Print Making

In this lesson, the seventh grade students were asked to use print making, while creating a South Dakota background. The rail road cars were made by creating a stamp and roling the ink onto that stamp. We then pressed the stamp on a sheet of construction paper that would be the background for the rail road cars. The teachers also made us use some source of South Dakota grain or product for inside the rail road cars. I chose coal for in my cars and created a scene with corn, hills, and a barn to symbolize the South Dakota farming.

An extension to this activity could be to have students research more about print making and why it became so popular. I also believe it would be a great project to tie into a South Dakota unit and they could also write a page paper about their picture and background they created. The students could explain why they chose that background and its importance to South Dakota.

Blind Contour Drawing

This project was a blind flower drawing. We were required to draw three flowers on a piece of drawing paper without looking, using a white crayon so the flowers would appear. We then had to wet the paper down using water and a paint brush. After, we used warm and cool water colors to paint over the white crayon. Once we painted over the paper with colors, the flowers appeared.

An extension activity could be to use this as a flower unit. You could bring in flowers into the class and add in science by studying the flowers. They could also learn how to take care of flowers through this.

Bunny Plaid

In this project we learned about complimentary colors which include green and red, orange and blue, and purple and yellow. With these colors we were taught about plaid and how you create it by putting horizontal and vertical lines together using different colors. We used complementary colors to create plaid using paint and paper. After the plaid was created we used cut outs to glue the bunny together.

An extension to this activity could be using language arts and writing. I would have the students create a story about the bunny they created.

Macrame Key Chain

The project introduced the class to Macrame. Their are many different types of Macrame, in this project we made key chains. We were each told to useat least three beads on the key chain and have it at least three inches long.

An extension to this activity could be to relate this to social studies and language arts. I would allow the students to go into further depth about Macrame and the history behind it. A short one page paper would be a great ending to this art project.

Puzzle Piece

The project started by splitting the class into sections, warm and cool colors. The warm colors could choose to draw a duck or fox and the cool colors could choose to draw a fish or frog. Once we drew our animal, we had to give it texture of some sort. For the background, we either had to do lines, shapes, or patterns.



An extension to this activity could be to allow the students to choose any animal they chose and to possibly recreate another puzzle piece doing the opposite of the cool or warm colors and another art element (pattern, shapes, lines).

Hidden Picture

This project was extremely fun. Using 3D glasses we created our own 3D pictures, with hidden animals. It would be a great project for kids and they would truly enjoy it. You must use blue to get the original animal to show through  in 3D view and then must use several ways and warm colors to hide the animal.

An extension of this activity could be allowing the children to expolore the animal in their picture. They could research the animal and write a short description or paper on it.

Eric Carle Picture Book Example

Under the deep blue sea, all the sea creatures were happy, until the big black boat came moving in.

In art class we explored colors and textures through using paint. Eric Carle creates collages with different colors and paints, to create beautiful picture books. I used this method to create my own under water theme picture book page.

An extension to this activity could be for them to finish writing the book or story they created in the picture. They could also make the rest of the picture book pages and write the story or simply finishing writing the story in a work document.