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!