Dinosaur Week at Camp STEM

Just sharing a few favorite art projects from Dinosaur Week at Camp STEM. 

We made paper mache dino eggs! Love the colors and patterns they used!

Origami dinos were WAY harder than we anticipated, but these guys are hard workers. 

We plaster-casted and painted our own volcanoes that we later set off with baking soda and vinegar.

Using sponges, we cut dino footprints to make footprint fossil artworks.

2 more camp weeks to go this summer!

Magritte's Birds

This is no original art project. We've all seen this lesson in elementary art before. For this lesson in 1st grade, I wanted to emphasize the elements of Magritte's bird paintings that are sometimes overlooked; the clouds and stars. Specifically, I wanted them to be realistic. 

We spent the first day drawing and paints two pieces of paper to collage; a day time picture and a night time picture. I gave them handouts of cloud types and constellations to reference. It also helps to make this lesson a little more STEAM-y. It's never too early to learn about stars! 

Clouds Handout Here

 Constellations Handout Here

Spring Break Coding Camp!

Not art related, but those who know me know that my other passion is science. I am happy to announce that Camp STEM will once again be working with VolState Community College in Gallatin. We will be having a Coding Camp this spring break, March 28th-April 1st. I am excited to be teaching this camp and I would love to see a lot of Gallatin kids there! This camp is for students in 3rd-8th grade and registration is $125 for the week. Check out the registration page for more information and I hope to see you there!

Camp STEM License Plate

Camp STEM is growing! We are currently working to pass a new custom license plate based on STEM awareness. Proceeds from the sales of these plates will go to STEM and Art Education programs throughout Tennessee. You can follow the petition link here and feel free to spread the flier around! Thank you!

Flier

Petition

Blue "Prints"

Our classroom at VolState had a great view of the construction on campus. We spent one morning watching the workers and sketching what we saw. Then we took those sketches as inspiration for our own artworks.

We discussed blue prints and how we change 2D images into 3D things such as buildings. Then we used white paint, cardboard, and toilet paper rolls to create blue "prints" (the pun is one of the reasons why I love this lesson ^_^).

I got this lesson from School Arts magazine September 2015 issue, STEAM. It has a lot of good STEAM lesson in it, and you can find a link to the digital copy here. 

 Very easy, beautiful results, and open to their imaginations. 

Camp STEM Fall Break Camp at VolState

Very exciting news! We are branching out at Camp STEM to students in Sumner County for this year's Fall Break camp. We will have science activities from 8-3 each day. Registration is open on the website that you can find here. It is for students in grades k-6 and the fee is $125 for the whole week. Come see us and explore the world of science and creativity!

Murfreesboro Community Garden Installation

The Mosaic Stepping Stones have been placed in the Murfreesboro Community Garden!

They looked wonderful in the pie tines, but they are much more beautiful when surrounded by fresh soil! 

Thank you to Autumn Shultz and her family for all of their help! Go see the stones any time and participate in the garden!

Camp STEM Mosaic Stepping Stones

On the first day of Camp STEM, we made our mosaic stepping stones. These were made with concrete and broken ceramic pieces donated by the people of Murfreesboro. Next Saturday, they go into the Murfreesboro Community Garden to be a permanent installation! If you're in the area, come by and meet the artists!

We first practiced with paper to better understand translating an image into small squares.

So many colorful pieces! It literally took forever to cut all this scrap paper!

We also discussed how much glass and ceramics are in the landfills and how we can keep some of it out,

A great practice of a flower.

Butterfly

Butterfly

Love the confidence!

Beautiful works! See the PowerPoint I use here!