Glitter Wars

So, I'm an elementary art teacher for now. It's a pretty sweet gig - for the next three months I teach 3 art classes a day.

Monday was my first day and I'm picking up where the last art teacher left things. For my first class each day this week I had 3rd graders. They've been finishing up a project they started last time which is snowflake people. Remember folding up paper into a triangle and cutting out little shapes? Well, they're supposed to add a head and a hat and a scarf and feet and hands. They were also told that they get to decorate the snowflake people with glitter. I could have been a grinch and said "No glitter!", but it is the week before Christmas.

Do you know what children do with glitter? For some reason, only about 10 percent (and believe me that's a high estimate) of the glitter pieces actually end up on the art project. Somehow glitter just ends up everywhere. In that school the art room is absolutely the farthest room from the main office. Less than halfway from the main office to the art room you can start seeing glitter on the floor. It's this sparkly trail that says "Art room... this way...." In addition, everyone who happens to walk in or near the room ends up sparkling as well. The children who are in my classes leave with glitter encrusted clothes and often enough glitter in their hair that it is stuck to their scalps. Except for the few children I caught having "glitter wars" - yes, they actually think it is fun to throw glitter at each other, often in each other's faces - I'm not sure how they end up with sooooooooo much glitter stuck to them. I think that when I turn my back they grab some glitter throw it in the air and skip through it as it drifts to the ground. This week has given me enough experience with glitter to last a lifetime. I don't think I will ask children to use glitter ever again.