Hot and Cold Animal Puzzles

The idea of this jig saw puzzle project was to have everyone in the class work on one piece and in the end put the entire puzzle together.  The teacher gives a pre-cut puzzle piece and instructs that students are to draw an animal and surround it with either a cool or warm colored pattern.  When displayed the pieces were all tied together. The set back I experienced was that I used the wrong cool color that was requested, so I traced another puzzle piece out of white 12x18 paper and started over.

This could have an extension of listing all the animals that are included on the finished puzzle and write characteristics about these animals:  mammal or amphibian, hot or cold blooded, survival skills, food, habitat, life span, reproductive facts, where they live, what part of the country, or world they are mostly found/originated.

Macrame Madness

Marcrame Key Chain

This project is geared toward 6th graders and takes 1-2 hours.  Hemp string was tied at the top before getting started on the knots.  The teachers demonstrated the tying technique and required that we tie knots until we reach the 1 inch length before adding a bead.  The steps were repeated until 3 inches and 3 beads were reached. 

The set back I experienced was that I couldn't hold it while I tied the knots so I used a piece of masking tape to tape it to my desk.  This was a big help in holding it still.

Extension:  I would ask Arabian students in the class to read the following passage to his/her fellow peers to teach the origination of the macrame: 
The word macrame is Arabic in origin meaning "fringe".  It's thought that Arabian weavers began the skill by knotting the additional material at the edges of loomed materials. 

HOPPY IN PLAID

Plaid Bunny

This project starts out the painting a plaid pattern on a 12x18 white sheet of art paper.  Then cut out the bunny body pieces using the provided pattern pieces, gluing the pieces appropriately and adding eye, mouth and whisker details.  The last thing is to glue a cotton ball for the tail.  So cute and appropriate during Easter/Spring season. 

Bulletin Board Diplay

The set back I experienced was that once I painted the plaid pattern, the paper warped.  Flattening it out with a heavy book fixed the problem.

An extension project would include a science chart on the recessive and dominant traits passed from generation to generation.  This is studied during Middle School-Life Science.  You can use Plaid and Circles as a characteristic in the Mother and Father traits and relate this to students blue or brown eyes, or straight or curly hair.

Blind Contour Spring Drawing

Spring Watercolor Drawing

In this Blind Contour Spring Drawing we started out by drawing the flowers with a white crayon.  The flower figures start to appear as the water color paint covers the paper.  It was fun to see them MAGICALLY appear!  Once the painting had dried, a construction matte finished the project.


The set back I experienced with this project is that I had drawn my flowers with the white crayon, and when I painted the flowers with the red, purple and yellow water colors I started way out of the flower drawing, so I purposely did that with the additional two flowers to look as though I meant for it to be oversize and out of the flower lines.

An extension project would be a science essay to accompany this picture on the life cycle of a seed/plant/plant cell.


Tissue Paper Collage

Eric Carle Inspiration
"Peek-A-Boo Peek-A-Boo
Look Who's Looking At You,
 It's Baby Bear!"

I created a Baby Bear in a forrest scene with mountainous rolling hills.  The trees, bear, and hills were cut out of prepainted white paper.  The blue back ground was made out of tissue wrap paper and the bird in tree hole are made out of construction paper.  The set back I encountered was that my bear was not to scale, he was supposed to be a Baby bear, but he ended up being a TALL baby bear!

There are multiple science extension assignments that can be a spin off of creating your own Eric Carle scene.  Living creature habitats and environmental benefits and endangerments can be added to this lesson by having students research what criteria makes an animal endangered or protected.

Marbled Sightseeing

This project requests that students draw a certain national monument, by using a visual to refer to when drawing the subject upside down.  It is amazingly so much easier to draw an object starting the bottom working your way to the top.  So try it!  Turn your object upside down and start drawing UP-SIDE DOWN!  Once the drawing was complete, cut it out.  Use a tray with 1/8 c. of shaving cream smeared evenly on the bottom of the tray, add paint and blend slightly with a comb or a pointed rod.  Dip the cut-out into the painted shaving cream.  In this project I used warm colors: yellow and red.  It gave my cut-out a marbleized look.  Once dry, it was displayed on the bulletin board.

The set back experienced in this lesson is that once I had my marbleized pattern my paper was so wet I had to be careful to not tear it as I lifted it out of the shaving cream.

An extension assignment would be to make a parade.  The parade would consist of shoe box 'floats'.  The shoe box would be decorated according to the state and or country that your national monument came from.  i.e.  My monument is in Chili, so my shoe-box-float would have items representing that country:  items will be printed from clip art/Internet.....flag, flower, animal, license plate, food items, common clothing items, and of course the marbleized project described above. 

Finale would be a "Parade" in the classroom.

CLAY COIL POT

Red, White and Blue
to represent our life as a Military US Air Force
family and the Heart represents my Love for my Family

The inside was painted RED!

1.  Knead clay and shape into a long coil.

2.  Make a small 'pancake' for the bottom or base of the pot.

3.  Add texture to the edge of the base and the coiled clay and begin stacking coil in a circular motion.

4.  Use watered fingertips to smooth the inside and to seal open gaps.

5. Allow 24 hours to dry.

6.  Paint.

The set back I experienced in doing this project is that I was coiling my clay quickly, stacking it nicely.  However, when I stood back to look at it from a distance, it was so crocked.

Extension Project Idea:  To have students make a clay pot and paint it similar to that of a certain country studied in Social Studies or in a Foreign class to relate to that country's art style and see similarities or differences of that of the pottery of the USA.  Research will have to be conducted before beginning this extension assignments which also builds knowledge in students view of other countries.

 

PRINTMAKING

Train cars made by Printmaking Pattern

Bulletin Board Display

Title and Class/Project details

This Printmaking assignment can be used for a variety of project topics as well as for a wide range of grade levels.  This was a project that our group presented and displayed in a hallway bulletin board.

Materials needed:  12 X 18 white drawing paper, construction paper, scissors, paint brush, carving tool, paint, and Styrofoam rectangles. 

Students were asked to have at least 3 cars, and to compose their background to reflect the South Dakota landscape.  The carving tool is used to carve a design in the Styrofoam, then to be rolled with paint, stamped 3 times onto a piece of construction paper, set aside to dry, cut out cars and paste them onto the white SD background and matte with construction paper color of their choice.  The students began working on this project and were so creative and detailed.  It was a huge success, except for a small set back:  when I rolled the paint onto the Styrofoam I had too much paint, and a little seeped into the carving design.

An idea I had for an extension assignment would be to write an essay on the Aberdeen Hub City Railroad and its historical significance to the building and formation of the city of Aberdeen.  A model can also be made for another helpful visual of the Aberdeen Train Depot.

Dr. Seuss inspired "Whoville" 3-D Absract

Rockin' Roller Coasters-Ville

This was a Dr. Seuss inspired project.  We were read the book Oh, The Places You Will Go! 

 The 3D assignment was to be our own creation using construction paper folded in a zigzag, twisted, torn, and curled design.  We were to use a background color that would also be one of the two colors in our design.  We had to choose warm, cool, or complimentary colors.  I used orange and blue which are complimentary colors. 

The design and illustrations of Dr. Seuss' books brings the picture right out of the book!

The 3-D and 2-D design is fun and draws the young readers into the setting.

The only set back I experienced was that I initially started out with elmer's (liquid) glue then found that it was easier for me to use a glue stick.

For an extension project I would have students tie this into a "Habitat" assignment to help students learn more about an animals surroundings and environment.  i.e.  I would have the 3-D and 2-D materials represent a rain forest with plants, trees, bamboo, oaks, nests, palms, and ferns and teach about chimpanzees and the research of Dr. Jane Goodall.