Surprised! Tigers in the Jungle

5th grade viewed the works of Henri Rousseau, especially Surprised! 

We used a wet-on-wet watercolor technique to create a stormy sky. I love the lightning effect these got where the watercolors ran on the page!

After our papers dried, we followed a video from Art for Kids Hub to draw our tiger. Then we cut and collaged with scraps of green papers to create the jungle. 

Aluminum Foil Prints

We had some extra time in 5th grade, so we experimented with aluminum foil printmaking. They drew a design of their choice with a Sharpie marker on their paper. Then we used washable markers on foil and water to turn the markers into paint. Then we took a monoprint of the color onto our papers. Interesting results and it may be a technique we incorporate into future projects. :) 

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

5th grade used a simple pinch pot method to create bowls. Then we added petals using the slip & score technique to turn them into sunflowers inspired by Vincent van Gogh's paintings. 

When a student asks if they can add a turtle in their sunflower, you don't say no. ^_^

This is my first time in many years using a kiln and my first time using glaze. All went well and they turned out super cute! You can find more information about this lesson and other Van Gogh lessons here. 

Tiles Installation

SO proud of 5th grade's work on their legacy tiles! We drew on ceramic tiles with permanent markers, then dripped rubbing alcohol onto them. Simple as that! These tiles will be a backsplash around the water fountains. I am moving on from this school this year, but I hope their new teacher will carry on this tradition with 5th grade next year!

The Riddle of the Sphinx

5th grade started their Myths & Legends Unit by studying the myth of the Egyptian Sphinx! We created sphinxes from clay. You can find a video for that here. 

Then we wrote riddles to go with our sphinx. I loved this!

Aboriginal Dot Paintings

I wanted to have a diverse set of projects for our Prehistoric Art unit, not all cave paintings. Luckily, I had this wonderful lesson from my first year of teaching about Aboriginal Dot Painting. You can find the post with all of the details and lesson plan here. 

Here are some beautiful works by our 5th grade students. ^_^

Pop Art Onomatopoeia

 

How many times can I spell that word wrong? A lot. Because that word is just a wrong word. Who decided it should be spelled that way.

The first projects at this interim position were based on "Word Art", which was great to help me learn names and because I did a similar unit the first week of school last year. So it was very easy to pick up and I already had a lot of resources for these projects. Just sharing a few of 4th & 5th grade's illustrated onomatopoeia drawings in the Pop Art style. They had to use primary colors and some kind of "bubble". (I'm letting that first "Boom" in even though it also used green, it was just so nice!) These were very original and well done. :)

Egypt

All classes just completed their Egyptian inspired projects. All projects were based on different artifacts found in Egyptian ruins and were embellished with shiny gold.They also used Hieroglyphs to write an Egyptian message on their artworks. There are many versions of Hieroglyphs, but I chose to teach them the one with the easiest images to draw.

Before we began, we played Pharaoh Bingo to learn which symbols stood for which letters. 

First grade created a Cartouche using patterns and gold with a message in the middle. You can find a printout and many helpful resources on this Egyking website.

Second grade learned amount Mummification and designed a sarcophagus with patterns and gold. The handout for the sarcophagus can be found at the Activity Village page to download.

Third grade chose between four designs of Canopic Jars.I drew my own jars and made copies based on this image:

 but you can download and print some jars from this Activity Village page.

Fourth grade practiced Zentangle designs on their Cat Mummies. I drew my own to copy, but I'll try scan and upload it.

Fifth grade practiced portraits to create a face inspired by either King Tut's burial mask or the bust of Queen Nefertiti. I had a few students who were unable to complete the project because they missed days, so they designed a pre-made face found here. 

Very proud of these, the kids really stepped up and did some amazing work. :)

View the Power Points:

1st Grade Cartouch

2nd Grade Sarchophagus

3rd Grade Canopic Jars

4th Grade Zentangle Mummies

5th Grade Pharaoh Portraits

Be warned: I gave them copies to decorate because I didn't think it was necessary to have them draw their own jars, sarcophagus, etc. for this project, and those are difficult shapes to draw. However, this caused my students to treat their projects like a "coloring sheet" and many didn't take their work seriously. In the future, I'll take my chances on their drawing abilities so that they take more pride in their work. Anyone else ever notice this happen to their students?