Got old CD cases? Here’s a great way to use them: create greeting cards using oil pastels and Sharpie. Our 5th and 6th graders made Valentines, birthday cards and more during a single 40-minute class.
Materials:
CD jewel cases (trays removed)
oil pastels
Sharpies
rubbing alcohol
baby oil
baby wipes for clean up
Several students made birthday cards. One made a farewell card. Another made a card consoling his father on the Bronco’s loss in the Superbowl.
Sharpie on the Outside, Oil Pastel on the inside
Students start by drawing a design on the front of the CD case using a black Sharpie. Then they open up the case and color the inside with oil pastel. The process is repeated on the back of the case. A lot of students wrote personal messages on the back of the case.
Correcting Mistakes:
It’s easy to fix mistakes. Rubbing alcohol will remove Sharpie. Baby oil will remove oil pastel. Our 5th and 6th graders fixed their own mistakes.
Keep it neat:
CD cases trap the oil pastel-mess on the inside of the case. These greeting cards can travel home without making a mess in the backpack.
At clean up time, wipe down the tables with baby wipes.
EASY! Plus you are keeping those old CD cases out of the dump!
Who do children love? Ask them – they will tell you they love their family and their pets. Why not make a valentine for your pet? Our second graders did just that – they created colorful pet valentine collages.
Materials:
red construction paper or watercolor paper, 12″x18″
oil pastels
construction paper or painted paper, assorted colors, 6″x6″
pencils and erasers
scissors
glue sticks
black construction paper, 12″x18″, for mounting
Day 1:
Talk about pets. Tally up how many students have dogs, cats, snakes, hamsters, etc. Some students have a lot of pets and want to put them all on the valentine! Some students don’t have any pets. I told them to make a valentine for a ‘dream’ pet, or for a pet that belongs to a friend, neighbor or relative.
I passed out large hearts cut from red construction paper and and watercolor paper. Students colored the hearts with oil pastels, then used glue sticks to attach the hearts to black construction paper.
Day 2:
Students drew their animals on 6″x6″ colored construction paper or on the back of painted paper. I encouraged them to use large simple shapes. They cut out their animals and glued them to their hearts. They added details with scraps of colored paper and/or with oil pastel.
One student didn’t have a pet. He created a pet valentine for the bird in his backyard.
Second grade results:
Second grader pet valentine collages. Allow two 40-minute classes.
Our second graders had a great time and were very proud of their artworks.
p.s. This can be a nice Eric Carle-inspired project if you use painted papers for the collage.
Enjoy!
Do you have a favorite Valentine’s Day art project?
Want to introduce your students to texture? Try a texture collage project.
Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4 by Lois Lord, 1970 edition.
I found great instructions in the book Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4 by master art teacher/author Lois Lord. You’ll need large paper for the background format, glue, stapler and scissors, plus ‘materials of contrasting texture’:
Rough textured materials include corrugated cardboard, burlap…used sandpaper, wood shavings, egg-crate dividers, excelsior, and orange, onion and potato sacks.
Contrasting soft -textured material include pieces of fabric such as velvet; scraps of fur; cotton; bits of sponge; and feathers…
Materials with smooth textures include shiny metallic papers bought or salvaged from Christmas wrappings, chewing gum, and other packets.
–Collage and Construction in Grades 1-4, p.10.
Lucky you – you get to actually watch Ms. Lord teach this collage lesson. Please enjoy ‘Collage: Exploring Texture’, filmed back in 1961.
http://vimeo.com/33304500
Not only to I love Ms. Lord’s teaching style, I love how she organized her collage supplies by texture and how she distributed the supplies. I wish she had been my teacher! Although this film was produced back in 1961, it is still inspiring.
You may have noticed Ms. Lord’s students used jars of liquid paste applied with a brush. It reminded me of this no-spill paint cup filled with glue at the collage station at San Diego’s New Children’s Museum. The cups come with lids so you can cap them up at night. You will need to soak the brushes in water after use. (note: this may be a good use for the brushes that come with your pan watercolor sets). Want more glue options? Click here and here to see other glue cups in the classroom.
White glue in spill-proof paint cup at San Diego’s New Children’s Museum.
Thanks to Wendy Apfel for sharing this excellent video on Vimeo.
Enjoy!
Happy Throwback Thursday! Stop by next Thursday to see what I’ve discovered in my vintage art education collection.
Do you want to create a poinsettia art project with little prep or clean up, in less than one hour? Try this fun tear art collage project.
Materials:
colored construction paper, 9″x12″, one per student
red paper, 6″x9″, one per student
green paper, 6″x9″, one per student
yellow paper, 6″x9″, one per table
glue sticks
If possible, get some live poinsettias. I borrowed some from my colleagues and returned them at the end of the day.
Discussion:
We started off with a few poinsettia facts: the red ‘flower’ is called a bract. The bract is made of red leaves, NOT petals. Poinsettias are native to Mexico, where they are known as Noche Buena (‘Christmas Eve’).
Next students looked carefully at the poinsettias. We noticed the shape of the leaves, and had a quick review of organic vs. geometric shapes. We also noticed the red leaves were centered around a cluster of yellow dots. The red bract overlapped the green leaves. I pointed out that green and red are complementary colors.
Students observe poinsettias and create a collage using red and green paper. Allow one 40-minute class.
Creating the collage:
I modeled tearing. Students created odd numbers of red and green leaves, arranged them, then glued them to the 9″x12″ construction paper using a glue stick. We found out it was easier to glue the green leaves first. Students could place the red leaves over or in-between the green leaves. As a final touch, students could tear a few dots of yellow paper and glue them to the center of their paper poinsettias.
Second grade results:
Because we had live poinsettias on the tables, I encouraged students to hold up their torn shapes to the real leaves for comparison. They really enjoyed observing real plants, much more than working from a picture or from my example.
If you look carefully at our collages, you will see a white torn edge on the red and green papers. We used Fadeless Art Paper– it is colored on one side and white on the other.
I would love to use this technique to create a Van Gogh-inspired vase of sunflowers!
What are story stones? Story stones are smooth rocks decorated with an image of a person, animal or thing. They are used with children for play, therapy, and just to spark imaginative conversation and story telling.
I recently attended a professional development workshop on the expressive arts. We learned how to make collage story stones, and then to use them in creative writing. The project was inspired by a project in ‘Show Me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children’s Storytelling by Emily Neuburger. If you are being ‘encouraged’ to incorporate literacy activities in the art room (or vice versa, want to do arts integration in the general ed classroom), story stones may be right for you.
Materials:
river rocks, or other smooth stones with flat surfaces, large enough for collage
Teacher-created story stones. Allow one hour to create stones.
Create the story stone:
Wash and dry the stones. Let each child select a stone. Create a collage of a person or animal, real or imagined, on the stone. Use brushed Mod Podge as glue. When the collage is glued down, brush on another coat of Mod Podge as sealer.
After the story stone as dried, add eyes and other facial features with Sharpie.
Optional: after the collage has dried, flip over the rock and create another character on the back.
I created a story stone with main character Mae on the front and her cat on the back.
Activities: Art and Writing
Discuss elements of art in your story stone. For example, here are the elements in the Mae/cat stone:
Line: Spirals in the dress, belt is a horizontal line
Shape: body is made of geometric shapes
Color: neutral skin and rocks ; warm color belt pops out from cool color dress
Texture: hair is made of lace, stone is smooth
Form: rock is organic form, figure wraps around rock; art on both sides
Writing:
Exercise #1: Stone Story Starters. Look at your story stone and answer the following:
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
What do I like to do?
What do I like to eat?
How did I get here?
What is my name?
If I could speak, what would I say?
Here is my story, based on my stone:
I am an old lady from New York City. I like to sit on the steps, in the sun, with my cat in my lap. I don’t like to shovel snow from my steps. I walk slowly. My favorite things to eat are eggs and toast (my cat likes turkey cat food). I was born in the city and have lived here my whole life. My children moved away. I live in a brownstone in Brooklyn. My name is Mae. I like to be alone. I am not lonely.
Exercise #2: circle (or bold) words in your story that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. Use them to create a poem. Add extra words if necessary.
I created a super-simple haiku:
Mae sits in the sun
Her cat purring in her lap
Snow long forgotten
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA – Literacy RL 1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting or events.
I would love to create story stones with art club or at summer camp. For those art teachers pressed for time (like me!) it would be interesting to create the story stones in the art room and let the students do the storytelling in the classroom.
