Start of the Year Collaborative Project

Dot Day/ Collaborative Work

I love to start the year with an all school collaborative project.  This year I gave the students two dots.  They had to turn the dots into funny fish faces that expressed a mood/emotion.  We used construction paper, pencils, and construction paper crayons.  You don't need elaborate supplies to create collaborative projects! This display is on a bulletin board by my room that is by an empty classroom.  It will remain to beginning of next year (I've been using the space for the past 4 yrs for these type of projects.)  I also have displays in two other spots in the school.  They will be up for several weeks, but then I'll change them out.  

 

Kindergarten Leaves

I read the book, Autumn's First Leaf to begin my class. It not only touches on fall themes, but emotions as well.we have done collage before...so I reviewed safety with scissors, proper glue use, and size expectations. After students completed their work, they were responsible for cleaning up their areas and putting away their collage supplies. We then had a descussion about emotions. I had them make the face of the emotion they said & then tell me how they could draw it. I would demo of my document camera what they were saying. This gave the glue time to dry enough that they would be able to draw and color on their leaves.  I felt they turned out great. So expressive!

Clay Masks:3rd Grade

Third Grade Emotion Masks

In our curriculum our third grade clay project is "masks".  I try to change it up each year...sometimes underwater themed, animal, crazy faces, self portraits..etc.  This year I asked them to consider an emotion.  We talked about exaggeration, expression, color...everything that goes along with emotion/mood art.  I really loved how most of them turned out this year!!  I do not glaze...no hood/kiln room.  Maybe someday...but for now we're happy painting them!

Emotion Birds: Kindergarten

The 4th nine weeks has a lot of skill checking for kindergarten!  I don't want it to be repeats of projects though!!  I really love this lesson.  I start by talking to them about moods/emotions.  We discuss what colors would be good to represent which emotion.  I really is a fun discussion...and you can see how much they've grown by their thought process!  

After we make a chart of what colors go with which emotion....I reviewed spirals.  They then created a background of spirals using the colors of the emotion they chose to show. 

Next they selected paper out of the scrap box to create their bird. This is a new thing for my kindergarten students.  Usually with collage, I have paper pulled for them to use prior to class, but I wanted to make sure they'd be ready for 1st grade when they must select their own from the scrap box!  We reviewed the colors once again to make sure they would pick the right colors for their emotion(most of them did?!? ha ha).  I did a demo on how to create their birds, reviewed scissor safety, and reviewed proper glue use.  I was thrilled that the birds did each have their own little personality.  

Emotion Monsters: Kindergarten

I was teaching my kindergarten students about "expression" in art.  We talked about this in relation to mood/emotion.  The students enjoyed making faces at each other...attempting to show MAD/HAPPY/SAD/ANGRY/SCARED.  We discussed what the face "did" to express emotion.  We also discussed colors and how they related to mood/emotion.  

Each student was given a 12x12 piece of white paper & a diffuser circle.  They were instructed to trace the circle onto the white paper.  They then placed the circle out of the way & created an emotion monster.  Students then took their circle and drew lines of color on the diffuser circle using water based markers.  I then sprayed their papers with water.  The following week they got both the paper and the circle back.  We created a second monster with the diffuser circle itself on black paper.  Students used construction paper crayons to finish the monster from the previous week....and they used construction paper crayons & collage to finish the new one.  

Emotion Monsters: 1st Grade

We were looking at how color/line/shape impact the emotion/mood of a piece of art in Picasso's work.

We took the idea of color/line/shape & emotion....and created these collage monster faces(using construction paper crayon's to add a little extra somethin' somethin'!!! ha ha).  Kids loved making faces at each other as they talked about how eyes/mouth and other parts of your face change when expressing an emotion!  Hopefully this will carry over into other work!

Mood/Emotion Masks - 2nd Grade

2nd Grade has been working on a unit with my student teacher that uses color & line quality to express mood/emotion.  They have been doing a great job with this concept.  This week they are creating collage masks(decorative not functional).  It seems the most challenge part of the lesson is not the abstract concept of creating a visual representation of a mood/emotion....but cutting the paper on the right side so their mask doesn't fall apart! ha ha  My suggestion to my student teacher....have them draw the outline of the mask...then check before they cut!! Yes..it takes more time, but you'll have a higher success rate!