Handy Work

It's intensely satisfying to make things with my hands: pie dough, needle point, pencil drawing, painting a wall or a canvas, it makes no difference to me. Most of my students, too, enjoy doing things with their hands: things with yarn like finger knitting, cat's cradle, friendship bracelets. Some kids love to sit at their desk flipping those little skate boards, finger decks, drives me crazy. I toss them in my bottom drawer and give them back after school, so then they bend their id's into finger decks and flip those - they don't make as much noise, so I ignore it. Toys are forgotten anyway once the fun art materials come out. Most kids love playing in clay, and mention finger painting and the class goes nuts.

There's always a kid or two who can't stand getting their hands dirty. Sometimes its a sensory overload for them, a special need they deal with, sometimes they're just very tidy kids. Surgical gloves come in handy.....except some kid always fills them up at the sink...you just have to laugh and keep a mop at hand.