ideas needed for project!

[Kristin]

Hi everyone! I'm an intern working with a school counselor
at a high school in upstate NY. I'm a little stuck on a
project I'm working on and thought I'd try to talk to some
art teachers/instructors in hopes of tapping some
creativity that I'm lacking :-P

I need to come up with an idea of a project for seniors
(only about 40 kids) to do - they'll be giving their
parents something at graduation. I had a few ideas but
none are very creative. One was to buy wooden frames ($1
at Michaels) and have them decorate them how they want, and
then take pictures of them at graduation to put in the
frame. I had taken a stroll around Michaels and found a
few cute things - one was a small box shaped like a shoe -
I was thinking of having them decorate them however they
wanted but having something written on them, something to
the effect of how you have to "walk the road to success",
but somehow incorporating thanks to parents. Anyway, I'm
up to ANY ideas of things that these seniors can make or
put together to give to their parents. I had thought of
having them write a poem but haven't come up with an idea
of what to do with the poem (paint it on something?.. I'm
not creative!!) This needs to be something relatively
inexpensive, and something that parents will be able to
keep for a long time. Any help would be great!!!!

Kristin

[Unregistered]

Why not let each child decide for themselves what would be appropriate for their parent. By all means offer ideas (yours sound good) and supplies , but let the student pick. If you just have the students mass produce something well, then, it's just that, mass produced. But if you let each student pick it has more meaning that way. Good luck!

[Unregistered]

I need to come up with an idea of a project for seniors
(only about 40 kids) to do - they'll be giving their
parents something at graduation.

How about good grades? As a parent, that is all I care about; you can keep the picture frames.

[Michigan Midtier]

I think you are on the right track with this assignment. Kids, if they are in art class, are probably creative in themselves. I think the shoe idea is EXCELLENT. Just a few suggestions though.

Since you want the shoe to be the assignment, say something poetic about the shoe. Talk about the "road to success" like you said, but don't be afraid to allude to their own paths they follow their parents down. Parents teach their children everything, and a shoe can symbolize how far they've come with mom and dad, but the shoes they are going to fill after graduation.

Feel free to just say something like that, defining where you'd like the assignment to go. If you leave the boundaries open after that, they will have more fun with the assignment and put more of themselves into it. With that said, I think that would be a great paperweight for any parent's desk while their son or daughter was off at college.

[KatieBee]

Great idea! I agree giving the kids some creative license is a good one. I always liked the Isaac Newton quote "If I have seen further than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants". I incorporated that into a gift for my dad at my high school graduation. :)