Teamwork and collaboration! These are important parts of raising a 21st-century learner in the classroom, yet many students do not entirely understand what this it. I stress the importance of teamwork and collaboration throughout the year, but I take time in the beginning of the year to help students truly understand what it means. Throwing […]
Collaborative projects! Collaborative projects are one of my favorite things. I love them at the start of the year and the end. I love doing them with the whole school or just a grade level. I love using songs, themes, artist-inspiration...you name it. I just love collaboratives! We've done a TON over the years and I thought I'd put them all together in one big ole blog post. So, here you go: my 20 Favorite Collabortive Projects. Be sure and click on the links, many of these have how-to videos. Check out this blog post on how we created several canvases in this style for our school and the school library! Students worked in table teams to create these positive four-letter words to describe our school! Here's a simple, fast and fun project using clothes pens, paint and words that describe who we are! A fun mural based on the book You Be You was created by nearly all of my students. You can learn about the process of creating our fish here. Read all about the making of the mural itself here! Another book we used for inspiration is the book by Todd Parr called It's Okay to be Different. You can check out how we created these collages here! The Our School Has Heart mural was a piece with a contribution from each student in the school. You can see the breakdown of who created what in this blog post. Our clay collaborative mural is a bright and shiny beauty that hangs in a prominent place in our school. Each student contributed something to this piece...you can read more about the process here. One year, we created a Village of Kindness as apart of our art show! Each student upcycled a milk carton that our cafeteria queen cleaned in the dishwasher. The students made little doors that opened and said kind words to those who peeked inside. Students worked together to create the landscape on the bulletin board. I love to do collaboratives at the start of the school year. I especially like ones where students celebrate our school and that set a postive tone. That was the idea behind this collaborative! Another fun way to start the school year is with some selfies! We've created them for a monochromatic mural. You can check out the video here. Inspired by the artist Romero Britto, this mural was created by my students when I was out for jury duty! My sub just played the video and when I returned, I assembled the mural! A collaborative mural that definitely made the rounds was this one! The kids loved creating the feathers and it was a beautiful thing while in the hallway but I will say...it was a lot of work to assemble. All the details here. My fourth graders created this collaborative one year that lives at the front entrance of our school. We even 'wrapped' it for Christmas and brought out admin out for them to unwrap it as it was hung on the wall of our school. We kicked off this school year with our What a Wonderful World collaborative mural. Details and video tour here. Here's another look of our school mural. Above that, you'll see our Learning for All collaborative! During our field day one year, my students rotated through many art stations. One of them was this alphabet and number series. My librarian requested them and we just love how they turned out. Click here to see them framed and hung in our school library. Much like our monochromatic collaborative, this map collaborative was created with a self-portrait of each of my students! We are the tigers at my school so we do tiger-themed artwork every so often. This mural was created by first graders of all of their tiger drawings. You can find a how-to video right here! In table teams, my third graders created a Rizzi City inspired by the artist James Rizzi. One year, we did super-sized works of art inspired by Andy Warhol and Vincent van Gogh! When these came together, they were stunning. All the details can be found here.
Kids can make something pretty incredible when they pool their talents.
“Chromatic Cascade” by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark herself! Parking Garage Mural by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark is a Los Angeles based artist known for h…
Earlier this year, my co-worker Jayne found the idea to make a collaborative school-wide paper mural based on the artwork of Thank YouX. The idea for a student mural originally came from Jenell Novello and you can see the lesson plan write-up on Artsonia. She also so generously provided the lesson plan and templates on Google docs. Thank You X got his name by accident. In 2009 Andy Warhol’s spray painted portrait was spotted on a city street in L.A.. … Read more... →
Collaborative practice in the classroom can facilitate acceptance, cooperation and teamwork. These unique pages offer an incredible variety of collaborative projects that are no-prep, low maintenance, and literally full proof for student success. The concept is simple – the results are awesome! Using common materials such as colored pencils, markers, crayons, paints - each student works independently on his/her “tile.” Once completed, 4 students join their tiles together to form a whole. Simply trim away the excess paper and tape the squares together on the back. Easier still, tape them in place on a large sheet of colored paper. The completed piece is accomplished by turning each square 90 degrees clockwise and measures app.15½ x 15½ inches. You’ll receive 20 boldly designed “tiles,” developed with a broad age level in mind, loosely based on the months of the year. These seasonal images make it easy to incorporate a project into your curriculum anytime you need/want to. You’ll also find Op Art and non-holiday related subjects. Please check out the Preview to see all the images you don’t see here. Classroom Teachers It’s no secret that integrating art into your subject matter can be highly effective. After all, this product was created based on radial symmetry and fractions! As a math resource, these pages are perfect. Also consider a display of “Locked Hands” for Black History Month. Assemble a class quilt using the “Quilt Block” square. Follow the lines of a “Celtic Knot” for a fresh twist on St. Patrick’s Day. Art Teachers This is a must-have for your sub folder - a no-fuss, engaging project for a wide range of grade levels. Better yet, customize the pages to complement your own curriculum. Based on your specific directives, this product can be adapted to fit your units on color, line, shape, symmetry, asymmetry, pattern, texture, shading, contrast and more. This is a resource that not only delivers on a number of learning levels - it brings the “fun factor!” Your kids will love the ease of the process, the opportunity to create their own page and finally the “wow” moment of contributing to the cool, collaborative artwork. You also might like: Radial Symmetry (2) COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages Radial Symmetry (3) COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages Radial Symmetry (4) COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages" "Count on US to Be KIND" COLLABORATIVE Door Design Spring Bird COLLABORATIVE Door Design "Thank You!" COLLABORATIVE Door Design Holiday Ornament COLLABORATIVE Door Design" "The Scream" COLLABORATIVE Door Design "Together We SHINE" COLLABORATIVE Door Design "TOGETHER WE'RE BETTER" COLLABORATIVE Door Design "Best Class EVER" COLLABORATIVE Door Design Flower Power COLLABORATIVE Door Design COLLABORATIVE Flower Mural COLLABORATIVE Flower (2) Mural COLLABORATIVE Flower (3) Mural 3 COLLABORATIVE Flower Murals Earth Day COLLABORATIVE Door Design Valentine COLLABORATIVE Door Design Still Life with Fruit Dish" by Cezanne COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Page "The Starry Night" by Van Gogh COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "Dance" by Keith Haring COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "The Water Lily Pond" by Monet COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "Goldfish" by Matisse COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "The Great Wave" by Hokusai COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "The Three Musicians" by Picasso COLLABORATIVE Activity Coloring Pages "Effort and Heart Make Great Art" COLLABORATIVE Mural Visit me on PINTEREST Mary Straw Activity Coloring Pages INSTAGRAM @marystrawactivities This item is protected by copyright. It is unlawful to copy or distribute it without my permission. How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: Feedback = TPT Credit. On your My Purchases page – beside each purchase – you’ll see a Provide Feedback button. Click the button and you’ll be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. How to learn about sales, freebies and shiny, new products? Follow this store! Stay posted (via email) to all things new and upcoming by clicking the little green star near the top of this page. Thanks again! Mary
“Chromatic Cascade” by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark herself! Parking Garage Mural by Jen Stark, Los Angeles Jen Stark is a Los Angeles based artist known for h…
Kids can make something pretty incredible when they pool their talents.
Hello, friends! I'm excited to share that the school-wide collaborative my first through fourth grade students created at THE BEGINNING of the school year (yikes!) is finally installed. Like, finally. Y'all, while I do love having all students creating a collab at the start of the school year, why do I do it to myself? It's so much work on my end! All the attaching to bulletin board paper and hanging...it's so much! AND I always procrastinate! And yet I do it year after year. Such a glutton for punishment, I guess. Here's a look inside the process of hanging this beast with some of my tips: When hanging something this heavy, it takes everything in your tool belt (as well as a helpful music teacherin' friend). Check out my tip on binder clips and long tabs of paper. It helps! I've not done an official post on how we created these dot paintings but I'll tell you: it was super easy! In fact, it's one of my fave kindergarten lessons which you can find the details on here. All students began with a dot in the middle of their paper. The paper was prefolded so that each dot was exactly in the middle. Meaning I quarter folded the paper, once in half one way and then in half the other. Dot was placed at the intersection of those two folded lines. Like the kidnergarten lesson, each student was then instructed to paint concentric circles around their dot using any colors of tempera paint they liked! Once dry, the paintings were cut along those folded lines. They were then rearranged and glued to a black piece of construction paper. This part was tricky so students helped one another. Early finishers painted the wording of the sign! And then the beast was hung...where it shall stay for a LONG, LONG time. Or the end of the school year where I'll have the students cut it apart to take home their circles (maybe. Or I may leave it up until next year!).
One of my goals this year was to have my students really understand the artistic behaviors. I thought last year the students were looking at them only on the surface. I want a deeper understandin…
Put peacemaking skills at your students��� fingertips with Conflict Cubes they make themselves. This resource encourages collaborative efforts to develop creative and meaningful solutions to common conflicts. Includes directions and a reproducible.
Each student was given one page to color with either crayons or colored pencils. They could use any colors or combinations that they wished. When they were all done, they cut out each Collaboration Square. The squares were put on a table and an attempt was made to group them with 3 others of similar colors and style. Not alway easy. The four matching squares were glued on various colors of construction paper. The completed pictures were hung in the hallway of the school for about a month. At the end of the month, the pictures were removed and placed on the whiteboard tray. I randomly chose student names using my class tongue depressors. Only those that had pictures were able to choose a completed square to take home.
Which Of The Olympic And Paralympic Values Is Most Important In Your Own Life? With the Olympics and Paralympics coming soon, it is the perfect opportunity to think about some of the values behind the games. Use this critical thinking lesson to explore the values and discuss how those values are important to the students. Students drag and drop a list of the values to rank their choices and use reasoning skills to justify their decisions. The lesson is designed to be carried out with students in groups online, but it is also possible to carry out this lesson using the paper ranking resource included.
Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog
So, yesterday I showed you how I got my angle studies kicked off with my students–how I solidified understanding of “right angle”. We had lots left to accomplish–so I’ll try to share some of the different lessons and activities we did over the next days! Tip 1: If you can get your hands on thin […]
ALDO becomes WALDO! Explore a lesson design outline with lots of resources for mixing and matching strategies, EduProtocols, and digital tools.
Learn how to set up meaningful collaborative co-teaching lesson plans that really make an impact on your English learners' education.
A fun and creative elementary school art lesson plan for K-4th grade. This lesson plans is perfect for celebrating International Dot Day. Art teachers and educators can teach students creativity, courage & collaboration with Kandinsky inspired artwork.
Today I wrapped up week #3 of school! Man oh man - do I miss the summer! Waking up at 5:15am every morning just isn't really my cup of tea.. This year my school had our students rotate through all 8 discovery (specials) classes during the first 8 days of school (normally we see them for a few days at a time). This was so that our students could meet all of their discovery teachers.. and get to see all of our classrooms. Last year I went 1 1/2 months before seeing some of my rotations, so this was a welcomed change! So during the first 8 days of school I introduced myself, went over my classroom rules, some procedures, and assigned seats for 48 separate classes! After all the boring introductory stuff, I also had my 2nd-5th grade students work on a collaborative mural project. This lesson comes from Don at Shine Brite Zamorano! We started by looking at the artist Libs Elliot. I showed students some examples of her work and then we briefly talked about how she was able to simultaneously create a sense of unity and variety in her artwork. After looking at some of her pieces, we landed on a slide which showed the GORGEOUS mural that Don had his students make, then I explained what we were going to do! Students were instructed to create a square patch with construction paper, that would be added to a nearly school-wide collaborative mural project inspired by the work of Libs Elliot. At each of my tables I put a basket filled with 6"x6" squares, large triangles (cut from 6"x6" squares), and 3"x3" squares in a number of different colors (colors were switched out for each rotation). Students were told they needed one large square, one large triangle, and two small squares (which could be cut into smaller triangles) - then the rest was up to them! I used the following schedule for my color rotations: Rotation 1- Scarlet, Magenta, White Rotation 2- Red, Scarlet, Orange (some), White Rotation 3- Orange, Gold, Red (some), White Rotation 4- Gold, Yellow, Light Yellow, Orange (some), White Rotation 5- Light Yellow, Hot Lime, Holiday Green (some), White Rotation 6- Hot Lime, Holiday Green, Turquoise, White Rotation 7- Turquoise, Royal Blue, Sky Blue, White Rotation 8- Royal Blue, Purple, Lilac, White I gotta be honest - the prep work for this one was INTENSE.. but the results are STUNNING! For this project (and really all my other projects), we used Tru-Ray Sulphite Construction Paper. If you haven't used it before - you haven't been living! Their paper comes in super vibrant colors AND it doesn't fade (which means this display will be up for a while)! To hang, I glued down the squares onto sheets of butcher paper, and then used packing tape and command strips to attach it to the wall. Command strips were ESSENTIAL to getting this to stay up!! The other specials teachers and I think that there is some kind of conspiracy going on in which the county is spraying something on our walls to make sure no tape sticks to it. I really think we're on to something!
Collaborative art is a fun, unique way to encourage a group of people (kids or adults) to work together and create something beautiful! Group art projects can take so many different forms and there is no right or wrong way to make art together. Ready for 28 of the best group art project ideas?! The
Crochet Dog Pattern 'Greyhound in Sweater' to make your own amigurumi dog like Greyhound, Whippet, Galgo, Italian Greyhound, Lurcher, Sighthound (downloadable pdf file) in English (US terms), very detailed, very clear instructions and tips with lots of photos for each step. Skill level: upper beginner (the Crochet Pattern doesn't contain lessons on crocheting). Skills required: basic crocheting skills for amigurumi (crocheting in spiral, magic ring, single crochet stitch, increasing and decreasing, changing colors, etc), basic sewing skills. Size (sitting) ~ 14 cm, I used a yarn of ~160 m = 50 g (55%Cotton, 45%Pac) and 2,5 mm crochet hook (or a bigger dog ~18 cm, a yarn of 100 m = 50 g (50%Cotton 50%Acrylic) and a 3,5 mm hook. Digital goods cannot be returned or exchanged. The Crochet Amigurumi Pattern is copyright protected and is the sole property of @svetaminka2. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Thanks for visiting my shop. Sveta
Need Wonder activities for your classroom or home school Wonder teaching resources? We have Wonder lesson plans, Wonder worksheets, and more ideas for book projects, kindness activities for middle school, and diversity lessons to make a great study unit for students using both the novel by RJ Palacio and teaching with movies (including the popular precepts project!).
We are off and running at Zamo! As usual, I am starting the school year off with a collaborative project that is low stress and high impac...
I am back in the classroom at Keller Elementary in Green Bay after taking a year off to be home with my three little ones. I am blessed bey...
Collaborative art is easy, right!? Put a beret on, give some kids some paint brushes, let them have at it, voilà! Wrong! Dead, wrong! Organising a group of adults or children to create a cohesive a…
28 Collaborative Projects to Build Community in Your Art Room % %
Figuring out the first art project of the year with my kids is always a daunting task for me. This is why I was so excited when I found this pin of suncatchers on Pinterest (links back to the blog Make, Do, Play). I really wanted to do something that my students would have fun with and could easily be started late if new students joined my class throughout the week (I see mine for an entire week.. then rotate to the next class). My students absolutely LOVE origami and even though I'm not particularly skilled at it, the folds in this project were very simple.. so it was a easy choice! I started this project by reviewing both linear and radial symmetry with my students. We talked about the difference between the two.. then sorted a number of images based on their type of symmetry. Once I was sure my students had it down, I moved on to demonstrating two folds that they could use for the project. I folded two different examples on my document camera, while my 5th graders followed along on scrap paper. After showing them the two folds, they decided which one of the two radial suncatcher designs they wanted to create... then picked out their colors. I originally intended for this to be a color wheel lesson.. but you need to have 8 different colored papers for these designs and not 6 like a standard color wheel has. So instead they had free reign on their color choices (either way they were getting some color mixing lesson). **The paper we used was a semi-transparent colored origami paper . It think these really turned out beautifully and they were very simple to make! On Friday I hung them up in the cafeteria windows.. they look stunning in the morning light! :)
For this interactive lesson, students will use the board in order to interact with each other. It also provides a means for assessment during a class period. Students can collaborate and use the board to brainstorm new ideas, share information, or reflect upon the lesson/ activity/ project from th
I wanted to share our wonderful results of this collaborative mural project inspired by the artist Tula Pink‘s Tridazzler Quilt. This idea was created by Don Masse, of Shine Brite Zamorano. Check out his blog here to see the directions for this project. Here is the Tridazzler Quilt the project was inspired by. We precut squares and triangles for the kids. First, they glued the triangle to the square. Then they used a ruler to draw the lines and then … Read more... →
Movement in the classroom is beneficial for many reasons. First and foremost, getting up to move in the classroom might help anxious students relieve stress.
A fun, collaborative art activity for your students. Designed for Matariki (the Māori New Year) however it can be used at any time. Students create one of the star sections and join it together with four others to make a complete star. They look fabulous displayed on the classroom wall. INCLUDED...
An early lesson you want to teach your students is the difference in books that tell stories and books that give information. I have found that the best way to teach this is within context of different types of texts. Let's read more about some resources that I have used to teach the differences in the two types, as well as meet our pesky friend, the BOOK BANDIT! We begin the unit learning the text features of both types of texts by creating this anchor chart and using real text examples to discuss the differences between the two. I print the anchor chart from the pack as a poster, along with the two mini posters, for students to reference throughout the unit. I printed the sorting cards on cardstock and students helped me attach them to the anchor chart during our whole group discussion. They then completed their own sort below. This is great to glue into their reading journal for additional reference during the unit. I have lots of activities that I use included within the pack, but you don't have to use them in the order laid out in this blog post. ;) The activity below is one I like to always do with a new reading skill. My students become reading detectives during this cooperative group activity. Each group gets an envelope with the following recording sheets and a text, which might be a book or a passage, inside. They work with their group to decide if the book tells a story or gives information. They have to prove their thinking by providing three pieces of evidence from the text. After you do a few rotations of these throughout your unit, you can add it to a learning center for additional practice. Throughout the unit, I kept two bins of books labeled books that tell stories and books that give information. I referred to a few of them during the unit. But at the end of the unit, I threw them all over the classroom for students to walk in and find the next morning with a letter from the Book Bandit! He had came in and made a mess of our sorted books, so it was the students' challenge to sort them back into their proper bins. They had to provide three pieces of evidence from the text to prove their thinking and they attached it to a craft of the Book Bandit that they had made. This was such an engaging activity and a great assessment! I have included lots of other resources in the pack to use during your lessons. Throughout the unit, students pretended to be detectives, so they wore these little badges! We used these interactive notebook pieces for different texts. If you have Scholastic flyers, you can have students sort them in these flapbooks. This is another great quick assessment! We always finish our lessons with an exit ticket for me to quickly assess their understanding of the different features of these two types of texts. After completing a unit, I love to give my students new bookmarks for them to use during independent reading just to remind them of the previous skill taught so that they can independently apply those skills during reading. Click any of the pics in the blogpost to check this resource out! As always, happy teaching and happy reading!
STEM by definition is a collaborative way of bringing subjects together to introduce students to higher-order thinking. So it shouldn’t be isolated to the science or specials classes. Bring STEM into your social studies lessons with the ideas and tips below.
Relief sculpture is an art form that is midway between painting and sculpture in the round. It is a process in which the subject stands out or projects a surface from the background. The surface can be several levels including high relief (deep or almost in the round) or low relief (shallow) or anywhere in between. To create their relief sculptures, seventh graders first learned about the difference between shape and form. A shape is two-dimensional (it has height and width) whereas a form is three-dimensional (it not only has height and width but also depth). Students experimented creating forms out of basic paper shapes by rolling, bending, folding and gluing them. After trying a variety of forms, students chose their favorite and created sixty variations of that form. Students then considered space and balance to position their forms into their final sculptural arrangement. These look awesome on display as they protrude from the wall- it's hard to really see the depth in these individual photos, but the shadows and dimension are super cool up close! Some photos of the students folding, rolling, arranging and gluing: The final pieces: Some views from an angle and up close:
I didn't realized these were as big as they turned out to be but that's what made them really fun. I got this great idea from Third Grade Love . She has a free glasses printable on her blog. I just ha
