Crafting Perseverance in the Wonder Studio

This month, it’s the 4th graders’ turn in the Wonder Studio. They enthusiastically run up the steps of the studio every recess period clamoring to get started. Students are scheduled to participate once a week, but often they come multiple times if space allows. It is difficult for me to turn away children who want to spend their time creatively. The usual group of crafters is about ten at one time. I allow up to fourteen to fifteen, but when we start reaching numbers into the twenties, I have to turn some away, and tell them to come back another day. For them, the Wonder Studio is a place where no one is telling them what to do; they can devise their own projects and get messy. This is very important to them, and I dare say, it is a crucial part of growing and learning. Children need opportunities to try out ideas, fail, try again, and keep going until they succeed, which in this case comes in the form of felt, wood, beads, hot glue, and cardboard.

Typically, I watch them work, provide materials, and offer assistance if needed. This month, I started crafting alongside them. This is not meant to urge them to do what I am going, it is more a nod to them that I’m a crafter too. I make mistakes, things don’t always work out, and I keep on going. In the classroom, I’ve often read and write alongside students with the same underlying message: “We are in this together.” In the Wonder Studio, I refrained from making objects in the past because I wanted to make sure the studio was kept a student-centered space where their ideas could fully manifest. I didn’t want my adult ideas to get in the way.

However, when sewing or crafting alongside my students, I noticed that a calmness comes over me. I was using my hands again. I had to make decisions and be flexible. I had to try out an idea and modify it. I must admit, I had forgotten all the little steps a crafter takes in fabricating a product. I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose sight of the creative process. By leaning into wonder, I was able to more fully feel what they feel: excitement, trepidation, disappointment, and satisfaction.

While students were all around me painting, gluing, building with wood and cardboard, I sat down with some felt, cardboard, wood pieces, and beads. I closed my eyes for a minute and looked into my child’s mind. I thought back long ago when I would design decorations for my mother. I took a deep breath and started to craft. Here are some projects I designed. I put a little too much hot glue on one of the felt turkey’s wings. My nature elves do not hang straight on the mobile I created. I didn’t have long enough red felt to cover the snowman’s hat rim, so I made a flower design with beads at the seam. I love the imperfections of these pieces. This is part of the charm of making things by hand.

Most of the children would stop and check-in with me, as I crafted, but they didn’t copy what I was working on. One student took my snowman idea, but she changed it significantly and made it her own. . Students were curious about how I plan and set out my materials. They asked me for help with process skills like tying bows, threading beads through pipe cleaners or wire, or cutting materials smoothly. They came to me with problems like: “How to make felt trees actually stand up,” or “How to make the cardboard horse have strong enough legs to support his body?” I enjoy working through these ideas. They always become opportunities to learn and grow from each other. By doing, by failing, by trying again, we gain so much. The Wonder Studio is an incubator for having wild ideas and taking chances. Here are some of the projects students are working on at the moment. They are all pieces in progress.

These projects may seem childish. They are. They are full of whimsy and mistakes. The desk probably won’t be sturdy enough to write on. The horse right now looks more like a dog. The several pieces on the back shelf are old muffin tins: cupcakes made with cotton ball icing and seed bead sprinkles. These treasures might not even make it home. The pure enjoyment of making something, the joy of seeing something that came from your imagination, the pure delight in the process is what keeps the children persevering and returning to create again another day.