Category Archives: 6th grade

Wire Name Art

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Give your name art lesson a twist – literally! Our fifth grade students had a ball sculpting their names in wire.

Materials:

Pre-cut floral wire (AKA stem wire) and sculpture wire

Session one:

To practice, give each child a piece of paper, marker and an 18 inch piece of wire. Kids should write their first initial on the paper. They may print or use cursive. They they trace their written letter in wire.

100% of 10- and 11-year-old students could do this by the end of the first 40 minute session.

Session two:

Give each child a piece of paper, marker and a 6 ft. length of sculpture wire. They should write out their first name in marker this time. They may print or use cursive, then trace their name in wire.

Write out name on paper, trace with sculpture wire (teacher example).

Did you notice? I added a single pony bead to dot each lower case ‘i’ and ‘j’.

 There should be a lot of excess wire at the end of the wire name. Students should loop the excess wire back, and attach to the beginning of the name with a quick twist. Voila! Name art with hanger!

Approximately 85% of 10 and 11 year olds were able to make their names in wire. I would recommend struggling students create a larger, single initial.

Session three (optional):

Want to take it further? Offer pony beads, sequins, and super-fine wire (I use pre-cut 18 inch 26-gauge stem wire).

Students can string the hanger wire with pony beads. They can clip the excess wire with (kindergarten!!) scissors. They can thread a bead or sequin onto 26-gauge wire and tie a knot around it.

Some students created small sculptures to embellish their name art.

Robby suspended his name from his sculpture.

 

Milan made a tiny mouse.

 

Riley perched a peacock on her name art.

How nice these will look on the students’ walls at home!

This would be a nice tie in to an Alexander Calder project. Check out my other Calder wire projects: wire sculpture and wire portraits.

 

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Amazon and Blick Art Materials. I have been using Blick’s 14 gauge sculpture wire for 9 years and I love it!

Paul Klee Name Art

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Looking for an exciting name art project? How about introducing a famous artist at the same time? Try this Paul Klee-inspired graphic name art project.

Second graders create name art in the style of Paul Klee. Allow 1-2 40 minute classes. Artwork by Tyler.

Start out by introducing artworks by Paul Klee. This project is inspired by his graphic works such as Castle and Sun. WikiPaintings has lots of images of his art. Click here,  here, here, and here to see some of Klee’s other graphic artworks. This is a good time to talk about abstract art.

Materials:

  • Black construction paper, 11″x14″
  • pencils and erasers
  • Oil Pastels (including white)

Students should turn their paper horizontally. They write their names in pencil, using all capital letters. Encourage students to S-T-R-E-T-C-H their letters from the bottom to the top of the paper (note: students with long names may need to draw extra skinny letters, use longer paper, or perhaps use their nicknames).  The letters can touch the left and right sides of the paper AND touch each other: letters such as ‘E’, ‘F’ and ‘K’ look more abstract when drawn in this manner.

After they are pleased with the layout, they trace over their pencil lines in white oil pastel.

Students write their name in white oil pastel, then fill in the spaces with colored pastels.

Next they color in the spaces in their name. Encourage them to use a variety of colors, although it is fine to repeat colors. Students must not color in with black pastels.

Completed second grade art:

Randie

Flynn

Jax

 

Chris

Kian

Show students the completed projects and ask if they can read the artist’s name. Successful artworks are often abstracted to the point it is challenging to see the artist’s name! How does this compare to Klee’s graphic artworks?

This lesson plan was inspired by (or abstracted from!) this fabulous post on the Kids Artists blog.

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite name art lesson plan for the beginning of the year?

 

Ancient Egypt Chalk Art for Sixth Grade (and Pinterest bonus!)

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Do you study ancient Egypt at your school? Here is a colorful, successful art project inspired by the art of ancient Egypt.

Materials:

  • black construction paper, 12″x18″
  • pencils with eraser tip
  • chalk pastels
  • black oil pastel
  • reference photos
  • hairspray or other fixative
  • newspaper to cover tables

We looked at images from King Tut’s tomb, old issues of National Geographic magazine (I think they cover Egypt every year!), and reviewed images of the Egyptian gods.

Students were instructed to select a subject and draw it on the black paper. Encourage students to 1) draw  LARGE (fill the sheet) and 2) don’t add too many tiny details.

I model drawing with an eraser: draw layout lines on the black paper only using the eraser.  If you mess up, just wipe away the rubbings and try again.

After students draw with pencil, they should go over their pencil lines with black oil pastel. Color in the portraits with chalk pastel. As a final step, retrace the oil pastel lines a second time.

Spray with hairspray or other fixative to prevent smearing (note: this will dull colors somewhat).

 

This art project is adapted from the Arts Attack curriculum. In addition to my reference photos and the Arts Attack drawing aids, I offered three step-by-step handouts from the library book How to Draw Egypt’s Sights and Symbols (ISBN 978-0823966820).

Pinterest bonus: here are some ancient Egyptian pins that I have collected for next year:

You can’t go wrong! Kids LOVE ancient Egypt. Enjoy!

Andy Goldsworthy Art in the Garden

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Famous artist Andy Goldsworthy is fascinating. Our 5th graders were amazed at an artist who creates  and photographs art made from gathered leaves, mud, twigs, ice or rocks.

We began by viewing brief videos of Andy Goldsworthy on YouTube.

We discussed the repeating motifs in Mr. Goldsworthy’s work, including serpentine lines, spirals, and a circle with a hole in the center. We also looked at examples of stacked stone.

Students wend to the school garden and created temporary art works from materials found there.

 

A group of fifth graders worked together to make this dry-stacked rock arch.

Leaves arranged by color.

Early finishers made insect sculptures!

 

I took the photos initially, then turned over the camera to some early finishers who shot the rest of the photos.

Most students chose to work in pairs or groups for this project. Several said it was their favorite art project EVER! A few watched the YouTube videos again at home.

Next time you have good weather, consider an Andy Goldsworthy project.

Mini Monet Impressionist Art

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Do you love impressionism? Want to create memorable artworks? Try this Mini-Monet lesson plan from the Blick website. It even has an instructional video!

I adjusted the materials list from the Blick website. Here is what I used:

  • Shrinky Dinks shrink plastic, Frosted Ruff ‘n’ Ready, size 8″x10″, cut into quarters (tip: cut it on the paper cutter)
  • chalk pastels and spray fixative OR
  • colored pencils
  • easily removable masking tape, such as artists tape
  • color photos of impressionist art from books, notecards and calendars
  • oven or toaster oven and oven mitts
  • baking sheet
  • fine-tip gold pen (optional)
Tape the Shrinky Dink, rough side up, over a section of the impressionist book or note card. Trace image onto Shrinky Dink. Use short strokes to mimic Monet’s and other impressionists’ style.

Students tape shrink film over impressionist art, then trace with pastel or colored pencil.

Bake in the oven according to directions on the Shrinky Dink package. Shrinky Dinks shrink when baked, starting at 4″x5″ before baking and about 2″x1.5″ after. When baking Shrinky Dinks, do not remove from oven until the plastic ‘comes up’ (folds and shrinks) and ‘comes down’ (flattens). Count to 30, then remove.

After tracing, remove tape and bake plastic in oven. Here is one after shrinking.

Kids are going to want to watch this!  If you are doing this in a small group setting, let them watch the shrinking process through the oven window.

Completed Mini Monets

If you use chalk pastels, you will need to spray them with a fixative AFTER BAKING (hair spray is fine). If you don’t, they more likely to smear. You do not need to spray if you used colored pencil.

As a finishing touch, color the thickened edges of the shrunken artwork with gold marker.

Add a magnet, pin back, display as a group or on mini-easels.

This project would look great with Van Gogh’s artwork. Students will like tracing his short brushstrokes with pastel or colored pencil.

Do you have a favorite impressionism project? Leave a comment!

 

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