MARGUERITE MAKES A BOOK and Illuminated Letters

As part of our year-long unit on Art History 4th and 5th graders learned about the history of illuminated manuscripts. They began by doing an illuminated version of the first letter of their name. They had to measure and draw a one inch border, fill it with a design or pattern, then add mythical or natural elements to decorate their letter. They could use metallic sharpies to "illuminate" them, like gold leaf  was used in medieval times.

For the second phase of this projects students recreated their letters on slabs of clay. They rolled them flat and traced templates to get a uniform size. We added a variety of texture to the background, then used "scratch and attach" to add coils for their letters. When they had been fired we glazed them!

Resources & links for making art at home

Drawing:

My students' favorite drawing tutorials:

https://www.artforkidshub.com/

More drawing resources (thanks to Avery!)

https://seatup.com/blog/sit-down-and-draw/

And dice drawing games (roll the dice to see what to draw!):

https://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/12/build-bug.html

https://i0.wp.com/www.secondstorywindow.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/monsterdraw.jpg?ssl=1

http://holderbaum.educationextras.com/LegoActivities.html

For young comic book artists, this illustrator has blank comic book panels & activity sheets:

https://jarrettlerner.com/activities/

Fun zentangle/op art ideas:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs023/1101168872594/archive/1103991260417.html

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/c3/0a/aac30ab38fb59341ec353d83538e6725.jpg

Origami:

https://www.origami-fun.com/origami-for-kids.html

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/origami-for-kids-4162883

Clay:

Homemade play dough recipe:

https://domesticsuperhero.com/best-homemade-playdough-recipe/


Pottery app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.idreams.potterylite&hl=en_US

Collage:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/16/95/a4/1695a4d200f9d1bc401d96e6236f64fa.jpg

Painting:

https://www.smallhandsbigart.com/abstract-scraper-painting/

Sculpture & Design Challenges

https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/62002/kids-craft-paper-boxes

https://frugalfun4boys.com/engineering-challenges-clothespins-binder-clips-craft-sticks/

http://colorforeveryone.blogspot.com/2014/05/gesture-drawing-and-foil-figures.html?m=1

https://onelittleproject.com/beaded-pipe-cleaner-people/

https://artfulparent.com/3-d-art-sculpture-ideas-kids/

BRUSH OF THE GODS and Chinese Calligraphy

BRUSH OF THE GODS, by Lenore Look, is one of those books that entrances older students. By the last pages they are holding their breath to see what happens.

I buy special bamboo brushes for this project, and remind students how to take good care of them. The first day, after reading the book, students practice Chinese characters on a plain sheet of copy paper folded into fourths using the bamboo brushes and black tempera cakes. I play traditional Chinese music while they work. A great resource for learning and sharing Chinese characters is my friend Andrea's website: https://chineseiscool.com/

The second day they continued to experiment with the brushes by painting other subjects such as bamboo, pandas, and dragons!

THE SHAPE OF MY HEART Valentine's Mobiles

Kinder and 1st grade students decorated these sweet streamers after reading THE SHAPE OF MY HEART. I copied heart templates on colored copy paper to make it an easy one day project. They were excited to use these to decorate their classrooms for Valentine's Day.

Older students, in 3rd-5th grade, learned to make a simple one string mobile using 6 x 6" construction paper squares and yarn. They folded two pieces of paper together and cut a heart on the fold. I also showed them how to cut "heart rings" and increasingly smaller hearts to use on their mobiles. They simply glued them "like a sandwich" on either side of the yarn. They made every variety of mobile, from large to small, and some student experimented with other symmetrical shapes.