Inquisitive Felines and Fibers

One of the perks of my job as an A/V Tech at a middle/high school is the student body. The children make me laugh, want to tear my hair out, and hug them all at the same time. It’s rather like having a few hundred grandchildren who go home every day. Okay, maybe not quite like that, but you get the feeling.  Due to recent budget cuts I am also spending a good deal of time on the circulation desk in the library. In fact, I work by myself on Fridays so I decided to add some fun to the end of the week once or twice a month. Occasionally we’ve added the odd day in, but since they are non-stop action, I try to limit it to two. Last June, I set up a hyperbolic coral reef in our display case and some of our students made paper plate jelly fish with ribbons and googly eyes. They were just too much fun.

Last month, while celebrating R. L. Stine’s birthday, the students made either a monster or a ghost house out of mystery bags. Mystery Bags are brown lunch bags with pipe cleaners, coffee filters, cups, craft sticks, tubes, pompoms, etc in them. Below is one of the many monsters which appeared that day.

And last Friday we had the option of making hand turkeys out of construction paper or leaf wreaths. A good time was had by all, but I will be cutting out leaves (in preparation for the future) for some time to come.

While these are all very simple crafts, the students truly seem to enjoy making them and they have needed very little direction. The creativity and energy that comes bouncing out of them is contagious and invigorating. They have created a pond from blue fleece, fish from pompoms,  and water lilies from tissue paper and felt. This is seriously one of the best perks around. It’s a wonderful thing when work is fun!