Empty Bowls Project

In December, my fourth and fifth graders made various small bowls made out of air-dry clay to sell for our district's Empty Bowls Project. The money raised from the sale of the bowls goes to a local charity that services our community's families. We sold the bowls on our campus and raised a few hundred dollars for the cause. Hopefully next year, we do even more! (Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the finished projects.)

 

Door Decorating Contest

Our school had a holiday door decorating contest during December. This was my contribution to the art room door. I created a giant gingerbread house with various pieces of candy and a friendly gingerbread man.

Kindergarten Thumbprint Holiday Lights

Kindergarten practiced making wavy lines with permanent black markers. After making their lines, they added holiday lights with their thumbprints.

First Grade Overlapping Candy Canes

First Grade needed some practice back in December on how to draw objects in front of others. So, they practiced by drawing overlapping candy canes. They could make them whatever size and add whatever color patterns they wanted.

Fifth Grade Birch Trees

To experiment with color mixing and tape resist, the fifth grade students created birch trees. They first added three strips of painters tape to white construction paper. They then started with blue tempera paint and painted the middle section of the paper horizontally. They then added white to create a tint for the lower third of the paper. They added black to the blue tempera paint to create a darker shade for the top third. They then pulled off the tape to reveal the white. They added small details in blue to the birch trees to show texture.

Catching Snow in Fourth Grade

Fourth Grade students performed "Show Me The Snow" for their music program this year. To go along with this and some previous lessons on viewpoints, they drew various shapes such as half circles, circles, and rectangles and pieced them together to make a person looking up to catch a snowflake. They added details such as hair to make it more like them.

Third Grade Snowmen

We obviously went with a snowman theme in the younger grades during winter. For this lesson, I asked the third graders to take turns laying on the ground while others stood around them. We talked about how the view of their friends is different than if they are sitting or standing next to them. They then pretended that they were laying in snow somewhere and magical snowmen came to life and surrounded them. Using the corners of their square paper as reference starting points, they students created four snowmen with different details to show that perspective. They used oil pastels for their creations.

Second Grade Snowmen

Second Graders also created snowmen but they created them by cutting paper. They traced various sized bowls for the body and head. They cut rectangles shapes for a scarf. They added various stripes and details to the scarves in a pattern. They also drew a triangle shape for a carrot nose. Before gluing it down, they positioned it in various locations to make the snowman appear that he was looking in different directions. We talked about how there was no need for eyes because if you pointed the nose upward, it makes the snowman appear as if its looking up.

First Grade Snowmen

I asked First Graders what a snowman would look like if they tilted their head to the left or to the right to begin a discussion on perspective. After the discussion, the students drew a snowman from one of the corners at an angle to show that perspective. They colored their snowmen with oil pastels and added various details such as scarves, mittens, hats, etc.

Kiindergarten Snowmen

Kindergarten practiced fine motor skills by tracing circles of various sizes, cutting them out, and then arranging them however they chose to make it look like the snowman was looking up at the sky. Some of the kids chose to use four or five circles, some chose three, and some chose to use just two. They all turned out cute!

 

Holiday Collaborative Projects

During December, since we had a short month, my students mostly worked on collaborative projects. These are some Christmas trees that they made out of tomato cages, mesh fabric, and zip ties. Once I modeled for them how to get started, they were able to easily complete these on their own. We decorated the stage with them and in front of the library. 4th Grade also used them for their holiday PTA program. Included is a picture of a sign the students and I made for their show using the school's poster maker, some die-cuts, scissors, and glue.

Catch Up!

I have taken a break from blogging, with the exception of one post, since November. But, I have some unexpected free time today and some ideas I'd like to share. So, you will soon see an influx of posts dating back from the winter months through now.

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.