Making Holiday Gifts With A Diverse Group Of Students

Sometimes the most simple solution to a challenge is a good one. I have been in diversely populated school settings in which teachers approached gift making by avoiding it. One example is a teacher I know who abandoned the idea of making father's day gifts because she didn't want to cause any pain to children with absent fathers. Winter is a festive time of year with calendars filled with religious, cultural and ethnic celebrations and holidays. The city in which I live places a high value on social inclusion, which has contributed to my creating art projects and activities for diverse groups of children. I have found that children have a need to make presents for important people in their lives. When a class works on gift making projects together, the children feel as if they are personally engaged in the holiday season. In order to create an open spirit of warmth in a classroom, I have started projects by asking each child to identify, in his or her mind, the recipient of the gift. I have found that in extreme situations, classmates like to brainstorm with members who are unsure for whom to give a gift. The benefit has been that the children who had trouble identifying for whom to make a gift felt bonded to the classmates who had families, and not psychologically separated from them during the act of making presents. I remember one class in which a boy who was in foster care did not want to make a present for anyone. This led to a brainstorming session in which the boy remembered that he really liked his school coach and he thought he could make a present for his coach to give to his wife: he started the gift making activity with the other children on a happy note.
So, what to make? One universal symbol and value is love. A simple heart can be stylishly produced using many artistic methods and materials. This is an inexpensive, easy way to make an heart which has a nice fragrance and looks like a sophisticated piece of thick handmade paper.
Potpourri Flour Dough Heart Threaded with Raffia Ribbon:
Proportions of 1 cup flour, 1 cup potpourri (use botanical potpourri because the pieces of wood chips in other mixtures are hard to manipulate) to 1/2 cup salt & 1/2 cups water in amounts large enough for the group. Add blue food coloring and fragrant oil to the mixture. Refrigerate.
Give each child a ball of chilled dough. Either trace heart patterns on dough, cutting out the shapes with plastic knives, or use heart shaped cookie cutters. Create a thick slab of dough. Pierce holes in which to thread the ribbon in the wet dough. These heart wall hangings should not be too thin for danger of cracking or breaking when threaded. Put an initial on the back of the heart, let dry. String thoroughly dried hearts with Raffia ribbon and wrap in hand made gift wrap.