1st Grade Jim Dine Hearts

We all know Valentine's Day is coming up but simple hearts just wont do.  Looking at  Jim Dine's hearts were a MUST. Each student made their own heart patterns to create  symmetrical hearts. We used oil pastels on velour paper. I am a new teacher and have not had a chance to order my own supplies so I am working with what is left. Oil Pastels on Velour paper = success. I think they are so stinking cute and the loved making them. 

2nd grade Winter Scene

3rd Grade Snowmen At Night

In this lesson we read Snowmen At Night. This is a cute little story of what snowmen might do at night when we are all sleeping. The kiddos love finding the hidden pictures in the book and it is a perfect opportunity to teach shades, tints and shading. While it was frustrating and we had to start the shading process over several times it was well worth it. I am SOO PROUD of their work! 

Tattle Monster

I am so tired of my students tattling on each other for EVERYTHING. It wastes time and is unflattering. I saw this idea on Pintertest and it has worked wonders ever since. They get one tattle per class. So they have to make it a good one. It is even worth a few laughs. Like "they said my mom smells like watermelon and radishes. :) 

Recycled--Crayons, Crayons, Crayons!!!

What is an art teacher to do with the "ugly", broken crayons from class??? Turn trash into treasure!!! After getting addicted to Pinterest  I found a super easy way to make recycled crayons. 

 Peel the crayons. This takes the most time and I found if you stick the crayons in water to wet the paper the peel SOOOO much easier. 

 Stick them in a cupcake tins!

 Green was next! 

 I had enough for greens, purples/pink, red/orange/yellow, blues, and browns

I can't wait to offer them as a prize in class and for the school store! 

3rd Grade Monet

I recently found out all the cool things tissue paper can be used for. So tissue paper is the star of this lesson. First we learned about Monet and we closely studied his Water Lilies paintings. We talked about how up close his work looks abstract but when you step back it creates a whole picture. We used tissue paper and watered down glue to create the "abstract water". The beautiful colors ran together and were vibrant and beautiful.  We also used tissue paper for the lilies and flowers. Enjoy the beautiful colors!

5th grade Flip, Turn, Slide

Lets face it, with the cutting of programs and the terrible economy the "specials" need to prove why we are important and how to can help with those darn PSSA scores. Just to be clear I do think it is important to re-enforce what is going on in their classrooms too.

 So this lesson was inspired by the Flip (reflection), Turn (rotation), and Slide (translation) part of the PSSA test. Our students have trouble remembering how to do those directions on the test so I figured we could make it more exciting by making prints with ink of their initials. Their first initial = flip, 2nd initial= turn, 3rd initial= slide. (and yes I couldn't just call them first, middle and last initial b.c of all the Hyphenated last names :)  or the lack of middle names.  

We used foam to carve our initials ----"IF YOU DONT DO IT BACKWARDS THE LETTERS WILL NOT PRINT THE RIGHT WAY" didn't matter how many times I said it, I still had kiddos do it the wrong way!!!! 

 Next we rolled ink with the brayers on top of the foam, then printed it like a stamp on printing paper. 

This project took forever, but I will modify it for next year. Also next thing we will be working on CRAFTSMANSHIP.  Over all not too bad for a first try.