3-D Spaceships

These spaceships combine all the goodness of 3-D shapes, texture, crayon resist, and creative drawing. I use this one with 3rd grade and it takes about one 70-minute session. We begin by talking about what "3-D" means and the difference between actual three-dimensional objects and when things LOOK three-dimensional. Then we sketch some basic 3-D shapes together in their "Art Start" books (more on those later). For the final product, students draw a spaceship and background, color with crayon (I allow them to use my texture plates), make stars by pressing hard with white or yellow crayon, and then paint the space black. I usually get great results and I love the creative things students come up with in their drawings! One of my favorite memories of this project is a student trying to convince me that he should be able to leave a large planet in his picture white - I'm a big stickler for no white spaces in drawings. So, he told me, "Well, OBVIOUSLY aliens like this would live on a white planet..." like that explained everything. Awesome.

Art Classroom Tip: Art Start Books

For my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, it's really nice to have an art activity for them to do as soon as they get into the classroom, as they don't always have a project they are in the middle in. Therefore, I have them do an art journal, which I call the "Art Start". I have an open-ended question for them each time they come in written on the board, and they answer it with a drawing, writing, or both. If they finish drawing more quickly than everyone else, they can color the picture they drew or do a quick free-draw in the book, but I only give them a couple minutes so it doesn't eat up my 35-minute class time. We create the books the first day of class by folding about 5 sheets of cheap 12x18" manila paper in half and then have a folded 12X18" construction paper as the cover. I have a nice long extended stapler to put staples through the middle, and voila! The books are stored in their table folders, so the students can automatically distribute them as soon as they get into class without needing any assistance from me. This is great for those times when the classroom teacher needs to talk to me for a few minutes, or if I need to get supplies organized, since I don't have any time in between classes. The question last week was, "If you could have any super power, what would you choose?" I also love that this activity jump-starts the creative juices, and gives them a spot for sketches that go along with projects.