Paper Mache

Paper has been a wonderful material for us to use her in the virtual classroom!  Recently, the Brown Room used paper mache to create the head of their dragon costume, and the children in the Brown Room seem to love this technique.  Due to our success with paper explorations, and messy/sensory explorations, paper mache seemed like a natural thing to introduce.  It was also great that Naama, Saul's mom, had memories of using it as a child, and was able to share her memories and some great tips!  This truly would not have been successful without Naama's assistance and encouragement throughout.   

I remember, as a child, my grandmother used to cook it in a pot.  We would take a brush and dip it in and brush it on a piece of paper. - Naama
Just as the Brown Room did, we decided to start with a balloon; an orange balloon to be exact! 

​Sauly! We both have orange balloons! We match! - Elyse
“Oh, mine is a bit more orange than yours is!” - Saul

The process is quite exciting and messy.  Here are some of the comments from Saul as we worked to cover our entire balloon! 

“We’re dipping glue and it’s sticky! And then we put it on the balloon. Look! It’s so fun!” - Saul 
“Look it’s sticking on my balloon!” - Saul 
I heard you say that you didn’t want to make a sculpture, but it will end of making a type of sculpture around the balloon.  - Elyse
“Well, I’m making a nest and then another nest.” - Saul 
“There’s so much glue.” - Saul 
“Look. I’m covering the whole balloon!” - Saul 
“We have to make the whole balloon covered. There are pieces, and we have to cover the balloon and it’s holes. Well, we have to leave some balloons in between so we can see what it looks like.” - Saul 
Well, we will leave one hole so that we can pop the balloon later. - Elyse
“We have to dip all of the paper inside to make another layer. Then we smooth it.” - Saul 
“It’s going to be colored white when it dries.” - Saul 

Layers

The concept of adding layers really appealed to Saul, and he seemed to really enjoy adding more and more layers.  At one point, he experimented with adding cardboard pieces as layers.  

You can put a second layer, that way it’s stronger when it dries. - Elyse
“Yeah! I want to put a second layer!” - Saul 
“Let’s keep working on the next layer.  It needs another layer to make it strong. Now we can make three.” - Saul 
“Look! The balloon is so dirty [was finally covered in newspaper].” - Saul 
“I think you can add another layer with cardboard paper.” - Saul 
I’ve never tried cardboard.  I did see that the Rainey Room used fabric to paper mache.  - Elyse
“Oh fabric! That’s a good job to use fabric because all of the time I don’t have any time because it’s so fast!” - Saul 
Maybe we can put it in a bowl to dry. - Elyse
“No! I want to make four layers.” - Saul 
“We’re going to make a few paper mache layers with cardboard.” - Saul 

Paper mache is hard work: 

“My arms are getting sore.” - Saul 
Are your arms getting tired? Is that what you mean? - Elyse
“No. I’m getting sore, but I’m not tired. My hands are getting sore.” - Saul 
Your hands have been doing a lot of work. - Elyse
“For now I’m going to take the paper with only one hand. I don’t need my other hand because it’s sore.” - Saul 

Languages and Research

Recently, Saul has been noticing how I pronounce the word orange differently than he does.  Today, this lead to a conversation about how we not only pronounce things differently, but we also speak languages that are different from our language in common: English.  

Saul, sometimes we say things differently, just like sometimes we speak different languages.  - Elyse
While you dip [your paper] can you tell me about which language you speak at home? - Elyse
“i speak like, kid speak. I speak in the voice of the kids.” - Saul
That’s a really beautiful statement; a beautiful sentiment. - Elyse

Around this time, Naama shared that there is an Israeli artist who creates sculptures with paper and light.  

There is an Israeli artist who makes sculptures with paper and light. - Naama
Saul, were you born in Israel? - Elyse 
“Yeah, but it’s a hot dog. I was born in a hot dog.” - Saul 
We have the world map, and Israel is so small that I call it a hot dog. It’s a kosher hot dog though. It does look like it on the map because it’s so small, and the color that they chose is a hot dog color. - Naama 

Later, I began to share my screen and use Google to search for information and images from this artist, but we were having a hard time finding exactly what we wanted
. ​
I might have to do more research.  - Elyse
“What’s research?” - Saul 
That’s a great question.  It’s when I look for ore information about something. - Elyse
“So that you can see it?” - Saul 
Yes. So I can see it.  So i can learn or so that I can understand.  When you research something, it means you are usually trying to learn more about it. - Elyse 
“More about it?” - Saul 
Yes. More information about it. - Elyse
“Can you show me?” - Saul 
Yes. So Ima and I were trying to find this Israeli artist. - Elyse 
“Artist?” - Saul 
Yes. So can you see these sculptures? - Elyse
“Light sculptures. I just saw a green one! Over there! Look!” - Saul 
We should do more research because I’m interested to see this artist. - Elyse
“You’re interested to see the artist?” - Saul 
I am.  The artist is Israeli, which means that she was probably born in the same place you were. I’m going to ask Ima to say her name for me again. - Elyse 

Naama pronounces it and Saul repeats it. I then pronounce her name: Ayala Serfaty

“You can’t say that in English because it is Hebrew.” - Saul 
Is that a Hebrew name? - Elyse 
“Yes.” - Saul 
So, we can’t say it in English, but we can try to pronounce it. - Elyse
“Why are you talking in Hebrew? You can do that!” - Saul 
It’s true. I do not speak Hebrew, but I can try to pronounce the artists name. - Elyse
The meaning of her name is ‘doe’. - Naama 
Saul, you do speak Hebrew. I speak Italian.- Elyse
“Italian and English?” -Saul 
Well, the language that you and I have in common is English, so that’s why we speak it to each other, but at home you get to speak Hebrew. - Elyse 
“How do you know Italian?” - Saul
Well, I studied Italian when I went to college; or university.  And I lived in Italy for a little while.  Like you lived in Israel for a while, I lived in Italy.  If you look on the map, Italy looks like a boot; like you said Israel looks like a hotdog. - Elyse

​This is Italy.  It looks like a big boot; like you wear on your foot. - Elyse
“Where is hot dog? Is that hot dog?” - Saul

How it started vs. How it's going! 

Towards the end of the call, Saul said, "I want to make a cardboard sculpture." 

So, that's exactly what we'll do next week.