Trophies

Papier-mâché Trophies

2nd Grade

2^nd graders began this unit by observing and discussing trophies from many cultures and time periods. 

Check out the trophies from around the world here:

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/favorite/group/5QJSm4I62RhgJQ

What do trophies have in common?

Why do people give and receive trophies?

Who is someone in your life that is important to you? Who in your life deserves a trophy? Why?

Students sketched ideas for their trophy before building an armature using newspaper, recyclables, and lots of tape!  You can think of an armature as the bones of the sculpture, this is the structure that will later receive the paper mache.  

Students used a lot of experimentation, collaboration and persistence through failure to build these structures.

Next up, paper mache!  Many students love this opportunity to get gooey and messy while others find it too slimy for their comfort, nevertheless evey student did a great job with this new technique! 

I don't get many photos of this step because, MESSY!

Students painted a base coat of white before adding color with acrylic paint.  

They finished these works off by thinking about how they could use the materials in the art room to express their ideas.  

Check out how this artist wove pipe cleaners to make a lacrosse net!

Charlotte's trophy is for her family and she has colors to represent each one of them. 

How can you use materials to show why your chosen person is important to you? 

We celebrated the trophies by giving compliments to our peers!   Nice work on your thoughtful and unique trophies, 2nd grade!

Shell Creatures

Shell Creatures

1st Grade 

Before beginning to create their shell creatures, 1st graders spent some time talking about perspective and how the same thing or idea can look different to different people.  

This was the first image first graders saw when we sat on the carpet.   What is happening in this image?  Why are the two people disagreeing?

Now take a look at this image:

How do you feel when you look at it?  There's not a right or wrong way to feel about it, but there are many different ways and perspectives!  Some students thought it looked awesome, some felt curious,  while others were scared.  

How do you think a mouse would feel if they saw this?  What about a Hawk?  What would there perspectives be?

We then imagined what life would be like if we weren't humans but tiny shell creatures.

 

"your house would be really heavy"

"you'd have to change your house every year"

"you could go in water"

"I would be worried and scared I would get stepped on or eaten by a larger creature"

"it would be scary, I don't like the dark"

We then watched a video of Marcel the Shell sharing a little about his life as a shell.

 

Students then used their imaginations and combined play with art to create their own shell creatures and homes.  

Students had fun using the ipad and doll houses to take photos of their creations.

Altered Self-Portraits

Altered Self-Portraits

5^th Grade

Words were the beginning inspiration for this project. 

What words do your friends use to describe you?  What words does your family?  What words do you?

We then looked at and discussed images of portraits created by contemporary artists.  Students shared ideas about what ideas these portraits could be expressing.

 

Students chose three words to focus on when creating their own altered self-portraits.  The challenge was to create a self-portrait that expressed those words.   Students began by creating digital portraits on pixlr.com/express before working with traditional art materials. 

What words would you use to describe yourself?

How can you represent your personality in an artwork?

Process photos.  Lots of experimentation happening!

Images of Final Artworks




Student reflections on how students displayed "thinking like an artist" attributes!