Crafts

This lesson was all about crafts.  For this lesson we were to make a heart out of construction paper that we would make for our mom's for Mother's Day.  We cut out our heart and then made a boarder around the edge of the heart.  We then wrote a special message to our moms.  I wrote that she makes me my favorite foods when I am home.  Then we got to make a bracelet for our mom for Mother's day.  This was an interesting project because the beads were made out of strips of a magazine.  We were shown four different ways to make beads from the magazine pieces.  We made the beads, made a pattern for our bracelet and then strung the beads onto the yarn.  My finished product looks like this:

This project could be used in any younger elementary classroom as an activity for Mother's Day.  In language arts I would have the students write a letter to their mom's for Mother's Day.  The letter would include things they like and appreciate about their mom.  This letter would be included with this craft the students have made for their mom.

Crayon Bulletin Board Display

For our bulletin board we had two sides to work with.  One side of the board displayed all of the monster/human drawings that the students drew with the help of others in the class.  The other side of the board displayed the diversity of the class with "A Box of Crayons". A crayon box template was made by the teachers and all of the crayons were displayed in the crayon box.  Our bulletin board looked like this:

Our lesson was called A Box of Crayons and went as follows:

Names: Megan Togel, Ellen Thomsen

Lesson Title: A Box of Crayons

Grade Level: 1st Grade

Rationale:  The purpose of this lesson is to introduce 1st graders to specific elements of design that will be used for their project.  Typical 1st graders are active and easily excited.  This allows the students to be interested in any project as long as you keep them hooked.  1st graders also desire the approval of classmates and teachers.  This will allow students to share what they have made in their work while their classmates get to look at the work.

Multiple Intelligences:  

• For visual learners, we will have “A Box of Crayons” presented on a powerpoint for students to follow along.
• For kinesthetic learners, we will incorporate time for students to have independent practice with techniques we discuss.

Materials and Resources:

Students:

• pencil, crayons, scissors, construction paper

Teacher:

• crayon template
• powerpoint, computer, projector

Vocabulary:

• Line: A continuous mark made on a surface by a moving point.
• Color: What is seen when waves of light meet our eyes.

National Standards/Objectives:

• NVA 1d. Art Production: use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
• NVA 2c.  Artist Perception: use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas.
• NVA 3a.  Art Criticism: explore and understand prospective content for works of art.

Procedure: 

• Anticipatory Set: Discuss with the students the elements of design and go over the vocabulary in our lesson.  We will then lead into diversity.  We will ask the students what diversity is, what it means, and where it is seen.

Step 1: Powerpoint

Teachers will explain the elements of design on the powerpoint. 

Step 2: Diversity Drawings

The teacher will explain to the students what the diversity activity will consist of. The teacher will demonstrate how to fold and cut their construction paper into thirds for the drawing activity.  The teacher will also have examples of the head, body, and legs to show the students for their drawings.

Step 3: Guided Practice

The teacher will show examples of the head drawing and then have the students draw their head.  The teacher will repeat this step with each part of the drawing before the students draw their own.

Step 4: Independent Practice

The students will begin to draw a head on one of their pieces of paper they have cut out.  When they are finished, they will turn their head drawing into the teachers.  They will then move on to draw the body on their second sheet of paper.  In the meantime, the teacher will pass out the head drawings to students so they do not get their own head drawing.  The teacher will then collect the body drawing from the students and they will finish their diversity drawing with the legs.  Again, the teacher will pass out the body drawings to the students so they do not get their own, and the same will be done for the legs drawing.

Step 5: Powerpoint

The teacher will pull up the poem, “A Box of Crayons” on the screen so the students have a visual of it.  The teacher will read the poem aloud to the students.

Step 6: Guided Practice

The teacher will explain to the students that they are going to draw themselves in their crayon template.  They must include themselves, but can also include things they like to do in the background.  The teacher will show the students examples of what is expected.

Check for Understanding: The teacher will show good examples of staying in the lines and making the crayon drawing neat with no scribbles.

Step 7: Creating a crayon

Students will then be instructed to take their crayon template and draw themselves and things they like to do.  They will color their drawing when they are done.  When the students are done coloring, they will cut their crayon out and put their name on the back of their crayon. 

Step 8: Display

1. Teacher will display all crayons in a giant box of crayons that will be created with construction paper.
2. The box of crayons will be labeled as Miss Thomsen’s and Miss Togel’s Crayons.

Closure: 

Review the vocabulary terms discussed in today’s class and review diversity.  We will review what diversity means and how everyone in class is not the same.

Clean Up: 

Students are responsible for cleaning up their table before they are able to turn in their crayons.  

Integration: 

This lesson could be used in a social studies classroom or over Martin Luther King Jr. day to discuss the idea of diversity.

Adaptations:

For an ELL learner, we would have a teacher paired up with the student for further instruction.

Student Evaluation:

A rubric is attached that the students will hand in with their project.

Teacher Evaluation:

1. Was the student able to create a drawing of themselves?
2. Was the student able to integrate lines and color in their project?
3. Was the project grade level appropriate?

Creating a Drawing : A Box of Crayons           Teacher Name: Megan Togel and Ellen Thomsen  Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1	Score
Drawing	Drawing is expressive and detailed. Shapes and lines are used to add interest to the drawing. Student has great control and is able to experiment a little.	Drawing is expressive and somewhat detailed. Little use has been made of shapes and lines. Student has basics, but had not "branched" out.	Drawing has few details. It is primarily representational with very little use of shapes and lines. Student needs to improve control.	The drawing lacks almost all detail OR it is unclear what the drawing is intended to be. Student needs to work on control.
Color Choices	Choice and application of color shows an advanced knowledge of color relationships. Color choice enhances the idea being expressed.	Choice and application of color shows knowledge of color relationships. Colors are appropriate for the idea being expressed.	Choice and application of color shows knowledge of color relationships. Colors are, however, NOT appropriate for the idea being expressed.	Student needs to work on learning color relationships and using that knowledge in his/her work.
Time/Effort	Class time was used wisely. Much time and effort went into the planning and design of the drawing.	Class time was used wisely. Student could have put in more time and effort.	Class time was not always used wisely, but student did do some additional work at home.	Class time was not used wisely and the student put in no additional effort.
Creativity	Student has taken the technique being studied and applied it in a way that is totally his/her own. The student's personality/voice comes through.	Student has taken the technique being studied and has used source material as a starting place. The student's personality comes through in parts of the drawing.	Student has copied some drawing from the source material. There is little evidence of creativity, but the student has done the assignment.	Student has not made much attempt to meet the requirements of the assignment.

Crayons

For my lesson, Ellen and I worked together to create our crayon lesson.  We had the students create two projects for our lesson.  Our first project was a creative drawing using crayons.  The students would take a piece of paper and fold it into thirds.  One student would draw the head on the first third of the paper.  Then the students would pass their paper to the right.  The next student would draw the body on the second third of paper.  The students would pass their paper to the right one last time and that student would draw the legs on the last third of the paper.  The students would be able to draw their creation any way they wanted.  It could be a monster, a human, anything as long as it had a head, arms, and legs.  My example looks like this:

The second project of our lesson was to have the kids draw themselves and either symbols that represent them or something they like to do on a crayon template.  The crayon lesson relates to diversity, and as the students draw themselves on their crayon, they can see the difference of all of their classmates.  The students had to use crayon on their drawing and they had to show themselves in the picture along with something that describes them.  Here is my example:

All of the students crayons would be placed on a bulletin board in a crayon box to be displayed.  This crayon box activity would be used around Martian Luther King Jr. day to describe diversity.  We would incorporate this activity when we talk about Martian Luther King Jr. and what his impact was on diversity.

Clay Face

This art project was made with clay.  The clay we used was an air dry clay that could be molded and then set to dry and harden.  For this project, we were to make a face.  The face was to have four different sections and in each section we were to have a different pattern.  We could use anything in sight to make a pattern.  The end of a pencil, the clay carving tools, crayons and markers.  We then were told to make eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  We scored one side of the eyes, nose, and mouth, and also our face and put a small dab of water on each scored piece and put the two pieces together.  The face was then painted all in black and one the black was dry, the face was painted in different colors.  Here is an example of my finished clay face.

This would be a great activity to include in a social studies class when the students are learning about different cultures.  The students could create a clay face relating to different cultures.  They could use different symbols of a certain culture on their face to represent that culture they are learning about.

Seasons

For this project, we had to create a tree either in fall or winter.  We traced our arm and our hand on a piece of brown paper.  This would be used for the tree trunk and the branches.  We then could use tissue paper or cotton balls for our tree.  There was fall colored and white tissue paper for either the fall or winter scene.  The cotton balls could be used for clouds or snow on the tree.  Once we had filled in our tree branches with our choice of season, we could add other effects with glitter like the sun, grass, snowman, snow, ect.  I chose to do the fall scene with tissue paper as the leaves and cotton balls as the clouds.  I used glitter to make the sun and the grass on the ground.

This project would be great for 1st or 2nd graders learning about the seasons.  This could be used for any season of the year, and the student's could create their own tree according to the season.  Student's would be able to learn what colors go with each season and how the seasons look; if they are darker and cold, or warmer and lighter.  This would be a good project for student's to see each season.

Sketch Art

This project was a fun and exciting project that could be incorporated into any younger elementary classroom.  As a class, we started out coloring thicker paper that was to be used for our final project, a Mother's Day card.  We had to color the paper with any colors we wanted and any pattern we wanted, but we had to make sure to color the paper very dark so you couldn't see any of the paper behind the crayon.  After we were finished coloring, we took our paper over to the painting station where we painted our colored side with special paint. (Black paint and dish soap)  We had to have a thick layer of paint, evenly spread onto the colored side of our paper.  When we were done painting, we took our paper to the drying station to let it dry.  

While our cards were drying, we took a smaller piece of paper and wrote a special note to our mom's for Mother's Day.  After this was done, we sketched what we wanted to put on the front and back of our card with pencil.  After our drawings for our cards were done, we picked up our dry painted cards, put our drawings over the top of the painted card and shaded over the backside of our drawings.  When we took our drawings off of the card, the drawings had transferred over to the card.  Now we could take our sketch pen and trace over our pencil lines to form our sketch art Mother's Day card.

This Mother's Day card making could be done in any younger elementary classroom when Mother's day is near.  This could be a 2 or 3 day process by letting the paint dry, creating the drawing, and sketching the art.  Student's would love to make their own cards for their mom's or guardian's for Mother's Day.  There could also be another activity that goes along with this card such as another art project to make for mom.

Mask Making

Our second lesson today was all about masks and how to make masks.  We learned about different types of masks and what the reasoning is behind some masks.  We also learned about different countries and what they use masks for.  To create our own mask, we used a paper plate, cut out the eyes, and painted our plate any color we wanted.  We then used construction paper, tissue paper, and pipe cleaners to create hair for our mask.  A nose was added to the mask with construction paper, newspaper, or foam.  Finally, we added any other features we wanted to put on our mask.  We could use glitter, paint, foam letters, and foam cut outs.  A string was then attached to our mask so we could wear them.  Here is what my mask looks like.

This mask making activity would be a wonderful activity for a history lesson.  This could be tied into the curriculum when the students are learning about different cultures and how they are different from each other.  After the students learn about different cultures, they could make their own masks describing themselves and their own culture.

Printmaking

Today's project was all about printmaking.  Each student got the chance to create two of their own prints for their printmaking.  To make the template, we used a rectangle piece of styrofoam (like a paper plate).  We drew in the styrofoam with a pencil and made two templates.  One was a pattern using shapes and the other was a holiday scene.  

Once we had our templates we took them over to the painting station and used a roller to roll on a specific type of paint.  We rolled the paint onto our template in a thin layer.  Once the thin layer was applied, we took the template and pressed it onto a sheet of construction paper.  We did this five times and kept three of our papers to be put on display.  Here are two of my projects.  One is the shape scene, and the other is the holiday scene.

This would be a good project for middle schoolers or higher elementary students.  The students could make a print when Christmas comes around.  The students could make two or three designs for Christmas and they could be displayed before Christmas break.  Middle schoolers could use a carving type of material (kind of like a big eraser) and carve their design into the eraser like material.  This would be the same concept, but since the students are older, they would have to be a bit more careful with the carving tool and carving their project.

Imagination Drawing

This lesson was all about drawing.  The teachers paired us up in class and we were to draw any kind of line on a piece of paper.  We then had to trade with our partner.  The instructions were to draw something with that line.  We did this twice.  The first time I traded with my partner, she drew a straight line and I drew a playground.  The second time I traded with my partner, she drew a jagged and pointed line and I drew a train up in the mountains.  This is what I used for my final drawing.  We were able to color our drawing and write a story about our drawing.  Here is my finished product of the imagination drawing.

This lesson could be used in a language arts class.  The students could draw their picture like we did and then write a story about their drawing explaining what is happening and why they draw what they drew.  These could be hung up out in the hallway or in the classroom for others to look at and read.

Egg Painting

This lesson was presented by three girls in my art class.  The project topic was painting and they did a very nice job at relating the project to Easter.  We practiced patterns on a sketch piece of paper before painting our own easter eggs.  The teachers had the class go on an easter egg hunt around the classroom.  Once we found one egg, we got to open it and see what color of paper was inside our egg.  We were given 3 easter egg templates that we got to paint.  We could paint the easter egg any way we wanted, but we had to include the color that we found in the easter egg hunt on one of our painted eggs.  This was a very fun project, and younger elementary students would love to do this before Easter.  Here is my finished easter eggs.

This activity would be a good activity for kindergarteners when easter comes around.  The students would be able to work on patterns and work on creating patterns on easter eggs.  The teacher could display the students work before easter to get the students excited about easter and patterns.

Hidden Safari

The Hidden Safari lesson was presented by our art teacher as an example for our own lesson plans.  She first showed us what we were going to learn and do in the lesson.  She showed us how to draw upside down to make our drawings look more realistic.  We drew a safari animal on a piece of paper with a special pencil and then we used warm colors and drew a pattern over the top of our drawing. After drawing the pattern over the safari animal, the animal could not be seen with the naked eye. We then made our ruby red glasses, and these glasses were special glasses.  These glasses allowed us to see our drawing.  Here is what my final drawing looked like as well as a picture of the ruby red glasses to see the picture.

This would be a good activity for younger elementary students when they are learning about animals and what kinds of animals live in different places. The students could make their own animal, like I did for this project, and the projects would be displayed.  The students would all put on their ruby red glasses and look at the hidden pictures and see if they can figure out what animal is hidden in the picture.