The object of this project is to impress on the kids the necessity to “draw what you see,” “not what you know”, when copying a print or photo. One example I give the kids is, “You know that the animal has two eyes, but only one is shown, so only draw what you see.” That sounds easy enough, but it’s surprising how “what we know” can get in the way. I gave each of the kids a copy of an animal that they were to copy, but they had to draw it upside down with only half of the picture showing at a time. The fifth grade students got really involved in this project, and were surprised at the results. The directions for “Draw What You See,” can be found in the 5th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
WHAT YOU SEE
LENTEN CROSS
The Lenten season reminds us of the extreme suffering that Jesus offered up for our sins. This art project is meant to help us focus on this season of preparation for Easter. I saw some clip art that gave me the idea for this project. A Solitary Cross is glued on a background of torn, colored, paper strips. Rays off the cross are drawn with oil pastels and blended out, using your finger. The directions for this project, “Torn Paper Lenten Scene,” can be found in the 5th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
FOLK ART (AMERICAN)
The 5th grade class watched a PowerPoint presentation of folk art by American folk artists. Many of the artists were self-taught artists who wanted to tell a story, through pictures, about specific events depicting life in rural areas. Calendars with pictures of American folk art are also useful with this project. The directions for this project, “American Folk Art,” can be found in the 5th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
MEXICAN FOLK ART
The beautiful colors and designs in Mexican folk art makes it a style that begs to be imitated. I made a Power Point presentation showing Mexican folk art. Since folk art is a primitive style, we are using the owl as our subject—besides that, I like owls. I’ve included a page of owl sketches that can be shown on the Elmo or printed off with each getting a copy, to give the kids ideas for drawing their owl. Directions for, “Mexican Folk Art Owl,” are in the 5th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
ARTRAGEOUS
CUT PAPER OWL CRAFT
This was such a fun project that I was anxious to share it with you. When I was on vacation this fall, I found this owl decoration in one of the stores and thought it would make a nice art project for the kids. Click on the image to the left to get a full view of the photo. I took a picture of the decoration to show the students and gave them an owl shape, construction paper, tissue paper and buttons and told them to make an owl using the supplies I provided and the owl shape. You can see pictures of the great decorations they made by going to Paper Cut Owl, in the 6th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
LEAF PLAQUE
This is a more involved project because white glue is used to outline the leaves and then it has to dry thoroughly before you can go on with the project. Also the brown paper sack has to be prepared for the plaque. Only use the permanent style markers, like Sharpies. It’s not a difficult craft and the finished product is well worth the time. Check the complete directions and supply list for “Autumn Leaf Plaque,” in the 6th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.
BLACK ON WHITE SIMPLICITY
So we’ve been having a lot of fun with colored tissue paper painting, and now we have sheets of black tissue left and need a project to use them in. Looking at Google images, I can across a number of images of black flowers on a white background and thought it would be worth a try. Here’s the result and I think they look quite elegant. Flower pedals are cut from the black tissue, folded and glued to the white background. This project, “Black Flower Simplicity,” is listed in the 6th Grade Projects Gallery in the sidebar.