4th grade finishes year with "magic" pen t-shirt

To combine science with art for a final time the 4th grade created t-shirts with permanent markers. "No big deal." But when the markings were complete we sprayed and dribbled rubbing alcohol on the shirts and watched the colors begin to move on thier own to complete the designs. In fact, the alcohol continued to work on designs after the kids took them home until the shirts were dry.

This project was rated one of the best all year. It definitely requires a lot more alcohol than we had--about 4 oz per shirt or more would have been better--we used 1/2 that. It also would have worked better in a better ventilated space. We will certainly repeat this project.

1st graders create clay insects

Completing study of insects, the students made these examples complete with all the proper parts.

Making volcanos

we started the class with the erupting volcano in the playground then came into the classroom to create one to take home. Using the wider mouthed bottle was great but the narrow mouthed bottle was so much more popular shooting the solution high into the air.

We used 8oz water bottles, quart yougurt containers and homemade clay with paper. At first it was a little hard to get the clay and paper to stick but then we hit on the method and the results were well worth it.

For the eruption:
half a bottle warm water
2Tbs baking soda
6-8 drops dishwashing soap
few drops food color (optional)
then add:
1/2 cup vinegar and jump back

Making then and now fans

To try to address the concept of then and now for the kindergardeners we did fans. Paper plates and craft sticks make wonderful fans. The idea of contrasts of what is now and what would have been then worked pretty well. some things were a bit hard to draw. the kids liked this one better than I.

paper bag puppets for the kindergarden

What a fun project for this group! the last time we used paper bags for a project everyone tried to use them as a puppet so today we made puppets. The students first made the face with a mouth at the fold so it would open to let the puppet talk, then dressed the puppet and gave it hair. Some created crowns or other treatments for the hair.

Making hats from recycled scrapbook paper

The curious George hats made in the kindergarten were the talk of the school so to do a paper project for this group we used donated scrapbook paper, buttons, bottle tops and imagination. Worked well with another good project to work on fine motor skills.

Making flowers from recycled materials

we created bouquets of flowers using egg cups, tissue paper, chenille stems and a bead. This gave everyone another chance to make something recycled and do a lot of fine motor skill manipulation. Some of the kids even learned to add leaves to the stems of their flowers. We twisted the stems together to create the bouquet.

Life cycle of the butterfly in multimedia

We used ribbon and chenille for the butterfly, clay for the chrysalis and eggs, and a pom and chenille for the catapillar stage and mounted it all on a plate for display. The project was fairly complicated for the 1st grade but doing each item one at a time let everyone complete it and have a pleasing result.

3rd grade does Foil embossed bugs

We used aluminum foils and pencils as our stylus to learn about embossing then painted the insects we drew with tempra. Students learned about the relief created and how to not eliminate it as they painted. Nice project.

Humming birds and butterflies in the 2nd grade

The pictures say it all. Each student had to draw birds and butterflies then paint them.

1st grade takes a look inside the body

Using these donated advertising layout forms the students looked inside the body and illustrated all the parts of the human form in multiple colors. They were able to then label them and discuss what was "inside" of them.

Geometric Art in the 4th grade

Applied art. Maybe that is not a catagory but to integrate art and math this week the students were given a list of geometric objects and their sizes and instructed to create a picture using them. Great outcomes.

2nd grade rockets into space

We began by creating paper mache planets that did not turn out well so this time we created our own space ships. Using paper towel tubes, egg carton sections and colored paper each student created a rocket to hang in the classroom. Some of them got very creative and supplied launch pads. Others had flames shooting from the rear of the rockets. Each one was well designed and have flown well over their desks.

1st graders paint Texas Wildflowers Mural

Texas wildflowers came into bloom in the classroom the first week of April just as they are all along the highways. Each table was given over-sized paper with several wildflowers outlined and teamed up to create their murals.Of course when the flowers were done the kids had to add bees and butterflies too.

4th grade rubbings

We did these rubbings using a variety of ceramic tiles donated by a local supplier. Part of the lesson was to determine which of the tiles would produce a detailed rubbing and which technique would produce the best results--chalk, pencil or crayon. This is similar to the headstone rubbings we did at camp. The students seemed really impresed as the designs appeared and they were able to alter the pressure to produce a clearer image.

Learning about maps by creating our own island

The 1st grade looked at the antique maps and then drew thier own map of an imaginary island. Land forms were not a problem as several included mountains and waterfalls. They were good with including lakes and rivers and the ocean surrounding their island. But quite a few of them thought people should be part of the map and houses.
They did a great job on these and are mastering colored pencils.

Kinder creativity

If you bring in a sack of potentially recyclable materials and ask the kids to create something of their choice, they are all over the place. Some had so many ideas that they ran out of time to create something. others saw someone make something they liked and went for it. Most favorite was the binoculars and the car complete with wheels.

Making animal masks 1st grade

The elephant was really popular, no one wanted to be the monkey and adding noses and manes to the horse created gales of laughter. All in all it was a fun project but using styrofoam instead of paper plates made this much harder as the glue didn't want to stick. Sure made cutting the eye holes easier and attaching the pipe cleaners for ear pieces simpler.

3rd grade creates clay ecosystems/finger puppets

It was a busy month for creativity as the 3rd grade used a number of materials to create their ecosystems. They combined clay, sand and paper in a variety of ways to represent deserts, mountains and the tropics.
For president's day we created a pair of finger puppets to have a conversation. Lots of Obamas and other presidents from the flash card set.