To Infinity...And Beyond!

Welcome to a new year of fun-filled art blog posts, hosted by…moi! How has your 2022 started off? I didn’t stay up til midnight on New Year’s Eve. This tired teacher needs her sleep.

My super students have been hard at work/play with different materials. We started our new year with a trip to outer space and fun was had by kids big and small. (It seems outer space is a guaranteed hit with kids. Is it because of the mystery of space? The unknown? Star wars? Who knows, but the kids have enjoyed this project, and who am I to question good fortune?)

Kindergarten practiced coloring, cutting and gluing planets and rockets to their outer space scene. 

First grade made portholes, as though they were in a spaceship, looking out at the galaxy. 

Fourth grade did outer space scenes with a 3-d Styrofoam planet for some spatial depth. 

See how these half spheres make our scenes 3-D?

Sixth grade also did outer space scenes with Styrofoam planets. I love how these imaginative kids added so many individual touches.  

Seventh grades made scenes with 3-d planets, too. Lots of seventh graders were missing from class because they were quarantining. But fear not—the remaining students did their best to make even more noise than usual, thereby filling in any gaps in the noise department. The noise-o-meter was at 100%!

 

Of course, I wore my outer space dress to teach, along with planet earrings I made and a head dress I also made from Styrofoam and wire. I like a good theme…

Second grade took a journey back in time to the age of the dinosaur. The kids colored dinosaurs and added backgrounds to round out the scene. I gave them a choice to color printables with realistic dinosaurs or friendly ones. After all, they are young, and I didn't want to give anyone nightmares...

 

 

Third grade is hard at work on art projects but you’ll have to wait a month to see theirs.

Fifth grade experimented with solar paper. Are you familiar? Solar paper undergoes a change when it is in sunlight, so the kids put objects on it and brought it into the sun for two minutes. You get an impression of your items on the paper. We added colorful borders to complete our project. Who says science and art aren’t friends? Not I. 

And 8^th grade did watercolor paintings with a theme of their choice. This was a quick project I threw in at the last minute as I didn’t have all the materials I needed for our next project. Sometimes pulling something out of a hat at the last second works pretty well. 

As February tiptoes closer, we’re starting new projects in the art room. Let’s meet back here in a month so you can be dazzled by my students’ imaginations.

And in other happy news, have you noticed that the days are getting just a tiny bit longer? Spring is coming!

Rockin' Around the Art Room Mess

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

…as long as you love long lines, short days and endless to do lists!!!!

But seriously, whichever holiday you are celebrating this December, enjoy.

My wiggly art students have been up to their elf ears in fun projects, so settle in and prepare for awesomeness.

Kindergarten made Rudolph tree ornaments. I bravely/foolishly got out the runny Elmer’s Glue, and yes, there were spills. But we lived to tell about it and when the dust settled, we had thirty one charming Rudolph ornaments. 

In first grade art, we made manger scenes with watercolor skies. (I teach in a private school so some of our winter art has a religious feel.) They added dozens of silver stars to their night skies, and the results are very sweet.

 

Second grade created snowman tree ornaments with pipe cleaner arms and scarves. Aren’t they cheerful?

Third grade beaded candy cane ornaments with pipe cleaners. How cute are these?

Fourth grade made snowflake tree ornaments. They tried weaving for the first time. I turned my back for three seconds and two boys managed to tangle their yarn together in a hopeless knot. Three seconds! I whipped out the scissors and surgically removed the knot. We used sparkly yarn and popsicle sticks to make snowflakes with a God’s eye feel. And I assure you that they liked adding gems. Some tried putting gems on their shoes or hands. Yep, fourth graders have spirit!

Fifth grade really went old school and created traditional Christmas robots. What, you’ve never heard of such a thing? Wouldn’t it be great to have a robot—maybe Rosie, from the Jetsons—available throughout December to help with all the additional tasks that need to be finished? Rosie can shop for you, cook meals, wrap presents and give the dog a skunk shampoo if needed…

TURN UP SOUND & CHECK OUT MY ROBOT VIDEO ---

CLICK THE LINK DIRECTLY BELOW THIS SENTENCE: 

Robot Art Video     

***** Many people can't find the LINK to my ROBOT VIDEO. It's directly above this sentence--it's worth seeing!!!

To be honest, fifth grade’s robots are not intended as holiday art. We’ve been working on them for a while and since they are finished at last, they are part of this post. We used empty toilet paper rolls, recycled tissue boxes and a few other odds and ends to create fun robots. [Thanks to Barb for collecting extra tissue boxes for me!] And in answer to the question on your minds, yes, I did dance “The Robot” for the kids before starting the lesson and I invited them to dance, too. 

Sixth grade has been working on quilling art: 

waterfall scene by G.

Frog Man by my imaginative 6th grade student

The sixth graders also made paper tree ball ornaments. This was a quick project but festive, nonetheless.

Seventh grade decorated Ugly / Festive Christmas Sweaters that I cut from felt. Felt is awesome because it’s cheap and does not fray when you cut it. I had the kids glue beads, buttons, and sequins onto these mini sweaters. These are intended as tree ornaments and I think they are colorful and creative.

Eighth grade made 3-D poinsettia tree ornaments from paper and beads. They are festive and cheerful and I like how they turned out.

Thank you for checking out my amazing students’ art. This is my last blog post for the year, so I will wish you a happy, healthy 2022. I’ll be back in the new year with more real life stories of all my wacky adventures and the fun and mischief from the art room. ‘Til then, stay safe, and if in doubt, add sparkly gems to anything within reach…