Recycled Art

Recycling and repurposing is something that I love to do, so this project was right up my alley!  I loved the creative spin they took to turn a smashed pop can into a fun fish.  Also, it tied in so nicely with talking about recycling and the importance of protecting our environment.  Supplies for this project included a crushed pop can, paint, construction paper, and googly eyes.  Some objectives of the project were to have two patterns and to use at least three different colors.  First, I painted my can black and white stripes. While we were letting our pop cans dry, we created a recycled bottle cap mural for our fish to hang in front of.  After my can dried, I glued on the googly eye and fins.  My final step was to add the dotted design to the fins and write my name on the back.

A way to extend this project would be to use the plastic bottles from the bottle caps to create a Chihuly Chandelier.  This project would be a great way to continue to learn about recycling and to use up all the materials from the previous project.  The students would use a variety of colored sharpies to color striped patterns on their bottles.  After they are completely covered, they would cut off the bottom of their bottle and then continue to cut a spiral all the way to the top of the bottle.  The spirals would then be situated together to form one collective chandelier that could be hung in a shared space in the school!

Van Gogh Inspired Landscape Collage

The inspiration for this collage came from Vincent Van Gogh's painting Starry Night.  We incorporated his swirling thick brush strokes by cutting and ripping tissue paper to cover our backgrounds.  I went with a warm color scheme, while others in the class chose a cool color scheme or a mix of both.  Once the tissue paper was glued down, we covered the entire background with modge podge to seal it and give it a nice sheen.  After that, we created our own landscape out of black construction paper that was placed on top.

I really like doing projects that involve collage!  To branch off of this project I would move into Henri Matisse inspired collages.  During the last part of his life Matisse created many cutouts inspired by plants, animals, figures, and shapes.  As a class we would look at his cutouts and create our own, focused on plants and animals.  Instead of painting with gouache like he did, we would use different colored pieces of scrapbook paper.  Then we would collage our cut outs together on a large piece of drawing paper.

Mitten Scratch Art

I've always loved scratch art growing up and this lesson is a way to create the whole project from start to finish yourself.  The first step is to color a piece of paper with crayons, pressing hard the whole time.  After you cover up all the white of the paper with crayon, the next step is to paint over the crayon with a paint/soap mixture.  This paint mixture is used so that you can scratch off the paint to make your scratch art design.  The paint is also easier to clean up since it has soap in it.  Once the paint dries, you take your scratching tool and scratch in your design.  Our designs were mittens to go with the theme of the book that we listened to while our paint was drying.

Another activity that would be a fun way to use scratch are would be Greek vases.  Like with the mitten, the student would design the shape of the vase and the designs that decorate it.  We would talk about the Greek culture and the types of designs/patterns they used, so the students could incorporate that into their own vases.  Once they are all finished they will cut out their vase and frame it with a different color of construction paper. 

Totem Poles

To create our totem poles we used construction paper, markers, and glue.  There were four animals we could choose from, so I chose to make an otter.  We made our totem pole animals by constructing some 3D parts to attach to the construction paper cylinder body.  Along with the 3D shapes, we used markers to draw faces, accents, and designs. 

I think that this project could be a great lead into creating a totem pole out of clay.  This project gives the students the opportunity to think about working in three dimensions, as well as how they would want their animal to look.  In the next project their totem pole would be about the same size, except it would be made up of three clay animals.

Decorative Tiles

 

This decorative tile was made with air drying clay.  Through this lesson we learned basic hand building techniques, such as wedging, score and slip, stitching, and additives.  To create my tile I first rolled out a piece of clay about 4x4 inches.  Then, I started to mold my forms and attach them to my tiles.  I added texture to my petals with a needle tool and then painted the flowers. 

The small size of the tile makes this lesson a great introductory project for working with clay.  Through this lesson students learn a lot of the techniques necessary to start sculpting different forms.  To build off of that learning, I would incorporate those techniques into creating their own clay chia pets.  This would give them an opportunity to incorporate a 3-D element that they may not have with the tiles.     

Weaving

This lesson introduced the class to weaving techniques.  To create our miniature weavings we used a cardboard loom, yarn, and large plastic needle.  We threaded our own warp threads onto the loom with cream yarn.  Then, we created our own patterns, I chose an ABCBA pattern.  The weaving turned out to be a 4x4 square after everything was knotted off.

I would read the Goat in the Rug by Geraldean with my class to talk about weaving, as well as how you can create and dye your own yarn.  Then as a class project we would card wool and dye it for weaving.  Each student would weave their own 8x8 square.  All the weavings would then be sewn together to create a collaborative weaving.

Winter Landscape Print

This lesson was an introductory lesson for printmaking.  They themed this lesson around the winter holiday season and in the end we turned our prints into holiday greeting cards.  So, first we designed and drew our winter landscape on a piece of paper, keeping in mind that we needed to include foreground, middle ground, and background.  Once we had our winter landscape drawn we put our drawing face up on top of a piece of styrofoam, the same size as our drawing.  Then, we traced over our drawing pressing hard with our pencils to leave an indentation on the styrofoam.  Next, we took our drawing off of the styrofoam and went over our indentation with a pen to make sure that we had it deep enough.  Finally, we inked up our rollers, transferred the ink to our styrofoam printing blocks and printed on a white sheet of paper.  After we were done making two prints, we attached them to our folded construction paper to create our cards!

I love printmaking! Its something fun and different for kids to explore.  I would use this lesson as a starting point for teaching some of the basic techniques needed for printmaking.  To build off of it, I would incorporate more of the pop culture that was mentioned at the beginning of the lesson.  I would have my students think about what is popular in their own culture and have them make a series of four, pop culture prints.  The series of four would be the same print block, but using different colors, mirroring some of Andy Warhol's work.