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Student Artwork
Project Based Learning & Interdisciplinary Explorations
Enjoy my collection of student work from students ages Kindergarten through 6th grade. Browse & scroll or click on the grade levels below.
Want more? Check out my blog page for in-depth lesson plans & teacher materials.
Kindergarten Projects
The Grouchy Ladybug Marble Painting Project
Students listened to the story The Grouchy Lady Bug by Eric Carle. In the spirit of the story we created marble painting backgrounds and collaged lady bugs drawn with Sharpie marker on red construction paper on top.
Diary of a Worm: Perspective
Students listened to and enjoyed the illustrations in Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. Then, we had a conversation about perspective and drawing from a “worms point of view”. The outcomes were all very unique and quite adorable.
Sun & Moon: Duality Exploration
Students explored the concept of duality and opposites through class brainstorming session, and extension with Pixar’s short film, Day & Night. This project coincided with an in-school field trip experience where students learned about outer space in a Sky-Dome Planetarium. The students were thrilled to add to their projects with the new information they learned and discussed with the class as they colored with oil pastels and painted with tempera.
Horizontal & Vertical Lines: Picnic Blankets
Students learned about the differences between horizontal & vertical lines. To showcase their knowledge, they created picnic blankets from scrap strips of paper and decorated them with watermelon slices and critters of their choice!
Mouse Paint Color Wheels
Students learned about mixing secondary colors by reading the story Mouse Paint. They drew 6 mice, then created secondary colors using primary color paint dotters. To finish, they added details like ears, whiskers, cheese, cookies, tails, and some even added angry cats!
First Grade Projects
Birch Bark Forests
In this project we took inspiration from Bev Doolittle’s paintings. We learned about the birch tree and how its bark has been used historically to create books, baskets, and even boats! The students identified foreground, middle-ground, and background, and drew forest landscapes with depth. Then we dipped corrugated cardboard in black paint and swiped it across the page to get a birch bark effect. We used crayons to create a resist and drew blades of grass and flowers on our land, then we painted over the top with liquid watercolor paint. Students experimented with blending chalk to create vibrant sunset skies. Some of us drew and cut out creatures of our choice for our pictures.
Squishmallow: Product Design & 3D Sculpture Creation
This Squishmallow project was a complete hit! Students got a taste of product design by defining what characteristics are specific to Squishmallows. Then they designed a few options of their own. The following class students created paper Squishmallows of their own, following one of the designs they created. To complete them, we created tags & adoption certificates where students wrote their new pet’s name, and some facts about them.
A Home for a Hermit Crab
Scrap Stories
Students created artworks that represented some sort of story or dialogue based on scrap pieces found in the overflowing scrap bin!
Can you tell that these were done after Valentine’s Day?
Symmetry Bugs
In this lesson we faced some fears and familiarized ourselves and learned more about the local insects we share our space with by watching a short, informative video about them. Then we discussed symmetry and experimented with paint and oil pastel to create these goofy insects!
Second Grade Projects
Tints & Treats: Painting Ice Cream the Thiebaud Way
Students learned about American painter Wayne Thiebaud and followed suite with a reflection of his practice where they drew ice cream cones and scoops from memory. Then, they worked with mixing tempera paint to reveal tints of their chosen hue to color in their ice cream scoops.
Wassily Kandinsky Geometric Compositions:
Students learned about the artwork of Wassily Kandisnky and created their own compositions using geometric shapes, bold lines, and colors while listening to classical music.
Third Grade Projects
Intro to Op Art
We explored the exciting world of Op Art by learning about how optical illusions work in our eyes and brains, the history of the Op Art Movement, and createdour own optical illusions using colored pencils. In this particular project we worked with shading techniques to achieve the illusion of depth.
Georgia O’Keeffe Flowers: Analogous Color Scheme Exploration
Students learned about Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract flower studies, and created their own unique flowers while experimenting with limiting themselves to analogous color schemes.
Fourth Grade Projects
Radial Printmaking
Students learned about radial symmetry, mandalas, and their cultural significance. They created radially symmetrical “gobstopper” paintings. Then, they created radial designs which were carved into styrofoam blocks, and printed 4 times using brayers and printmaking block ink to create a completely radially symmetrical image.
Pop Art
We learned about the Pop Art Movement and created our own Andy Warhol inspired Pop Art pictures with subjects of our choice that are significant to us today. Students designed an image and repeated it 3 other times to create the tiled picture. Then they traced with Sharpie marker and added color with tempera paint and oil pastels. Very fun and vibrant and a bit trickier than the screen-printing repetitions that Andy Warhol did back in the day!
Fifth Grade Projects
Pixel Art: From Digital Art to Physical Art
Students learned about pixel art and created pixel art designs digitally on make8bitart.com. Then they were tasked with mapping out their designs on graph paper, and scaling them down to work within a given size parameter. Then they recreated their designs with 1″ cut paper squares on giant graph paper. This lesson was a complete hit and made for excellent decoration in the hallway.
The first picture shows my inspiration for the project, I saw this pixel art decoration at my rock-climbing gym and thought it would make a fantastic art project at school.
Sixth Grade Projects
Marine Life Dot Painting
Students learned about Aboriginal dot painting and created their own dot painting artworks representing sea creatures of their choice that they researched.
X-Ray Skeleton Hand
We talked about broken bones, the history of x-rays and their use in art & history, and human anatomy while creating this x-ray hand projects. First students studied the bones in the hand and created sketches via a step-by-step guide. Then, they recreated their drawings on black paper and colored them in with oil pastel & used chalk to add accents. Some students took more creative liberty than others, all had fantastic results!
Multi-Grade Projects
Mono-print Rosettes on Van Gogh Backgrounds
This project was done with kids 1st through 6th grade. First we talked about Van Gogh, and his short, choppy, directional brush strokes and impasto technique. Then the students had a go at painting like Van Gogh. The second class we used ziploc bags filled with water to print rosette-like patterns with tempera paint. The following class we added details with oil pastel and worked with symmetry to create cut paper vases.
While printing, many students made greeting cards for Mother’s Day and Teacher Appreciation week.