I am so impressed with the creativity and problem solving art club members showed during this project!

At the beginning of the year, I had found a bunch of plastic mask forms in my storage closet. I have always wanted to try paper mache with students but have always been deterred from just the thought of the logistics of classroom management. So when I had Art Club up and running somewhat smoothly, I figured it might be something they could handle.

Originally the plan was to just do masks – maybe portraits or something. But then two of my art club members came early one day and started talking about having super powers. One student said he would use his powers for good: to help people. Te other student said she would use her powers to steal and be evil!

This conversation inspired me to give my art club students the prompt: create a hero or villain! On the first day, we sketched our ideas. Students had to illustrate a hero and a villain and choose their favorite to elaborate upon. They included powers, an origin story, and info about an arch nemesis.

On the second day, we used a paper mache technique to cover the mask forms. I mixed 2 parts school glue to one part water. Students dipped 2inch newspaper strips into the mixture and started to layer them onto the mask form. This day was incredibly messy but super fun!

The next few weeks were used to design and engineer the look of the masks. Students had to come up with a color scheme plan in their sketchbook before they could get paint.

I also set out a whole bunch of craft materials for them to use like wires, yarn, sequins, glitter glue, and twisty wire. They pretty much had complete freedom for how they wanted to design and decorate their mask to bring their hero/villain to life. Some students had a big engineering challenge for how to create 3D aspects or how to achieve a certain effect they were going for. In the end, these turned out to be hilarious, authentic, silly, meaningful, memorable, and fun. Check em out!

Way to go art club!!