Ocean Week Super Hero Comic Contest Winners

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Our school held a comic contest for Ocean Week. Students had to come up with an aquatic super hero, write and fully illustrate a comic panel. What a success! Here are our first two winners, “Kara the Kelp Queen” by Mariel A. and “Sealed with a Kiss” by Riley S.

"Kara the Kelp Queen" by Mariel, Fifth Grade

"Sealed with a Kiss" by Riley, Fourth Grade

We were fortunate to have artist Marietta Ellis, a former automobile designer for General Motors, visit our school. She educated the children on the history of comics and held comic draw-along assemblies. Ms. Ellis helped judge the contest. Mariel was the grand prize winner and her comic was featured in our local paper.

Tune in next time for more amazing comic contest winners!

Sand Art for Second Grade

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Summer is almost here. For our last project of the year, second graders made sea creature sand art. Allow two 40-minute sessions.

Materials:

white glue in squeeze bottles
colored sand (I used four different colors) in shallow trays
bamboo skewers
black construction paper, 9″x12″
pencils and sketch paper
reference photos of sea creatures for sketching

Day 1:

Students sketch various sea creatures using pencil and paper.

Day 2:

Each student picks a favorite sketch and draws it on black construction paper. Encourage kids to make simpler, larger designs.

Trace pencil lines with glue.

If kids make a glue mistake, they can try moving the glue around with a skewer.

Sprinkle on one color of sand at a time.

Then tap excess sand back into the tray.

When kids spill sand on the table….a house paint brush makes clean up easy.

Kids love to clean up sand with a large paintbrush.

Completed work:

Clean up:

I store leftover sand in old apple juice jugs. At the end of class, I put a funnel in each jug and let the kids pour in their sand.

Seriously fun! This would also be a fun summer camp or vacation art project.

‘Under the Sea’ Repouseé

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

This week fourth grade finished their foil sea creatures. If you have never tried tooling foil repouseé, you simply must! It is so much fun. If you are unfamiliar with repouseé, check out this excellent post at A Faithful Attempt blog.

Materials:

36-gauge 5″ aluminum foil squares
heavy-duty foil (for practice)
dull pencil
newspaper or felt (folded to form a pad)
colored Sharpies Permanent Markers
scratch paper
tape
sea creature templates (optional)

Day 1

We talked about the repouseé process. We are going to use a pencil to shape and press lines and patterns into our foil. We will make texture. For practice, I gave kids a piece of heavy aluminum foil and we folded it four times. The number one rule: always keep the foil on the newspaper pad. The pencil will bend the metal down into the pad.

We practiced drawing different lines (wavy, straight, zig zag) and patterns on our test foil. I showed kids how to flip the foil to the back and press lines into the back of the foil. Once kids got used to working the foil front and back, they really enjoyed the process.

Day 2

I passed out square paper sketch sheets and templates (optional – I encouraged kids to make their own design so long as it filled the square). Goal: create a sea creature with a textured body and textured background. When the sketch was approved, I gave them a square of foil. They taped the sketch to the foil and retraced their lines. then they turned over the foil and pressed more lines into the back.