Pinwheels for Peace

I heard about the Pinwheels for Peace project from my former high school art teacher and thought it would be a fun idea!  The whole idea is to promote International Peace Day, etc.  I started promoting this idea the very first week of school to my students and we jumped right in making them.  I believe the final number my JH students and I came up with was 208 pinwheels!!!

I really enjoyed this project but after doing something 208 times, it becomes a little blah.  I had lost a little bit of my excitement for the project until yesterday when I was making sure everything was ready to go for today.  I had help from 3 high school students at 7 AM this morning and it took us about half an hour to get everything all done which was exactly along the time line I was thinking.  I wanted it all done and ready by the time parents started dropping their children off and teachers started coming in and at my school that starts around 7:30.

The Pinwheels for Peace website has the template and assembly instructions...http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/pinwheelsforpeace/home.html.  I used the bead/pipe cleaner attachment with the pencil that was a suggestion on the website. I liked this way of assembly because the students could do most of it themselves and have more of a part in the whole project.  However, I felt like this way of assembling the pinwheels didn't allow them to move as much as I wanted them to, but it worked out just fine.  I did assemble the K-2 pinwheels on my own because I didn't think they had the motor skills to assemble the pinwheels, especially this early in the school year.
I also made some poster board signs to promote/explain the pinwheel display.

Overall, I was pleased with the display.  The weather turned out to be really nice despite a pick up in the wind later in the afternoon.  There was dew in the grass that was a small annoyance.  And since we have had so little rain the ground was much harder than I thought, especially despite the school's healthy green and watered grass!  Everything turned out great though and I received SO many compliments throughout the day!  And that just helps to justify what I do :)