Lost Marbles Balancing Equations

Although I teach visual arts now, I still create some general education materials by request. I was recently asked to come up with a math station activity for finding balanced equations. So, I came up with the concept of Lost Marbles. This “print and go” set of balanced equation problems for students to solve are a quick, low prep addition to math stations. Students add the two colors of marbles in the first jar to find the sum and use that sum to find the missing addend in the second jar to equal the same sum. Students can use manipulatives such as marbles, two-color counters, or beans to find the missing addend. The set includes sums from 4 to 10 and a blackline master to use for creating additional problems. Two versions of recording sheets are included for accountability. You can download the file from my TpT store.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Moseley Elementary! Each student from Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade designed a turkey feather using only lines and/or patterns. Their feathers were then assembled as grade level collaborative turkeys. I love how unique each feather is and yet they complement each other.

Moseley House Sign

A few fourth graders helped paint a Moseley sign for our hallway when they completed other projects early. The final product looks really good underneath our House Point posters. Each letter in the sign correlates to a House we have at our school. Each House in our school stands for a certain character trait and we meet regularly in House Meetings to learn more about each other, learn ways to display good character, and more. The students can also earn House Points for a friendly competition based on things like attendance, grades, and behavior.

Collaborative Fall Collage

Fifth Grade painted paper in various fall water colors a while back while working on their Fall Mosaics. There were quite a few pieces left over so all of the grades worked together to create a fall collage. The students worked in partners and small groups to glue the extra pieces on white construction paper. They worked on overlapping the pieces until no white showed. Once their piece was complete, it was joined with another completed piece until they were all connected. The end result is just a little bit smaller than a bulletin board and I love it!

Art and Poetry

I recently attended a training given by my Fine Arts supervisor, Mrs. Judy Nunneley. In the class we cut out various words from magazines and newspapers and then were challenged to come up with an autobiographical poem with the words. This was both challenging and engaging. I plan on using this with my fifth graders during the second semester. Here is my final poem:

Primary Colors Project: 3-5

When we were studying Piet Mondrian a while back, third through fifth grade started a collaborative primary color collage project. They began with boxes wrapped in black paper. They then cut apart primary colored construction paper into strips and then in smaller squares. They glued the pieces all over the boxes one side at a time making sure that they overlapped so no black was showing. Now that they are complete, we display them on top of one of our classroom supply cabinets.

Primary Colors Project: K-2

 

A while back, the students created artwork collaboratively using only shapes and primary colors. They first painted white construction paper in sections. Once it was dry, they cut out various shapes on the paper. They then glued the paper to a black background. Once the pieces were laminated, we assembled them with tape and mounted them around one of our classroom doors. These went along with our lessons over Piet Mondrian.

Fifth Grade Fall Mosaics

Fifth Grade created fall mosaics with painted paper. In the first step, they water colored fall colors in organic shapes on construction paper. In the next step, they cut the paper into strips and cut those strips into angled pieces. As they worked, we discussed the process of creating mosaics out of tiles and the grouting process. The students chose a fall shape template, traced it, and cut it out. They then used their painted paper pieces to create a mosaic pattern. They glued the pieces all over their fall shape leaving only small amounts of white showing. After completing their mosaic, they glued their shape to a black background. We discussed white and black as neutrals to allow the colors to pop.

Fourth Grade Pumpkins

Fourth Graders worked on drawing overlapping pumpkins. They added a horizon line to separate the land and sky. They added details to show implied wind and texture on the grass. They traced their drawings with colored permanent markers and then water colored them.

Third Grade Pattern Spider Webs

The Third Grade students drew spider webs using a variety of straight lines with the aid of a ruler. The free-hand drew curved lines to connect the straight lines forming the spider web. After drawing, the colored each section with crayons in a two-color pattern. They worked on showing variety and balance as they worked. After completing the patterns, they created spiders out of black paper to add to the web.

 

Second Grade Scarecrows

Second Grade has been working on drawing pictures using simple shapes and then adding detail such as implied texture. The students followed multi-step directions to draw a friendly scarecrow. After drawing, they traced their scarecrows in permanent markers and then painted them using watercolors. I love how these turned out!

 

First Grade Pattern Indian Corn

First Grade has been working on using watercolors to paint and also creating patterns. They water colored Indian Corn after observing real life examples. They then used dot paints in red, orange, and yellow to paint the kernels of corn in a pattern of their choice. They also worked on cutting skills by cutting out the Indian Corn. Their corn was added to a grade level cornfield display.

Kindergarten Fall Leaves and Apples

Kindergarten experimented with color mixing with shaving cream and food coloring. We added fall colored food coloring to shaving cream and stirred it in a swirling pattern. The students took turns adding their white construction paper on top of the shaving cream, transferring the color to paper, and then wiped away the shaving cream with paper towel. This left a marbling effect on the paper. The students then practiced tracing and cutting skills by tracing leaves on the paper and cutting them out. In another lesson, they practiced using watercolors and paintbrushes appropriately by painting apples. Their leaves and apples were added to the Kinder bulletin board in a fall display.

Piet Mondrian Art Critiques

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, all students had to choose which of his works, out a limited set of three, they preferred the most. They chose from Composition London, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, and Windmill in Sunlight. Kinder through Third Grade verbally chose and shared with a partner which they preferred and why. Fourth and Fifth Grade wrote their preferences down in the form of a written art critique. The students had to use the elements of art previously learned to explain their choice. The written art critiques were added next to the artworks' poster on our Visual Arts bulletin board. (There are no close-ups of the art critiques because they indicate the student's names and grade levels.)

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Fifth Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Fifth Grade painted pictures inspired by Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Each student started their painting by drawing two parallel lines from the top of the paper to the bottom with the aid of a ruler. They then repeated this step but horizontally. They then continued by drawing other parallel lines off of those two main lines. After designing the layout of their paintings, they painted in the squares created by the intersections of the parallel lines with two different primary colors. The remaining lines were painted in the third primary color.

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Fourth Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Fourth Grade painted pictures inspired by Tableau No. IV, 1925. But instead of creating vertical and horizontal lines on a diamond created by diagonal lines, they did the opposite. The students used rulers to draw various intersecting diagonal lines. They then painted in the shapes created by those lines with primary colors leaving some spaces white for a pop.

Piet Mondrian Paintings: Third Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Third Grade painted pictures inspired by Composition London. Using rulers, the students drew vertical and horizontal lines and painted them black. They then painted in the squares and square rectangles created by those lines with primary colors leaving some shapes white.

Piet Mondrian Collages: Second Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, Second Grade created a Mondrian inspired collage with primary colors, horizontal and vertical lines, and geometric shapes. The students got a piece of construction paper in the three primary colors. They two of the papers in vertical strips. With one set of the strips, they cut them into small square rectangle pieces. They glued the strips into vertical and horizontal lines on the third piece of paper. They then glued the rectangular pieces onto the intersections of those vertical and horizontal lines. This lesson was loosely based on New York City I, 1942.

 

 

Piet Mondrian Collages: First Grade

All grades have been learning about the famous artist Piet Mondrian to reinforce the concepts of lines, geometric shapes, primary colors, and to incorporate art history. As a part of their study, First Grade created a Mondrian inspired collage with primary colors and geometric shapes. They folded a black piece of paper into eight parts. They then glued two primary colored squares or square rectangles in each section starting with the largest. After they glued two shapes per section, they had to figure out which primary color was missing and glue that missing color in the middle with the smallest shape. This step was purposely done separately to promote critical thinking and problem solving. This lesson was inspired by Composition C but definitely with a twist!