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Tag Archives: sixth grade

Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings

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After looking at the art of contemporary artist Nicolas Lampert, my students combined two or more different objects or creatures to create hybrid drawings.   Here are the steps to this lesson: 1.  Start by discussing the machine animal collages and the machine insect collages by Nicolas Lampert.  Ask questions such as” How do you think Nicolas made these pictures? How do they make you feel? Why do you think he combined animals or insects with machines? How would these … Read more… →

Medieval Day at School

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Medieval Knight Sculptures

Near the end of the school year our 5th/6th grade students put on a Medieval Day for the entire school.  They researched and planned activities including dancing, food sampling, jousting, catapulting, exhibits and displays and of course, ART! My 5th/6th grade classes made paper mache knight sculptures starting with a newspaper armature.  They added Medieval clothes and weapons to accessorize.  Some of the materials we used were cardboard, wood, cloth, leather, raffia, doll hair, yarn and felt. One of my … Read more… →

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

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Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Every year, my 5th/6th grade class carves rubber stamps with symbols they have designed.  This year, we stamped extra prints on tissue paper with acrylic paint to make collaborative artworks.  To stamp, simply use a foam brush to lightly paint acrylic paint on the stamp. Then, the tissue papers were decoupaged (with hard-finish Mod-Podge) on these fun triangular canvases called Squangles.  These are going to be put in our school auction at the end of the year.  We made three … Read more… →

Veteran’s Day Poppy Posters

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Have you seen the art installation of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London?  It is amazing!  If you follow that link, there is a video about how the installation was made. The poppy is a remembrance symbol for soldiers who have died in war.  The symbol comes from the poem “In Flander’s Field”, where poppies grew in a field over the graves of soldiers. Each year, our 5th/6th grade class gets a visit from the wife of a veteran, … Read more… →

Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

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Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

These gorgeous radial designs were made by fifth and sixth graders by using their name.  You can see all the steps to make these in a previous blog post.  The only difference is that now we use light tables (or hold it up to a window) to trace the design over and over again.   We focus on learning about the characteristics and history of Islamic art, which connects with their studies in Social Studies class. We love using the … Read more… →

Carving Rubber Stamps with 5th and 6th Graders

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Before I left for my maternity/medical leave, my 5th and 6th graders were carving rubber stamps.  They were turning out so well and I can’t wait to see all of the finished projects. Here are some of our stamps from previous years.  We looked at African Adinkra symbol stamps and the students created their own personal symbols. We print our stamps by applying acrylic paints with a foam brush.  A light touch is best. Students can also test their stamps … Read more… →

Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

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Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

The week after winter break was up in the air.  Due to construction, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to use our art room and we didn’t know if we would have easy access to supplies.  I planned for most of my classes to complete observational drawings during that week period, since they all could use the same supplies and learning to observe the edges and shapes of objects is great training for the eye. It … Read more… →