Starting the Year with Collaborative Color Wheels

This is by far the best first project I've ever done. In years past I've began the year with all sorts of things that included:
- Art room scavenger hunts (to help students learn where everything is)
- "Dot" drawings: Give each student a piece of paper with a dot on it and let them create a drawing  based off that.
- Design thinking challenge: "Creative Problem Solving in the Art Room"- I made a PowerPoint slide of 3 images; a bicycle wheel, a sneaker and a stool and the students had to work in teams of two to create a drawing of an invention and then present it to the class.
-Found Object Sculpture Challenge: where the kiddo's used pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and cardboard tubes to create sculptures.
-Straight up rules and routines (super boring!) but yes, I spent my first 2-3 years of teaching spending the whole period on going over and practicing rules. 

But for the past 2-3 years I've been starting off the year having the students create a piece or item for a school-wide collaborative art project. Out of all the things I've tried, I like this the best, and this years project is turning out to be one of my favorites.

I got the idea for this from doing a google search of "recycled art+ kids group project", or some variation of that.  The image that came up that caught my eye is to the right (if this is your picture, let me know and I'll be sure to give ya some credit!).

This year I teach grades 2-5 and another art teachers does K and 1.  I'm having my kids do the color wheel part and later on, once those are done, I'll have the other teacher have her kids collage the black side of the oak tag with colored CD shards.  Then, I'll hang them all up to create some type of mobile.  At least that's my thinking so far....
I'll keep you posted!

Something shiny in the spirit of the holidays

This has nothing to do with the holidays, but it is shiny!  This was an enormous work of art that my 2 art teacher colleagues and I collaborated on with our elementary art students for a local recycled art contest we all participate in every year.  At the end of the contest and exhibit the projects usually get scrapped, which really is a shame considering the amount of time and planning that goes into them.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see this hanging in the administrative building of my district the other day.  I'm glad it's getting  a little more exhibition time!

Recycled Art

Remember that giant heart my students made out of cardboard tubes?  Well it was taken to the annual recycled art exhibit I participate in and was proudly displayed amongst some really wonderful recycled art projects from local schools in the area.  Here are some  highlights (and if you didn't see our project, you can click HeRe to view it):

Recycled Art Collaborative Project

Every year I have to do an art project to enter into our Town's Recycled Art Contest. This year I knew I wanted to use toilet paper and paper towel tubes and I took inspiration from: 

                                                             Jasper Johns' Flag
                                                                           with 

                                                                       Jim Dine's Heart
                                                                               and

                                                                       Viola!

The piece is about 4 x 6 feet and is made of 1/4" thick plywood with collaged newspaper, circles stamped with tubes. painted tubes, and cd pieces for extra sparkle.