I am... I can... I will...

One of my favorite 6th, 7th, and 8th grade projects! Integrating writing and Art! The first day of this assignment is spent writing in response to the statements: I am... I can... I will... The students are to write positive responses about themselves. I give some examples to get them started but they are encouraged to be creative with their writing and make it personalized. The next day, using a projector/spotlight, the students help each other trace their shadow, silhouette on a poster board. The background of the project is to be filled with their statements and writing. The inside of the silhouette can be filled with images of hobbies and interests.

All of my students are so creative and unique! 

This project allows them to express themselves in a positive way! :)

Onomatopoeia

Pop Art Onomatopoeia Words: 

Day 1 - Students went through magazines and cut out any black and white text they could find and collaged them together. This layer is supposed to look like a newspaper page. 

Day 2 - They chose a word to draw and color using a group of primary or secondary colors.  I showed students how to draw ben-day dots to look like newspaper print.

Day 3 - Cut the black and white page into a starburst shape and assemble all pieces together.

These are the two examples I made to show the students:

Cactus Painting

Multiple layer cactus paintings. I have an extensive plant collection including Cacti and Succulents. The first day of this lesson I brought in some cacti and living stones for the students to look at and touch. Students practiced drawing cacti from pictures and real life. 

Students painted green paper one day by mixing blue and yellow directly on their paper. They also painted a background paper with a red to yellow sunset.

On the back of their green painted paper they drew a cactus then cut it on. After gluing it to their sunset page, they stamped black "needles" onto their cactus with a small pieces of cardboard dipped into black paint.

I showed the students how cacti grow flowers that bloom for a short amount of time and some of the girls wanted to add flowers to their pictures. I love how these turned out!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Here are some of the quick projects we did for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Kindergarten Shape Robots

Students mixed red and yellow directly on a large piece of paper so they could experience color mixing. After covering the whole page with colors, they drew lines and texture into the paint with q-tips by scraping some of the paint away. The next day, students cut their painted paper in to shapes (squares, rectangles, long rectangles). They arranged shapes on their page to make a robot and then glued on smaller shapes for the face and buttons. Finally, they added some more small details with white crayons.

Bundled Penguins

A friend of mine (www.loveanji.com) donated a bunch of bright paper scraps to my classroom. We used this paper to make scarves and ear muffs for these adorable penguins. 

The next day we used q-tips to dot the paper with "snow". 

Snowflakes

Mandalas with liquid watercolor.

I find liquid watercolors really easy to distribute and clean up and gives the student great practice with painting.

Origami snowflakes: Students spent the first day making their individual origami pieces. I showed them 4 types of folds, which they had to make multiples. After that, students could make up their own folds or continue making multiples of those previous pieces. The next class, students assembled pieces in a radial pattern, mimicking a snowflake.