Pritt Glue Review

I was kindly gifted some Pritt glues to review. The children in my first class were so excited to see the parcel arrive to the school!

When I first began teaching I remember thinking I had found a great bargain in picking up some budget glue sticks; I quickly learned that you get what you pay for! Pritt is always great quality, as a teacher this is important, the last thing you want is to have to re-glue 25 pictures that are now hanging off the wall!

I began to think about the lesson I could use them in. The bag of Pritt glues reminded me of creating art as a child and the big craft sets I would get for Christmas and birthdays. As I was looking through the internet, my friend Aoife tagged me in an article.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/04/why-typical-preschool-crafts-are-a-total-waste-of-time.html

It is based on preschools, but really at 6 and 7 years old it definitely applies to my 1st class.

"Kids at this developmental stage benefit from messing around with paints, or clay, or crayons; they gain little, on the other hand, from assembling together some construction paper shapes that their teachers cut out ahead of time."

That was the lesson decided. I cleared a table at the top of the room and left out craft materials, including the Pritt glue. I loved this freedom as a child- no right or wrong, just process. 

Included in the parcel were these glitter glues- these went down a treat! Less messy than glitter glue pens and dry much quicker.

These coloured glues were great to write with and the children enjoyed experimenting with these.

The squeezey pen was great to get the fine motor muscles working! 

I loved the total immersion in process!

This was a rainbow- you had to look into the cup to see it!

The coloured squares were scraps of paper left over from the pig races from the Heart of Ireland Festival! This boy figured that if he glued two pieces together it made a hat.

A favourite car was cut out- I was amazed at the cutting skills, the high interest subject definitely affected the engagement here.

A crown for the king! He also made a matching snake for around his neck- it was excellent!

Co-operative exploration of materials here. These boys decided to do group work and it was their own decision! 

The class really enjoyed the freedom today. They were so busy and focused on creating their own pieces. I have put a lot of energy into creativity with them and I was delighted that they were all just so happy to experiment without any reluctancy! The selection of materials really added to the lesson and the variety of glues brought a fun element to the creativity.