Artist Dale Chihuly

Okay, I admit, I was seeing tons of Dale Chihuly lesson plans on Pinterest and not really that interested in studying him as an artist until... I actually looked at his work.  I mean seriously, can you say you don't want to do something just because so many people are doing it? His work is glass, light, color, environment, and size.  I am in love.

Kindergarten watched a YouTube video of the artist's apprentice blowing glass for Chihuly.

 "What happened to his eye?" "That's cool!" "Fire!" "Whoa!"

They were mesmerized by his large body of work, the FIRE the glass was put into, and the blowing of glass itself.

"Don't try this at home, kids"

Using "Solo" like cups from Target and permanent markers, we created our own melted glass work. Students added patterns, colors, shapes, and designs to the clear glass cups.

I took them home(the cups, not the children) and put them in a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. I put the unbaked cups on aluminum foil (bottoms up) and wrote their name in permanent markers by their cups on the foil. After they melted and cooled, I could then write their name on the cup without it shrinking.

I had to drill holes into two spots on each cup and then strung them up on plastic wire with beads to hold them in place. I decided a display would be pretty awesome in a window in our school hallway. Two tension rods later, I had a beautiful display that people still ask about!

Of course the kids are begging to take their "Chituly" glass home. When ready, I will cut theirs from the cords and send them on their way.

When we do our brain pop, they see the name Chihuly and all yell, "Chitoooley" and they remember fire and glass and color and size. Most importantly, they remember that they too are Chitooleys and that makes them proud.