5th Grade MASKS!!!!

This is the BIG BIG BIG project for our 5th graders, they wait all 6 years to get to make their Plaster Masks... we start by making masks in molds from Plaster Paris then they are able to design and paint their masks however they wish, we look at different worldly masks for ideas but the students are able to do as they please (just avoiding masks that looks to Halloween like).  They then dress them up with gems and jewels!  Very fun and creative results!

I also drew a few ideas on the board with the two samples masks i had made, one a lil girlie and one a bit more fun for the boys... showing that they don't all have to be fancy masks with gems.

Matisse Gold Fish

This idea came from the Blog BlueMoon Palette (project here: http://bluemoonpalette.blogspot.com/search/label/goldfish)  and i loved it!!! It can be done quickly as a final week project like i am doing or made more elaborate and last for a few weeks! Over all my students have done a great job doing this project mostly independently.  I have been working on drawing with them an soon hope that they no longer feel they need steps to draw or to follow along with me as i draw and can just see something and draw it, but that takes time so for this one i did a simple step by step on the board and told them to draw!  We also talked about foreshortening and negative space with this project and so far students from grades 1-4 have done a SUPER job!

Art Portfolios!

The time has come for ALL artwork to go home!  Over the year my students keep all of their 2D work in a Portfolio that they design.  When we only have a week or so left they get to take it all home!  I keep the portfolios organized and stored in laundry baskets with their teachers names dividing them, helps keep them flat and are easily stored under tables around my room.

Endangered Animals

My 2/3 graders LOVE to free draw so to work on improving their drawing skills i have introduced them to "How to Draw Sheets".  They are learning about Endangered animals in Science and so i put out my collection of Endangered Animal Drawing Sheets for them to use.
 Their task was simple:
day 1- Follow the steps to draw their animal BIG on the piece of colored paper that best represented its habitat.
day 2-  out line the animal and add in at least 3 objects that help show what the animals habitat is. (the drawing sheets have a small paragraph explaining where the animal lives and why it is endangered that they were to read to help them draw)
day 3- i played around with how i wanted them to fill in the color a bit so some classes used Chalk Pastels and filled in (came out kinda messy, maybe too detailed for this age group to do), some Painted them in with Tempera Cakes (the color didn't stand out too well on the colored paper background.) then most classes and the photos show the ones who colored in the animals with Construction paper crayons, good color they just really needed to slow down to make the crayon neat.

Over all a GREAT drawing project which forced the kids to thing BIG, just a few kinks to work out for the future on how i want to finish it.



One of the students did this during a free draw with these sheets and thus im inspiration for the project:
So fun and creative for a 2nd grader!!

 Samples from day 2 on...

Mothers Day Flowers

I found this sweet little projects on the art blog Kids Artist this morning and had to try it out! http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/2011/02/wild-flowers.html

Changed it a little to work with what i had on hand and had the kids use different colors of Green construction paper crayon on 18x12 black paper to create the stems then using just the Tip of the brush the created the yellow center with Tempera Paint then used the same technique for the white petals.

LOVE how they are coming out and only took ONE 40min class to complete!

Thanks for the great idea Kids Artists!!!!

Big FAT Hen

As seen in a few varieties done by different art teachers I too have created my own version of the popular lesson on Keith Backer's "Big Fat Hen".  My 4th and 5th graders first looked through the book noting the style of his illustrations and then discussed what an illustrator does.  After this each students received a piece of colored paper and picked a copy of one of the hens from the book to attempt to draw, no directions given on how to draw it other than hinting to starting with the head and breaking it down into simple shapes then adding details.  Then they finished by using all construction paper crayons to make the colors of the hens pop, noting that Backer did not draw boring white, brown and black hens but bright colorful ones.   They also were told to add one detail to the bottom of the hen, a bug, chick, egg or whatever they felt fit.  Some chose to add color to the background, others didn't, over all a very fun drawing lesson that caused them to work independently and push themselves to truly see rather than just look at a picture.