Sculpting robots and aliens in 4th 5th grade

All of the groups have been using polymer clay to create creations this month. This group was by far the most adventurous of using all of the supplies. We have a collection of aliens and robots that just barely fit into the carrying boxes. It has been a lot of fun to use some of the metal fence and I pick up at the hardware store in order to create these. 

wire art for 4th & 5th grade

The goal of this project was to create a 3 dimensional item using wire (chenille stems) and beads and mount it on a piece of foam core board. The stories about the items are fantastic to hear.

Wire dragons present challenge for 4-5th grade

After the Jr. High group did wire dragons this group also chose to do this sculpture. It took 2 weeks but at the end of the time all of them had completed a dragon with wings, 4 legs and a tail that balanced and stood independently. They mastered twisting wire, attaching appendages, and balanceing the final project. They helped each other as one or another figured out how to get the pieces to fit properly. 
 There were frustrations but no one quit  before the dragon was complete. I think they are ready for a less challenging project next time. 

4-5th grade paint Picasso guitars

 The class has been wanting to paint. I chose this so we could discuss modern art paintings, Picasso and have them continue to draw. I did an example with them showing them that Picasso  did not draw a traditional guitar. This seemed to get their creativity going and this is the result. Some of them are quite traditional and others including the one with the lightning bolts on it are quite on the creative bent.

4-5th grade do pastel of wind

 Continuing with the mornings discussion on the windstorm I had the fourth and fifth graders also do a pastel drawing of the windstorm. Some of the drawings are remarkably interesting with great detail an interesting interpretation of the wind, others of them are more about using the medium and not the topic.

This group has been a hard one for interpretation, they are much more factual and have done well with structural drawings like the mosques.

Pastel faces and more 4th-5th

This is the first year my classes have used oil pastels. We tried them out but the  student grade products were frankly crayons. I tried a new brand this year and we are sold on them. We did this project to compare how they react to alcohol and oil in blending but found little difference. They were to draw themselves or some other item of their choice.

Learning pastels

When I told the kids we were going to begin our drawing with crayons they were not too pleased with me. I drew along with them and drew this rooster. Once they had all of the elements of the rooster drawn then we took out the pastels and began to add color. I worked with them on different ways to spread the color and blend it. We have not previously used oil pastels and the color is fabulous. The roosters were done by the third grade class.

The fourth and fifth grade class were told that they could draw what they wanted to draw for this project and then experiment with using the oil pastels. Subjects ranged from a picture of themselves to penguins and tanks. A couple of them added lots of stars or other design elements. We used both oil and alcohol to promote blending of the pastels. The still think that the alcohol works better for blending.

Paper sculpture projects let students learn new skills

Combining paper and sculpture is a favorite of mine and some of the projects are ones that I have done before so know what will generally work but there are always surprises.

 I assume that kindergartners know what a tree looks like but judging from the pictures they made, the view from their height may influence their ideas. We used long paper strips from the shredder, colored paper shred, and colored paper punch to let them create a fall tree. I had an example and even drew one on the board but they do their own thing. Every tree has a trunk and branches but wow what a variety!

The 1st and 2nd graders did twisted paper bag trees. This one takes some measuring skill, cutting practice and mastering twisting 2 paper strands together before they get to the "fun" part of putting the leaves on the trees. The 1st grade ones are on display in the school lobby.






 The 2nd grade got really excited to find white tissue in the bag I brought and created many trees with snow on their fall leaves. 

The 3rd grade 3-D fish did not get photographed and made a rapid trip home. 

I tried out a challenging project on the 4th-5th class to replicate a sculpture of the type by Louise Nevelson, noted 20th century artist who used found objects in her sculptures. They had to measure the sides and draw lines to create their own boxes. This seems to create no small amount of confusion on what is 1/2" on the ruler. Everyone got a box done then created an item to fit inside the box that was personal for them. I showed my bicycle example and her found examples. After each student completed his 2" piece they were all mounted on a large piece of tag board and the resulting sculpture is on display in the school lobby.