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Lindsay Wynett
Mrs. Lester
Advanced Grammar and Composition
12 March 2012
“The Special Kind of Love”
I have a passion for helping the special needs children at my school.I try to see them
every day because they are such a joy and always make my day so much better by a single smile.
I am involved with them being a peer facilitator, and having been in the friends club for a while.
After becoming at peer facilitator I began to realize all of the student’s personalities and this is
when I realized that they are the sweetest, non-judgmental people I know and show so much
compassion. This is why I consider these students some of my best friends because they honestly
are the best friend that you could have, and treat them as they should be. This idea to do my
senior project came to me very easily because I knew that I wanted to involve the special needs
children. So my love for art work, and the passion to teach just added up to creating various art
projects with the students and then debut it in an art show. The topic of art therapy and being an
adaptive art teacher are very much so alike. The problem that was in my paper was to show how
kids used art work as a freedom of self-expression. Also how doing adaptive art is very much so
the same, in the fact of giving special needs children the right to complete art projects to express
themselves. I chose this topic of art therapy because I find self-expression very interesting; also I
love to help people out, and to see people express themselves to make them feel better.
Especially if they feel as if they cannot tell anyone how they feel, art work can be proven to help.
Art therapy is proven to help children to instead of keeping their feelings inside; art therapy is a
great tool to help them to express themselves without having to say a word.These art projects
that the children do in art therapy are similar in how we had the students create their own
projects, their own way.

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Now I’m going to tell you about the process I followed in creating my product.I was
looking for someone who was involved with art work and children, specifically special needs
children. My aunt emailed all the adaptive art teachers in Forsyth County and Mrs. Murphy
responded.My project facilitator Katherine Murphy is an adaptive art teacher at Lake Windward
elementary, Haynes Bridge middle, and Alpharetta High School, with a degree in art education
from Western Carolina University.
Now I’m going to explain to you all of the steps that I took to create my final product. I
first looked online to find an art therapist, and it did not work out. So then I had my aunt who is
an art teacher who had said they were willing to help. However the first one I contacted just did
not work out with emails and phone calls back and forth.However, my next senior project
facilitator prospect was great! After many emails we made a planto meet up, when and where.
To fit her schedule and to fit mine when there was a time when I would be out of school, over a
break, and when she still had to work. We met first over our fall break during September and her
school did not have off at Lake Windward Elementary school and I observed her various
adaptive art classes with the kids and learned a lot about the elementary school’s motive skills
and ability ranges through different classes. I learned a lot about the kids and their attention span
and how to teach disabled children.I also went to Alpharetta High School to observe a high
school adaptive art class and observed many different kinds of ideas and actually got to sit and
eat with them during lunch. It was a great experience and I stayed there for all seven hours. After
given these ideas on what projects to do, I decided what supplies were needed and got them
all.Then after Thanksgiving break I began to introduce the various art projects that my project
facilitator had given me one by one and told the class that the art work would be in an art show.
We created four different art projects. Then during their fourth and fifth period we began to work

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on the art projects. The first project was a sea creature mosaicthe students were asked to choose a
sea biome creature or plant and enlarge a photo of it on the computer. Next, we took different
colored sheets of construction paper and ripped them up into little pieces. Finally, the students
glued them to fit the picture. The next project was a painting project wherewe learned about
warm colors and cool colors. First they chose either warm or cool color paint as a background
mixed with white to create a lighter shade. Then after the paintings were dried, we incorporated
math by having them choose two different shapes that were stamped onto the paper in either a
warm or cool color. Then they stamped the shapes in the color with a lighter shade to portray
whatever design they wanted.The next project was ceramics; students stacked pre-cut circles of
clay and then used three “ribbons” of clay to assemble the body of the piece. We then “scored”
the tops of the ribbons with a fork to mark. Then we used “slip” as a glue to put all the pieces
together and smoothed them over. Weeks later we had the pieces fired in a kiln. Finally, the
students painted their pieces with acrylic paint.The final project was a crayon scrapingprojectwe
started off by coloring the whole background of paper with various colors of crayons. Then they
covered the whole page with black tempera paint mixed with dishwashing soap. After the
projects were dry, we used a scraping tool to scrape out whatever picture they wanted. The
crayon background that was painted over now reveals a picture. After months of completing
these various projects I gathered up all of the projects from school very carefully and mounted all
of the pieces with a name card on every piece. This preparation took many hours and also had to
be waited on to dry.I set up for the art show and mounted all of the pieces in the Cherokee Art
Center, arranged the tables, chairs all in place the night before the show. The day of the show
showed the pictures and set up all the food that my grandmother had made: cake pops, cheese
straws, punch, and fruit. I set up programs of the show at a table in the front and put out a guest

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book. The kid’s parents, friends, teachers, and family all started coming in at two and walked
around to observe the beautiful art work and socialized while enjoying the refreshments and
food. Lastly after being up for three weeks we took up all the projects. Imade certificates of
achievement for the students. Then I gave them back all the projects for all of the students to take
home for their families to enjoy. The art show was in an article in the paper!
All of these steps were essential to completing the final product of the show and along
with it came some problems. One of the obstacles I had to face was when my first project
facilitator told me last minute that she could not do this project with the kids because of certain
guide lines but I ending up finding the right project facilitator. Another obstacle was meet up
times with my project facilitator, we needed to meet up whenever I didn’t have school but she
did so I could observe her class. A huge obstacle I had to face the whole time was the thought of
not finishing all the art projects on time for the show, but we luckily had them all done in time.
Though all the obstacles I am very happy for continuing on with this project.What I have
learned from doing this art show as my senior project how the students use their motor skills and
realizing what they can and cannot do, and plan accordingly to their ability. I learned how to
teach and that I want to work with high school students. I have proven to have positive work
habits. In the face of because I started this project many months ago to be sure not to run out of
time.I also learned many communication skills by writing letters to the parents, contacting the art
center over the phone and various emails with my project facilitator, and also by making fliers,
and programs for the show.I am interested in becoming a special education teacher, adaptive art
teacher, or an art teacher. What I have learned in myself though doing this senior project is the
fact that I do want to be some sort of an art teacher, and work with special needs children. This
experience has just helped me to fully understand all the work it takes: how to teach, how to

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prepare for class, and how to set up for an art show. This has been a very positive experience for
me.
THANK THE JUDGES
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