Name kaleidoscope art - Grade 4/5/6

Here's a great lesson that I saw over on  teach kids art. It's quite simple, very relaxing, and would be great to leave with a supply teacher (I left explicit directions below, which could be printed up and handed to a supply!) I love how my kids did with this one! It took probably 2 hour long periods.

  

Here's the step by step. Use an 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and fold it into a square:

 Each kid will need one of these folded papers for themselves as well (do the same thing as the first two steps)

 Using the triangles from earlier, they will make their tracers:

Then,decide what letter will be in the middle, and trace the name (use pencil first) flipping the triangle over as you go to make sure the same letter is in the center.

Then, color it all in!

Grade 6 - Line art using names/sharpies

I noticed today that I have 15 followers - for me, this is very exciting. I am so happy that there are at least some people who are reading this blog regularly! I must edit and say that since I posted, I now have follower #16!! Hey there!

I don't have a ton of projects to post, as it's only the first week back, and I'm in the middle of several 2 period lessons. Instead, I'll post something one of my students did randomly that I loved. In my grade 5/6 class, we have penpals that we often write to. I give my kids about half an hour to decorate their envelopes. One of my girls asked if she could stay in at recess to finish hers, which seemed odd. When I saw the finished product, I was so shocked - it's SO beyond nice!!

I really hope receiving kid keeps it. I am inspired to use this idea as an art project though - I love the  background, straight black name, etc. Very proud!!

Black and white/colored line hands - grades 4,5,6

Would you believe this is a project that we did in September/October? I really am THAT far behind in posting some of my projects. This is one that I absolutely adore, and the kids seemed to really love as well. I DID find it somewhere online, and since it's been so long, I cannot for the life of me find the original source. If anyone happens to come across it, please share the link so I can credit it!

I did this project with kids in grade 4, 5 and 6. First, students traced their hand three times anywhere on a peicce of white paper. We did this SLOWLY, as I quickly realized that some kids had never really traced their hands before. Once they looked nice, they chose which hand was in the foreground, and erased all of the lines that came into it (this is hard to explain online, but it made sense when I was doing it on the white board with them.)


They did this again selecting a middle hand, and then traced all three hands in Sharpie. Once they were done, they drew designs inside the hands. They were allowed to do anything they wanted, with a focus on lines, and preferably NO letters (I really do hate letters.)

Once they had finished drawing inside the hands, they used three different colored markers to outline the hands, rotating the colors everytime they had completed giong around the fingers.

Some kids did a thin line of black in between the colors, which I REALLY liked! I think next year, I'll have them all do that.