Be Careful what you WISH for!

Four weeks ago I began a journey with my Mod 5 Class.  They, I mean WE decided to collect 30,000 bottle caps and plastic lids to show honor to the 30,000 children abducted in Central Africa by Joseph Kony.  We brainstormed using the caps to create a mural to hang in our school.  What has resulted is breathtaking....... 

Maddy, Matthew, Baylor, Luke and Anna painting on Mural #1

Maddy Genskow painting the sky on Mural #1

We have three four foot by eight foot pieces of plywood in our classroom that students are drawing, painting, and gluing bottle caps to.  I have students in Mod 5 and other Mods helping work on these boards.  I have an amazing former student, Samantha Carpenter, who is a Linn-Mar high school student, and talented artist.  She has graciously spent her "free" time working with Maddy Genskow, one of my Mod 3 students.  They have made our
murals look like masterpieces.  What fantastic drawing skills they have.  Every free minute is spent working on our murals: lunch, connections and after school.  This project has become SO much BIGGER than I could have ever imagined.

We now have over 40,000 lids, and caps of all colors, shapes and sizes.  This week we received a donation from Coca-Cola.  It has been so thrilling to see all the caps come in.  Little by little, cap by cap, they come to our classroom.  They show up in baggies, and tubs, and buckets, and sacks.  I have family and friends bringing them to my house, and people placing them in my mailbox at school.  I even received a box from Arkansas full of caps this week.  This project has taken on a life of it's own and I can't wait to share with you all the final product.  Keep watching for our next post, it's going to be fabulous.

Jack, Kyle and Alyssa glue caps on the Ugandan Huts on our mural.

Jordan, Riley, Liz, Lanessa, and Jake work on Mural #2 that says, "STOP KONY"

Making Progress!