4th Grade - Aliens!

I was inspired by a post from one of my favorite blogs: That Artist Woman.

Hers is a frog, but at the end she shows a picture of her son's take on the project - a monster/alien/creature. I took this kid's idea and ran with it.

I started out by having my students trace each of their hands on the sides of a 12x18" piece of white sulfur paper (watercolor paper would be good, too). Then they drew the alien's head in the middle, keeping in mind that they would later weave either one or two eyes (their choice) and glue them on. I had stencils that were the size that the eyes would be on hand so students could be sure they would fit. They could also alter the hands to make them more... out of this world, if you will. After they outlined it heavily with crayon, they had to choose a texture (i.e. watercolor technique) : salt, plastic wrap, marker, crayon or oil pastel. We've experimented with all of these before, so students were aware of the effect the technique would make.

Once the paint was dry, they cut out the alien's head and hands and glued them onto a black piece of construction paper. Then, it was time for the weaving. I simplified the weaving a bit compared to the inspiration project... I just have students weave around the tag board itself, making sure they cut 5 slits (an even number will not work... 5 seemed to be the best amount for the size we were working with).


I also had them use yarn that was already multi-colored. I had several choices for them to choose from - most wanted the bright rainbow. Psychedelic, indeed. Once weaved, the eye(s) are glued on and voila! This project was definitely a hallway crowd pleaser.

I still have a few classes to finish this project with, and I think I'm going to have them oil pastel a space background.

4th Grade - Pastel Leaves with Movement

I just was wandering around some other art teachers' blogs, and came across the title, "Warm Leaves, Cool Breeze." This would be a perfect title for this project, I believe.

We start out by talking about movement in artwork... how lines and where objects are placed can not only make the viewer feel that the objects are moving, but also indicate what direction they are moving. I give students a 12x18" sky blue piece of construction paper (starting with the blue base makes the end product more vivid), and they have to draw their "line of motion" - the line that their leaves will travel across. The line has to fill the paper, and I caution them on making it too wavy or choppy. We then trace leaf stencils along the line of motion. Real leaves would probably work fine, but I made a set of stencils by tracing real leaves on tag board so I could use them for a while - real leaves dry out and become difficult to use. I show the class what a "leaf parade" looks like (the leaves lined up nose-to-tail along the line), and tell them that they do NOT want that. They want the leaves to look like they are naturally blowing in the breeze, so they should turn the leaves this way and that, and the line of motion shouldn't go right through the middle of each leaf. Students also need to add the veins in the leaf, but I warn them not to make them complicated or detailed, because the next step is to outline the leaves and veins with good ol' Elmer's white glue. I have a set of glue bottles set aside that are smaller than my normal class set, and are only used for this project so the hole is nice and new. A good hint is to tell students to go from top to bottom, left to right (or right to left if students are left handed). The glue has to dry for a few days before the next step: color with chalk pastel. We discuss warm and cool colors, and I add brown to the warm list, as the pastels come with a warm brown. They have to use more than one color in each leaf, and the background should be colored and blended in the direction of the "wind."

Now, maybe I'm a control freak, but I know that if I did it any other way, I would have a big mess. I tell my students that they are not allowed to blow the excess chalk dust all over... instead they can just shake it to the floor by holding their paper down next to them. I also have them keep a wet paper towel at their seat for whenever they need to wipe their hands - otherwise my one sink would be way too crowded and nothing would get done!

Let's be honest, it's still messy, but the results are well worth it. The example above isn't quite complete (needs a bit more color in the background), but you get the idea.