"He's just a guy I made. With paper and then he has sticks for hair. They make him look funny."

"I made this for my friend. It's his birthday tomorrow. And what it is, it's a boat that I made at the 'struction [construction] center. Then I colored with markers, I wanted to paint it, but, we lost paint last week. That's sad, too, I like paint. But then I thought, 'hey! I know! I can put color on it with markers!', so, I did. And see, I made this guy here for the boat. He's laying down, 'cause he's gonna be sleeping on the boat ride. Only, his eyes can't close, so you gotta pretend that they're closed. And that thing in the back, it's a sign, I put a M on it, M for Man, you know, that's the guy's name, Man. Yeah, I thought that was funny, too, it's kinda silly. But that's why my friend'll really like it."

Kindergartners' drawings

"I drew lots of colors, and there's a caterpillar, see? It's happy, 'cause it's starting to be springtime."

"Look! It's a centipede! With tons and tons and TONS of legs!"

"And here's my centipede, teacher. Only he doesn't got a hundred legs, 'cause he's really more like a caterpillar. But he's smiling. Even caterpillars don't really smile."

"It's a weaving. It took a looong time, because when you do it, you think you have a lot done, but then you use the comb to push it down and it's not done as much. But you use the comb to make it tight. Else it would fall apart. I'm giving this to my grandma and you know what? She's coming to my house today! After school I get to go get her from the airport. So it's good I finished in time."

Two first graders spent four art sessions trying to make a large piece of pieces (it's about 14 inches long). They overworked the clay on their first two tries. Frankly, I thought they'd lose interest. But not these two. They really wanted to make this thing!

"It's a big piece of pizza. It was hard to make, 'cause the clay got dry, then it broke and stuff. It broke bad on our first two tries! This was our third try, and it only broke a little bit, so we glued it, and finally we can paint it."

When students don't properly clean up a station, that station is taken away temporarily. Such was the case when a first grade class recently lost construction (the center with cardboard, craft sticks, wire, and other 3-d materials). Of course, lack of materials doesn't stop these builders.

"It's a ship! And those are flames, and I used marker, too."

"It's a HUGE robot! We all made it together; me and him and him and him. Can you take a picture?"

"Okay, well, this is a ship, and those arrows are for the lasers, but this one shoots candy. And that guy is the driver."

"Okay, this is a land for these guys. They are little cotton guys, and here's the house. We used fabric, and tape, and glue, and paper. We have to take turns having it at our house, 'cause we made it together. This week it's my turn."

"I made this for my sister. She's starting kindergarten next year. So, here's a school I made for her."

"It's a dancing girl. I can dance too, I can dance the hula."

A guided project. Occasionally, the students do have an assigned project, and this is an example of one of them. After reading the Ed Emberley book, Go Away, Big Green Monster, the students created their own monsters. Teacher led projects are helpful to push the kids to work on some skills, in this case, cutting skills.