Adaptive Art- Pizza

We started this lesson by reading The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.

Each student received a paper plate and 2 coloring sticks (tan, red, and yellow). We shaded the outside of the plate tan, then the circle indentation red for sauce, and last the middle yellow for cheese. Students then wrote the alphabet on pre-cut red circles. Lastly, we glued on the pepperoni, green paper for green peppers, and tan paper for onions. Here are the pizzas baking (drying) on the oven rack (Trixie the hamster's cage).

5th Grade- Symmetry Self Portraits

This was a quick, one day lesson. Many students get nervous or embarrassed when doing self portraits so I thought we would incorporate photographs. I took a head shot of each student during class one day, while we were working on another project. I enlarged the photos and printed them out. Next I cut all the pictures in half down the middle... some were more down the middle than others. If you do this project, try to get the student looking directly straight.

We glued our half photos to the left side of a white piece of paper. I showed them to measure facial proportions with their fingers on the photo side, and transfer them to the drawing side. We did this by marking little dots. Next we stared a line drawing. We drew in eyes, nose, mouth, head shape, outline of hair, neck, and shirt. After most students seemed like they were finished with the line drawing, I introduced them to shading and how to use an ebony pencil. I liked this more than the celebrity portrait because students really had to think about symmetry and proportions because they did not get to see the other half of their face. Here are some of the finished products. 

1st Grade- Picnic Weavings

I love doing weaving project and once I saw this one, I knew I had to do it in my class. Here is the link to the original: Artsonia

This was a 2 day project
Day 1: We wove. This is the first time these students weave in art so it takes almost a whole class period. We fold a yellow 18 x 12" paper in half. Draw a vertical line on the open side. Then we draw horizontal lines leading from the fold to the vertical line. Students cut on the horizontal lines. They get excited about this part because they say it looks like a hula skirt or a lantern. We then weave the pre-cut strips of red paper into our project. Students really need to focus to do over-under on the first piece, and the second piece is under-over. We then put glue on the back in a picture frame shape and attached a 18 x 12" paper of any color.

Day 2: This is lots of step-by-step directions. We glue on the plate, we cut manila paper into bread slice shapes, shade the edge of the bread slices with color sticks to make crust, glue one piece of bread to our plate, add tissue paper to the bread to create sandwich fillings, and  glue the top piece of bread on. Students then received red and green paper to make a fruit of their choice, as well as crimped paper to cut out chips. They received a square of white paper to make the napkin (which can be decorated to their liking) and finally they added ants and watermelon seeds with Sharpie marker.

5th Grade- Lego People

This is a great sub lessons for intermediate students. What child doesn't love Lego People? Especially since the Lego movie came out recently. I found this great tutorial for how to draw Lego Man here. I had the sub display this image on the smart board and students got to work.
Here are some of the results.

I even have younger students asking me to put the tutorial on the board if they finish a project early.

2nd Grade- Egyptian Mask

What better way to study Egyptian art than to look at King Tut and create Egyptian Masks?

Day 1- We looked at examples of King Tut's sarcophagus and discussed Tut's history, Egyptian history, and after life rituals used by the Egyptians. Then using card stock paper, we drew the mask outline step-by-step. Students then went back and added their own face, symbol on the top, and designs on the beard. We went over our lines with Sharpie to make it look nice and neat. We watched Reading Rainbow's Mummies Made in Egypt while we were working.

Day 2- We colored in our masks using crayons, markers, and colored pencils. Once finished, students cut out their masks. I cut slits in the eyes with an Exacto knife so they could easily cut out the eyes. And there we have it, Egyptian Masks!

5th Grade- Celebrity Portraits

Being at two schools allows me to do different versions of the same lesson. One school, I am doing celebrity portraits, while the other I am doing self portraits. We will see how they turn out so I will decide which one I stick to in the future.

For this one, each student selected an image of a celebrity. We cut the image in half- preferably down the middle if possible. And glued one half to our paper. Then, using the other half or thinking in terms of symmetry (if possible) we drew the other half of the face. Students had to be precise to make the proportions and the values the same as the printed version.

Overall, I believe this project was successful. However, it would be easier if the portraits were all looking straight on, the ones that were more difficult had the celebrities faces at an angle.

Adaptive Art- St. Patrick's Day

To begin this project we read Leprechaun Gold, any leprechaun or St. Patrick's Day book would work.

Then each student received a pre-cut black pot and an 8 x 11 piece of paper. Students glued the pot in a bottom corner of their paper. They then drew 5 rainbow lines coming from the pot to the other bottom corner of the paper.
We then dipped our paint brushes in paint and followed along the lines doing, dot-hop-dot-hop. Lastly we put some glittery gold paint on the pot.