Free Art Challenge

 

 My students LOVE FREE ART! It gives them the opportunity to create something from nothing. While some of the students told me they do this stuff all the time at home, I suspect most of them don't. So I am very happy to give them the time to do this.

I gotta GET RID OF THIS STUFF! I REFUSE to pack it to bring to my home school (renovation will be complete for the new school year.)

Therefore the art teacher said, "There shall be free art!"

 

 

 

    

 I was hoping to be really organized about it, like the design challenge with Tim Gunn in NOLA. But I have too much to get rid of and too many students that really want to do their own thing. Sooo with that in mind I have categorized the finished projects. Above are some of the vehicles.

Here are the light sabers-

   

The castles-

 

 The robots,

   

A bounce house -

 Clothing- an apron, shirt -

 

 and a bag-

 

Let's not forget a mask  and a helmet!

 

 I got really excited about these little fairy houses, mainly because of the  fairy door project from earlier in the school year. I was also thrilled to be using all those bottle tops from the bobble head project.

 

 

 Check out the beach front property above on the right!

 

Had a wonderful time talking with my students about their projects. I also suggested to classroom teachers that the children write about what they made. Which apparently they have done before with their art projects. YEAH!!!

Would love to hear what you do with recycles! Thanks for reading!!
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Collage Not Mirage

Having lots and LOTS of scrap paper in a box that I have been collecting for the last two years-I figured it was time to do collages with my kindergarten and 1st graders. Seriously, I need to use this stuff up before moving back to my newly renovated school.

My EQ: "What is a collage?" Answer from one of my 1st graders: "It's where when you're in the desert you see things that aren't there."

Fortunately this was one of those days where I made the connection to what he was saying and clarified that we were not talking about the same thing. And that he was thinking of a mirage.  I went on to explain to my students what a collage was. Then I gave them a blurb about the book I was going to read them. Beautiful Oops is a wonderful book as the author uses paper to create art that others would reject as being too dirty, ripped or bent.

After reading the book, which by the way, the students LOVED! I demonstrated different ways to manipulate paper. We can CUT paper, RIP paper, FOLD, CRUMBLE, and FRINGE paper. I showed students how they can use these different techniques to create art. They could make whatever they wanted, but, I did show them my samples of a park and a vase with flowers to help inspire them.

Students went to their seats and started to create some of the most incredible art! They were also allowed to visit other tables to get different colors for their projects.

 

 

As students showed me their finished work I asked them to name it. Give it a title. Some of the names chosen were: Masterpiece, Cool, Pretty Flowers, some were named for the artist and some received the name of the local park.

 

       

 

 
Students couldn't stop talking about what was going on in their art. I suggested to the classroom teachers that their students would enjoy writing about their art. They could do a description or step by step instructions. A great way to integrate writing with art!

Do you have your students write about their art? Do they do artist statements?

Thanks for reading!