Families get creative at art night event

Sisters Elementary School students and their families got a chance to get creative at Family Art Night last Thursday.

The evening, hosted by Sisters Parent Teacher Community (SPTC) and funded in part by a grant from The Roundhouse Foundation, brought well-over 200 people to the school. Fourteen different arts-and-crafts projects filled the commons and several classrooms for students to create unique items for themselves or to give as a gift this holiday season.

Getting families into the school has been a goal of the administration for the last few years. Students, parents, family friends and teachers mixed and mingled all evening. There was food for sale and a small bake sale to help raise funds for the SPTC, but families were encouraged to bring a picnic dinner and spend time with each other.

"I loved making the kazoo," said a first-grader. "Well, actually I liked the Pencil Pinwheel the best - well, I liked it all."

"It's hard to say what the favorite project was this evening," said Erin Borla, SPTC vice-chair. "It felt like everyone moved between projects, getting a chance to experience all of the different activities. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - kids and adults."

Some of the favorite activities from last year returned: Activities like mask-making; creating wrapping paper and greeting cards; designing jewelry; and using recycled materials to make a spinning top and more.

There were several new activities this year, including making a unique tic-tac-toe game, learning about crayon rubbings and working with self-hardening clay. Self-hardening clay can be manipulated just like real clay. Once the artist creates a design they really like, they let it sit for 12-14 hours, and then it can be painted.

Sisters community member Jackie Erickson helped by creating pencil pinwheel and bean-bag kits.

"We couldn't do an event this size without volunteers," said Borla. "We had a great committee of five people help design and implement all of the projects and at least two-dozen parent volunteers as well as students from the SHS Leadership Class help at the event. Even more brought items for the bake sale. It was great to have all of the teacher support too - many let us use their classrooms, borrow supplies and even brought items in for the raffle baskets."

SPTC is planning additional family nights throughout the school year. Families can look forward to STEM/Science Night in January and Literary/Reading Night in April. All of the family nights will include hands-on activities and chance to get together with friends.

"Nights like this help build community," said Borla. "It was incredible to see so many families working together on projects and enjoying each other's company."