Paper Snake Chain

 

Description: Using paper, students can make a snake by combining both ends to look like a chain and then cutting the head and tail to make it look like a snake. We all know that snakes have different colors and patterns, so students can use paint to create the pattern and eyes while they use colored construction paper to create the color of the body.

Extension Activity: Students could write about their snake by creating a story. In this story, the students will have to write about the location of where the snakes live, what their habitat looks like, and what food the snakes eat. After they have written their story, they can present it to the class.

Van Gogh Painting

Description: In class, we learned how to use paint in many ways. One example is wet on wet. After we learned all the different techniques, we had to draw flowers in a vase using three techniques. I used the wet-on-wet, flat wash, and salt texture techniques. 

Extension Activity: After the students finish their dry paintings, they will present their artwork to the class and explain why they chose the flowers, vase, and colors. After that, we can discuss whether you get real plants and what flowers are needed to keep them alive. 

 

Picture Puzzle

 

             Description: Today in class, we created a picture window. This is where we draw four pictures of our lives. For mine, I drew a cross for my religion and a game controller because I like playing games online or in person, like a pool. I drew the Netflix logo because I love watching movies. Finally, I drew a fish because I teach swim lessons. We also had to incorporate lines in the background. This is for how we express what our picture means. So, I did those lines for the cross just to show how excited I am about my religion. I use the game controller because of how crazy I am when gaming; with the Netflix logo, I swirl because of how crazy the shows are on Netflix; and finally, the circles represent bubbles because my students love blowing their bubbles in the water.  In the end, after sharing, we put them all together on the whiteboard. 

                        

Extension Activity: This is a good idea for the beginning of the school year to get to know everyone in that class. To add to this idea, we can have students write a story with their peers' pictures and their own and compare and contrast them. 

Hidden Safari

 

Description:

In class, we had to draw an upside-down animal that we could find on the safari. We drew it with a blue pencil. We used warm colors like red, yellow, and orange to cover it so we couldn't see it. We also created glasses with red lenses so we could only see the animal when we looked at the picture because the red lenses would cancel out the warm colors. The animal I chose was a rhino; when you put the red glasses on, you can tell it's a rhino.

Extension Activity:

I could relate this back to science for the extension activity.  We can discuss how sometimes we can't see things with the naked eye and need something else to see things like bacteria or small organisms.  

Van Gogh Project

 

Description: In this project, we learned about the life of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. We also studied one of his paintings, "The Starry Night." We did our version of Starry Night with the tissue paper background and had a landscape silhouette. For my project, I decided to have my background dark but with complementary colors of greens and purples. I decided to use a hill and a tree for my silhouette because I thought it would look cool and be better for my background.

Extension Activity: I can incorporate this idea back into social studies. When we are teaching about the 1800s, we can talk about famous people from that time and look into them. With that, we can add this artwork project to it and then have the students present their project and explain what they learned and why they chose their idea for their project.

Dot Day Project

 

Description: We used a coffee filter and created art with watercolor. We can also use materials like crayons, sharpies, and oil paint. When we used the watercolor paint, some materials would blend like watercolor crayons and crayons, while the oil paint and Sharpies didn't blend and stayed the same. We related this project back to language arts. 

Extension Activity: Another way we can do this activity with language arts is to tie-dye the coffee filter and read the book Tie-Dye City: Dye Book for the Cool Kids in your Life by Josephine Baker. 

Elements and Principle

 

The Activity: We created a 2nd- to 3rd-grade matching game where students must match the vocabulary definitions to the right picture. 

Extension activity: After students finish this activity, they will go out and take three pictures in the classroom that go with elements and principles.