Thursday, July 19, 2012

Paper Curling Relief Shapes

 It's was the end of the school year and I am OUT of EVERYTHING! So, what's Ms. Meggles to? Paper curling of course! I knew that I was saving all those paper scraps for something! Our Missouri GLE says, "Create an original low relief paper artwork by manipulating paper. (EG curling, folding, tearing, and cutting)", so I am on target too. Students really worked on motor skills to create the curls around pencils, markers, fingers, paper clips, or by pulling them across CLOSED scissors. The results were really cool, very colorful, and the kids were super proud of them!

We looked at some amazing examples of 3-D and 2-D paper art to give us inspiration. Start here: for ideas!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Doodle Box!!

Fifth grade students had SO much fun with this project. I got the idea from The Doodle Box Project. Artist David Hofmann uses any old box he can find, deconstructs it so that the flaps become wings, mouths, arms, legs, or anything else!
We went through the website first and I let the kids decide which doodle boxes were stronger artworks than the others. They decided that the boxes with color, lots of pattern, creative features like big eyes, expressive mouths, etc were most appealing. AND they determined that the more it didn't look like a box anymore, the better. So, we used these requirements for their projects.
Students were asked to provide their own box. I suggest cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc. Anything but a boring corrugated shipping box. Kids also brought in 12 pack soda boxes, and other interesting packaging. I did a demonstration on how to locate the glued flap that closes the box, slide my closed scissors into the flap and gently pry it open. I made a caterpillar for my doodle box example (but didn't keep it). So, students saw me working on mine while they worked on theirs.
This was planned as a fun end of the year project where the kids could strut their stuff, so to speak, and demonstrate all the skills they had learned throughout the year. So, I let them use pretty much whatever supplies they wanted. Many chose paint, crayons, markers, yarn, glitter (ugh-that is the part I hate, but they love!), and other add ons like soda bottle tops.

Overall, the results speak for themselves!