5th Grade Plush Creations

Who knew that kids would absolutely love sewing? Oh, that's right. I've taught this lesson several times. I knew that. That's why I keep teaching it. I love it when a tough 5th grade boy comes up to ask if his stitching is neat enough. That will never get old. 

I ran this lesson pretty similar to how I've done it in the past, but allowed a little more freedom this year. Originally, students made monsters. This year I told them they could make anything. The results, as usual, were really nice. 

I love how much attitude the banana has. (Bananatude?)

There isn't a whole lot of technical expertise that is required for this project. That's great for me because my crowning achievement in sewing was making a pair of boxer shorts in 8th grade home economics class. It's simple enough that every student is more than capable of making something cool, but students who have experience with sewing can really run with it and make some cool stuff. 

This guy is named Mr. Pillow. It was originally
going to be an iPad, but I like how my student
reworked his idea to make it more successful. 

My biggest suggestion with the project is making sure that students work with large enough pieces of fabric. I purchased 9x12 sheets of felt. Each student gets two, so the final piece winds up being fairly large. I originally had students use only one piece of felt, so the work was smaller and a little more difficult to work with. I keep all of the fabric scraps throughout the project and students use those for details to glue on with fabric glue once their work has been sewn and stuffed. 

This project is definitely in line with my idea of challenging 5th graders with materials as opposed to overly technical and skill based lessons. I really think it keeps a bigger percentage of students engaged and truly enjoying what they are doing in the art room. 

Click here to download my lesson plan!

 

A Harry Potter book with stuffed covers and actual felt pages!

5th Grade Plush Monsters & Tiki Mugs

Time flies when you're teaching 5th grade. Between having longer projects in general, having a student teacher, massive amounts of springtime testing, and random end of the year interruptions, we wound up not having time for both of these projects this year. I was forced to make a decision. Do I try to do a shortened version of both? Do I just choose one? Do I teach both at once?!? Yeah, I did that last one. It's surprisingly doable.

My 5th grade classes were split about 50/50 about which project they wanted to do. I've been trying to incorporate more choice into my classroom, so this was a good opportunity. 

It couldn't have gone more smoothly. It just worked out that the days I needed to demonstrate major steps on clay, kids on the sewing project were able to work more independently. I was really happy with the outcome for both projects. I really didn't feel stretched too much at all. 

Download my Tiki Mug lesson plan!

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. 

5th Grade Plush Monsters

Aaah, the joys of Pinterest. I've been faithfully pinning away for nearly a year and I'm constantly excited about the wealth of ideas I can find on the site. It seems like many times I'll pin something and it sits, lonely and ignored, on my board. Other ideas hit me and I immediately begin planning a lesson based on the pin. This is one of those lessons.


By the time my students are in 5th grade, they have definitely hit the stage of being self-conscious about their artwork. They have realized that some kids definitely have more of an aptitude toward art. I try to combat that with projects that are not completely tied to pure drawing and painting skills. Block printing, claymation, sewing, etc. are projects that put more emphasis on creativity and less on technical skills. 


I'm extremely happy with this plush monster project because it is another one of those projects that nearly every single student was really psyched to work on. Each student designed their own monster before making a simple pattern and cutting the main shape out of felt. I hadn't sewn since 8th grade home-ec. That year, I happened to be in a study hall with my mom, who was a 7th grade teacher. After one day, I decided it was too weird and picked up home-ec! I used all of my 8th grade sewing knowledge to show my students how to sew their monsters together, flip the fabric inside out, stuff them, and finish the sewing. They then added details with craft glue. Since this project was TOTALLY new for me, I was a little concerned about how the finished project would come out. Luckily, this was one of the most successful projects of the entire year. I'll definitely be doing this next year!