Sculptural Faces

The 3rd Graders and I are in the midst of mask making!  Admittedly, one of my favorite units to teach.  We have made clay masks (which are going to be painted soon) and are currently working on Echo Masks.  While working through the clay days (sick kiddos=more make up days than I like.  It seems like the clay dust is never ending), I gave each student a piece of card stock and some scrap paper.  They were to use their paper sculpting skills to create an outrageous face- the sillier the better.  I demonstrated/reviewed the techniques I know they should be capable of (having had the majority of them since Kindergarten) and then I turned them loose.  After they finished, I took them outside and spray painted them.  Here are the results!

1st Grade is a HOOT this fall

If you follow Mr. E's blog, you know that he posted about TP owls that we did at a teacher in-service in August.  Fun project.  I modified it a bit for my 1st graders- I haven't saved up enough TP tubes, and I don't have the storage right now, so we just glued a paper roll.  But, the kids had a blast, and it was a fun project today.  We learned some sculptural skills, like balance in the creation of these owls.

Dragons

The 1st graders and I have had a great time reviewing some art room basics, like patterns, cutting, paper sculpture techniques, and marker use.  And, it is all jammed into one really fun project...Dragons.  We drew and colored patterns all over a long strip of paper which we would then accordion fold and use for the body.  A green paper was cut into a tail, and a black marker used to create a line design on the tail.  The head was a project in itself, as it was a folded puppet head which we then embellished with paper sculpture techniques.  Eyes, mouth, hair, horns, teeth, etc.  Fire, tongues, and other details were strongly encouraged by me.  We used green scraps from the tail paper to cut out feet.  And, while they finished on the last working day, I put straws on the tail so that one hand works the head and the other works the tail.  The students were beyond happy with their paper dragon puppets.