What Happened to the Beginning of the Year???

I haven't posted since June?! Seriously? If you are a teacher you must feel like I do... despite all the hard work and tired mornings, the beginning of the year has FLOWN by and we are now quickly approaching the holidays. I figured I better get some of the projects that we have done lately up before I start posting turkeys and snowmen!

Origami Stars

After School Art...always a joy! These origami stars were courtesy of Zen Crafting...she has a step-by-step picture tutorial as well as a video tutorial! Talk about on the ball! The kids really enjoyed creating origami...not to mention raiding my amazing mixed bag of buttons for their star center!

Dorothea Lange Collage

My ninth graders were learning about Dorothea Lange's, Migrant Mother, this semester. I wanted the students to make the history of the photo more personal to their lives. The students were required to pick a theme relating to the photo and create a collage around that theme. What talented middle schoolers I have...

Symmetrical Butterflies

Dream Catchers

Another wonderful afternoon with After School Art students! I found this creative Dream Catcher tutorial at That Artist Woman.

Uncovering Mona Lisa

My fifth graders were learning about portrait-style paintings during the Reniassance. What better portrait than Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa! A classic...with a twist. I gave each student a line drawing of Mona Lisa. They had to flip the portrait upside down so that her face was at the bottom of the page (this helps the students focus less on trying to get it to look exactly like a face and focus more on lines and shapes), and cover it with a piece of black construction paper, leaving only the bottom inch showing. On a 12"x18" piece of white paper they drew what they could see. When they finished drawing that inch, they would raise the paper inch by inch until they had drawn the whole portrait. Students finished off their drawings by using colored pencils to give each Mona Lisa a different look. I had some extra wallpaper scraps so we used those for the backgrounds...I thought it made them look a little more Renaissance-like. They were quite proud of their results, as was I!

Big Mouthed Fish

Gone Fishin' with after-school artists...