Olympic Athletes

I LOVE using the Olympics as a theme in the art room. There are so many connections, the most logical for me being the action- the kids love sports, and it's a great chance to work on those people.  The 3rd graders explored the Olympic Website with me, chose a sport, and filled out a think sheet about their choices.  Then, I taught them to make "pipe cleaner people".  These served as our armature.  We covered them in old tape, and put paper mache' on top of that.  It was a sticky mess, and some of our athletes needed to be propped up with wooden blocks.  But, despite the awkward phase, the paint day today really made them come alive.  I had the students attach their athlete sculptures to a wooden  block (I have an old bunch of wood building blocks in the art room that I've been itching to recycle) and this allowed all athletes to stand proud. We will transition to printmaking after this- using the students' chosen sport as the subject.

Chihuly-3rd Grade

So my students in 3rd grade used paper mache' over a balloon to create a version of Chihuly's "Nimja Floats" or as one of my students wrote- "Ninja Floats". It was a mess, but as you can see from our installation in progress, well worth the experience.

Each student painted their sphere one solid color, and then used paint in glue bottles to add accent colors on. I used them to create an installation a la Chihuly in our hallway. I think it really gets across the idea of a group project. Individually, they were o.k., but the impact was greater as a group.

There are 18 more spheres waiting to be painted and added to the installation.

It's A Mess....

Clay Ikebanas- we'll make flowers out of found objects while we wait for these to be fired.
"Floats"
My 3rd graders are making Chihuly "Floats" using balloons and paper mache', and my 4th graders are using clay to make "Ikebanas" a la Chihuly. WOW- are we having fun, and WOW what a mess. Seriously though, the kids have been so good about helping each other, and cleaning up afterwords, that the mess is not my concern. Today however, the janitors informed me they wanted to buff the floors, and I had to put all of the paper mache on tables for the weekend. I had them lined up in the hall to dry, but oh well, we bend so that we do not break. I cannot wait to see them all painted up, and hanging in the school. Note to self though- save the big projects, requiring storage for next year, when my new art room is built. In the meantime- do you think the classsroom teachers would notice if I just tucked a few in the back of their rooms? HAHAHA