Now that I am working off of an art cart and traveling from room to room, I decided to "bite the bullet" and switch to 4 oz. glue bottles so I wouldn't have to balance 20 wet glue cups as I travelled. The trade off is that now I am battling students' inclination to squeeze rivers of glue from their bottles, making puddles of oozing white glue on their artwork (also fun to transport on a cart)!!
So here is my solution. I TEACH kids to hold the glue bottle horizontally, NOT vertically (good math vocabulary:)) with one hand and we practice 3 steps:
TOUCH the paper,
SQUEEZE GENTLY,
LIFT QUICKLY as soon as they see they dot of glue.
Once I teach the method, we practice on scratch paper -- more than once!!!!!!
Does this work the first time they try it? No.
How about the 2nd time? Maybe.
3rd time? Pretty much.
The result, little dots of glue, and a happy art teacher:))
Of course, I haven't tried this yet with kindergarteners' little hands -- that will be the real test!! I might have to revert to the glue cups after all:))
Such a hard thing to teach! I use the phrase, "Dot, Dot, not a lot." That's four dots. They love saying the rhythm, and I do hear them saying it when they are gluing! If they only need one dot, we say, "Dot!" or for an extra small dot we say. "DA!" The kids laugh my it really works!
ReplyDeleteWe also say, "A dot is a lot." But I haven't heard the "DA" for an extra small dot -- love it!! I'll give that one a try for sure!!Thanks:))
DeleteI still use my cups but keep them sealed up in heavy duty take out plastic containers with lids. The containers will hold about 12 small cups and the glue stays moist for weeks. Since the containers will stack, no spill and easy transport.
ReplyDeleteGood tip -- I'll remember this, thanks!!!
DeleteGreat tips. Thanks. I use the same little plastic containers and put little lids on them. They never dry out. I call it finger glue. Therefore no annoying sticks or brushes.
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