I then began thinking about the artmaking process.... I did not want the assignment to be too easy for them. My teacher told me that when I was to go shopping for the supplies to buy candy and things that could serve more than one purpose, meaning had multiple possibilites to use to build and decorate the cupcakes. When I went shopping at Wal-Mart I was overwhelmed with the amount of possibilities and found it difficult to limit the candies to only 5-6. After looking over all of my options and lurking up nd down 4 candy aisles, I chose green twisty peelable twizzlers, pretzels sticks, marshmellows, green and orange candy corns, and Halloween body part candies. After getting my cupcake mixes, frosting, and supplies I went home and began baking. I made the cupcakes multiple colors using food dye, waited for them to cool, then began making my teacher sample keeping in mind that I had to think of different ways to utilize the candies and pretzels. I then started to organize my supplies. I packed the cupcakes in tins, mixed my 3 frosting colors, seperated them into cups for the tables, covered them with clear plastic wrap, seperated and divided the candies into little baggies so that I could easiy drop them on the tables before class to save time, packed some knives, paper towels, put everything together in a bag, and packed it into the car. I made 2 posters. One showed images of the 2 artists and the other showed examples of cupcakes monsters- ones not to do and ones to do, and in this way it showed the students what I was looking for and different options of how to use the candies.
In the beginning of the lesson I talked to them about the 2 artists, asked questions about what they saw, talked about how food can be used as a medium, and explained what I wanted them to do for the lesson, what supplies they had, showed them my teacher sample, and talked about the difficulties I had with designing my cupcake. However, I noticed that during 5th period the kids were getting restless which made it a bit challenging. Some started talking over me to each other and I could tell they were eager to start working- which was good because I could tell they were interested and it killed my fear that I would just hear crickets... So I wrapped it up saying what I had to say and let them start to work.
What the kids created really surprised me. Some thought of ways to use the candies in ways I didn't. They were so excited about it too! Some even said it was the best day of art ever. Not only did they get to PLAY WITH FOOD, work with it, mold it, design it, etc. but they also got to EAT IT. When some students were done early with one cupcake, they made another. It was really awesome to see them so interested in something. They expressed to me how much fun they had doing it and I was so excited because EVERY SINGLE STUDENT participated which was something I had not observed in any of the other classes I observed before. Overall it was so much fun, I would definitely do it again. Yes, it was a lot of preparation, but I think that for a one day Halloween lesson it was worth it. My teacher even complimented me on how organized I was which I was happy about because that was the most difficult challenge I had.
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