Underwater Batik

Third and Fourth Grade

This project is so simple and has great results. All you have to do is take a black piece of paper draw an underwater scene in pencil. Trace over your lines with a glue bottle. Make sure your tip stays on the paper and you pull not push the glue. Let it dry and then use chalk pastels to color it in and get vibrant colors. 

Plaster Masks

Fourth Grade

These masks focus mostly on design. The students created the masks using plaster gauze strips dipped into water and then put into a plastic mask mold. Since we are an international school the mask mold have a variety of ethnicities to choose from. After the mask dried and were removed from the molds the students applied tissue paper deigns to the masks with a little watered down glue. They also applied a layer of glue to the top to seal it and make it shiny.

10th Anniversary Mural

4th Grade

The fourth grade students worked hard to brainstorm, draw, design, select, redraw, and paint this beautiful mural. On the left it shows our school buildings with students sharing in an international feast of food to show celebration. The Phoniex in the sky is for our mascot. On the right is the Shanghai skyline with people from around the world and flags of the world. In the center is the cross and a Blessed sign for our theme word this year. The background swirls around like a Van Gogh sky to create movement.

The kids had a lot of fun with this even though it was a lot of hard work and took a long time they were happy with the finished result. We have no walls that we can paint so we just used foam core and acrylic paint.

Plaid Teddy Bears

First Grade

These adorable bears are a great lesson for line. 

First the students created Plaid paper with large horizontal and vertical lines made from tempera paint and sponge brushes. Then we let them dry. The next day we added horizontal and vertical lines with markers using a ruler. I had stencils for the shape of the teddy bear for the students to trace. Each students drew a picture of their own bed at home and painted it with watercolors. They then glued their plaid teddy bear onto the bed. We added buttons for eyes. 

Print of Flower

Fourth Grade

This is a great printmaking project that makes the kids feel like real professionals. 

The students started by drawing a vase of flowers from observation. They then traced their drawing onto a foam printing board pressing firmly. They took the paper off and traced again. The final step was to roll the ink onto the foam board with a brayer and then apply it to a clear transparency film. When the film was dry I added a piece of construction paper to the back with a small square of double sided tape in each corner.

Monsters in Shanghai

4th Grade

We were working with the idea of Proportion. Monsters are something that we think of as large compared to a city. So we created Monsters in Shanghai! We practiced drawing monsters in our sketchbook with group activities. We folded our paper into thirds and passed them clockwise around the room with the next person adding a section of the monster. This got the kids minds thinking about all different kinds of monsters and not just the ones in their head already. They loved this activity. We got many of laughs.

These are made out of Air Dry Clay and painted with Acrylic paint. Goggle eyes are added for effect. For the background they worked in groups to draw the Shanghai skyline onto black paper and then colored it in with construction paper crayons. 

Birds in Oil Pastel

4th Grade

We practiced drawing many different kinds of birds in our sketchbooks before we started the final project. We talked about Composition and Balance with objects in the background. I had the Birds on the Projection screen for everyone to study and draw from. They traced their lines with a black permanent marker and then colored it in with oil pastel. I had them go back in and trace over their lines with a black oil pastel to make them stand out. 

Kindergarten: Africa

We looked at books about Africa the landscape, animals, the people, and the culture. 

This is a representation of the people in Africa. I provided the circles for heads and let them take it away. They used real scraps of fabric and stencils of basic clothing shapes. This is the one project I let Kindergarten students use thee sharp scissors.  

Kindergarten: China

Kindergarten: South America

Mayan Masks:

These are fun because they are as big as the kids and they can actually look through them. It was a lot of prep for me, but it was worth it for the kids to have so much fun with them. 

The Whole Class 

Collage Lizards with pattern stamped background

This was a good starter project for the beginning of the year that used a lot of different skills. Cutting, gluing, stamping with a foam brush.

*next time I would collage onto a colored sheet of paper so the lizards can stand out more.