Tried It Tuesday: Arts and Crafts

Well, over the past (almost year) of blogging I created quite a bit of pages on the side of my blog.  These were mainly pictures to help keep things organized.  With the new design though, I just need these things in a blog post - not going to have the plethora of pages anymore.  So here they are... my collection of random art projects, crafts, and things I made for that art class I took for extra units.  

 Paper Dioramas (Blog Post)- After reading a story on the Gold Rush, the students created their own paper diorama by folding and cutting a piece of paper.  They then decorate it as their own mining camp by creating a setting in the background, and pop up people on the base.

Paper Chain for Summer (Blog Post)- 10 days to go!  Students wrote their top 10 favorite memories of 4th grade on the slips of paper, then stapled, and took them home to count down until Summer.  

Clay (Air Dry) Poppies

As you all know, I teach 4th grade in California.  Our state flower is the California Poppy.  I have my students create it by taking a palm size amount of Model Magic (it's air dry clay that doesn't become sticky), and first tearing off a ping pong size ball.  They form it into a round ball, then they take 4 more pieces which they make into the petals.  One by one they attach it to the ball.  Some students create a stem as well.  It takes a couple of days to dry (I do this on a Friday), and when it dries they paint it the well known bright orange.  We do this project so it corresponds with planting the poppy seeds and getting ready for Open House.  

This was a Pinterest inspired project.  On the back of the pink construction paper is a writing assignment.  My class had to write the steps to blow a bubble.  I made them do 3-5 sentences each step, 5 steps total.  They glued it to the pink paper, and then they drew their face on copy paper on the other side.  Last, they blew up a balloon and taped it on their mouth.  They loved this project!

Mother's Day gifts - My class created these painted tiles for their Moms.  Home Depot's tiles were 16 cents each, and I picked up spring color acrylic paint at Michael's.  They used tiny detail brushes and created their own art work.  It dried pretty quickly.  I have also done this project using colored sharpies at Christmas time.  The sharpies were extra easy and there wasn't any drying time.        

 Plastic Bottle Stamping - I saw an idea to make art work using the bottom of plastic bottles.  I pulled some out of the recycling bin, and using spring colors, my students created their own abstract art.

Paper Mache Project- used glue & water 50/50 mixture to dip strips of paper towels into and covered the balloon.  The last layer we used colored crepe paper strips to form the outside of the Easter Egg.  We ended up completing 5 layers total.  Each layer (if the kids followed directions) took about 3 hours to dry.  I didn't do this project this year - no time!

 Earth Day posters - groups came up with ways they could personally help the Earth.

Elementary Art Projects 

(from that class I took to get more units)

 Line drawing with watercolor

 Line drawing with crayon

 Sunflowers with crayon

Sunflowers with paint

 Construction paper - small squares and rectangles with shapes that move from one piece to another

 Chalk Flower (spray with hairspray after to help it set)

 Tissue paper collage

 Crayon fish covered then watercolor

 Sharpie town covered with watercolor

 Crayon flower

 Crayon night sky

 Line drawing with water color

 Line drawing with limited color

 Line drawing - same color repeated twice

Line drawing - every section a different color.

I'm going to link this up with Holly over at Tried it Tuesday's Linky Party - who knows, maybe someone over there needs an idea.  :)

Have a great day!  Another day of test prep awaits.  :)