My school is looking for ideas for this as well, so I dug through all the message board archives and found whatever I could related to kids making things to sell at an auction. Some aren't quite the right season, and some might not qualify as art, but it's a pretty good list that might give you some creative ideas.
None of this is original--my apologies to those who posted them in the first place; I didn't think to paste in the posters' names when I was getting this together. Here you go:
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Magic Carpet - Another class took a rectangle carpet square sample and the class decorated it with "jewels" and sequins and paint. The kids took turns being the star of the week and were able to sit on this magic carpet during reading time, etc. They even took it home over the weekend to take care of it. It was auctioned off at the end of the year - believe it or not - someone paid $450 for that piece of carpet.
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Wal-mart and IKEA sells plain white ceramic items that are already glazed: items like flower pots, piggy banks, cannisters, pitchers, etc. Any of these items would make great personalized classroom auction items. Have each child paint their fingerprint on one and turn into flowers or bugs(for instance on the flower pot).
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Grade Decoupage Item (clock, tray) - crafty mum used mini photos of class members and added a themed decoupage and decorative script - totally awesome! doing again this year! $75 - $575
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Bedside Tables - Creative Wood class (teacher parent), designed, cut, assembled and stenciled their own creations - $375 - $700
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patch-grade quilt - each class member designs a square for grade quilt, (can pre-select fabrics, but adornments are individualized) teacher or parent needs to assemble.
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For the younger classes, personalized items are more popular. For example, one year the kindergarten class got a white apron. They used different color paints, and a teacher (or class mom) helped each child put their handprint on the apron. The adult then wrote the child's name under the handprint. Believe it or not, each year the aprons went for over $500.
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Another nice item was a child's bookcase, painted white. The teacher/class mom had each child put a thumbprint on it with different colored paint. Then the mom/teacher wrote their name under it. When the paint was dry, the adult turned each thumbprint into a different animal, for example, a butterfly, elephant, etc. It was adorable and went for a few $100.
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My all time favorite was a collection of drawings by a 3rd grade class. One of the moms went into the classroom and had each child draw what they wanted to be when they grew up on a piece of paper about 2"x2" or 3"x3" and write their name on it as well. She then took each picture and had it matted and framed, with a beautiful poem in the middle from a card or something (it wasn't just typed, it was on cardstock and very pretty) about children growing up.
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We always found that our art projects were much more sought-after from the lower grades (K3, K4, K5, 1st, 2nd) than the upper grades 3rd-8th. Parents LOVE those projects that have personal touches. One cute thing we did one year was a mirror. The chairman bought it at Target, already painted white. We had the children dip their little fingertips in paint and we'd use about 3 or 4 fingertip dots per child in the shape of a caterpillar. We then got an artistic mom to add on to the fingerprints things such as a bug face, bug feet, wings, etc. Then, we added a sweet verse about children(we used Bible verses about children, too) onto the mirror. It went for a few hundred dollars right off the bat.
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Stepping stones are a good idea. One project my son's class did was a cookie jar. It was unbelievable. The teacher purchased a plain white ceramic cookie jar. She cut a sponge into a circle shape and painted on a light brown circle onto the outside of the cookie jar. There was one circle for each child (the circle was about 2 inches across - but can be smaller depending on the size of the cookie jar and the number of kids). Once the circle dried...each child dipped their pinky finger in dark brown painted and added chocolate chips to their "cookie". After all that dried - the teacher wrote the child's name with a black sharpie around their cookie. It was so cute. It made a ton of money. I made one of these for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day one year with just my two son's fingerprints. It holds cookies to this day.
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Another complicated project we did one year was these concrete benches that had ceramic tile tops. For example: the theme for 2nd grade might have been sunflowers so each child was given some stones and they created their own sunflower out of tile pieces. Then, all the tile pieces were put onto the top of the benches and grout was applied. They were really cute, but alot of work. EAch grade had a different theme.
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We have a k-4 school that does a class project every year for our fall tailgate party....we have each class make a scarecrow. The class decides what theme to dress their scarecrow in and the kids bring items from home pertaining to their theme. We designate one afternoon to having all of the kids dressing their scarecrows. We have had many interesting ones over the last few years....Elvis, a chef, a clown...the kids get a kick out of them. Then we auction them off by selling tickets 10 for $1 at our tailgate party. We made about $150.00 this year. We have the wood donated, and a few crafty volunteers paint faces on plywood and assemble them before the dressing day. We also get some bales of hay donated by our local farm to stand them in.
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We have always offered school calendars. We have our art teacher handle the individual classroom art and each room represents a new month starting with Sept. (new school year) and ending in Aug. (the end of next school year - 2003-2004). Each month has a theme, the children each take a turn at drawing a picture relating to the months theme, the picture is centered in the middle of the page with a border around it, in the border the children all write their names. As far as the dates we list all the primary dates; PTO meetings, school conferences, closings etc. If there is a change we forward a notice home to parents. We try to have the artwork completed prior to the end of the school year so that we can get it to the printers. We have found that it works best if we pre-order our calendars. There was a few years we got stuck with many left-overs and we felt it wasn't worth having them. So now when we send home info at the start of the school year about joining the PTO we include the calendar order with PTO membership sign-ups. We charge a membership fee ($6.00) & calendar fee ($4.00). Then we know exactly how many to order from the printer plus an extra 20-25 to sell at open house. We tried magnet calendars last year as a last resort (our school was in a re-org battle with the school dept. - and the art teacher didn't do the calendar pictures because of this) Magnets were nice but not as popular.
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When we had our auction in the spring each class did a project that we auctioned off. They were our best sellers. The kindergarten class did handprints and their names on white linen placemats and a table runner. The first grade painted a child's rocker bought at a flea market white and put their handprints and names on it. They also wrote a story about the rocker as a class and wrote it by hand and illustrated it. Our preschool class had a handy grandpa who makes wooden garden benches and they put their handprints on them. The second grade put handprints on family sweatshirts (childs, M and XL). Other ideas included quilts, cookbooks, handpainted desks and an granny square afghan with squares done by the students taught by a crafty grandma.
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Here are a couple of the fun ideas I have seen used for kindergarteners - The teacher or aide asks each student a question like "how to cook a turkey" or "how doe you parents exercise"....let your imagination roll on these...some parents will buy the books to keep others from reading...heh heh...
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Last years auction at our school was a huge sucess. Large ceramic tiles were used. Each child decorated one according to his/her class' theme. The tiles were fired and then made into tables and used to decorate mirrors. Classes could be combined and work together on one theme. We will be doing this again this year.
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I really like the ideas of the open-ended question books. We are doing a Dinosaur Daze theme for our carnival/auction this year and I was thinking for older grades you could do "Which dinosaur is your parent most like and why." and more simpler ones for younger grades like "what do dinosaurs eat" or "do you like dinosaurs, why?"
These would be fairly easy to make, laminate, and bind. Great idea.
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Last year all of our kinder classes did mosaic on the inside of birdbaths. Then on the outside they did bugs with their thumb prints. CUTE! Everyone was bidding on them.
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One of the best items that I have ever seen at an auction that was made by kids was a ceramic piece. A piece of green ware was purchased from a local ceramic dealer (a platter in this case.) The platter was prepared by an art teacher (or parent) and then the children in kindergarten placed a thumb print on the platter. It was glazed and fired by the teacher - it was so perfect. It went for over $600.00
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We purchased unfinished bookcases and child chairs that each class decorated in art class. Each item had a different theme based on what the teacher was working on with that grade, i.e., Monet, Rainbow Fish, Abstract Art. The items were also signed on the back by the students. We displayed the items before the auction so any parents who would not be attending could send in a bid. Parents had a great time bidding on these items. This year we hope to expend to other unfinished furniture such as toy chests, mail boxes, flowers boxes.
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Our top selling items at our auction were hand-painted wooden toy boxes by the second graders. They worked on them in art class and each had a theme. Each child brought in a new item to fill the toy boxes too.
Another school I know of painted large umbrellas, wooden bird houses, large terra cotta pots and even vinyl shower curtains. All of those were top ticket items for them.
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Our school has hosted an auction (silent & live) for the past 3 years. We also have had painted class projects - chests, chairs, etc. Some other successful ideas have included: stepping stones, pasta bowls painted by the children, a 20pc set of ever day dishes (4 place settings) painted by the children, self portrait quilts, garden benches with custom tiles painted by the children and a wooden picnic table that the children autographed with a "sharpie" and the parents then took a wood-burning tool to permanently engrave the autograph into the wood. This year we are having a smaller auction which will be school related items only (class projects, Headmaster for the Day, reserved parking space) and giving the merchants a much needed and earned rest. Would love to hear from other class project ideas.
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Wow - what great ideas - I'd like to suggest rather than purchasing the furniture to paint find the same at garage sales - it's less painful on your budget!
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We just made a Christmas Tree skirt with one of our kindergarten classes to auction off and made sure every child's name is on it. There are already parents competing for it and the auction is a week off.
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A school in our district had the first grade make a simple quilt with bedsheets and handprints, then they sat the kids on the quilt and took pictures of the students. They auctioned off the quilt and then framed the pix (blown up to poster size) and auction it off also. Rumor has it that it was a triple digit auction item. I wish I had thought of it first!
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Good luck!!
