Play-Doh Creatures

In this lesson we designed play-doh creatures based off of Dr. Seuss's  creatures from his books. The first step to this project was we drew out on a sheet of paper/construction paper what we wanted our creature to look like. Then we were show and asked to make an environment for our creatures that included: foreground, middle ground, and background. After we made that, we were asked to make our creature using play-doh, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and a few other decorative instruments. to the best of our ability we made our creatures and made sure to incorporate three of the decorative instruments also. Lastly we were asked to write a mad lib to explain our creature some. Above is a picture of my creature I made, along with below is my mad lib. 

For an extension activity The students could make another creature and then write a short story that uses both of the creatures.They would need to follow the same instructions with the play-doh and using three decorative instruments, then simply just glue it down with the other one you made previous. They must be creative when making their story and must include things that correlate with the background that you had made previous.

Vincent Van Gogh " Starry Night"

In this lesson we were presented the picture of Vincent Van Gogh's " Starry Night." we were asked to make our own version of that with the use of black construction paper, white crayons and colorful tissue paper. we first took a black sheet of construction paper and glued on different strips of tissue paper. we then took a paint brush and layered the the tissue paper with glue to ensure that it would stay down on the paper. Then we took white crayon and added swirls and lines to add to the piece. Then we took another sheet of black construction paper and cut out a skyline. with the use of white crayon again, we made windows on our buildings. Lastly we glued down our buildings onto the bottom half of our construction paper that had the tissue paper on it. This is a great way to get students to become an artist themselves. By being able recreate a painting and making it their own can increase the imagination and show them that they too can be an artist. 

For an extension activity we could use paint to paint our own "Starry Night" also. using different forms of paintbrushes or sponges to make texture and shapes. Van Gogh uses texture and color to express his art works. This will allow the students to express emotion with the use of color, style and texture while also following along with the way Van Gogh expressed his emotions while painting. 

KandinskyRainbow

For this activity students were introduced to primary and secondary colors. With the use of the coloring and mixing activity below, students colored the first two squares with primary color crayons and then mixed the two together to see what color they made, which is a secondary color. As they were doing this they also were mixing the paint colors on a paper plate. After they finished with the worksheet and mixing the paint, they then took the smaller sheet of paper and used sponges to create a rainbow with the paint they had mixed. They then set that off to the side to dry and were asked to make a landscape with paint on the other paper they had. The artist, Wassily Kandinsky, painted landscapes at the beginning of his career, By connecting this artist to the project it will integrate art history along with introducing primary and secondary colors.  It is a fun way to get students to use multiple different things in just one project, making it hard for students to get bored, simply because there is no downtime.

An extension activity that could be used for this activity would be where you could integrate math with the use of the primary and secondary colors of the rainbow. Each color of the rainbow has two ends. If your class was discussing what the additives of ten are, this would work perfect! you would have your students again make a rainbow and cut it out. You would then be asked to glue the top half of the rainbow to a piece of paper. then you will cut around the rainbow. you will notice that the bottom half of the rainbow will not be glued down, and this is what you want! you till then take scissors and cut along the lines of the colors about an inch up. You will then have tabs. Under the tabs, so starting with the red portion on the left side, you will right 0 and the right side a 10. Then for the orange, on the left side a one and then the right side a 9. then you keep going until you finished the purple. then as you will see if you open the red tabs: 0+10=10, and the orange 1+9=10. 

Claude Monet Crayon Resist

For this lesson students were able to see how white crayon showed up after using watercolor to portray what Monet used in his paintings. We were asked to first draw the bridge in a bright/deep color to show brightness and boldness. then we were asked to make clouds and other lines with a white crayon. then with  a green crayon we were asked to make vines coming out of the top, then the rest was up to us when it came to the crayon portion. They did a wonderful job explaining and then allowing us to work independently. They then asked us to use only blue and perple watercolors to paint over the crayon markings that we made. Over all this is a great project to do with students. It almost seems like magic when a student cannot see the white crayon but it magically appears when the use of watercolors are added.

An extension activity could be to expand the portrait on how they would perceive where the bridge was going. was it going into a small town? a large city? a field? have them use the same idea as the original activity by using crayons first then watercolors over-top. Then allow your students to be creative and get their imaginations going! I feel like we have lost a lot of that along the way in the past few years.

Hidden Safari

For this lesson we created a hidden safari. You first take a blue crayon and draw a safari animal of your choice. You want to lightly draw with the blue crayon to make this project work the way it is suppose to. Once you have completed that, you then take dark reds and orange crayons and scribble/ zig-zag lines all over the page in attempt to cover up most of your animal. You then paste your picture onto a piece of construction paper where you will then write three clues to see if others can guess what you drew. There is also glasses that were made prior where they included a red film, in which allowed you to be able to see your hidden safari animal clearly, if the drawing was done properly. This is a great art project that will keep your students engaged and wanting to go around and see if they can guess their classmates animal without the use of their glasses.

For an extension activity, you could easily make a scavenger hunt out of this and write clues on the side of where they should head next and then with the use of their glasses they can find the answer on where they are suppose to go. This would be a fun way to incorporate a psychomotor objective and allow the kids to get out of there seats but also using what they had done earlier to integrate art!

Pinch Pots

In this lesson we learned about what pinch pots are and how to make them. We made pinch pot animals!They demonstrated at the beginning how to knead and smash the clay to get all the air bubbles out so that when the clay dries, it does not crack. Then also showed examples of some animals they had done. This was a very fun activity and we got to do things more independently. They instructed then let us go off on our on and use our creativity to create our animals.

For an extension activity we could let them dry  and then paint them to decorate our animals! I think decorating is always another fun way to allow students to show their personalities and creativity!

Van Gogh Sunflower

For this lesson we discussed how Vincent Van Gogh would draw pictures of multiple different vases with sunflowers as his main flower. So we got to draw and make a picture like he once would of (minus the no artistic ability). We first were asked to make the vase, we could make it however we pleased with whatever color we desired. then we were asked to make the flowers. we first drew them with pencil and made the middle in a checkerboard pattern as they had instructed. Then we used yellow paint to paint the petals. Lastly we drew the stems and then glued sunflower seed to add a 3-d effect to the project.

For an extension activity you could make another one but make the petals look more droopy and maybe have the yellow paint start browning. One thing i noticed about Van Gogh's paintings is some of his flowers portrayed a sad emotion with his discoloring and decaying flowers. so as an activity they could use the one before to show happy emotion then the next to portray a sad one.