Glue Sticks Aren't Easy

Today in first grade art class we were cutting strips of paper into squares and gluing the squares down to make paper quilts in the style of Faith Ringgold, (a great lesson idea I grabbed from another lovely art education blogger over in the Chumley Art Room.  Take a look, it's a great project adaptable to almost any age range!).

One boy was reaching up his shirt and making a confused face like this:

It looked like he was scratching his armpit.

I walked over and asked him to take his hand out of his shirt and with it came a glue stick... cap off.  His eyes were brimming with tears and his lip was quivering like a cartoon.

I gently asked, "Braidan," (you can tell they're in the early elementary grades when they have names like Braidan,) "what are you doing honey?"  

He replied, "Daddy does this with his glue stick but I think I did something wrong."

*Facepalm*

I think I'm going to like teaching art to these itty-bitties.  It should at least give me plenty of blog-worthy stories!

p.s. Here's a sloppy snapshot of the final "quilt" products hung up in the hallway: