Fifth Grade students studied gesture drawings and the sculptures of George Segal. Students then created their own gesture sculptures showing...
4th Grade: Language Arts Check out my set "Most Interesting 100" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
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!
Make a ping pong ball float with EASY Bernoulli principle experiment demonstrating how airplanes fly. FUN physics science experiment!
One of my favorite language arts lesson to do in teaching students about synonyms. Using the idea of a "synonym roll," every year my students are extremely engaged by the lesson. Want a terrific synonym lesson complete with the outlines for the cinnamon rolls themselves? Here is my lesson plan typed up along with 36 words with synonym examples, 3 different sizes of rolls, and a synonym brainstorming page for students. Synonym Roll Lesson Plan You can also head over to my TPT store and download the outlines.
Using "Oranges" by Gary Soto, "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, and "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams, I attempt to…
STEM Challenge; students design a Ferris Wheel using craft sticks! This challenging STEM project is the most fun as kids tackle creating 2 symmetrical sides and connecting them to allow turning.
Help your beginning writer become an excellent essay-writer with this helpful proofreading practice sheet.
Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching
It's summer time!! I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working on some really great resources. (And enjoying the fact that I am no longer a first year teacher!) I am almost done,but until then, here is a great first day of school/music class game. This is an icebreaker and I am planning to use it with my upper primary/middle school classes. Here is a link to the pdf of this worksheet. This is on Google Docs. Just open it and under file, click download! Enjoy!
This handsome poster has been created for the not-yet-made film of NUMBER THE STARS. Producer/director Sean Astin is still in the process of raising the necssary financing but he has a fine screenplay which adheres very closely to the book, and plans (if $$$ is forthcoming) to film in Denmark next spring. Sean told me this recently: durin...
I LOVE making charts! Step into my classroom and you’ll probably say, “Wow, someone has too much time!” but to be honest, I don’t! I just love them so much and love the w…
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
Are ya'll familiar with the Japanese holiday called Children's Day? I think sometimes my students are convinced that everyday is Children's Day which is why nearly every night is Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day for this art teacher. But I digress. The real Children's Day is celebrated in Japan on the 5th day of May which, in case you didn't know, is the 5th month. It's a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness. Which, seriously, that part should be everyday in an art room, don't you think? On this day, all children fly a carp kite called a koinobori on a flag pole, along with the koinobori of those in their family. The father's koinobori is usually at the top, followed by the mother with the children's kites, from oldest to youngest, flown below. I had big visions of flying the kids' koinobori outside of our school for the occasion and for our upcoming art show (which is in 10 days, people! Not that I'm freaking out at all). However, we had some pretty Big, Bad and Ugly weather at the start of last week that lead me to believe that keeping these lovelies inside would be a better bet. The last time I hung something in these windows, it was a pretty big hit so I thought I'd do it again with our koinobori. Along with a sign, of course. Otherwise everyone just thought they were super cool fish kites. Which they are but there's also a super cool story behind them as well. So just how did my friends in First Grade Land create these awesome koinobori? Dude, it was so super easy and, like, the World's Fastest Art Project (which for me is a total rarity). Here's a list of the supplies we used: Roylco's Japanese Carp Wind Sock Kit For about $8, you can get your kitten mittens on a set of 24 die-cut fish with tag board strips that get glued into the mouths (if you look at the orange fish above, you'll see the tag board propping open the mouth.) Sharpies. This is optional. I had the kids use these to add details that they wanted to remain permanent. Watercolor Paint. Boy, talk about an End-of-the-School-Year-We-Are-Almost-Outta-Supplies Limited Palette, ya'll. But, we're artists, kids! We can make do! Or something like that. A Spray Bottle Full of Water. Yarn. Hole Punch. How the lesson went down: My kids have been learning about Asia, with an emphasis on Japan, all year. In fact, we'd just finished off this sushi lesson not long ago and had just completed making a ceramic koi fish. I needed a short and quick tie-in lesson while our clay projects dried and fired. These koinobori were just the perfect thing. After chatting about Children's Day, the kids were given a tray of warm and cold colored Sharpie markers. We chatted about the parts of a fish (fins, gills, scales, tail, etc.) and how we might emphasize those with either warm or cool colored Sharpies. That took up our first 30 minute session. For the next 30 minute session, we reviewed correct use of water color paint (which obviously doesn't include cleaning the tray, ew!). I also told the kids that they were again to use warm or cool colors but that they didn't have to stick with the same color family as they used last art class. Once the kids had collected their supplies (a paint brush and two ziplock bags -- the two things I forgot to mention in that above supply list, doh!), they were to raise their hand and I came over and squirted their fish with water. Because the paper is made from the same stuff as coffee filters, a wee spritz of water really helps the water color paint to spread out. The kids thought that was pretty rad. Once the kids had painted their entire fish, they were given the option of splatter painting. I don't think a single kid opted out of that one. To dry, the kids gingerly carried their zip locked fish to the floor. The reason I kept the bags on the bottom was that I found that the color will often run off the paper and on to the surface that it is sitting on. However, if the paper is allowed to "sit in it's own juices" so to speak, it dries much more vibrant. Now, normally, I woulda had the kids add the tag board and attempt to tie the string. But I was in a bit of a time crunch. So I set aside about 15 minutes every afternoon to hot glue the tag board at the top, hot glue it into a tube, hole punch the top and add the yarn. By the end of the week, I had all of my classes finished. To hang, I bent a paper clip so that it looked like some sort of scary prison shank and stuck it into the foamy ceiling tie. I added the top fish to that paper clip. Then I hole punched the bottom of that fish and added a bent paper clip to that hole where I attached the second fish. If I'm not making any sense it's because I'm deep into that aforementioned Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day and I simply cannot be held accountable for my incoherentness. I managed to get 'em all up and ready for Monday, May 5th on Friday. I can't wait for the kids (and the grown kids) to see them and celebrate all things children -- especially during our standardized testing week! Until next time, enjoy Children's Day! Or Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day. Your choice.
Welcome! This blog post features a guided tutorial of how to craft a DIY mini room and challenges the creator to think like an interior designer. The goal is to make the mini room have a sense of UNITY, which is an important principle of design. Unity in art can be achieved when the visual
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. Abstract Self-Portrait Paintin…
Well this weekend has already flown by. My plans were to have a guest post by an AMAZING person and a wonderful give-a-way to celebrate reac...
Free & funny readers' theater scripts by T. P. Jagger. Use readers' theater (readers' theatre) scripts to improve students' reading fluency.
Teach students about the many different types of analogies with this anchor chart. Student participation is included in the completion of this anchor chart!
Teaching prose, drama, and poetry is quick and easy. Your third and fourth grade students just need a little vocabulary and practice.
This gallery celebrates the world’s biggest drawing festival – The Big Draw – which runs until 3 November 2014. Illustrator and author Marion Deuchars invites you to take inspiration from the great artists from Andy Warhol to Frida Kahlo in your art
People often find the distinction between metaphors and similes a difficult concept to master. Teaching these subjects using fun activities makes the challenging topic easier to learn. These activities do not take much preparation, but get your whole class or group involved. Be sure to provide your students with lots ...
There, their, and they're sound similar but their meanings are different. 'Their' is for possession, 'there' is a place, and 'they're' is short for 'they are.'
The idea for this lesson came from an image I saw on Pinterest.. but after doing some investigative work - seems to have originated from the blog Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue and before that from the 1991 book written by Sara Beggs, "The No Nonsense Guide to Teaching Art." For this lesson we began by taking about what symmetry is and the difference between linear symmetry (1 line of symmetry) and radial symmetry (more than 1 line of symmetry). Then we talked about what a sculpture is (a piece of artwork you can see from all sides - it is 3-dimensional) and what a relief "sculpture" is (a piece of artwork that has depth on the surface but is not meant to be seen from all sides). Once students understood the principles behind radial symmetry and sculpture we began creating our very own radial paper relief sculptures! Students started by folding a piece of 12"x12" black construction paper diagonally both ways and vertical and horizontally (to create an 'X' crease and a '+' crease). Making these creases makes creating a radial design SO much easier because it gives you guidelines to work with. Once their papers had been folded and their names written, we sat them aside. Before having students begin folding their colored paper (each piece was cut to 3" x 3") to fill the inside of their design, I demonstrated 4 folds to them to get them started. *Students were allowed to deviate from these folds if they wanted to. To download the handout below, click on the arrow button in the top right corner (this will open it in a new window). You can download from there. My kids absolutely LOVED this project! They are already super into origami, so this project was like heaven to them! :) You might also be interested in checking out my Paper Poinsettia Sculpture lesson which uses the same basic concepts. Also available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
Looking for 3rd grade anchor charts? We put together some of our favorites to use in your third grade classroom this year!
Simple and easy Hundertwasser watercolor collage art project using regular paper. Great for fifth grade and takes minutes to complete!
If you've been searching for the Aztecs and ideas to teach, you may have been searching for a while. There are not a lot of resources out there, readily available and free for your use.
