to go along with our weekly theme: Independence Days. We did a fun painting project called Fireworks painting, where the kids and I used some water-based paints (glittering Red and Blue of course!) on paper and our BREATH through a straw to blow the paint around to look like Fourth of July fireworks! These kids were so awesome and so patient as they waited for me to pour out their paints. Many of them had seen the Rochester Hills fireworks the night before, so I listened to them describe to me what fireworks looked like.

After this, I did some body paints for them, creating Stars and Stripes tattoos for their arms and hands. It was a lot of fun for us all, and again the kids surprised me with their patience in waiting their turns, and looking out for the younger kids.

Happy Fourth of July! May God Bless America!

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My latest adventure has been with the kids at the North Oakland YMCA in Auburn Hills, MI. What a lot of fun! I’m teaching art class on Wednesday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and Yoga class on Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The kids are GREAT! Most of these kids are kids from the YMCA Day Camp Aftercare Program at the YMCA, though some of them do join in from Child Watch, where parents take their kids while they work out.

What I really, really love is the weekly themes. This summer, the YMCA has the theme: “Map Your Adventure.” This is really nice because the kids basically take a trip around some areas of the country and around the world, learning about different geographical areas, cultures and traditions. I LOVE this idea, because it meshes perfectly with Story Time Yoga and the ideas of learning about other cultures, appreciating the wisdom traditions from around the world.

The first week’s theme was “The Wild West.” On Wednesday we made Totem Poles and on Thursday I told the Native American Tale of Jumping Mouse. The kids love Jumping Mouse, especially since I brought my Jumping Mouse puppet to the class. Kids loved the puppet and are asking for him to come back again. Lots of fun! Kids went home telling stories about the puppet, and many kids came up to me after class to ask and to check to see if he (the puppet) was REAL.

Here is some student art:

Click on images to enlarge.

Then last week’s theme was “The Outback” so on Wednesday we did Aboriginal Dot Art paintings, and on Thursday we did a yoga class surrounding the theme of an Aboriginal tale I found, “Why Crocodiles Roll”. Kids LOVED doing Crocodile pose and we did it again and again and again! They all said they were going to go home and teach their parents.

This week’s theme is “The Far East”. I was gone at a teacher training yesterday so I left the project of making Chinese Parade Dragon Puppets, with one of the staff. I can’t wait to hear how they turned out. Such a fun project! Today we will hear the story of “The Magic Pear Tree” a wisdom tale from China - one of my favorites! I can’t wait to see how it all goes.

So cute, I have gotten to know many kids through these classes. One evening I was at Olga’s Restaurant when I heard small feet running very fast towards me and a little girl was suddenly at my side, hugging me, saying, “I just saw you at the Y!” I love when I can have a positive impact on kids lives.

What I love is seeing how engaged the children can be with the right activities. Kids love yoga and they really enjoy art.

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More and more I believe in doing yoga as a family.  Some of our best and most fun times together were spent doing yoga together, especially in the early morning.  I am happy to get a chance to teach a Family Yoga class at the YMCA! 

This week, we began a new Spring session of classes at the Y.  A really amazing coincidence occurred.  I have been wishing to teach a Teen Yoga class for so long, and my Teen Yoga class scheduled at Auburn Hills Community Center, did not run as not enough students signed up.  I was disappointed as I had many cool things planned, but then I thought, things will happen as they should.  So, here’s the coincidence.  I walked into my Family Yoga class at the YMCA on Monday night, and four families, with a total of 6 teens showed up!  I have yet to teach a teen class that had any teens sign up, and here, a Family Yoga class filled with teens taking yoga with their parents!  Amazing.  I am used to having little kids in that class, so will have to figure out different things for us to do.  One 16-year-old told me that he learned he needs to pay attention to his breath more, and when he was leaving, he said to me, “I will DEFINITELY be coming back next week!”  I felt great to hear that.

Now, if I can only get my teen art class going at the YMCA…I guess like anything else, it will take time and patience.

This past Saturday, I was at the Earth Day Expo at Oakland University.  We are involved with Strawbale Studio.  At the Expo, we were right next to an African Dance and Drumming group, they were incredible!  I created a mandala while I was there, the totally reflected the colors and the sound of the music they played.  It is another one in my Earth Mandala series, but being bright orange is different than what I typically do.  I love how the vibrancy of the music shows through!

Here is my art!  This is called, “Earth Mandala 3″…better known as “Earth Day Mandala for Ivan”.   Colored pencil on Bristol Board.

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  Today is Tuesday, and I am finally downloading some images of our Animals in Art Puppet Creations. 

 

I have many more to add, but I was inspired by this image of my daughter, Olena’s finger puppets along with some other creations that grew from them.  Here we have a mushroom, a black cat, a girl, and a “hippie.”  They are a lot of fun, and full of intriguing features.  I watched my daughter’s creative energy blossom through this activity.  Once she got started, she kept adding and creating more friends for the original finger puppet.  Even the way she’s arranged them on our kitchen windowsill is artistic.  So I wanted to share!  These puppets were created of Crayola’s Model Magic, in various colors, along with glitter glue, colored felt, yarn, googly eyes, popsicle sticks, card stock, and other fun embellishments.  The kids kept finding new uses for the items as they experimented with the different effects they could achieve from these simple items.  Enjoy!  

 

 

Here, I would like to introduce my fabulous and amazing Teen Authors and Artists!  

Right now we have Andrew, Lina, and Olena, three very talented, creative and inspiring teens!

 

Read Andrew’s Article on Martial Arts http://rainbowdreamsandart.com/myblog/?page_id=27

View Lina’s Art Creations http://rainbowdreamsandart.com/myblog/?page_id=20

Enjoy Olena’s Artistic Creations http://rainbowdreamsandart.com/myblog/?page_id=58

 

 

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