Ice Cream Treats

Third Grade has studied Wayne Thiebaud and all of his glorious sugar. We viewed slides of his paintings and drew ice cream. I think some of them would have eaten the paper, that is how excited they were to draw ice cream!

Metal Tooling

I love these! I got this out of Dynamic Art Projects for Children-Fantastic book, if you are in the market for new books. Fifth and sixth grade students had a social studies unit on Mexico, so we talked about the arts of Mexico. Students chose and animal and made several sketches of the animal. I chose one, and they enlarged in on 12x18 paper. They cut the animal out of the paper then they cut up styrofoam plates and glued the pieces down to form patterns and designs on the animal. I had old cardboard boxed stockpiled and I glued the paper animal with styrofoam pieces to the cardboard. This took forever, but I cut all of the animals out of the cardboard, I just was not comfortable with kids using razer blades. I am not a fan of blood. We covered the animals in aluminum foil and then the kids colored them with Sharpie markers. They were beautiful. I had parents tell me that they were making these at home as well.

Op Art Spheres

I have seen this lesson everywhere on blogs, so thank you to all of you! I like this lesson as it is a great sub lesson. We discuss optical illusions and look at several examples, the kids love them! Then we draw a circle in the middle of the paper. I show students how to make the lines curve with the circle. I give students a ruler and they draw the grid in the background. We talk about contrasting colors, and the kids are off! When the students are finished coloring, we take vine charcoal and add a shadow to the sphere. I usually mount these on construction paper to make them look finished.

Spooky Houses

I got this idea from Arts and Activities magazine from October 2009. One of the standards for 5th grade math is that students will know the difference between 2-D and 3-D. How perfectly does that fit into art? We drew houses first, studying architecture. I collected cardboard for a few weeks and cut it into all different shapes and sizes. Students were given a base piece, and I let them build from there. I have several low temp hot glue guns, so students used those to construct the houses. Students had the option of making a house that was not spooky, as not everyone celebrates Halloween, and I had a few that did. I gave the houses a quick coat of black spray paint, then students added ghosts, spider webs, black cats, pumpkins. I had an assortment of cotton balls, those foam sheets, stickers, glitter pens, google eyes, toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and junk from my craft closet for students to use.

Ceramic Snowmen

I did these fabulous snowmen with kindergarten last year. We talked about small, medium, and large, and I had a cute story about snowmen that I can not remember at the moment. Students rolled three balls of clay, one small, one medium, and large. They stacked them and I came by and poked a pencil almost all the way through the three balls of clay. This was to provide an air hole, as well as help the pieces stick together. I also poked holes in the side where sticks could go for arms. I showed them how to make a hat and scarf. I fired these on cone 06 very slow, then I had my assistant help them to glaze the scarves, nose, eyes. She worked with them individually, I realize that most people do not have an assistant so this is not a reality. I only have one for kindergarten. The snowmen took about two months from start to finish, and yes, there were spring blossoms on the trees when they finally took them home, but they are something to enjoy every year.

Plaster Masks

I love to make plaster masks. It is a huge mess, but it always ends up being a favorite project. I give the kids the rolls and show them how to cut the strips. I also cover the tables with newspaper, which makes clean up fast. I collect those plastic gallon size buckets and put a few on each table with water. I number the masks from 1-35, then assign each kid a number. I write the number next to the kid's name in my grade book. I show the kids how to apply the plaster. I instruct them to make two layers, one going up and down, then a second going across. It usually takes about 35 minutes for the masks to be finished. We spend about 5 minutes patting the plaster, as it makes the mask smoother. I also have the students work from the inside of the mask, as it is much smoother. I let the masks dry for 24 hours, then they usually pop right out of the molds. The next class students paint the mask with tempera paint. We usually apply two coats to give the mask good color. We spend the last class decorating the mask with sequins, glitter, puff paint, feathers, or whatever I have in the closet. Sometimes I have a theme, and they have to make an animal, or sometimes I just let them make the mask they way they want to. I usually do this with 3rd Grade and up. I do not allow anyone to use the sink, as the plaster could clog the sink. We rinse our hands in a bucket, then they get a wet wipe. It is only after most of the plaster is gone can they wash their hands.

Yearbook Cover

So somehow I am in charge of designing the yearbook cover every year. While it is a fun job, it is also a little stressful, as I am never really sure how it will look until the yearbook goes home with the students. Our school mascots are the vikings and viqueens, and our colors are purple and gold. This is what I came up with this year. I guess I should do my job a little better as most of the kids thought that they were our principal and vice principal, both of whom retired.