Please Don't Eat the Art

See those right there?  See 'em? What do they look like to you? Popcorn? White cheese puffs?

Well they are all natural. They are made of cornstarch, but I wouldn't put one near my mouth. These splendid little objects are the new bio-degradable packing p-nuts found in all sorts of packages. I have been collecting them for about two years and finally reached a large enough quantity that we are ready to do some sculpture. (Teachers have donated the majority from many science packages shipped to the school)

I start off students with a paper base. We use a circle, however you can likely use any shape you want.

I used this specific size because I didn't want them to work too small.

Cut them out and don't forget to write your name on the back!

Now how do you make sculptures? We moisten each p-nut on a damp sponge. The material melts a wee bit and becomes sticky.

Then press the sticky end onto the base. Repeat this process and begin to stack p-nuts on top of each other. They can be stacked horizontally, vertically, and even diagonally.

I let students use about 20 of these p-nuts and build however they would like to. Some sculptures are tall, short, round, curly, etc. Each one is unique. I also have them choose their 20 before I show them how to stick them together so they don't later lose count.

After their construction, I encourage them to use vibrant color markers to eliminate as much white as possible.

I've seen materials like this in catalogs, but they can cost A LOT.  I was able to get all these free by simply asking people to keep an eye out for those particular packing materials.

I love these because you can make all sorts of connections: recycling, architecture, abstraction, etc. So many options. Clean up is minimal, assembly is easy for any age level, and if someone tries to toss one it isn't going very far.

This project takes about 1 forty minute class and can be loads of fun for that rather wild end of the year.

Poppin' Fish!

We are officially on Spring Break! So I finally have some time to update on a few little things we have been up to.This is a nifty little project that I learned at a state conference several years ago. Alicia, a very talented art teacher in my state shared this project and it has become a staple for me quite regularly for 2nd - 5th grade level students.

First I have my younger students trace a simple fish template, however my older students usually feel more confident so I have them hand draw out a fish shape. Then they draw an eye and lips if they would like to. Also, students are to draw a "fin" in the corner using any kind of line they would like...straight, curving, wiggly, etc. 
Then the fun part... adding patterns. Students draw patterns using markers and/or crayons to fill their entire fish.

The next class we first finish our patterns and make sure we don't forget to color our fin in the corner too!  Students then cut out the fish and the fin. I help the younger ones with this next step.

Students cut a curving line into the fish body to create a "gill". We need it to curve away from the mouth.

Then take the front half of the cut body and slide it over the back to overlap. This "pops" out the body. I will staple for the younger kids, however older ones can glue with a dot. Then the fin receives a dot of glue and is slid into this Popped gill to dry.

Lastly students glue the fish onto a piece of 9 x 12" construction paper in whatever color they would like. We just put a dot of glue on the dorsal fin, mouth, and tail. No need for it anywhere else. They can use crayons and markers to create an environment around their fish. As you can see my students can come up with some really awesome patterns. These examples are created by 3rd grade students.

I love this project. Simple 3-d and my students are always so proud of their works. Because of storage space, students nearly always take this project home on the second week after completion. This was a fun way to begin our break.

This project took 2 forty minute classes to complete. Our materials were the following:
1. 9 x 12" white drawing paper
2. 9 x 12" color construction paper
3. Markers
4. Crayons
5. Scissors
6. Glue
7. Pencils and erasers
8. Templates (if you so choose to)

Hello Fruit Face!

The past few weeks my 4th graders have been very busy working on fruit and vegetable portraits. These are very popular every year, although starting off can be difficult. I collect pictures from magazines of all sorts of fruits and veggies to help them get some inspiration. 

We also take a look at examples of these types of portraits by Guiseppe Arcimboldo at: www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org

My project rules are:

1. The entire portrait must be created from fruits and vegetables. No pizza, no meat, no dessert. But I do allow seeds and nuts on this project.

2. Students may use parts of the fruit or veg (slices) or change the proportion of things. For example large strawberry head, but small watermelon slice mouth.

3. Lastly, students are to create a frame around their portrait using fruit and veg. It could be only one item, it could be a pattern, or completely random.

We began with pencil and 9 x 12" paper. Students then traced or outlined their fruits and veggies with color markers. We then colored the inside of their shapes with crayons.

This has taken us three forty-minute sessions including a lengthy discussion and introduction on the first meeting. Students who finish early are assigned what I'm calling Vegetable Cars!  Although, I actually gave them the option of choosing any mode of transportation they wanted...planes, trains, helicoptors, monster trucks, etc

They start off the same way as the portraits.. trace with marker... color in with crayon.

My boys especially enjoyed this and I even saw a few fruit and veggie UFOs.

My example

Love these every year. Hopefully I will have a few to hang in the cafeteria soon!

Zebras with a Twist

I few weeks ago I completed an African unit with my intermediate students. Each grade level did their own project and it just so happens 3rd graders created zebras!  This project is borrowed from the Georgetown Elementary art blog (http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/)

This project was introduced by looking at pictures of real zebras on google images. We discussed how zebras camoflauge themselves and what their color scheme is -- black and white. However, on this project we were going to change our color scheme.

We began by drawing a zebra using shapes onto a piece of tagboard. Our tag board happens to be the white sides of a tv dinner box. Rectangle body, two diagonal lines for the neck, oval head, triangle tail, and traced tongue depressors for the legs.

We traced everything with black sharpie and then students began to color their zebras with only 4 colors to create a "color scheme". We used the classic crayola markers in "Assorted colors" which gave us more pastel options. I encouraged students to color with patterns.

Students then cut out their zebras. Some did not complete this the first day, so they began the second session by cutting the zebra out.  The second week of this project students began by selecting a small piece of neon scrap paper. We cut a "fringe" to make it appear more like hair. This hair is glued to the back of the neck. Also a small piece is glued to the tail

We glued our zebra onto a black construction paper background to make the colors appear even more bright. (4 1/2 x 6" black paper)

Lastly, we glued our construction paper with the zebra onto a large piece of manila paper. (My school was throwing old manila chart paper out and I snagged it!) We created a zebra stripe on the manila frame using a piece of corrogated cardboard and purple paint. The original plan used black paint, but we were out. So... obviously any color will do with some imagination :) 

I love how different each zebra is!

This project took 2 forty minute classes.

Materials:

tagboard/tv dinner cardboard

pencils and erasers

sharpies/permanent marker

crayola markers in bright colors

scissors

glue

4 1/2 x 6" black construction

any size paper for the frame... any color

Paint - any color

Corrogated cardboard cut into squares - one per child

Ndebele Hut Sculptures!

I have spent the last three weeks with my 4th graders discussing a culture of people from south east Africa known as the Ndebele. (En-duh-bay-lay) These are a very creative group of people who are also very traditional and continue the practice of building homes with beautiful geometric designs.

We started off with a piece of 6 x 18" long drawing paper. Students were given the option of choosing a shape for the door to be drawn in the middle of the paper. From there, students were to draw geometric shapes to create designs on each side of the door. The rule was that I wanted it to be symmetrical. Each side needed to match closely. We traced our designs with permanent marker.

The second day we worked on this project students finished tracing their designs with marker, then colored with crayola markers. This project could be colored with crayons or even painted with watercolors or tempera. Its whatever you feel most comfortable doing.

The third day students completed coloring and we began turning our flat paper into a cylindrical sculpture. Students rolled their houses into a cylinder and glued the two ends together.  Then they traced a large circle onto a 9 x 9" piece of brown construction paper. They cut the circle out then cut a radius into it.

Students brought me their roof circle and cylinder house. I stapled the roof into a wide cone, then hot glued the roof to the cylinder. You could have students do these independently, however I felt this would complete the project most efficiently if I helped them along.

These all turned out differently and I love the results!  Our school librarian has graciously allowed us to display our huts in the library. They are quite the hit!

There is also a good story book out there called the Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi that makes a great reference for this particular project. Feel free to google Ndebele. They are a fascinating people!

This project took 3 forty minute classes to complete. Makes a great interdisciplinary connection to geometry, shape, and symmetry in 4th grade math studies.
This project is inspired from a lesson I got at my 2009 state conference.

Pop Art Soup Cans!

My 5th graders have been learning about Pop Art for about 2 months now. This has been a rather lengthy unit, but I think my students are now experts! This last part of our unit focused on Andy Warhol. I wanted to create a sculpture with my students in a time where clay is not something I can afford. So we used entirely recycled materials for this project.

Supplies:
1. Cardboard cylinders (paper towel or toilet paper tubes)
2. Discarded computer paper (1 piece cut 4 1/2 x 6" and small square for lid)
3. Cardboard/cardstock from frozen tv dinner boxes

Then we used scissors, glue, and color markers.

Easy supplies to collect if you can get kids to bring them in

Students were given freedom to choose a design for their soup label. They could invent any type of soup they wanted. I just had two requirements 1. Write the name of the soup in the middle 2. Draw illustrations to give clues to the flavor of the soup.

Students drew design with pencil, traces with black sharpie, then colored with bright colors (bold colors like Warhol).

Doesn't Pizza Soup sound delightful?

We then drew a "pop top" on a small square of computer paper. Colored it also with bright colors. Glued this to one end of the cylinder. Then we added glue to the back of their soup label and wrapped it around the cylinder to cover the rough edges of the lid.

Lastly, we drew an exciting pattern using bright colors onto the box cardboard (blank side). Students glued the bottom of the cylinder onto the "table top" as I called it. We allowed them to dry over night and voila! Recycled sculpture in Pop Art style!

*Pointers - if you have cardboard pieces like cereal boxes that don't have a white side you can always glue more cheap discard paper on it to draw on. *Put that lid paper on first *Remind students to orient their label accordingly with the lid. I had a few upside cans although I told them it gave their soup more personality. *Give yourself drying time before using marker again. *This takes some serious demonstration, be prepared

This project took 3 forty-minute classes to complete.

Bugs bugs bugs!

I have a project that I've done for several years with my fourth graders, but for some reason took a break from it the past couple. After puzzling on what project I wanted to do next, a few classroom teachers urged me to create our Symmetrical Insect drawings again. My teachers love it and it usually ties in well with their science studies.
I begin by introducing students to insects with a powerpoint I've created. We talk about "symmetry" and that insects are symmetrical. I tell students to pretend they are an explorer in the rainforest and you have discovered a new insect. What would it look like? I then create rules for this project. (written on the board) 
1. Insects must have three main body parts - head, thorax, abdomen
2. Insects must have 6 legs
3. Insects should have compound eyes and antennas
4. Insects must have original patterns and designs
5. Insects may have details such as wings, stingers, pinchers, etc

The first day students draw their insects with pencil, then trace with black sharpie. I ask students to choose 3 shapes of their choice for each body part. The second day students then begin to color with markers. My father happens to be an entomologist so he can usually scrounge up an insect collection for me to share with my students which they love! (Well mostly, I have some kids that are totally creeped out) Because these drawings are large on 12 x 18" paper it usually takes a third day to complete the coloring.

I also have fifth grade advanced students working on paper mache' birds. I think we are off to a great start!

This is an excellent recycling project. We are using two-liter bottles as our base. The head is formed from newspaper, then covered in aluminum foil. The beak is also aluminum foil hot-glued to the head. Lastly our wings are made from scrap posterboard. I am so eager to see them in paper mache'.

Keith Haring Inspired Art - Lines, Movement, and Variety

I like to start off the school year discussing line.. always a good basic start to most drawings. My fifth graders are line experts so a quick review was all we needed.  I first introduced Keith Haring through a book called I Wish I Didn't Have to Sleep. Has some excellent illustrations of his work and pointers about his style. We also did a little critiquing of the work we saw.

From there, students created simplified body forms of 3 'break dancers'. We attempted to show movement with chosens positions of arms and legs. We drew with pencil and colored in with markers.  Our second day we discussed variety. Students then began drawing a variety of lines around each dancer. This actually took 2 days total on 9 x 12" paper. Students had to be very patient, but the finished products were definitely worth it!

Materials for this project: pencils and erasers, 9x12" paper, and crayola markers in a variety of colors

This project took 3 forty minute classes to complete.

I love these!

Recycling the Old and Dry into Liquid Gold

I started looking at other art teachers' blogs about a year ago to help me get more project ideas and other nifty suggestions. One thing that I have run across most recently is a way to 'make paint' using old markers. Initially I thought it was a crock. However, its the end of the year and I'm sorting through materials to toss so I decided to put this theory to the test. Can one really make liquid watercolor paint out of old crusty dried out markers?

I did the following to find out: 
1. Rubber-banded 5 or 6 dried out water-based markers of a similar color together (I used Crayola and liqui-mark brands). I removed their marker tops and I'm saving those little goodies for another occasion.

2. Then I poured water into glass baby food jars below the screw top area.

3. Put the color tips of the markers into the water and just let it be.  If you look closely at the green jar you can just see the color gliding out of the markers and sinking to the bottom. It was fun to watch and I showed several of my students whose classes attended that day.
The longer it sits the better. I had a few jars that sat all school day (8 hours) and another set that sat all night long. Both turned out well. 2 to 4 hours isn't near enough time.

4. I removed the markers and sent them to live on a farm with other retired markers (aka: gave them a good heave-ho into the trash). I tested these on paper and found that they work quite well considering how it was made. In fact, I've already stained my hands a multitude of colors just testing out all my paints.

I'm quite excited to find a really green and cheap way to make liquid watercolors. They usually run atleast $40 for a set of 8 bottles. I already have 10 jars complete in my cabinet with intentions for more. I wish I had known about this sooner... all the markers I've wasted over the years. All the potential paint.

In summation, I answer the question above with a victorious Yes! you can make watercolor paint with old markers. And I'm all the happier for it!