Fall Leaf Collage

The Little Leaves

The following art project focused creating a collage with fall leaves. The instructors read “The Little Yellow Leaf” storybook to motivate the students. The story focused on the change of seasons and one or two leaves that refused to let go of the tree on which they grew. We created our fall leaf collage with wax paper and warm colored (red, yellow, orange) crayon shavings and cool colored (blue, green, violet) oil pastels. Here is my leaf art:

Materials needed:

·         3 warm colors crayons and 3 cool color pastels
·         White sheet of paper for each student
·         2 pieces of 11 x 11 wax paper
·         Stencils of different types of leaves
·         Shaving tool

We took the following steps to create our fall leafs:

1.       Shave a crayon (warm colors) with a sharp edged metal file to create shavings for you project.
2.       Fold a piece of 11 x 11 piece of wax paper in half.
3.       After you have a pile of shavings, spread them out on piece of wax paper and fold the paper in half, enclosing the shavings.
4.       Melt the crayons with an iron.
5.       Trace some leaves on the wax paper with the leaf stencils provided and cut them out. (When I did this art it was difficult to trace the leaves on the wax paper because the colors were too thich in some parts and I could not see through to trace the leaves. I actually had to draw them free-hand and they lost their unique natural shape. It would have worked bette if I cut them out from the paper first and then traced them onto the wax paper.)
6.        Paste the leaves you cut out on a piece of paper to create a leaf collage (overlap the leaves).
7.       After pasting the leaves on the piece of paper, use cool colored (blue, green, violet) oil pastels to draw additional leaves onto the paper, creating a collage of warm and cool colored leaves.
8.       Display your artwork.

Extension activity:

This activity could be used when studying fruits in health class. This would be a group project in which students would make a bulletin board display with different types of fruits (apples, oranges, peers, bananas, etc) by using wax paper and crayons. The students would make crayon shavings using only the color of their respective fruit (yellow for banana, orange for oranges) to create their wax-paper-crayon fruit. The students would then decorate the bulletin board and include a short description of the health benefits of fruits.

Underwater Scratch Art

This art lesson focused on using scratch art to create an underwater scene with one underwater animal such as a fish, crab, shark, etc. as the emphasis (focal point) of the picture. Here is my underwater scratch art:

Materials needed:

·         Picture of underwater animal
·         White sheet of 8 ½ “ by 11” piece of paper
·         Black Scratch Paper—half sheet of 8 x11
·         Wooden dowel with a point

The steps to create a picture of an underwater animal using scratch art paper:

1: Choose an underwater animal you want to draw and use as the focal point of your underwater scene.

2: Fold an 8 ½” by 11” sheet of paper in half and draw the animal you choose for your underwater scene.

3: Take the folded paper on which your animal was drawn and slip a piece of 5 ½” by 8 ½“piece of scratch paper in between the folded piece of paper.

4: Now trace the animal you drew with a wooden dowel and include as much detail as possible (be sure to apply pressure since you have to see the outline of the animal on the scratch paper).

5. After you finished tracing your animal, take the scratch paper out from between the folded piece of paper and begin to scratch off the black film to create an outline of your animal. Caution: handle the scratch paper with a paper towel—if the paper gets wet from sweaty hands or fingers you will not be able to use it.

6. When you are finished drawing you animal with as much detail as possible, also draw some background that fits the animals surroundings.

7. Display your underwater art on a bulletin board.

Extension activity:

This type of art could be integrated into different subject areas besides art. For instance, when 4^th or 5^th grade students are studying a unit on the Westward Expansion they could do an activity with scratch art to create scenes typical of this era. The scenes could include: sod being broken by a team of oxen, a pioneer family traveling on a horse-drawn carriage, a new house being raised, a girl milking a cow, guys brining in the hay, etc. After completing their scratch paper art, the students would write a few paragraphs (with main point focusing on the picture they choose) describing how life in this era was different than life today.

3-D Art Project

Birds of a Feather Art Project: A Lesson about the Beauty of Diversity.

In art class we did a 3D art project. The lesson was centered on diversity. The class first watched a video that was related to diversity. The video was about a bunch of identical birds who did not accept another bird which was different than they were. Our assignment was to create a 3D bird to reinforce the diversity theme. Here is the bird I created:

Friendly Bubba

The steps in creating the bird are as follows:

1.       The first step was to come up with a character which described our bird. Since the theme was on diversity, I choose to name my bird “Friendly Bubba.” The description of my character is as follows: "I am native to Brazil. I am a rare species, I am  unselfish and modest. I do not pick on others that are different—I make friends with them instead. I love to help out, even when I am busy. Life is enjoyable when we help others! My friends say I have a warm disposition just like the color of my feathers.” The card on which we wrote the description of our character was displayed alongside the bird.

2.       Cut out the parts of my bird—the wings, body, and tail—which had been traced onto a white cardboard paper.

3.       Glue together the body which consists of two sides.

4.       Color the bird. We were required to have some patterns on our bird.

5.       Glue the body together and attach the wings to the bird with glue. The back section is attached to the bird by cutting a slit into the back feathers and on the back part of the bird body and slipping them together.

6.       Punch a hole on the ends of wings and on the middle of the body right above the wings.

7.       Add colored feathers or create texture with tissue paper. We were required to add texture to our bird—visual and tactile texture.

8.       Put a string through the holes you punched—that would be three strings—and tie them together so the bird wings are positioned as in flight.

9.       The bird is ready to display

 Extension activity

This art project could be used in other subject areas, specifically in science when birds are being studied in middle school. The students would all create their own type of bird—it could be a colorful bird that lives in a jungle or a bird that is native to the western United States, etc. The students would do research on the bird they choose, write a short description on the specific bird they choose, and when the bird is displayed, the description would be displayed alongside their bird.

Clay Art Project

Creating a clay necklace

In art class today, we created clay necklaces as part of our clay project. We learned several new techniques to work with clay, such as coiling, hand building, hollowing out, kneading, rolling (the clay), and scoring. While we did not use all these techniques in this project, it was an interesting presentation, nonetheless. Here is the necklace I created:

The steps in creating a clay necklace are listed below:

1.       Take a clump of clay and knead the clay until it has reached the desired consistency. (When clay is fired to harden it, it is necessary to knead the clay well to remove all bubbles to avoid an explosion.)
2.       Coil a piece of clay by rolling a ball of clay back and forth until it stretches into a snakelike shape in the diameter you choose.
3.       Hand-build the clay or manipulate it into the specific shape you want. We were required to have at least 5 beads on our necklace.
4.       Hollow the clay out with a dowel or other round, thin, object to create a hole thick enough to thread a yarn through the hole. It is necessary to hollow it out before it hardens.
5.       After creating the beads, let them dry for 24 hours.
6.        Paint them with watercolor paint. We were required to use at least three different colors and add some designs on our beads. (When I painted my beads in class, their was no water available at my table to clean the paintbrush when I switched from one paint to the other; this caused my paints to mix and my beads did not have one pure color when I was finished. I actually had to repaint them later, but this time I made sure I had water available to clean my brush when I switched paints.) 
7.       Thread the beads (clay) onto a piece of yarn to create your own personal necklace.
8.       Wear with pride.

Extension activity

Clay can be used to make many different objects in the elementary classroom. In a Social Studies unit, when animals are studied that are native to Africa, students could use clay to create a whole line of African animals to reinforce what they are studying. The students would be required to paint their clay animals before they are displayed. This would definitely be an enjoyable experience that most 1^st to 4^th graders would love.