More Autumn Joys

Landscape - Construction paper and oil pastel 1st grade
Squash and leaves - White glue dried on black construction paper and chalk

The leaves project came from Diane Callahan from Adrian Schools.

I took the lesson in another direction by making stencils of squash. I loved it when one of my third graders could tell me the names of all the different squashes.

Autumn Joy

"Starry Night" Crayon resist and collage DK - 1
"The Scream" Oil pastel on cardboard 4th grade
"Harvest Landscape" Black crayon DK - 1
"Fall Leaves" Marker on Styrofoam print
"Calaveras" Colored pencil and collage 2nd grade

Special thanks to:
Chris Krieger from St. Stephen's Lutheran School for the Starry Night lesson
Annie Morton from Adrian Schools for the Styrofoam plate printing lesson

The Landscape lesson came from a book.
"The Scream" and "Calavera's" were my invention.
Both of these projects dealt with "horizon line." "The Scream" also addressed "vanishing point."

Shadow Boxes

Shadow Boxes
Surf's Up - Austin Gilson
Africa - Andy Mikuski
I have to give special credit to Austin Gilson (Surf's Up!)
Austin figured out how to cut and seperate an image so that it would decorate both sides of the tin. It was inspired! Greatfully, inspiration is contagious. There was a mass infection of great ideas after Austin's breakout.

The Recycled Art Show

Cork Dolls and Shadow Boxes
Beauty Queen - Sierra Bloomer
Cool Guy - Adam Roseman
Cork Buddy - Dwight Thayer
Sea Princess - Karis Blaker
These are just a few of the clever projects made by my students which were entered into the Recycled Art Show. The show was at the Croswell Opera House and was sponsered by the Lenawee Soild Waste Dept.

A Few Good Heads

We did a science/art experiment. We made shrunken heads from apples. To prevent rotting we soaked the heads briefly in lemon juice and salt. Only one or two rotted. A few fell and broke. Most of the apples dehydrated nicely, but those considered a "quality head" had to have a nicely carved face. Lamb's wool and corn silk were added for hair.
All our preservatives couldn't stop the fruit flies from swarming. Still, the flies were tolerable when you consider the results.

Ancient Cave Art Discovery!!!

The Cave of Horses (with a mastodon or two)
I did this project with my DK and K Students. I wish they would have had a little more enthusiasm for the images I showed them of the caves in Lascaux and Altamira, but these little ones' concepts of time and place are still developing. The good news is they really loved making their prehistoric horses, and then putting them into the cave. Visitors to the cave needed a flash light to pass through.
I used a frig box with both ends open. On a separate piece of cardboard I drew out the facade of a hillside and the cave opening. Then,I had some older kids paint it. I attached the facade to one end of the frig box.
The horses were drawn on torn brown grocery sacks. They were made by tracing the students hands with chalk and coloring them in. Finally, details like tails and manes were added.
Kids of all grades (and some teachers) couldn't wait to go in the cave.

Pattern Cat

Another inexpensive and charming project is "Pattern Cats."
Students draw a cat onto white paper. They then divide the cat into sections. In each section a different pattern is drawn. The pencil lines are then traced over using black permanent marker. The cat is then cut out.
Wall paper is glued to yet another piece of white paper to provide stability.
The pattern cat is pasted to the wallpaper creating a folk art feel.