3rd Grade Machine Brains

This is now the third time that I've done this project and it continues to be one of my favorites.  For this third grade project, I start out by showing the students the work of the cartoonist Rube Goldberg.  We discuss his hilariously complicated machines.  Next, we look at the six kinds of simple machines and check out examples of each.  Finally, I have been able to find all kinds of fantastic videos of chain reaction "machines" that people have built.  One that is particularly good is a music video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" by OK Go.  Definitely check it out if you have a chance.


The students must then design a machine that fits inside their head that will do something that their head actually does.  Kids have chosen everything from coming up with an idea or blinking to machines that make boogers.  I require that their machines have at least eight steps and include four of the six simple machines.  It takes a couple of weeks for the kids to refine their sketches, but the end products end up looking really cool.  I have the kids use construction paper scraps to make the machine parts.  After the artwork is finished, I have each student write about how their machine works on their artist statement.  


In the images above, I included full student examples as well as an excellent example of the artist statement.  That particular statement goes along with the first artwork example.  I also included a few close-ups of specific machine parts that I thought were extra cool.  Enjoy!

4th Grade Warhol Prints

These are examples from a 4th grade printmaking project.  4th grade students learned about Andy Warhol and other important artists in the Pop Art movement.  Students learned that Pop Artists usually take ordinary objects and turn them into art.  Each student chose something from their everyday life and pressed their image into foam printmaking sheets.  They then learned about using ink and brayers to create a total of four prints.  

5th Grade One Point Perspective

I've always struggled with teaching perspective to 5th graders.  I actually enjoy perspective drawing in part because of Pat Welch, a fantastic instructor at CCAD.  I have found that teaching perspective to drawing to 5th grade kids can be a little dry at times.  Some kids really dive into it, but there are always those who really struggle.  


I went about teaching it a little differently this year.  I broke down the steps even more than I have in previous years and opened up the project to be what each student wanted it to be.  My only requirement was that there needed to be at least eight shapes drawn in correct one point perspective.  The project could be painted, outlined in sharpie, colored with colored pencils, or just left as plain pencil.  The students really dove into it this year.  I ended up with the best results I've ever had out of this project.  In addition I had a little contest for kids to draw the most difficult shape they could outside of class.  Blick Art Materials donated a bunch of sketchbooks to me last summer.  Four 5th graders were chosen as contest winners and get to take home a sketchbook with a drawing from me inside of it.  

2nd Grade Wild Things

2nd Graders were inspired by Maurice Sendak's book "Where the Wild Things Are."  Each student designed his or her own wild thing by combining parts of many animals together.  They then pressed their wild thing into a foam printing material.  Each student printed their wild thing in four different colors before mounting the finished prints on black paper.  We used construction paper crayons to add creative text at the bottom of the page.  Interesting fact: construction paper crayons can be erased!  

1st Grade Rockets in Space

1st grade recently finished a project in which they learned all about rockets and space.  We started out by talking about NASA and the various ways people can go to space.  Next, we looked at pictures of space shuttles, rockets, and many planets.  We even got to watch a video of the space shuttle launch.


The kids start out by drawing several large planets on a piece of white paper.  They are colored using crayons.  Space is painted black next.  You could cut out the planets and glue them onto black paper, but my kids love to paint and I want to give them extra practice.  Finally, we used recycled construction paper scraps to build rockets.  These turn out really cool and it is a pretty successful project all around.  

5th Grade Adinkra Printmaking

This is my third year at Thomas and I'm gradually purchasing more tools and materials to use in the art room.  This fall, I bought gauges and "soft-cut" linoleum to use for printmaking.  5th grade was excited to get to do a printmaking project and be the first group to use the new tools.


This particular project was inspired by Adinkra symbols.  Each of the symbols have a unique meaning and are used by the Asante people of Ghana.  Each student chose one symbol that they felt represented their own personality.  The symbol was drawn in both a positive and negative form.  Next, the symbols were drawn on 3"x3" squares of the soft-cut linoleum.  Gauges were used to carve away the linoleum.  The positive image was carved on one side and the negative image was carved on the other side.  When carving was finished, students printed using black block printing ink.  Borders were done using oil pastels.  I'm really happy with how these came out.  I'm definitely keeping them for the art show this spring!  Thanks to my friend and colleague Drew Jones over at www.riversideelementaryart.blogspot.com for the lesson idea!

Eric Style Collage by 2nd Grade

2nd graders are in the middle of a two project series that focuses on illustration.  This project is inspired by the work of Eric Carle.  The kids get to first make random designs and textures on colorful paper using all sorts of creative mark making tools.  They absolutely loved this part.  Next, they drew an illustration of an animal.  Using their textured papers, the students then created a collage version of their illustration.  I had done this project with first graders a couple of years ago and then decided it would work better with an older age group.  This is one of those projects that can grow increasingly complex if done by older kids.  The results are really cool either way.  

Winter Landscapes by 3rd Grade

3rd grade just finished a project in which they learned all about landscapes. We started out by stating that a landscape in art has nothing to do with planting bushes and trees around a house! We studied photographs and paintings of various landscape artists. 3rd graders learned that there are three distinct levels of distance in landscapes. Those include the foreground, middleground, and background. We then talked about the horizon line and the use of overlapping to make a landscape look like it has more depth. Students also learned about the use of size variation to help add even more depth. Finally, each student drew and painted a winter landscape that included a bear. The bears were special landscape guests this year because the artwork hung as decoration for the 2nd grade musical, A Beary Merry Holiday.

Amazed by a Stapler!

As an elementary art teacher, I spend a pretty fair amount of time hanging artwork in the hallways. It is pretty time consuming, but is worth it. One day after school, I was hanging a project. I have what I considered to be a pretty good stapler. It was a Swingline after all. Even with a nice quality stapler, it would jam relatively often. As I was fumbling with trying to get a jammed and bent staple out of the stapler, a teacher walked by and mentioned that a colleague had a new kind of stapler that was stronger and didn't jam.

After doing a bit of research, I found that it was a Paper Pro stapler. I immediately ordered one and have loved having it. It staples easily into cork boards as well as directly into walls. It also doesn't jam! The mechanism is designed differently than ordinary staplers and almost feels like a staple gun. I thought I'd share with everyone. Here is a link to the stapler on Amazon --> http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Pro-1110-PaperPro-Prodigy/dp/B000GGY9LY/ref=pd_sbs_op_1

4th Grade Recycled CD Snowflake Mosaic

I'm incredibly excited about this project.  Each year, I am asked to do a couple of winter themed projects that will hang during a couple school events that are geared toward the holidays.  I always seem to have a tougher time coming up with this kind of project.  I've done snowflake mosaics before with 4th grade, but I've always had the kids use little paper squares.  I always love to include recycled materials in my projects and I've been trying to figure out what to do with two large boxes of old computer CDs.  I finally came to this project.  

In class, we talk about snowflakes.  I like to bring in a discussion of geometry while looking at examples of the six sided flakes.  I showed students how to fold and cut construction paper to make a six sided paper snowflake.  The paper snowflakes were then glued onto chipboard that had been painted silver.  The excess chipboard is trimmed off next.  Finally, the CDs are added.  I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to break up the CDs.  I tried all kinds of suggestions, but none worked very well.  I eventually decided to cut the CDs into strips with my big paper cutter.  The strips could then be easily broken into smaller pieces by students.  The CD pieces were glued onto the snowflakes with the shiny bottom side facing up.  I love the way this project turned out and the kids loved making it.