Monday, January 2, 2012

6th grade medallions

This project was one that had been on the back burner for a couple of years but we brought it back this year. We changed the focus from a central image or symbol to a radial design with a focus on design elements such as shape, line and texture. The end results were dynamite and re-charged this lesson. The medallions are actually made from a combination of cardboard, card stock, glue, toothpicks, tin foil and ink. The end result is something that resembles pewter or tarnished silver. Here are a few of the many great results from this year.


4th Grade Monster Totems

Alright, who doesn't enjoy drawing monsters? There's really no wrong way. The monster totem is a little different than your average monster project. We break up the monster, drawing the top half on the bottom of the paper and the bottom half at the top of the paper. Seems strange right?!  The idea here is that when finished, we can link our paper up with someone else in the class. Then our bottom fits on their top or vice versa. We can even link up to other 4th graders in other classes, the possibilities are endless. In order for this to happen we have to have set lines that are the same on everyone's paper. Thus the use of the master copy...see below                                   
With everyone working off the same lines, everyones will fit. They can also be moved to create endless combinations. The same pieces were used below and just moved around.

5th Grade name illustrations

This is the first project that the 5th graders do at the beginning of the year after reviewing the elements of art. We talk about using objects to create the illusion of letters. A candy cane for a "J" or a lower case "r" for example. We also took a look at some photographers that do this same thing with cropped images.
 Students had a minimum of 5 letters to work with...a first name, last name, nick-name. We also talked about light and how we can use it to help create a 3-d illusion on a flat surface. Here are some examples: