I am volunteering to do art with seniors at a local senior daycare center. I have taught art classes with children in the past – at elementary school level in a program modeled after FAME, and also at the Hayward Area Park and Recreation District’s Ashland Community Center. These prior experiences facilitating art-making were so enriching to me – seeing the amazing art kids will make and being in the midst of their enthusiasm too, which is infectious.
I had gone to the senior center a couple of weeks ago, just to meet the people, and see the area where we would be working. They are a delightful group of men and women who come to this facility from 10-2 daily to visit, have lunch, and do various activities. I realized after visiting with them, that art projects I’d done with the kids were probably going to require some modification. These seniors have varying levels of mobility, fine motor control, and some have mild demensia. So, I chose to have them make butterflies. I wanted a project that had some structure to it, was easy to do in less than the hour we had for the activity and that would have them take something home with them.
We used No. 4 coffee filters which I had cut notches out of to paint on and make the wings of butterflies using tempera paint. Some of the participants decided using two filters on each project would look good, and the results were some luscious insects. The filters were scrunched in the middle and hot glued to a clothespin I had spray painted black before class. We hot glued on some pipe cleaners for antennae too. Click in on the collaged image to see better detail.
Lots of fun! Here they all are with their creations.
