Sun Prints with student created stencils

 When the weather cooperates, sun prints are part of the end of the year curriculum.  Some years the weather just doesn't cooperated but this year has been generous with really warm sunny days up here in the Northeast.  I think I saw the idea to use the stain glass scratch art paper to make a stencil on pinterest.  I tucked the idea away knowing it would work great for this year's sun prints.  I challenged 2nd grade students to draw geometric and organic shapes in an interesting way on the scratch art paper. They could overlap or texture the shapes in any way they wanted.  We headed outside into the sunshine ready to print once these were ready.  I wish my sun print paper had been a bit larger so the prints wouldn't have been cut off, but they came out pretty good.  This project has me thankful for this springs warm sunny days!

Good days as the year winds down

Here we are in the final month of school and I have to say, today's classes were fabulous!  I began one-point perspective with fourth graders.  I love introducing students to this process.  They become genuinely excited and really quiet as they concentrate on making their shapes disappear to the vanishing point.  I started the lesson by having all the students join me at the front of the room to view the ceiling tiles.  Then I ask them to share what they were noticing.  I had some great answers mentioning shapes, "they are rectangles", patterns "the tiles make a repeating pattern" and then finally "they look smaller and they are closer to the other end of the room" .  Bingo!  Just the answer I was hoping to achieve.  Students returned to their seats where they practiced holding their rulers to successfully create diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines.  I've learned in past years that the skill of holding the ruler and drawing a straight line is not being taught anywhere but in the art room and began to incorporate the skill building at the beginning of this project.  Students then draw five simple geometric shapes using their rulers to ensure nice straight lines.  They add a vanishing point and work around the paper, beginning with the shapes closest to the point to put all of the shapes into perspective.  To build the excitement, I tell them we will be writing their names in block letters in a following class and they will follow the same process.  This is a terrific way to end the school year on a big high.  I'll post work as soon as some are finished.

worksheet from pinterest that was used as a practice tool prior to personal projects

In second grade, we took advantage of the warm sunny day to create some sun prints.  I had seen on a blog or pinterest, an idea of using the stain glass scratch art paper to make a stencil for sun printing.  2nd graders reviewed shapes and filled the scratch art paper with a variety of geometric and organic shapes to fill the paper.  I wrote each students name, in reverse, on the paper for them so that it would print correcting on the sun print paper.  With five minutes left in class, we all headed outside to use the new stencils, a terrific piece of work by itself, to make a sun print.   I plan to mount both pieces together for the completed work.




Kindergarten students are weaving bookmarks using rubber shelf liner and gimp.  Last year's classes took a complete 4 weeks to complete these.  I already have two talented little ones that have finished in just two weeks.

This years balloons in the works.

I've brought back an old favorite project for third graders.  They are working with tooling foil to create hot air balloons.  I have adjusted the lesson a bit.  They are also weaving small baskets for the basket on the balloon that are being attached with twistee wire. Here are a few finished ones.

Previous project, watch for an updated version when more are completed.