Frank Lloyd Imitation

Description: The students learned about Frank Lloyd who designed stained glass windows. He used simple line and geometric shape to bring the outside into the room. We first drew a few practice designs before choosing the favorite. Then, on a blank piece of paper the students drew out their designs using a ruler for straight lines. Next, carefully trace the design with sharpie on a clear plastic sheet. Have the students write their initials in a corner so you know who's is who's. Lastly, color it in with colored sharpies. The sharpies will smudge if not careful.

Extension Activity: An extension activity you can add on is learning how to use a ruler. Teach them inches, centimeters, and feet and how to read the lines. Then use this activity as a practice for the ruler.

Papel Picados

Description: Each student was given two 8 x 10 in pieces of tissue paper. First, we traced a rectangle with pencil to make sure that they would not cut the outside perimeter. See how there is more space on the top of the red one? That part will be folded over later so be sure to leave that space uncut! Then follow these steps closely:

Step 1: Place the precut tissue paper inside of template

Step 2: Lightly trace the dotted line and box onto the tissue paper

Step 3: Fold the tissue paper into thirds (so there are three even sections) like a letter then fold in half hotdog style.

Step 4: Open it up and refold it in half hamburger style

Step 5: Draw small middle design on fold (do not draw go past next fold line) and cut out design

Step 6: Open it up, and fold first small section (there was 6 sections, now there will be 5)

Step 7: Draw and cut out pattern along new fold

Step 8: Open and fold next small section only and repeat step 5

Step 9: Repeat steps 5 and 6 to cut out a pattern on each of the 5 folds

Step 10: Fold the thicker top section (should not have been cut) in half

Step 11: Hang the papel picado on a string and tape the edge so it will not fall off the string

Before teaching how to make papel picados, we went over the importance of them in Mexican Culture and the Day of the Dead. It might also be nice, while they independently work on the second papel picado, to play some cultural music! After you have everyone's papel picado, hang them on a few strings and display them around the room.

Extension Activity: This would be a great activity to go along a Spanish class. You can teach a few words that are significant to the Day of the Dead. Teach the students about sugar skulls and pan de muertos (maybe bring some in for the students to snack on). Or you could celebrate the day in class and have a fiesta!

Van Gogh Imitation

Description: The students learned about the impressionist artist Van Gogh. We did a class analysis on Starry Night and listened to the song Vincent by Don McLean which was inspired by the painting. For the project, it is made using tissue paper, oil pastel, acrylic medium, and construction paper. Starting with the construction paper as a base, we painted a small section with the acrylic medium and places a torn piece of tissue paper on top. Then, we pained more acrylic medium on top. Some tissue paper may bleed so be wary of that. Cover the entire top section of the paper until it is full. Then set it aside to dry. On a second sheet of construction paper, create a kind of landscape silhouette. Use oil pastels to mimic the lines and pattern of Starry Night. Once dry, do the same to the paper covered in tissue paper, this will be your "sky". Some students made an under the sea landscape, give them different ideas of landscapes to get unique results. Lastly, glue the landscape construction paper on top of your tissue paper construction paper. Don't forget to write your name on the back!

Extension Activity: A great extension activity you could do along with this is relate it to stars. When teaching about the different stars and constellations, this could work well to show how people have been looking at the sky for a long time and how artists, like Van Gogh, have painted them in artworks. 
 

Hidden Safari

 

Description: It is a little difficult to see exactly what is happening in these photos, so I will try my best to explain. The students are handed a blank sheet of paper. On the paper, they draw an animal you would see on a safari in a light blue colored pencil (use light pressure). We printed out a few different animals for the student to reference when drawing (simple cartoons). We used a technique of having them draw the animal upside down so that they focus drawing the lines and what they see vs the animal and what they think they see. This will yield must more accurate results and the animals will be more recognizable, hopefully. Then using warm colors (red, orange, yellow), the students made patterns covering the paper, including the animal. It should look a little chaotic and similar to the top photo. Then, using a red see through film, the students can look through and be able to see the animal again. The red film will cancel out the warm colors on the paper and show only the cool color (light blue in this case) of the contour lines of the animal. Next, we had the students write 3 clues for what their hidden animal is on a notecard. This is also where they put their name. Lastly, we glued the two papers on a big sheet of construction paper to act as a frame. The students can then go around to their peer's projects and look through the red film to see if they can guess the animal. You can see in the image if you look very closely, the effect is much easier to see in person.

Extension Activity: An extension activity that you could do with this project is do different animals in different habitats. You could use a blue film instead of red and reverse the colors on the blank paper (draw animal in red or orange and make patterns with blues and purples) to represent animals that live in cool climates like penguins and polar bears. This activity can help kids remember which animals live in warm and cool climates because of the colors that associated with the projects. This can help you teach student warm vs cool colors and further the association with whether an animal live in a cool climate (blue, purple, green) or a warm climate (red, orange, yellow).

Dot Day!

 

Description: For "Dot Day" we read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We made our own dots with a coffee filter. First, we colored the filter with water-based markers (Crayola) and used them like watercolor, and also just used regular watercolor paint. We took a paintbrush soaked with water and painted the filter so the colors would bleed. Use more color than you think for a more vibrant result. Then, we let them sit out to dry over-night. After it was dry, we used crayons to add patterned detail to the dot.

Extension Activity: You can further hone in on the personalization of the dot by asking the students to repeat a specific symbol. The symbols should represent the student like a baseball if they like that sport or a dog if they have a pet. This repeating pattern could make a mandola and you can include different forms of symmetry: reflective, asymmetrical, radial. This possible extension activity would focus on radial symmetry.