Mother's Day

Most great art projects are never created in a single session!
Last year for Mother's Day my friend Sandra told me her class was making bath bombs for all their mothers.  Since then. I decided that my class would be making some this year.  A few of our ladies have been making them, so I know I could probably tap into their expertise
When I visited Sandra a few weeks ago, she showed me the lovely little woven basket in which they presented their bath bombs in.  I knew it would be too late for me to attempt anything like that, so I had to come up with something else.

Wooden "Crates" 

Hence, my grades 4 - 7 art class spent an art period creating little wooden "crates".  Robert, our grades 4 - 7 teacher cut about 100 2" x 3" rectangles for us.  Our EA Stephanie and high school student, Alex helped the grades 1 - 7 students hand-sand the edges and corners.  
The next part was somewhat intricate and frustrating: creating the bottoms of the crates. The students worked in pairs.  One student held the two rectangles with the long edges on the table.  The other students applied a bead of white glue along the top 3 inch edge and joined them by placing 4 popsicle sticks on the glue.  More times than not, the entire project fell to pieces as the students moved it from one spot to the next.  We left those to set during recess, which made the next part easier.  The sides of the crates consisted of gluing 3 popsicle sticks on each side.  My grades 1 - 3 class stuffed each crate with a handful of Easter grass to provide a soft cushion for our bombs.

Bath Bombs 

Making bath bombs requires dry weather and the week prior to Mother's Day was cold, rainy and windy; therefore, we couldn't create them in time for Mother's Day.  To insure that our moms wouldn't think they were forgotten, my students lovingly created cards to send home.  They decorated them as they wished, but each of them was inscribed with the following verse:
This card for you is just to say,
A little card is on the way.

The Thursday after Mother's Day was a beautiful warm, sunny day and we were eager to get started on our project.  Rosie, Robert's wife and my sister Sonia agreed to come share their time, experience and expertise.  Our home ec room was a bee hive of activity with the grades 4 - 7 students, Robert, Stephanie, my sister Sonia and myself each taking on a portion of the project:
Sonia's group was in charge of measuring
Robert manned the blender - mixing baking soda, citric acid and Epsom salt until it stuck together when squeezed into a ball.
Meanwhile I mixed food colouring with coconut oil.

As soon as the mixture was emptied out of the blender, my coloured coconut oil.  Stephanie added the essential oils and  Rosie hand mixed it all until well blended.  She and Stephanie then scooped  handfuls into heart-shaped molds.  The students did the final squeezing together of the 2 sides of the molds and seconds later popped them onto towels spread out on table.  After each batch they would exclaim over the shape, texture, colour or scent of our creations.  The table was a sea of pastel hearts!  The most difficult part of the process for the students was not to touch the bombs after they were laid on the table.  Rosie kept warning us that touching them before they were cured could cause "warts" to grow on them.  (The moisture on our hands could start disolving them, thereby creating unsightly lumps.)

Pack it Up!

 The next day each heart was individually wrapped in saran, then placed in the crates in pairs.  Each lady would be receiving one lavender and one orange scented heart.  The crates were Cello-wrapped and tied with curling ribbon with a personalized gift tag added as a finishing touch.
    

Delivery!

The gifts were packed on a laundry cart and hand delivered to all the families on our colony by our Kindergarten to grades 7 students.