4th and 5th Grade Bottle Cap Mural

 Why does it seem like it's been such a long time since I've posted a bottle cap project? It's because it has been a really long time since I've done one! I had wall space picked out in my school last year when I was approached by our  local Dublin branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library to create a piece for them. I thought it sounded like a capital idea. The library had very specific ideas for the content of their mural, so I had students submit sketches. That is as far as it got. Between having a spring quarter student teacher and getting busy with my art show, it just never happened.

I finally got in gear this year. All in all, I decided I liked the idea of doing bottle cap murals every other year. It is such a huge, time consuming project that it just makes more sense not to do it every year. With the new format, I included both 4th and 5th grade students. 

I run this mural as a side project for early finishers at the beginning. After compiling several of the best sketches, I drew out the design on the boards that students had primed. Over the course of a couple of weeks, students paint the background with latex house paint. They then clean up paint edges with a super thick black marker once all of the painting is finished. At that point, the mural is ready for caps. I have each table of students help apply caps using a hot glue gun. When a board is finished, I screw in the caps with these screws. Luckily I had lots of help with the screws this year because my contact at the library recruited her staff to lend a hand.

4th Grade Recycled CD Snowflake Mosaics

I've got to say I'm pretty proud of this project. A lot of us bloggers tend to borrow ideas from other teachers (rightfully so), so it is refreshing to write completely original lesson plans from time to time. This lesson came about a couple of years ago after a technology support teacher dropped off a box filled with 90's software CDs that would no longer work with our computer system. I think I had them for at least a year before figuring out what to do with them and writing this lesson. 

The internet is good for a lot of things. Figuring out how to shatter CDs is not one of those things. I tried hammers and other blunt objects to no avail. One site said to freeze the CDs overnight before bludgeoning them into small pieces. Nope. I ended up going back to my trusty paper cutter. It works like a charm. I just cut the CDs into strips. As it cuts them, it creates cracks throughout the strip. They are then easy for kids to snap apart into smaller pieces. 

Check out my full lesson plan here!

3rd Grade Recycled Magazine Bowls

Third grade just finished one of the coolest projects of the entire year.  Continuing our effort to be green this year, we made bowls out of magazine pages!  Each student rolled page after page around a chip board strip.  The individual pages were taped together and rolled into one giant spiral.  The bottom was then pushed down and the entire bowl was given a coat of clear medium to give it strength.  We had great discussions of how artists can use recycled materials.  It must have been a great project because other grade levels are begging me to let them do this project, too! 

Art Can Be Green

I know that quite a few of the people who check out this blog are art teachers.  This is a post for you.  I have been working this year to increase environmental awareness of students in my classroom.  I've been doing this through various art lessons, quite a bit of discussion, and signs and reminders in my room.  

As part of my master's thesis, I created a web site that is all about being green in the art room.  It has some pretty useful information to check out.  If you go there, please feel free to join the green art discussion group.  I'd be happy to hear any feedback about the site.  I'm always looking to add additional information.  Here is the link ---> The Green Art Room

Going Green in the Art Room

A big point of emphasis this year in art is going green.  We are trying to be as environmentally responsible as possible.  Students are learning that there are many simple changes they can make to our daily routine that will make a big impact on the amount of waste we produce.  The year began by discussing what we could do in the art room to be more green.  Signs and reminders are posted around the room to help everyone remember to be as green as possible!  I have already noticed a huge reduction in the amount of trash from the art room.  Keep it up, everybody!

Bottle Cap Mural by 4th Grade

The bottle cap mural is finally up! The fourth grade students started this 16' x 4' mural well before the end of the school year. For this project, we really focused on using recycled materials that would otherwise be thrown away and take up space in a landfill. The idea of using bottle caps comes from a local artist named Michelle Stitzlein who came in to talk to the 4th graders about using recycled materials in art. The mural was a great success and I'm excited for everyone to see it put together. Notice how big the mural is compared to me!