1st Grade - Foamie Printmaking

First graders were introduced to printmaking this past fall.  They each got a half sheet of foamie paper and were instructed to cut it into various shapes.  They glued the shapes onto a piece of oak tag to create any kind of image.  They had to make sure they didn't overlap any shapes, just glued them side by side.  The next art day, after the glue was dry, they each picked one color of tempera paint to paint onto their printing plate.  They printed the image onto white paper.  Then, they painted the plate again with white paint, mixing it with the color that was already there, and printed it a 2nd time onto black paper. 

6th Grade - Plaster Cast Masks

Some of this year's masks...

6th Grade - Clay "Word" Sculptures

This lesson combined all the clay building techniques the 6th graders had learned through throughout their elementary years. They could make a functional or decorative piece, use coils, pinch pots, slabs, etc... Their goal was to represent a particular word in their sculpture. I presented them with a list of adjectives, and drew their names randomly to choose their word. This way, each student in each class had a different one. They could represent their word any way they wanted in their sculpture; literally or figuratively. This is a very creative group, so I knew there would be some amazing results!!

"Dangerous"

"Wacky"

"Delicious"

"Funny"

"Dangerous"

"Dizzy"

"Powerful"

"Strange"

"Wacky"



5th Grade - Monochromatic Collages

This was a multi-faceted project that took itself in a different direction than originally intended - I love when that happens!  It started as a lesson in value, and mixing paints to make a whole palette of various tints and shades of the same color.  Our "palettes" are just pieces of wax paper.  Typically, I have students use little foam plates for mixing colors and we just rinse and re-use them.  However, this time, I realized it wasn't very time efficient for the amount of mixing they'd be doing in 45 minutes.  It worked great - clean up was so easy!

 Next, I asked the 5th graders to paint a piece of paper with all the tints and shades they mixed.  They only had the one class period to do it, so they couldn't think too hard about what was going on the paper!  I encouraged just lines and shapes.

They next class, they explored various ways of cutting up the painted paper and gluing it to the black paper to start a collage.   Some students chose to build their collage 3-dimensionally.

 I also encouraged them to incorporate any of the "odds and ends" from around the art room; fabric, beads, pipe cleaners, yarn, etc...  They could only use objects that fit into their monochromatic color scheme, though!  Some students also added finishing touches with metallic sharpies.