Recycled Art: Student Journals

In preparation for our field trip to the Critical Messages museum exhibit, we have studied a number of related topics, including creating art from found or recycled items.  For this journal project, students were given sturdy cardboard as the front and back of their journal, and set loose on all of the craft and art supplies I had available.  Some students brought items from home as well.  Surprisingly, this did not make the mess you are imagining, and many of the supplies even made it back to their original home.  Helpful tip: be sure you have several hot glue guns at your disposal.  Also, fabric scissors really make a difference.  And one more, have something very sharp to cut through an old soccer ball on hand.

This has been one of my most favorite projects ever.  The students were immediately excited and focused, and I had zero behavior issues during the work time.  Amazing!

After the covers were completed, we robbed the recycle bins for paper, cut to size, hole punched the entire journal, and used YouTube stab-binding videos (Part one here, part two there)  to bind the books together.