Ornaments that show FORM!

That's right 4th grade!  Students did an EXCELLENT job using tints and shades to make their ornaments look round.  I was so proud of how the students worked on their projects with lots of care to make them the best they could be.
Day 1:  Students drew 5 circles and painted them
Day 2:  Cut out ornaments, draw on them, glitter (optional) and assemble to their green sprays of tree.

Snow globes

Sixth graders made snow globes of any subject matter they wanted.  Yes, this is on display for concert day, but hobbies, interests, pets, anything goes.  Students love free choice to make what they want.  What a perfect assignment for doing that@!

Printed Poinsettias

5th graders made these poinsettia's by painting with sponges.  Students could use whatever color they wanted to use...  Any colors to make the hallways bright and beautiful.  Quick and easy project.  Got the idea off of Deep Space Sparkle.

Patterned Elf Stockings

Kindergarten students used PATTERNS for their stockings.  They are so good at saying what patterns are, and we are working on using patterns in our artwork!  Fun fun!

3-D Gingerbread Houses

First Graders made these adorable gingerbread houses.  I wish I would have left a little more time for students to work on these because a lot of the students wished that they would have had more time.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  They were on the floor of the hallway- only for the day of the winter concert.  More than that I'm sure we would have had some disruption to the homes as they were getting viewed. Hope the kids and their families enjoyed this project!

Abstract "contemporary" winter trees

2nd graders made a batik type project.  Students drew 3 triangles (with trunks) and colored with HEAVY crayon any kind of design or pattern they wanted.  They painted it black tempera and ran it under the sink to see the crayon and the paint.  Day 2:  Cut out trees, glitter, and glue them onto tan music paper.  Added snowflakes with a white crayon for background.  LOVED IT!  Fun one to do.

through my window

Third graders made these very cool pictures of winter trees.  The requirement of the project:  1 tree in the foreground, one in the middle ground, and one in the background.  Anything else they wanted to add was up to them.  A very FUN art project.  It fits in perfectly with our units on showing space/depth in a picture.  I hope people that came to the winter concert enjoyed looking at the pictures through the halls.

Mr. Gingerbread!

First National Bank has 8ft. gingerbread made out of plywood painted brown.  They gave one to each of the area schools to decorate how ever they wanted to decorate.  I was a little nervous about getting this done on time, but I sure had some AWESOME helpers at school to execute this project.  I LOVE how it turned out.
Already starting to think, what should I decorate the gingerbread as next year??
They were on display for the month of December down at the bank....  They were featured outside at the local Holiday Stroll on Second Street in Muscatine.

4th grade MOLA's

This project idea comes from the book Dynamic Art Projects for Children by Denise M. Logan.  It was a book I bought a few years ago that has some pretty great ideas.  Art Elements, different media, and exposing students to different cultures is what this book is all about.  Here was how our "Mola's from Panama" turned out!

Aboriginal Artwork!

 4th graders did an Aboriginal piece of artwork (artwork from Australia).  We looked at how the early artists of Australia painted.  One of the most common characteristics were the use of "shimmering" dots.  The students painted using a q-tip in bright flourescent colors. 

 We added a boarder for the background/frame.

Students had to think about using unity (of the dots) and variety of colors to make the hand stand out.  They had to use contrast of colors and paint neatly to find their hands.  Here is a link that I went to when I found the idea:  artiswhatiteach.  Thanks for looking!!

Radial Weavings

 Awesome weavings right?  Students in 5th grade made these weavings from recycling old coat hangers  -donated by some awesome teachers of our school!  I found this idea from the blogspot of Mrs. Picasso's artroom.  She had fantastic step by step directions on how to complete this project!  They were a little time consuming, but beautiful pieces of work!  Nice job 5th grade!

The spider and the fly

 Students in 2nd grade made these 3-D aluminum foil spiders!  We read "The Spider and the Fly" (sorry I already returned the book to the library- so I don't even have the author).  But they made all the parts and I assembled the pieces into spiders with the hot glue gun.  
Here are the steps to make the project:
1)  Fold the black paper into 1/8.  Draw over the spider web lines with elmer's glue.  Let dry.
2)  I had cut the aluminum foil in half for the students.  When they got the aluminum foil, they needed 2 sheets.  One sheet was used to make the body of the spider, the second sheet of aluminum foil was used to cut into 4 pieces for the legs of the spider.
They brought the spider over to me to hot glue.
3)  Students used chalk pastels to color the web.  I had them use a throw away towel to blend the chalks to the black paper.  Then the students brought the project to me to glue the spiders onto the paper.

Clowns!

 Clowns are perfect for a lot of art elements.  Line, shapes, color!  Awesome!  Students were supplied with a white oval.  We began with 3 simple circles for the eyes and nose.  We drew a hotdog shape for the mouth, and colored with oil pastel. 
When the face was complete the students glued the oval onto a large piece of construction paper (right in the center of the page)... and I asked, "what's the clown missing?"  Clothes, hair, hat.... and then the students draw crazy clothes with crazy hair and a crazy hat.  What a great way to let creativity flow while utilizing art elements.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 CUTE, cute, cute....  Kindergarten students did an awesome job of making these hungry caterpillars!
What a great way to learn about watercolor resist, a literacy connection, collage, and motor skills (cutting circles can be tough!)  :)

 Begin by reading Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I explain that this book is written by the artist.
1) I give the students a sheet of paper that already has 6 circles on it.  The students use crayon (thick) to draw simple lines.  Do not color the circles in.  Then we use watercolor to paint the paper.  Wow, Can you see both the crayon and paint? 
Let Dry.

2)  Cut out the circles to assemble your hungry caterpillar.  (I supply students with eyes, nose and antenna)...  They collage it all together.  What a FUN project!

STAR SHIRTS

 6th graders get to make their own STAR SHIRTS.  STAR at our school stands for: 
Shows respect
Treats others with kindness
Acts Responsibly
Reaches for our best together
On STAR days kids get together in STAR groups to talk about being good citizens and making good choices.  We get together about once a month for these activities....

 Kindergarten through 5th grade already have "STAR SHIRTS" that were designed by me...  :)  and they are supposed to wear them for every STAR day...  Well, 6th grade is special because they get to tie-dye and make their own STAR shirts.  NICE!  I love the way they turned out! 
CAUTION:  word to the wise:  Make a note to take home to the parents before hand about wearing old clothes the day they do tie-dye...  If it gets on their clothing...  it's dye- it will be there forever. 

Dinosaurs!!

 2nd graders made these cool dinosaur pictures!  We first started off by reading the book:  Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggery Shields.  It's a fun rhyming book.  We began this project by using Spectra tissue paper (it bleeds). 
1)  We started by taking small tissue paper pieces and placing them on the white paper. 
Take a clean paint brush to make the tissue stick to the white paper...  Add PLENTY of water.
Let dry.
2)  Next class period:  the tissue that was once wet is now dry and has "stained" your paper.  Take away any of the extra tissue paper and throw it away.  Look at your beautiful paper!
3)  I do occasionally like to use "how to draw" books.  I like them because it will break down a difficult object to draw down into managable "shapes" for the kids to see and draw. 
So, I had some of the pictures of dinosaurs on paper so the kids could feel success at drawing dinosaurs.

 4)  After outlining in black sharpie, students colored in their dinosaurs with oil pastels. 

5th Grade Mandalas

WOW!  What a great way to recycle.  Mandala's is a project I found on someone's blogsite, but I cannot trace who's it was.  They also posted fabulous directions on how to make the project.  Bear with me...  I'll do the best I can. 
On day 1 the students took one of the cd's that were donated to the art room.
1) Draw 2 circles on the page (I have patterned circles that I use all the time for multiple projects.  We used my large and medium sized circles).  Glue (hot glue) or use masking tape to attach cd to paper.  We used a ruler to draw a line across the center of the cd. 
2) We used a protractor to make marks at 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150.
3)  Flip the project around and do the same to the other side of the cd.
4)  Draw connecting lines through the cd to make "wedges" onto your cd.  Now, focus only on ONE wedge.  Draw simple lines or shapes in that wedge.  KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Repeat the same design into each of your wedges. 
5)  Color with permanent colored markers.

For the white part of the paper:
1)  Use your ruler to extend the lines from the cd onto the white paper. 
2)  Again, look at one wedge.  The two circles in pencil will help you draw lines and shapes that are approximately the same sizes and shapes.  Keep it simple and draw lines and shapes in one wedge.
3)  Repeat the design in your wedge again and again all the way around the paper.
4)  Color with crayola markers.

LOVE the way these turned out.  They are not "perfect"....  in the way that each wedge is EXACT, but who cares- boo boo's are beautiful in the artroom!  I was amazed at how these turned out. 
Great way to incorporate symmetry, repetition, pattern, balance....  and math!

Tape Textures

Tape Textures is my first project of the year with Kindergarten students.  It's an awesome project because it doesn't take long and it's successful while you are trying to get to know students names, where they are sitting, and of course- materials are relatively easy.

First:  I already tear strips of masking tape all along a table, a shelf, or the drying rack so materials are readily available when the students come into the room.  Tear a lot of tape!

Second:  When students come to your room and sit down I pre-write their names on all of their papers.  It's awesome because some of them don't know how to write their names, and if they do know how to write their names it's not legible.

Anyhoo- have the kids take a piece of tape and stick it to their paper.  Then, have them go get about 3 more pieces of tape each trip taking one piece of tape at a time (so all the tape doesn't get stuck to each other).  The kids can make any shape, design, or whatever letter they want.

Third:  When the tape is on their paper.  Have them turn it over so you cannot see any of the masking tape.  Here's where the magic comes in!!!  (yes, I do pretend I'm a magician at this point rubbing my hands together and making it as dramatic as I can)....  Now that we cannot SEE any of your tape...  Let's make it re-appear!  Use crayons that have their wrappers taken off.  Have students use the crayons "Laying down"  (I tell students our crayons are very very tired today.  Instead of standing up to color, these crayons are so sleepy, they want to lay down on the paper).

ABOVE:  The students are rubbing the paper to "find" all of their tape from the other side.  Encourage them to color the whole page and use more than one color.   That's how the work becomes so beautiful!

Fourth:  Kids create a tape texture.  The bump from the tape is just enough so that you can see a "texture" of the pattern that the kids created!!

Seating Charts for the first day

Ok... the first week has been so great.  I love seeing all the faces of the kids.  Anyhoo....  this post is about seating arrangements in my room.
First of all- I hate assigning every kid to a spot in my room.  With over 400 kids in school it is a daunting task that I dislike very much.  So, a few years ago a student helped me come up with this awesome idea that works awesome without taking a ton of my time.  Win Win.

These laminated cards have a number on one side (telling them which table to sit at) and the back of the card has a shape of either a star, circle, or triangle.  The shape tells them which seat is theirs at their table.

(ABOVE)  This is the card I hand the students right when I greet them and they walk into my room.
If there is a problem with where students are placed:  by all means- move them.  But I love this seating system because students know it's random and I'm not "picking" on anyone by placing them at a certain spot... or by someone they don't like.  Any grumbling:  I just say- just wait until next seating arrangement and you'll have a new spot!
LOVE IT!

(ABOVE):  This is the sign that is taped to the ceiling in my room so the student can figure out where they are supposed to sit.

Zentangles

Online I've been learning about this artform called "zentangles"  I've even seen books about how to design and make them.  You Tube has some short videos that show a few designs and typical patterns to create your zentangle.  The cool thing about zentangles is that you kinda do feel a "zen" moment while creating these patterns and designs.  It's fun.
I do encourage students to have an equal amount of black/white combination.
Some students really get into this project.  Others don't really....  Maybe you'll find that you enjoy making this....  It reminds me of doodling on the side of the newspaper or notebook.  So, if that's your thing and you've always made these- ooohh...  You've already created your own zentangle!