Stained Glass Art

Description: For this project, we decided which picture we would like to do for our Stained Glass Widow design. We then chose a color for our construction paper outline and stapled the two together. We then laid the picture/ construction paper combo on a piece of wood board and used precision cutters to cut the inside of the design out. Once we were done with this, we took tissue papers and glued them to the back of the design outline to create the stained glass effect. In choosing the colors of tissue paper to use to create our picture, we had to make sure that we used two different color schemes. For my color scheme, I used complimentary colors and primary colors. Once we were done gluing our Stained Glass tissue paper to the outline, we had to cut around the outside of the design so that we had a complete design for our Stained Glass Window picture.

Extension Activity: For an extension activity for this project, you could have students create a timeline of the Stained Glass Art history based on the ideas that were presented during the lesson. You could also have the students do a scavenger hunt for examples of Stained Glass Windows around the city that they live in or around areas where their family lives. You could also have them do a search on the internet for Stained Glass Window examples if there are no examples in the town they live in.

Print Making

Description: For this project, we designed a picture of our choice that had to do with Nature on the a foam sheet using the end of a paint brush or a mechanical pencil. We had to make sure our design was deep enough using these items so that the paint did not just sit in the lines. Once we were done designing our picture, we took some block paint and put it on a plate. We then took a roller and made sure it was covered with paint. Once it was covered with paint, we rolled the paint onto our foam sheet. We then took our foam design and pressed it paint side down onto a sheet of construction paper to create a mirror image of our foam design. We chose the construction paper based off the color we chose for our mirror image. For this project, we had to do complimentary colors. I chose red for my paint, so the background (construction paper) was green. If I would have chose yellow, my background would have been purple, or blue with an orange background.

Extension Activity: An extension of this activity is you could have the students create a picture based off a specific topic instead of an picture they choose. You could have topic areas that include their favorite animal, a specific kind of animal such as jungle or sea animals, favorite type of plant or tree, a scene from their favorite story as a kid, or any other topic of your choosing. You can also do a bigger picture or a small picture depending on what you want the students topic area to be. You can also have the students create a picture of their favorite president, famous person, or singer/actor.

Cave Art Comes Alive

Description: For this project, we mixed paint pigment with mud to make colored mud we can paint our project with. We first reflected upon memories from our childhood. We then wrote a little summary regarding the picture that we chose to paint. Once we had a memory in mind, we took the mud paint and painted our picture with our fingers. This was an interesting and fun way to paint a picture. Once we were done with our picture, we reflected on the process of painting our picture by answering the reflection questions that were given to us.

Extension Activity: An extension activity that you could do with the mud paint is to have the students paint a picture of their favorite animal that is part of a specific group like jungle animals or something like that if you are working on an animal unit. You could also do this with a plant unit, or their favorite memory of hanging out with their friends or a variety of other topic areas. You could also mix more colors and have the students do a picture of their favorite season, favorite activity to do after school, or anything along those lines as well.

Fall Into Leaves Collage

Description: For this project, we first started out with taking three warm colored crayons: red, orange, and yellow and used a shape tool to create crayon shavings onto a piece of wax paper. We then folded the paper in half and used an iron to mix and melt the crayon shavings. Once this was done, we traced at least 3 leaf shapes onto the wax paper with a permanent marker and then cut them out. We then glued the leaves to another sheet of paper in an overlapping collage pattern. Once this was completed, we used cool colored oil pastels: blue, green, and purple and created a collage of leaves around the wax paper leaves. We did at least 5 oil pastel leaves to create a collage of at least 8 leaves total with some looking like they are at the bottom, some on the top, and some to look like they were overlapping others.

Extension Activity: I think the ideas of using oil pastels and wax paper crayon shavings would work for any number of projects. one that comes to mind is having the students do a colorful snowflake picture if you are doing a project like this during the winter. You could do one with flowers for the spring, or make a collage of your favorite type of animal, activity, or any number of other topics. You could also use the idea of oil pastels and wax paper shavings to create a regular picture or a story picture, it does not necessarily have to be in a collage format. That is one of the nice things about art, you have the opportunity to combine different types of media in different ways to make a wide range of art projects.

Under Water World Scratch Art

Description: For this project, the students first chose a sample picture of an under water animal to base their picture off of. Next the students folded an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of white paper in half and drew a picture of an underwater animal with the background. Once they completed the drawing, the students then placed the black sheet of scratch art paper in the folded sheet of white paper and used the wooden tool to create an outline on the scratch art paper of their drawing. Once the students had the tracing stage done. They removed the black sheet of paper from the folded paper and started tracing over their lines with the wooden tool to create a picture on the scratch art paper. Once the students had the outline of the items done, they then used the wooden to and different techniques to add detail and texture to their picture.

Bulletin Board:

Under Water World Bulletin Board before projects were added.

Pictures of Under Water World Scratch Art after projects were hung up.

Extension Activity:  A good extension activity with this project is using scratch art paper to do projects with either patterns or other topics. You can make the size smaller or bigger than half an 8 1/2" by 11" project like we did with our lesson. The nice thing is you can use the idea of scratch art projects for just about anything because all it requires is the paper and a wooden pencil. You can also get the paper in different colors. So my idea would be to have the students create a picture of their house and family for introductions or to create a project with overlapping shapes and concepts or anything along those lines.



Character Birds

Description: For this project, we first took a note card and wrote down an idea of the character/description for our bird. We named the bird and wrote something about what they are like, look like, and like to do. Once we were done with this, we cut out the already printed layout of our birds body, wings, and tail. We then took crayons or markers, tissue paper, and feathers and decorated our birds body. Making sure to include some time of textural and visual pattern for the bird. Once we were done decorated our bird, we took glue sticks and glued the two pieces of the body together and then glued the wings and tail on. We then punched three holes into our birds body, one hole on each wing and one on the top of the body in a straight line. Once the holes were punched, we tied a piece of yarn through each hole and then tied all three pieces together at the top.

Extension Activity: If you take the ideas behind designing a character and creating your own design for your bird, you can apply it to any animal lesson. You can do something like this if you are doing a lesson on tigers, bears, lions, sharks, or any other animal group. It really lets the students express themselves through a fun project. You could also take this concept and apply it to some group in the plant kingdom, like flowers or trees. The nice thing is you do not have to do just flying animals to make this a fun project for the students. 

Clay Necklace

Description- For this project, we took a section of clay and kneaded the clay to make sure there were no air bubbles. We then took pieces of clay and rolled or formed them around a wooden tool to make the shape of bead that we wanted on your necklace. Forming the clay around the tool allowed us to have a hole to place the piece of yarn through. Once the beads were hardened, we took different colors of tempre paint and painted a design onto the beads. We used the colors of blue, green, yellow, red, white, and black. Once the beads were dry, we placed them in the order we wanted on the piece of yarn and then tied the ends of the yarn together.

Extension Activity: If you are teaching a lesson on social behaviors like respect, friendship, or something along those lines in another subject, you can have the students make either two friendship braclets or some respectful, nice, or friendship based bracelet. You can then have them give it to a classmate as a nice gesture while they keep the other one. You would need to draw names for each student before hand so they do not all choose the same person or pair up and make one for each other. However, with this activity it can really help them be more aware of classmates they may not normally socialize with and it can also teach them the idea of being nice to everyone no matter what.