Art Projects for Elementary

Description: For this activity we learned about print making and how it can be used. In groups we were assigned a ecosystem throughout the world and had to choose an animal from that ecosystem to base our print around. I was assigned Antartica and decided to do a penguin. On a piece of paper we were asked to draw our design. Once we were satisfied with the design we transferred our design to a styrofoam piece that we would later apply ink to to be transferred. We taped the paper on top of our styrofoam piece and used a pencil and a lot of pressure to trace over our design. You have to push really hard to get the transfer to go well when you apply the ink. Once our design is on the styrofoam, we then used ink rollers to apply the ink to our styrofoam. When applying the layer you want to make use there is enough to transfer but not too much where it goes into the outline of your design. Then carefully we flipped the styrofoam onto our paper. Once on the paper we pushed the styrofoam down...

  Description: For this activity we created a Snake out of paper. we first took a piece of construction paper and traced two pieces from the teacher's stencils, one for the head and one for the tail. Then we took the remaining paper and cut strips to make the body of the snake. We started with the head of the snake and folded the paper in half and cut the paper into the shape of a snake. Then we did the same thing with the tail. Once we had both pieces cut out we used  glue to stick them together, same sides glues together. After we had the head and the tail we used our other strips to continue our snakes body. We looped on strip through the opening in the head of the snake and glued opposite sides together. we continued to do this with all of the strips we cut. Once we had once strip left we looped it through the body and the tail of the snake and glued opposite sides together. Once we had our snake all glued together we used paint to decorate it however we liked. I decided t...

 Description: During this activity students had the opportunity to work with watercolor and different techniques. Students were tasked with creating a still life painting of a vase of flowers. Before painting the vase, students tried four techniques for watercolor, Flat wash, wet on wet, scraffito, and plastic wrap or salt texturing. Once they practiced those techniques students drew their painting, outlined it with sharpie marker and then painted it. Students we required to use three of the techniques we practiced.  Extension Activity: This type of activity could be used when talking about plants in science content. Once students have learned about the different parts of a plant or different plants in a habitat, they can then use watercolor to paint a still life about it. This would be a good way to showcase what the students have learned about plants along with this artistic abilities. 

  Description: For this activity, we created a quilt like design of things about ourselves. We made four squares of drawing theat represent ourselves. Mine included a paw print because i own a dog, a hockey stick and puck because it is my favorite sport to play and watch, a book and pencil to represent me becoming a teacher, and an iced coffee because it is my favorite thing to drink. We used line to emphasize the drawing we created. Our teacher showed us different types of lines that we could use in our drawings. The lines I used were active, calm, energetic and calm lines. Once the class completed their own drawings we placed them together as a class quilt.  Extension activity: This activity could be used as a great introduction for new classes. Each student is creating something about themselves and expressing how they feel about those things through their use of lines. I would use this activity at the beginning of the school year so i could get to know my students and they...

Description: This activity is a dun activity that is interactive for students. Students first create a pair of red glasses. The will use construction paper and red film. Students will use a template to create the frame of their glasses and then will tape the red film into the eye pieces of the glasses. Once students have created their glasses, they can create their design. Using a light blue colored pencil and a light hand, students can draw their image they want to see when they put their glasses on. In this one I drew an elephant from a picture i saw. We were shown the drawing upside down technique to allow students to focus on the different aspects of the image rather than the final result. This technique includes the students flipping their image upside down and drawing the parts of the image and then flipping it back over and adjusting what they would like after the image is mostly drawn upside down. Once the image has been drawn in blue students will use warm colored pencils to h...

 Description: For this project, we looked at the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh and his creation The Starry Night. Then we created our own silhouette image using tissue and construction paper.  We used a dark background to lay tissue paper down using glue. The tissue paper had no pattern but it did have a color scheme. I used warm colors that are typically found in a fire. Then using black construction paper I cut the silhouette of flames and added the blue hue that comes from a hot fire. The tissue paper was the colored part to represent the light that a flame can give off.  Extension Activity: To extend this activity, I would have students look up important events that happened during Van Gogh's time as an artist. They could pick a specific person or event and write a short summary about it. Then students would share their summaries to the class so we can learn about how life was during the 1800s.