6th Grade: Memory Jars

Coming back to school it is very difficult to let go of summer. We want all of the fun times we had on vacation, BBQs, swimming, etc. to never end. For this project the students thought about what their favorite moment from this summer was. The students drew either a scene of the memory in a jar or placed items form the memory in the jar. The students were told to add something to the drawing that makes it look like the memory some how actually exists in the jar. For example it could look like water was filling up the car, or things were changing direction when they hit the sides of the jar.

We even listen to Time In a Bottle by Jim Croce while we got started!

7th Grade: Fingerprint Identities

Being that I am a brand new teacher to St. Elizabeth, I really wanted a lot of my first projects to help me get to know my new students. What better way to get to know them than an entire identity project. For this project the students and I first talked about how our fingerprints are part of our identity, which is why we use fingerprints for things such as crime scenes or, as many of my students said, to unlock our Iphones! We also talked about combining the identity of our fingerprints with things about us.
The students first studied their fingerprints and drew them. We then water colored them and created a list of twenty things about them. Seventh grade then wrote the things about them in their fingerprints and went over it in Sharpie. I encouraged students to add small images or change the sizing of their writing to make it more interesting.

1st Grade: Primary Color Shape Monsters

The first grade students learned about Primary colors. which was a review for some of the students. We then took a look at some basic shapes, and thought about how we could use just the simple shapes to make monsters. The students also practiced cutting out simple shapes from construction paper and gluing them together to make their monsters.

The students seem to have so much fun coming up with the look of their monsters. I tried to allow them to be as creative as they would like, and we turned out with a lot of unique shape monsters!

4th Grade: Movement Using Line Design

The fourth graders learned about one way to create movement in a still image. We looked at cartoons and even watched the opening song of "Roadrunner" to see how cartoon artists often add lines behind a moving object. We then thought about different types of lines such as straight, zig-zag, curly, etc. The students chose anything they wanted to draw, as long as it was in motion. We talked about how we could EXAGGERATE those lines by making them varied and colorful!

1st-5th grade: Where's Waldo Board

       Back to school, which means back to art class! While some students did art camps over the summer or created art in their spare time, most students were busy swimming, going on vacation and hanging out with friends. So, it is always nice to have some type of back to school art project to get warmed up again! This year the first through fifth graders, created a giant Where's Waldo board, but instead of searching for the infamous Waldo, they were looking for me, Miss Dwyer. 

       The students were asked to create a mini portrait of themselves to create the big St. Elizabeth Where's Miss Dwyer. Being new to St. Elizabeth, this project gave the students a chance to show off their drawing abilities to me.