Recycled Flowers, 4th Grade

 I had several boxes of old magazines sitting around my house, so I decided to finally put them to good use.  This project is fairly straight forward.  My students cut out circles to create the flower, and rolled the magazines to create a center.  The stems and the grass was simply cut out and glued down. 

 For the most part, the flowers all look the same.  If I were to do this project again, I think I would encourage my students to experiment with different sizes and shapes for the flower petals. 

Symmetrical Butterflies, 2nd Grade

These very cute butterflies were made by my second graders.  We began by folding a piece of paper in half and drawing half of the butterfly in black pastel.  Next, we refolded our paper so that the design was on the inside.  We then rubbed the paper so that the pastel design transferred to the other side.  After the butterfly was complete, we used liquid watercolors to paint. 

 I think these turned out beautiful!  I love the colors. 

Space, 5th Grade

 My fifth graders have recently been studying space in science class.  To tie my art lesson into this, we created these really cool space paintings.  I began by having my students splatter paint stars onto a black piece of paper.  After this, I had my students draw a rocket ship, planets, or aliens on white paper.  These were then painted with watercolors.  Next, everything was cut out and glued to the black paper. 

 I think these turned out wonderful!

Bulletin Boards

 I teach at three schools, but only have an art room in one of them.  One of the things I love most about having an art room, is creating bulletin boards.  Here are a few bulletin boards that I created at the beginning of the school year. 

Masks, 5th Grade

 I have done this lesson almost every year, and my students always love it.  I begin by showing my students how to fold a paper mask.  After this, they use paper scraps to create, eyes, nose, mouth, and other details. 

 These seem to get better every year. 

Chagall, 2nd Grade

 This lesson is based on one of my favorite artists, Marc Chagall.  I just love his fanciful Surreal paintings, and my students always enjoy pointing out the "odd" things in his work.  I found the idea for this lesson on Mary Making.  I did have to change the lesson a bit to fit my time constraints, so my results were not as wonderful as hers.  However, I think these turned out nice, and my students definitely enjoyed this lesson. 

To begin this lesson, I had my students sponge paint a simple blue, white or pink background.  While this was drying, I had my students draw three things on a separate piece of paper.  Each student drew themselves, an animal, and a plant.  These things were then cut out and set aside.  Next, I had my students paint buildings with black paint onto their simple sponge painted background.  Lastly, my students glued their drawings to their paintings.  Since this is surreal art, they could glue these drawing anywhere.  They could even make themselves fly, if they chose too. 

Chrysanthemum, 1st Grade

 Last week was the first week of school.  Every year during the first week, the classroom teachers read the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  This is a very adorable book about a mouse named Chrysanthemum, who was teased about her  name on the first day of school. 

To tie our artwork into this book, I had each student pretend that they were a mouse in Chrysanthemum's class.  We then drew a mouse portrait of ourselves. I taught my students how to draw a mouse, which was drawn in black marker.  Students then colored everything with crayon.  Lastly, the students drew things about themselves in the boarder.   

These are just too cute!