Class Up that Trashcan!

Our schools have a surplus of boring storage. Green is great and all... but blah!

A co-worker of mine had the brilliant idea of making our rather boring wheeled fellows look a bit more exciting. I was given free reign and no money. So my solution was to buy up some cheep acrylic paints at Hobby Lobby and round up some capable 4th and 5th graders.

The goal was to cover as much of the can as possible and emphasizing that this was a RECYCLE bin. Not for trash, please!

 

Our first set of cans was inspired by Keith Haring. It began as a light spray paint base. Then we painted body figures in a variety of poses around the can. Our goal was graffiti. I think this fit the bill.

 

Our second can was Van Gogh Starry Night inspired. This was all cheap acrylic paint you can get from any craft store. The key to this can was making sure it consisted of many lines much like the style of Van Gogh. 

Our last can was my favorite. We were inspired by Wassily Kandinsky. I think this can turned out most successfully because we were able to completely cover ALL of the original can color. The wheels even got a color treatment. 

Each of these cans has been placed in a hallway for our white paper recycling program. Wouldn't it be fun to see one out on your curb on pick up day?

Sketchbooks!

This year I decided to start off my intermediates (3rd - 5th) with a project that could keep them busy for the next two weeks while we are taking creativity tests. We began sketchbooks. This idea came from another elementary school teacher in my district. I think it was quite ingenious!

We start off with the following materials: old manila folders (cut in half), pre-cut white computer/scrap paper, markers, and a stapler.

 

I give each student a pre-cut half of the folder and my one rule is to write their name and their teacher's name on the folder. But the rest of the decoration is up to them. I prefer them to create a sketchbook cover that describes themselves in some way.

We use markers to draw on our sketchbooks, but crayons or colored pencils could work great as well.  As students work on their covers (the cut manila folder), I circulate around the classroom sliding the computer paper into each cover and stapling across the fold of the cover to attach the paper. Students could staple themselves, but I only have 1 really decent stapler so I'll do that work.

 

They open and close perfectly.

 

Surprisingly enough all my students are very excited about their sketchbooks and want to take them home already. I'm planning to keep them in the school for a while so that if I have any early finishers they can go work in their sketchbooks instead of finding something less constructive to do with their time.

 

Many of our teachers throw out old manila folders each year so this is an excellent opportunity to recycle and save some of my classroom materials.

End of the Year Box Monsters!

Tomorrow is our last student day. Then the teachers get what I'm referring to as a 'quiet day' to pack up the classroom. Its chaotic, but we are having so much fun.
I did get around to creating box monsters with my fifth graders and it was definitely an experience. I want to do this again next year.

I set up each table with the following: one kleenex box per student, scissors, glue-all, markers in varying colors, plastic cups and lids, tagboard (we use tv dinner box cardboard), and foam shapes.

I start off by explaining that the opening of the box will be the mouth and we will be adding eyes, teeth, and details with other materials. We began by tracing or drawing circular eyes on the tagboard. They can make as many eyes as they chose to. Then color with markers to create pupils. Cut out and glue above the opening of the box.

Then we take a second piece of tagboard and cut it into a long slender rectangle. Cut down the middle of the rectangle with a zig zag line to create the teeth. Teeth are glued to the top and bottom of the box opening from the inside. Use glue-all... holds so much better and more permanently than school glue.

Then I tell students they may use the foam shapes to create noses, eye lashes, warts, etc for their monster. Oh they had the best time!

Some students even used scrap tagboard to create arms or legs hanging off the edges of the box. Hilarious!

A pointer for this project: Start collecting early. I recommend the beginning of the school year. I wouldn't have stressed near as much the last couple of months if I hadn't waited until December to start asking.

Falling off the face of the earth...

I think I've overwhelmed myself...


I have a few too many projects going on at one time. Besides our collage color wheel I have students in my studio classes finishing their paper mache' birds, creating art work for the library, creating frames for said artwork, and creatinga recycle robot. This doesn't even include the bagillion other projects I have going on with all my regular classes.

This is "Tech-o" the robot. His body is constructed from shoeboxes, discarded cardboard boxes, gift wrap cardboard tubes, and lids/bottlecaps/yogurt cups to create the head details. He is about 90% done.

I think I need to slow it down. I'm so overwhelmed I can't even find time to blog about our regular school projects. And we have some nifty ones at the moment. I'll get to it eventually... time time time.

On an entirely different note, I cannot praise enough the amazing experience my 27 students had at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts last month. Its truly wonderful! The staff was prepared for our visit and well versed in the material we learned about. My students had a great time and I look forward to visiting them again!!!

Winter Collage

Winter time is here which makes for excellent subject matter!

This week at the primary level I have students creating "Snovals". Typically one thinks of a snowman being created from circles, but we are trying to make our snowmen unique with an oval instead. This idea came from an Arts and Activties lesson I saw several years ago.

I like this project because its another opportunity to recycle. I love wrapping paper especially for the variety of prints and ease to cut.
We begin by reading Snowmen at Night. Excellent book! And I point out the variety of shapes in the snowmens' clothing. Then we then practice drawing an oval in the air by "stretching" a circle. When they have the hang of it in the air, then we draw it on a 9 x 12" piece of white paper (although smaller can work too). Students cut out their oval then draw two black circles for coal eyes and additional circles for the mouth.

After that students use a scrap of orange paper to cut and glue on a carrot nose (triangle). Then the fun begins. I tell all students to create special clothes to keep their snowmen warm on cold nights. This can include mittens, scarves, hats, boots, etc. Students use scrap wall paper and wrapping paper to clothe their snowman. Students could also draw on buttons with black crayon or cut out of color paper.
Each one is unique and incredibly fun! I did this with K, 1st, and 2nd graders.

Love the hat on this one!

Materials:
scissors
 glue
 white paper
black crayons
orange construction scrap and all sorts of fun printed papers (wrapping paper is great after the holidays)

This project can take 1 to 2 forty minute classes depending on how you present it.

Next week, I originally planned to create snowman portraits... but I'm thinking of changing it a bit. Polar bear portraits may add a bit of variety to our usual subjects. They appear very much the same other than changing the face and a few other details. Yes... Polarbear Portraits seems like a fun venue.

This looks great with construction paper crayons and white oil pastel. We draw out the shapes first with pencil, then trace with black crayon and color. This project is great for discussing portraits and perspective/view.  

Birds of Winter

And we're back!

This week we returned to school. I had a work day yesterday and hung up several winter pieces that my students did before the break. Third grade created Penguin Mix Media pictures (inspired by project I saw on the Kids Artists blog) . We used the following materials and this took two forty-minute classes to complete.

Materials:
Black wrapping paper (but any old paper could do)
White scrap paper
Orange scrap paper (construction scraps)
White tempera
9 x 12" blue construction paper
Wrapping paper in all sorts of prints

Just some pointers. I used black wrapping paper because it was shiny like the body of a penguin would be. The body is an upside down U or a rainbow. We glued those down on the blue paper. Assembled the remainder of the body parts using simple shapes and then used old christmas wrapping paper for the mittens and ear muffs. Scrap wrapping paper left over from Christmas is my new favorite material to work with in collages. The second day we painted the snow with sponges on the ground then forks for the snowflakes in the sky. These always have fun results!

My fourth graders created Winter Cardinal paintings over the three weeks before we let out for the holidays. I got this idea from www.deepspacesparkle.com and really liked the way we were able to discuss the difference between positive and negative space during the course of this project.

The first day of the project we looked at a picture of a cardinal and drew out the bird and tree. I emphasized the fact that healthy tree branches grow up diagonally...not down. Otherwise something bad has happened to their tree. We then only painted the negative space (empty space) light blue. The second session students painted the positive space (objects, important things) in the art work using red, yellow, black, and brown. The last session we outlined with sharpie (brown and black can work well) and lastly painted snowflakes with the handle end of a paintbrush. I have so many with excellent results and the faculty love them!

This first week back is short so to keep all my classes on schedule we are doing some one day cartoon drawings. Next week I will begin my African unit. All three grade levels will create their own African inspired art... So Excited!!

A couple of favorites and Monsters

I just wanted to take a moment to sing the praises of two items I love to use in my classroom. Maxwell House and Folgers giant plastic coffee containers are amazing water cups! Some do have handles which make for easy carrying and the sturdiness of each makes spills much less frequent. Also, they can hold a lot of water so I find myself pouring and refilling cups a little less often during the day. 

Secondly, after Easter I found this plastic egg dying tray. This is by far the coolest paint container I've found. Excellent for keeping colors separate, quantity control, and extra space for mixing. I recommend looking after the holidays for this tray. I think I got them for 98 cents each!

This idea I found on pinterest. On pinterest kleenex boxes were the base, but we used Greenies Dog Treat boxes someone donated to my classroom. I cut a rectangular opening for the mouth, then students covered the box with wallpaper to create a fun print. The eyes are discarded cardstock and teeth are from a cut up card windshield visor. This is an entirely recycled project. I did this project with my 4th grade advanced students due to the limited number of boxes. I'm starting to collect kleenex boxes now so hopefully I could do this with an entire grade level in the spring. My students loved these!

If you look closely on the monsters, the lid for the boxes is on the bottom. We did that on purpose so that it could be used for a secret storage box. Notes, toys, etc can be put in the mouth then empty things out by pulling off the lid.

Two more student days until we are out for the holidays. Can't wait!

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.

Discards = Free Crayon Mosiac Art!

At the end of the school year I will collect all sorts of odds and ends that other teachers normally throw out. Short nubby little crayons have become a large collection in my room filling two copy boxes. I've heard of people melting them in various manners to create batiks, or even new crayons, but melting isn't something I'm comfortable with. I wanted to do something safe with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders with minimal chance of bleeding and blistering.

This idea originated at a conference years ago where an expert art teacher told me how she would use marker tops to create small scale murals. I didn't have a lot of marker tops at the time, but I did have tons of nubby crayons. Hence, I would give it a try!

I assigned this project to a small group of fourth grade girls, however I think with proper guidance much younger ages could also accomplish this. We used the following materials: one side of a cardboard box, crayons, and glue-all.  I would not recommend school glue because it doesn't have the permanent quality needed.

We drew out a pencil sketch of Van Gogh's Starry Night on the cardboard, then we poured glue in lines across one section at a time, placed the corresponding color crayons on the glue, then continue forth across the entire image. I think the results are rather impressive considering all the materials used to create this work were discards.

Our interpretation of Van Gogh's Starry Night

A couple of pointers about making something like this: I recommend shaving one side of the crayon to create a flat edge that will rest parallel to the cardboard base. I've found that many will pop off easily if they remain cylindrical. This project takes a while and a lot of crayons. If you are working small then I would expect you could finish quicker, but this particular piece is over a foot and a half wide. Lastly, use a lot of glue. Pour it on seams, fill in little gaps.

So far I have a crayon mosiac started at my primary school (K - 2) of our mascot, a giraffe. I would also like to create one at my intermediate school although I'm not quite sure what we should create yet. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share them!

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!