Book of Home @ LaGuardia Senior Center.12 7/13/2021

 

LMCC - Creative Learning Grant

Book of Home

 Blog 12 7/13/2021

After many weeks our seniors are about to finish their pop-up book of family memories. All that is needed is to put it together and make and decorate the book cover. We are so proud of their achievements and are impressed with the beauty and originality of their creations. Thank you, Maggie Ng, Program Director, LaGuardia Senior Center for arranging our zoom classes each week, recording our lessons, and making them available for the students via WeChat. 

I asked each person to look through their book and choose 1 Key Word they placed in a pocket and create a gesture for the word using their face and body. This fun warm up game saw Lilly, gestures “cheers”, Helping make a sign for “love”, Chi gestured “happiness” while Sam Sam pointed to her head in a symbol suggesting “memories” and Alice’s gesture was “enjoy life”. 

Screen Sharing their homework each week allows each student to comment on how they made their page, encourages fellow students to give constructive feedback, while honoring their achievements. Alice documented a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. She carefully collaged the background depicting the many temples and then added details to create perspective. She made origami boats and placed the silhouette of her husband and herself in one. Helping drew and colored her entire background of an apartment building surrounded by trees. Lily’s father managed the China Lane Restaurant for 40 years and she honored him in her page. She told us that when she was a child, she would tell her friends that her father goes from table to table at parties and asks people, “is everything alright?”. She placed these words inside the pocket which she decorated with a teapot from which a thought bubble contained the word, “cheers”. Using the box technique learnt last week, she attached a folded napkin onto the background of a wine glass with a hand reaching out on the other side. These formed one of her extended pages. She decorated the front of this page with a dragon and phoenix. Her eye for color and simplicity of style is quite an achievement!

Sam Sam collaged a charming cottage, highlighting the door frame and windows with strips of brown colored paper. She attached floral patterns to either side of the front door. Situ documented a celebration with a background of fireworks onto which she attached a silhouette of her husband and herself. Her extended pages featured fruit and vegetables and she decorated her pocket with floral images.

After deciding the order of the pages in the book, students carefully glued each page together, Chi using alligator clips to hold the book together as the glue dried. They added a front and back page of their color choice. Lily suggested adding the date inside the front page. We brainstormed ideas for titles and Spica demonstrated how to use layers of colors to highlight the title and author. Next week we will teach how to attach a ribbon to tie the book together.



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