5th Grade Plush Monsters

The monster on the left is holding a miniature
version of the monster on the right! Brilliant!

Sewing? Really? Boys, too? Oh, yeah. We recently got our Martha Stewart on in 5th grade and broke out the felt, thread, and needles. I'm always surprised at the number of my students who have done at least some kind of sewing before. It's super helpful to have a few extra "teachers" at times during the project. 

We start out, of course, with some sketches. This year, each student got two sheets of 9x12 felt. In the past, I've had students make their plush monsters out of one sheet of felt. I thought going a little bigger this year would allow students to add some extra details. 

After the monsters were sewn and stuffed, students used felt scraps and fabric glue to attach details. These always come out really nice and my 5th graders really enjoy being challenged by an entirely new medium. 

Download my lesson plan!

5th Grade Plush Monsters

Break out the needles and thread. It's time for plush monsters! This project has quickly become a favorite at Thomas. It's fun to see my students try their hand at what is an entirely new medium for most of them. I'm happy to fall back on my 8th grade home economics skills to teach this one.

This is only the second time I've done this project, but the results have been pretty stunning each time. My students absolutely love coming up with their own monster and actually being able to create a tangible product they can take home. They sew the main body using felt, needle, and thread. The details are glued on using Aleene's tacky glue. It really has a good hold with the felt. 

What are your favorite projects?

Everyone has favorite projects. Sometimes they are tried and true lessons that students love and look forward to working on each year. Others are fresh and new; maybe you have only taught them once or twice. I'm devoting this post to my favorite projects. I'm hoping that some of you will tell me about yours as well. 

My idea is for people who read this blog to post a link to their favorite lessons in the comment section for this post. The link could go to another blog, Pinterest post, or other outside site. I will then put the info, pictures, and maybe even lesson plans into this original blog post and fill it up with all kinds of awesome. Let's see how this goes. 

I'll start with a few of my own favorite projects. This first one is something that I did for the first time last year with my 5th graders. PLUSH MONSTERS!!

This project is one that I have been doing since student teaching. Clay Castles are incredibly popular at my school. I have students from first grade up asking when they get to make them. Of course kids always love to work with clay, so having an exciting lesson built around it is just a bonus. If I would ever stop doing this project, the villagers would probably revolt!

Finally, this is a project that I have adapted a little from a colleague in my district. It combines my love of science with sweet art skills to end up with a super cool project. It also ties in closely with third grade science curriculum. Your principal will love this lesson as well. It is all about using simple machines to create a Rube Goldberg style machine inside the head to complete a task that ordinarily happens in the head. Simple Machine Brains are great fun.

 Now it is time to comment with links to your favorite lessons. I can't wait to see all of the interesting and innovative projects that all of you are working on. 

Rina over at K-6 Art wins the prize for the first favorite lesson comment! Virtual high five! Her favorite project post is Oil Pastel and Baby Oil 'Paintings.' She is using a super cool technique using baby oil to allow the pastels to blend more like paint. Check out her blog for more information!

Amber from Schooling at Home Happenings uses blogs to find quality art projects for her students. She likes this project that is based on the work of Henri Rousseau. Amber really likes that the project reinforces information about climate zones, weather, and animals. The cool thing about this blog is that she has a wide range of ages working on the same project. It is really interesting to see how the project is adapted to different age groups.