Fifth Grade Pagodas

I adapted last year's pagoda lesson to allow for more choices on the part of the students. They were able to choose between printing, drawing and sculpture.

The printing project was the same project that was completed last year: Pagoda Printing

For the drawing project, the students drew the pagoda they wanted. I had them trace their composition with a black Sharpie and then they colored them using Crayola Color Sticks. For this project, I did a lesson on basic shading. They decided where they wanted the light source to come from and then used the Color Sticks to create light and dark areas in their building.

The sculptures were made out of 100% recycled materials: cardboard, bottle caps, cork.... basically if they found something they wanted to use, they went for it. Then the used tempera cakes to paint them. I think next year, we might try acrylic. The tempera didn't have the vibrancy that I was looking for.

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PreKinder Louise Nevelson Sculptures

 My PreK classes just finished working on our version of Louise Nevelson sculptures.

We started out by talking about recycling and what it is.

I had pre-strung old record albums with a piece of yarn, so that I would be able to hang the artwork up when they were finished. (There were many interesting conversations with my students who come into the art room before school about what records are. They were fascinated and I felt OLD!

Each table was given a basket full of random odds and ends that I was able to collect: wood scraps, puzzle pieces, plastic ware, unifix cubes, plastic
Easter eggs, etc. Pretty much anything that I could find free or extremely cheap, worked for me!

I gave each student a piece of scrap paper with craft glue on it. I showed them how to dip each piece into the glue and then place it onto the album.

I also showed them how they could build up, placing items on top of one another.

 I thought about painting them in the style of Louise Nevelson, but I thought they looked so great as is, that I left them alone.

I have hung them up in the PreKinder hallway and they look amazing!!!

As a side note, living in Houston, I am lucky enough to have a couple of great resources for finding inexpensive materials to use in recycled art. We have the Center for Recycled Art, which is open 1 day a month- only to teachers. You can fill a brown grocery bag with ANYTHING and pay only $5.

I was able to purchase all of the albums for this project for $5, because they fit into a brown paper bag!

We also have Texas Art Asylum. You can donate your old materials to them and they will resell them or do as I do, and pick up whatever extra items I need for a very low price.

If you live in the area and haven't visited these ladies, I highly recommend it!!!

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Tall Tales- A House for Hermit Crab

  Our last summer session was based around the book A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. "Time to move," said Hermit Crab one day. Hermit Crab has grown too big for his shell and must find a new home. He finds a newer, bigger shell, but it is very plain! He meets some sea anemones and asks them if they want to decorate the outside of his shell. He eventually covers his new home with a colorful sea star, some coral, a sea snail, a sea urchin, and a lantern fish. However, by the time he gets his home just the way he likes it, he has outgrown the shell again! I absolutely love using Eric Carle's books in my classroom and this one was no different.

The 2-5 year olds made their own hermit crab out of a paper plate and a tracing of their hand (see Kids Count 1234 for this lesson and more). The caregivers helped the little ones trace their hand onto a piece of construction paper and then cut it out. This became the hermit crabs body. They glued it onto a piece of white drawing paper and added details to their crab. Then they glued a paper plate onto the paper, for the crabs shell. To decorate, I pulled out all of the leftover craft materials from the previous weeks (sequins, scrap paper, pipe cleaners, silk flowers, etc) and they glued this all over

their shell. I also had real seashells that they could use in their collage.

The 6-7 year olds also made a hermit crab, but they used a template to trace the body (see Lesson Plan Source for this project) and a Styrofoam bowl for the shell. The students traced the template onto a piece of colored construction paper and then cut it out. They glued the crabs body onto a

piece of white drawing paper and then glued a Styrofoam bowl onto it for the shell. The painted a layer of glue onto the bowl with a paintbrush and then sprinkled sand onto the bowl. They used the same leftover materials that the 2-5 year olds used to decorate their crab shells. I also gave them real shells to add embellishments.

The 8 and up group made their hermit crab out of Crayola Air Dry clay and real shells. They were shown how to use the clay to form the crabs body, claws, antennae and then place it inside of the shell that they had chosen. Some

 children went all out and made sea turtles, snails, etc using the clay and shells. When they had finished making their sea creature, there were blow dryers available to help dry the clay. Each table was given a variety of different tempera paints and they decorated their creature and the paper plate that they were sitting on. We had some wonderful ocean scenes! We also made some of our leftover craft materials available for those who really wanted to get into it.

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Tall Tales in Art- Weaving a Rainbow

Our next book for our summer program was Weaving a Rainbow by Georgia Ella Lyon. This book goes through the process of how a woman raises sheep, shears them, cards and spins the wool, dyes the yarn, and weaves it at a loom.

For our projects, the 2-5 year olds wove a variety of materials onto a pre-made cardboard loom. We had made the looms out of recycled cardboard: cereal boxes, frozen pizza boxes, cracker boxes, etc. Slits were cut in the top and bottom, about1 inch apart and yarn was wound around the cardboard. This was done before the class so that they were ready for weaving when the children and their caregivers got there.

Then we had a huge supply of materials ready to weave: yarn, ribbon, Mardi Gras beads, colored wire, felt strips, etc and they wove "over, under, over, under" to complete a very colorful, textured piece of art. And of course, for this age group, nothing would be complete without gluing something on, so we got out the glue and many of them glued silk flowers to finish them off.

The 6 and 7 year olds took a piece of paper and folded it 2 times, creating 4 squares. They colored each square a different color with watercolor markers. I had plastic leaf prints that I had bought from Sax that they used to print onto each square, using silver printing ink.

We got out the blow dryers to dry the ink and then cut our loom. Once the loom was cut, the children wove sticks throughout it.

The 8 and up group did a Pollock-ish project. They turned their papers over first and drew lines on the back so that they would know where to cut their strips for weaving. Then they were taken outside to splatter paint 2 pieces of paper with tempera paint. We mainly used fluorescent colored paint for this. Once they had 2 pieces painted, they came back into the museum and they used blow dryers to dry their papers.

When their papers were dry, they cut the papers apart and started weaving them back together. They used masking tape to hold them together.

These turned out amazing!! They were very proud of their paintings!

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Tall Tales in Art- Summer Art Program

I was fortunate enough to be asked to direct a summer art program at our district art museum this year. The theme- Tall Tales in Art. Basically- link art with children's literature. Right up my alley! I do this in my classroom all the time!

Our program was for 6 Tuesdays, from 10:00 until 11:30 am. and I had students ranging in age from 2 years old all the way up to 12 years old. I divided the children into 3 groups: 5 and under, 6 and 7, 8 and up.

The caregivers pretty much stayed with the youngest group, helping them with the scissors, glue, paint, etc. The older groups had a few caregivers with them, depending on whether they had younger siblings with them or not.





 For our first week, we started out by reading the book, Go To Bed, Monster. The entire group of children and adults gathered in a central gallery and I read the book to the entire group.

After that, I showed them examples of what they would be working on. The youngest group made paper plate monsters, using a wide variety of materials (felt, tissue paper, Styrofoam balls that were cut in half for the eyes, pipe cleaners, etc). They highlight for this group every week was GLUE!!!!! 2 year olds and glue, that was all they wanted to do. It was funny to watch the panic on 

 the mom's faces.

The 6 and 7 year olds made water bottle monsters. Again, using a wide variety of materials.

I didn't get any pictures of the 8 and up project. They traced their shoes and made them into shoe print monsters, using crayons, colored pencils and markers.

For our first week, we had about 60 students and probably about 30 adults. It was a full house!

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