Dive into 50 engaging 6th-grade art projects to inspire creativity and teach vital art skills in middle school students.
6th Graders did a really nice job on this project. We started off by learning a lot about the artist Roy Lichtenstein. We watched this video and read through this handout. Using iPads and computers students worked on editing their photo to make it in a comic book style. They drew from the image they created. I had to stress to them to draw what they were seeing and not what they thought it should look like. After seeing Lichtenstein's work, students set to work using only primary color markers (and black). They were to fill in some areas solid, and use Lichtenstein's dots in other areas. I had two very different types of students with this project; one group were the students who totally embraced the idea of using interesting colors on their face, and the other who were so self conscious about it they would work with their drawing on their lap so no one could see it. Even in this day in age, you know of the "selfie," many students were just so embarrassed to do this project. It was not because of the colors, but the idea of the self portrait. Do any of you struggle with your older students at the idea of a self portrait? How do you go about problem solving it?
April 16, 2012 This session I will be teaching my fifth grade class. Unfortunately my sixth graders left and will be moving onto the middle school next year:( I will miss them greatly. What a good bunch of kids! April 15, 2012 Silkscreening T-shirts with a Social or Environmental Message! Miss Flegal and I cashed in on these stretcher bars we came upon and combined them with white organza fabric to make silkscreens! Students brought in their own t-shirts and used elmer's glue to create a resist. The exciting component about this project was the glow-in-the-dark printing ink I was able to find to make their shirts really special! March 21, 2012 Sixth grade silhouettes complete! Our art program has been getting so many positive comments about the front entrance of our building and these vibrant mosaic silhouettes. Using marbled paper that the students made and thinking about color choice that coincided with their action or movement was very important. Lastly, we incorporated a literacy element inspired by Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? March 9, 2012 My sixth graders are back and we are working on life sized art projects combining two types of art we just looked at and learned a lot about-- silhouettes and mosaics. These were inspired by an installation art piece we did last year as an entire building. I cannot believe how cool these are looking! Our media for this project has included cardboard, black latex paint, various colors of construction paper, shaving cream and tempera paint for marbling, scissors and glue stick. The poses for the silhouettes were derived from the children themselves and interests they have both in and outside of school as well an energy or emotion they are trying to evoke. When all is said and done we are incorporating an element of Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. I can't wait to post more when they are finalized next week! December 2, 2011 This six week session I will be instructing my fifth grade class and will return to teaching fifth grade again in February. Stay tuned... November 11. 2011 Self Portraits in Chuck Close Style Students in sixth grade are integrating math skills by measuring and creating a grid for an exact self portrait drawing. This is the method that artist Chuck Close uses to create his portraits. After spending extensive time learning about his life-- he is my FAVORITE artist, we are now in the beginning stages of creation. So far, so good! November 4, 2011 Oh what a busy Friday! Students were busy glazing ocarinas as well as using acrylic paints to put finishing touches on their cubism Picasso sculptures. It was a great way to end a busy week and we will look forward to working in new art media next time. October 26, 2011 Pablo Picasso Sculptures in progress... Students are using some unconventional tools for their current sculptural project-- wood scraps, glue, wire and pantyhose. Yes, you heard me right. If your child has recently come home talking about using pantyhose as part of his art project, he is not lying to you. Here is what we have started in the past few days. October 19, 2011 Ocarinas We are trying our hand at constructing ocarinas out of clay. Students did extensive research online and here is what we have learned so far. The ocarina (/ɒkəˈriːnə/) is an ancient flute-like wind instrument.[1] Variations do exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is often ceramic, but other materials may also be used, such as plastic, wood, glass, clay, and metal. The ocarina belongs to a very old family of instruments, believed to date back to over 12,000 years.[2] Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. For the Chinese, the instrument played an important role in their long history of song and dance. The ocarina has similar features to the Xun (塤), another important Chinese instrument (but is different in that Ocarina uses an internal duct, whereas Xun is blown across the outer edge.)[3] In Japan, the traditional ocarina is known as the tsuchibue (kanji: 土笛; literally "earthen flute"). Different expeditions to Mesoamerica, including the one conducted by Cortés, resulted in the introduction of the ocarina to the courts of Europe. Both the Mayans and Aztecs had produced versions of the ocarina, but it was the Aztecs who brought the song and dance to Europe that accompanied the ocarina. The ocarina went on to become popular in European communities as a toy instrument.[4][5] Its earliest use in Europe dates back to the 19th century in Budrio, a town near Bologna, Italy, where Giuseppe Donati transformed the ocarina from a toy, which only played a few notes, into a more comprehensive instrument (known as the first "classical" ocarinas). The word ocarina in the Bolognese dialect means "little goose." The earlier form was known in Europe as a gemshorn, which was made from animal horns of the Gemsbok. The ocarina was featured in the Nintendo video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, attracting a marked increase in interest and a dramatic rise in sales.[6][7] How an ocarina works: 1. Air enters through the windway 2. Air strikes the labium, producing sound 3. Air vibrates throughout the inside of the ocarina Covering and uncovering holes lowers and raises the pitch Source: Wikipedia Here are our ocarinas in progress... Let's hope they make music once they are come out of the kiln! October 17, 2011 After not having my sixth grade class for the first six weeks of this school year they are now occupying my room every morning for 45 minutes for the next six weeks. It is such a joy to have them and experience their growth since I last saw them as fifth graders. We started our time together with a pencil study called The Vanishing Snack. I adapted this from high school art teacher Mrs. Vogel of Field High School. My students as usual have risen to the challenge and are producing wonderful work. At each stage of their four part drawing, they are wrinkling a pop can and drawing it as well as all of its highlights and shadows in its new state. September 7, 2011 Because of our new six week schedule I will not see my sixth graders until October 10th! Stay tuned... June 1, 2011 Tile Triptychs in progress! Students in sixth grade are embarking on a triptych constructed of clay. A triptych is a three paneled piece of art that views as one continuous piece but is constructed in stages. This has been a great opportunity for them to learn about specific properties of clay and how to work with this medium from one class to the next, keeping it moist and workable. The students were expected to include text, an image and possibly a favorite verse that states something about themselves as an individual. April 21, 2011 Plaster Hands and Feet March 13, 2011 In sixth grade we have about three projects going on at once. One is our plaster hands and feet project that we started back in January. Here they are as works in progress.... January 31, 2011 Recently in sixth grade I set my students loose with plaster and these thoughts in mind. Below are the results so far. Once again, their minds, their thought processes and their creative journeys amaze me. I will keep blogging as their projects move along... Take a moment and think about all of the uses of your hands in the course of a day, the course of a hour or even a minute. For example list every way you can think of that you used your hands just this morning… -to brush your teeth -to eat your breakfast What do you think your hands can say about a person? Can they have polished nails? Wear certain rings? Does their appearance tell you a story? For example having wrinkles… Let’s think about some of those features. Next think about phrases that have the word hand in it… “hands of time” “helping hands” “clap your hands” “give me a hand” “lend a hand” “in good hands”… If you could compare your hand to another object of similar form what would that be? A growing tree branching out? Sunday, January 16, 2011 Don Drumm Inspired Endangered Animals Students in sixth grade studied the metal art works of local artisan Don Drumm and then decided to make a statement with their art. After doing some research about the current Endangered Species list they created these metal embossed pieces about animals of diminishing numbers. Next, by adding a statement, they could give the animal a voice to be heard. Won’t you do your part in raising awareness for some of these unknown creatures? Below is our display of the completed sixth grade Chuck Close inspired portraits. Chuck Close Self Portraits in Progress November 29, 2010 We are wrapping up our Chuck Close portraits and the end results are amazing. Not only are students manipulating charcoal very well to create various tones but they have mastered a likeness of their own face! Chuck Close Self Portraits November 15, 2010 Wow! It has been awhile since I have updated my sixth section of the blog. Students have been hard at work and are tackling difficult projects and techniques. Most recently we have begun working in Chuck Close grid style. You can see his work at http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/. He is my favorite artist. Using a grid, students have integrated math skills into their drawing by focusing on exact measurements for precision. Here are a few of their starts... Vanishing Snack Drawings October 14, 2010 Students in sixth grade are training their eyes to see close details through these altered still life drawings. They are working on drawing a pop can and then slowly crushing it until it becomes very minimal. At each stage they have to look closely at how their object has been changed and then try and draw it. Charcoal has aided them in learning about the value scale. They are beginning to see that with shadows some parts can be extremely dark and extremely light.
I loved this project. This has now become my favorite 6th grade project. There were so many different elements that went into this project and 6th grade students rocked it! I was so impressed by the work they did. I have around 200 6th graders and this is just a handful of the drawings they did, but the majority of students were so successful and much of the results reflect the images in this post. We spent about 4 classes on this project. The first day we did a step by step drawing of a pop can. Students were then given a handout of about 10 different kinds of pop and they began drawing the logo. On the second day students finished drawing the logo and began shading in the pop can with drawing pencils and blending sticks. On the third day we talked a little bit about OP Art and created our backgrounds together. I did require students to have 4-5 circles on their drawing. We drew them together by tracing around circles around the classroom. They then had the option to create a checker board or the curved line background. They then filled in the background with markers. On the last day students finished the background by choosing the colors of the soda can to fill in with marker. Here are just SOME of the awesome drawings the 6th graders made. What do you think?
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. OP ART- “3D PAPER CONE DRA…
I'm back!!! did you miss me?!?!?! I hope that there haven't been any disasters while I've been gone?!?! I had my last tutorial of the year at Uni today - and my last assignment went in on the weekend. yayay - I'm finally done for the year. (and I'm just a little relieved about that I must say!!) lots to catch up on - lots to tell - but let's get back to the art lesson I talked about in my last post - on Op Art! here's my attempt at some Op Art -(I made this this evening to go through the steps!)..... the actual lesson went really really well. the kids were very focused, and loved all the examples I showed them of Bridget Riley's work. (in my researching - I found out that our own National Gallery here in Canberra holds 14 of Bridget's works. I'll have to pop in over the holidays to have a wee look me thinks!) I took along a tape measure in class and explained that my little A4 copies were tiny in comparison to most of the works in real life. They ooo-ed and aaaah-ed about that - especially when the little versions played with their eyes and heads on the small scale!! anyhoo - here's how I led them through the practical side of the intro to Op Art lesson. (the 2 lessons - for 2 separate classes - were for 1 hour each including a talk about Bridget's work and the movement of Op Art / the classes were both combined Year 5/6) I roughly modelled the following on the white board - step 1. take your A5 card - write your name on one side - on the other rule a rough 1cm border in lead pencil all the way around the edge of the card. (this helped so that they wouldn't draw on the tables when the textas/markers were used later)..... step 2. with the lead pencil - draw concentric circles out from the middle to the border lines. (I explained that they did not have to start exactly in the middle - they could start to one side - and they didn't have to be perfect)..... step 3. with a ruler and a lead pencil - draw a vertical line through the centre circle..... step 4. add more vertical lines across the whole image - varying the thickness. ie make some closer together and some wider apart..... step 5. grab a black felt tip pen and start colouring in - carefully. start in the middle....then work your way up and down - then outwards. (white out/liquid paper works well to fix up any mistakes). biggest tip - take your time!! (from here on in the actual lesson - I let the students run with it - and I circulated to help out here and there - lots and lots of circulating!!!)..... and here's my final pic before I used an eraser to gently rub out the pencil marks..... if you squint your eyes and look at the pic - you should be able to see movement - ie - waves!! (Bridget Riley is far more clever than I - you don't need to squint at her pics!!! - she's very clever - her lines are meticulous - go back to this post to see again). some more pics tonight of mine..... and finally - here's some of the student's work from when I was on prac..... this was a super fun lesson - I had fun - and the kids loved it. sad I couldn't expand on the lesson and get them to reflect more on what they had achieved and then look at making more Op Art - exploring it all a little more. sadly there was no time to fit such a lesson in while I was on prac. (just wait till I get my own classroom!!!!) the entire prac was absolutely brilliant. my mentor teacher already talked to the principal about me!!! they want me back when I have my degree! (even if it's just relief work to start with) nice. one more year........one more year......one more year....... so - after having such a long break from house business and crafting - I'm raring to get back into it!!! the in-laws arrive on Thursday for a wee 5 day visit - but other than that I'll be busy as a mad woman around this place! (are mad women busy????? maybe should have stuck with 'bumble bee' !!) hope I still have some followers?!?! for those that are still visiting - thank you. I promise to be a little betterer with posting - at least until Christmas!! (insert huge cheeky smiley face right here!) hugz from here. cheryl xox.
These self-portrait drawings by 5th graders were on display at the elementary school at the end of the school year, a nice tribute to the 5t...
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have 2 bonus class periods with my 6th graders while my current middle school group (8th grade) was in Washington, D.C. for the annual 7th/8th grade travel week. Because I hadn't had my 6's in a couple of months, and I only had a little over 1 hour of usable art making time with them, I knew I needed a project that would get them excited and keep them on task so that we would have finished pieces of art at the end of our time together. I decided that something BIG and a little bit messy would be right up their alley. For whatever reason, kids have a very high success rate with bird images (and cats, too!) so I decided we would draw owls and focus on drawing big, using lots of visual texture, and variation in value (lights and darks). To help the kids dive right in, I had some owl images available for them to look at (photocopied from Animals: 1,419 Copyright-Free Illustrations). They worked in charcoal on 19 x 25" tagboard that I had cut down from larger (25 x 38") pieces that I found in the paper room. To make their work really pop, they selected an area or two (usually the eyes, background or beak) to add color to using chalk pastels. The results were stunning and several are proudly on display in the lunchroom for all to enjoy!
Road-scapes Grant Haffner Style.... Elementary and Middle School ArtMixed Media Road Trip Landscape Art Lesson, Grant Haffner styleI have been preparing art lessons for the next school year. Recently, I gave this lesson a test run... I taught it online to my art club students in Vancouver, BC. They are elementary students (ages 6-12) They enjoyed the introduction to one point perspective and learning about contemporary artist, Grant Haffner. Here you can see what they created in one hour. This a
In 6th grade, we talked about how colors can evoke emotions. For example, red can mean love or anger. The students took self portraits with ...
With all the fancy projects an art teacher can find on Pinterest, sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics. Simple drawing and painting of familiar subjects. This week my students drew art manekins. You could see much more concentration in the students than while doing other projects. I was looking through the folders on my computer and found these animal watercolor paintings my students had made last year. For more watercolor lessons, check out these old posts: How … Read more... →
Dive into 50 engaging 6th-grade art projects to inspire creativity and teach vital art skills in middle school students.
Students learned about "upcycling" for our One to the World unit in art. One to the World (OttW) is a new initiative set forth by Loudoun County where students learn about a "real world" problem and consider a solution. We used 15 year old Mac software CDs that were once used by Eagle Ridge MS, and "upcycled" (repurposed) them to create artwork. Their designs were inspired by the stained glass work of Louis Comfort Tiffany and mandalas. All student CDs will remain hung together for the 6th grade art show in June-they are wonderful in person!
Inspired by pinterest... I took photos of the children a few days before starting the lesson. Use a white background when taking the profile photo. Use photo shop to create the silhouette or other photo editing software. I had the silhouettes printed on large 11x17 paper at my office. The day we started the lesson we talked about the elements of art, line, shape, form, value, space and some principles such as pattern and rhythm with the use of a power point. To finish the class, I had students trace them on the light table on 12x18 paper. Students also practiced creating patterns based on some examples on a worksheet I created for practicing the zentangle designs. I assessed the students designs and discussed some more options, ideas and things to stay away from on day two. I also equipped each table with some step by step zentangle pages I got from various sources on the internet including pinterest. These helped a lot! Students outlined their pencil silhouette with black sharpie. We then started dividing the background into large sweeping sections. Students then began creating Zentangles in the sections using ultra fine point sharpies and regular sharpies to fill in areas with black. After a few days of working, we decided the final step would be to fill in the silhouettes with black. I did experiment with adding watercolor in a wash and tie-dyed fashion to the background. That looked cool too. We didn't do that to our final project due to time needs for our short time together. The final results were great! I made suggestions for students to add details to areas, add more contrast by adding blacked out areas and finally to spend a little time sharpening and cleaning up various lines. The turned out GREAT!
Sculpt Georgia O'Keeffe-inspired flowers, draw Warhol pop art, and color graffiti breakdancers with these awesome fifth grade art projects.
HALLOWEEN ART LESSONS for 5th Grade and up I've put together 6 of my favorite Halloween Art Lessons for 5th Grade through 8th Grade
Here's a great lesson that I saw over on teach kids art. It's quite simple, very relaxing, and would be great to leave with a supply teach...
Sculpt Georgia O'Keeffe-inspired flowers, draw Warhol pop art, and color graffiti breakdancers with these awesome fifth grade art projects.
Dive into 50 engaging 6th-grade art projects to inspire creativity and teach vital art skills in middle school students.
A while back I shared a tutorial on how to make a 3-D color wheel out of paper plates , which I found out from a reader comment, came from ...
5th grade is finishing up their Chinese New Year kites, so it's time for a new project! I thought we'd go in a more 3-d direction, and create some origami dragon eyes! The kids LOVE origami, and these aren't too complicated to do! I was cruising Pinterest, and found Krokotek's blog about creating origami eyes, and thought I'd try it too. & Sabrina Wingren, with A Space to Create Art, has this project for sale in her TPT store, if you'd like to purchase additional details of this project. There are also dozens of youtube videos, showing how to make similar reptile/dragon eyes, if my videos aren't sufficient. :) Here's how we made them and a sample of my students' work! Here's a closeup of the eye I colored in the time lapse above. We used oil pastels to color with, and those blend so well! It works a lot better than paint, IMO. I did go ahead and use black and my darkest purple to finish out the corners. We used the Crayola 28 packs to get such a wide array of colors. Here's how to fold one! After you fold your paper, you can start by creating the inner eye part. In my time lapse video, you can see how I layered and blended my oil pastels to create a shaded and shiny looking eye! After you color your inner eye, start on the outer! I chose colors that would blend well, started with the lightest color near the opening, and worked my way out with the darker colors. Then, I added dragon scales with a black pastel! Stay tuned for some awesome ART! Here are some extremely excellent eyes from Mrs. Rogers' class! A Boomerang of Mrs. Rogers' Dragon Eyes! Here's Mrs. Kilby's finished dragon eyes! DISCLOSURE: LINKS TO PRODUCTS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS, WHICH MEANS I GET A SMALL COMPENSATION FOR SALES. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR BLOG!
Sculpt Georgia O'Keeffe-inspired flowers, draw Warhol pop art, and color graffiti breakdancers with these awesome fifth grade art projects.
Read below to find out how we created these, see step-by-step pics and watch my YouTube tutorial on this lesson! Printmaking is one of my favorite things to teach in art. I love it because it alway…
In 6th grade we study the Art Historical Time Line. We always do a “faux” stained glass window project using liquid watercolors and sharpies. We get inspiration from looking at a…
This first grade lesson took about (2) 40 minute art classes to create. Students first learned about the artist Sanford Biggers and we discussed his AMAZING artwork. We also discussed how we’d be u…
Dive into 50 engaging 6th-grade art projects to inspire creativity and teach vital art skills in middle school students.