Did I ever share with you all what happened to me last year? As most of
you know I had not been in the classroom since 1974, and I felt like a
first year teacher all over again. My fifth grade classes were so
obnoxious and into themselves, that that is exactly what I used as our
subject in about 15 weeks of lessons. Naturally, they loved it! We did
several portrait projects in many different media. Then I introduced
George Segal. We had moved to their hands and I used, I think it was
Susan's idea, to cast hands and create a background incorporating their
other hand in the action, more or less. This, too, was cool with them.
One group got the great idea that we needed to make a full body casting
of a fifth grader to leave in the lobby for posterity. They decided they
could use slightly bigger clothing, put it over the live models'
clothing and the plaster craft wrapping over the clothes and
figure...oh, my word! I was allowing them to experiment and figure and
reason on their own for a little bit...well, you more experienced
teachers have probably already figured this one out!
I brought in a pair of my old jeans. I'm almost 5'11", so you can
imagine how big they were on the smallest 5th grade boy in the class!
Needless to say, he couldn't keep them up on his little hips and behind,
either! (Don't even go there, Woody.) Well, they cut and they tucked
and got him all fitted in my old pants. They began to wrap...and
wrap...and wrap! He was covered from the waist down to his ankles. It
looked like a body cast! The wrappers had laid him down on the gym
floor so he could dry. All of us got busy casting hands, drawing
scenery for backgrounds, etc. and we forgot. only for a few minutes,
about poor Calvin laying at the other end of the gym floor.
We hear, "hey, mrs. bacon. Hey, Mrs. Bacon. HEY, MRS. BACON. HEY, YOU
GUYS!" The kids are dying! They are screaming and cracking up at the
same time! Calvin is stuck! He is rock solid! He can't Get Up! AND,
the pants are SO HARD, that the kids are literally playing tug of war
with him and the plaster pants, and they can't get him out of them!
I've got tears running down my face -- from both fear and laughter.
How do you explain this to his parents? The telephone to the paramedics
and his parents went flashing through my mind!
The next class starts to come in. There is Calvin prone on the floor.
The kids in the next class have these dumbfounded looks on their faces,
"Like, what has Mrs. Bacon done this time?" There is a mess all over
the place! And, when things seem like they can't get any more crazy,
down the hall comes all of these other teachers to see what all the
noise is about. They could hear the laughter all the way down the
hallway! They lost it...couldn't stop laughing. Do you think they have
let me live this down? Not!
Well, to make an excrutiatingly long episode and story shorter, we got
the janitor's hammer and beat Calvin out of his new plaster britches! I
still have the pants. I laugh, and wince, every time I see them. We
never finished the total figure. Just the thought of it gave me
nightmares!
Through this whole ordeal, I asked Calvin if he was scared. "No, I just
got a little worried when my pants started heating up!"
Sandy
>> Susan -- Does the plaster heat up as it hardens?
>
> By "heats up" if you mean does it get a little warm- yes- but, not
> hot. Just remember to cover the skin with vaseline for
> easy removal.
> Susan on Long Island ---
