A US teacher who works in a school where art is not offered as a subject has come up with a novel way to encourage her students’ creativity.
Haley Curfman from Blackwell Public Schools in Oklahoma brings in a white dress for the kids to draw on and then wears it to show off their artwork.
The innovative second grade teacher, who runs a blog The Weary Teacher, got the idea from Pinterest, and tried it out with her students for the first time last year. The project proved such a hit she repeated it with students this year.
She says it’s one of her “favourite things” to do with her class.
When she posted an image of herself in her latest dress on Facebook it went viral and she was inundated with questions from people inspired to do the same. In an ‘update’ she explained to her followers:
“I bought the dress off Amazon for less than $20 about 6 mos. ago. It’s cotton/Spandex. I got last year’s dress from Amazon too; it’s a little different more of a cotton/poly blend, both worked great.
“I pre-washed the dresses before we started. I used fabric markers from Walmart. The markers say you can wash, but not sure I’ll attempt…
Curfman was also keen to point out “that this idea has been around way longer than Pinterest”.
“Teachers have been sharing their dresses, aprons, quilts, t-shirts, etc. with me that they’ve been creating since the 1950’s with the same concept…”
Curfman gives her students two weeks to a month to complete the project “as we just work on it here and there when time allows”.
“We don’t have art in our school, so, I always try to do little creative projects when possible,” Curfman explained to Scary Mommy.
On completion Curfman likes to throw a class party, which she wears the dress to, and then she puts it on display.
Last year’s dress won first place in an artwork competition at the Kay County Free Fair in Blackwell.
What a lovely idea.
