There's a Monster in My Room!!

There's actually lots of monsters in my room! They are made by my 3rd graders. Third grade students learned about geometric and organic shapes, and different textures when making these monster drawings. First, they used their imaginations to come up with an original monster drawing. They had to use both geometric and organic shapes. Then we talked about different textures their monsters could have- bumpy, scaly, furry, spikey, etc- and they drew the texture as a shape. Next, they outlined with black Sharpie, colored with bright construction paper crayons, and cut it out. The last and best step is when they were done cutting, they glued the monster drawing to a brown paper for the door to their room and on the reverse side they wrote a story about the monster!

Love these every time! Check it out:

Coke Bottle Fish

 This project is always a favorite of mine and my students! We recycled coke bottles to make these fish! First we discussed all the kinds of lines, and students drew patterns on the outside with Sharpies. Next, I cut off the end of the bottles so the students could paint the inside with neon acrylic paint. Finally, they stuck on eye stickers and I helped them cut the tail and staple it. Clear string was strung through the mouth of the fish and out the tail to tie in a knot so the students can hang it up.

Penguin in the Summer

This was an end of the year project that the students did in 1-2 days. Their job was to draw a penguin and add a background that shows the penguin on summer vacation...Got a few sunburned penguins and some eating ice cream or at the pool. :)

Robots

Towards the end of the school year, I had two different grade levels were working on robots at the same time. The 3rd graders did the robot drawings and the 5th graders made the metal robots. One thing I learned is that kids love robots!

These were the rules they had to follow for the 3rd grade robots:
1. Fill up the page
2. Include a background (No robots floating!)
3. Draw big (Must draw more than one if you draw small!)
4. Include details
5. Outline all of your pencil lines with a sharpie and don't leave very much white space when you color it.
6. Make the robot different from everyone else's

If I had to include another rule it would be to not have a triangle sun in the corner of the paper and not to color a blue line at the top of the page for the sky! :)
This was good practice for them to learn to fill the page, add details, and make a complete drawing. I think they were creative with their backgrounds and details. Here are some favorites...

Robot in Space!

Dancing Robots!

A lot of kids went with a space background

Robot and scientist working on him! love it!

Next are the 5th grade robots. This was the first time I did this. As with any project, I may be making some changes for the next time.

Here are the things they used:
1. Aluminum tooling foil or regular foil.

2. Coke can tabs or pop tops 

3. Brads

4. Scissors

5. Elmer's glue or tacky glue

6. Plastic baggies

7. Rulers

8. Hot Glue 

9. 9"x12" black construction paper

These were made from aluminum tooling foil that comes in the roll. You can cut it with regular scissors. It's copper on one side and silver on the other, so students had the option of making it one color or two. The great thing about the metal is that its thick enough where it won't rip and you can draw on it with a pencil to make designs, but its not too sharp where they are going to get cut. When we ran out, I used regular foil which was easier to glue, but also easier to rip.

They were given the same size rectangle of the metal to make all of the robot parts (body, arms, legs, head, neck), and four coke can tabs (two for hands, two for feet), two brads for eyes, and a plastic bag to keep all of their pieces.

On the first day they were given all of their materials and the black paper. They used their rulers and pencils to draw the shapes on the metal and cut out their pieces. They laid out the pieces on the black paper to see how to make the robot fit.

On the second and third days, they glued the pieces on with regular Elmer's Glue. You could also use tacky glue, but all we had was Elmer's and it worked fine. Going over it with a ruler helped and wiping up the glue that comes out the edges was important. One thing I emphasized with this one is good craftsmanship. The gluing can get messy if they don't take their time and clean it up. Next they poked the brads through the head of the robot to make the eyes (some needed help with this) and used all of their extra pieces for the details.

Finally I helped them glue on the hands and feet with hot glue. This part took some time, but I managed to get them all done on the last day they worked on it. Check them out...

Plain and simple robot

Robot and friend!

Business man robot!

Robot with top hat and cane!

Who doesn't love a robot, right?

Hoot! Hoot! These are Cute!

All of my 3rd and 4th graders made these wonderful owls from recycled toilet paper rolls. I saw the idea on Pinterest. Here is a link:
http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/273453008593884495_OmsYRXoJ.jpg

First we discussed the difference between shape and form, and 2-D and 3-D. Next, we folded the top part to make the head and ears, taped it, and painted the whole thing one color. Finally, we glued on wiggle eyes, a beak, and wings. Scrapbook paper or wall paper make great wings. Also I let them use crazy scissors when they cut out the wings. Since a lot of students ALWAYS use too much glue, this is a good practice for them to use small dots of glue for everything since they are using small pieces.

Two advantages to this project:
1. Even though these are 3-D, they take up very little space because they are small.
2. It only takes 2 days, and then the students can take it home!