• Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 4,601 other subscribers
  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.

Tag Archives: fifth grade

Watercolor Animals with 5th and 6th Grade

By | | , , , ,
3 Comments
Colorful watercolor painting of a green parrot with blue wings and an orange tail, set against a bright blue sky.

With all the fancy projects an art teacher can find on Pinterest, sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics.  Simple drawing and painting of familiar subjects.  This week my students drew art manekins.  You could see much more concentration in the students than while doing other projects.  I was looking through the folders on my computer and found these animal watercolor paintings my students had made last year. For more watercolor lessons, check out these old posts: How … Read more… →

Clay Projects for Kids

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Three clay dog sculptures, each painted differently: one black and white, one brown, and one yellow.

Hello!  Today I am going to catch up on some of the clay projects my students have been working on.  The last few weeks we have been busy learning clay techniques, building and glazing.  We weren’t able to use regular clay for the past year since the kiln was out of commission, so my students were itching to work with clay! The 5th/6th grade classes made Clay Castles. We connected a clay unit to their study of the Middle Ages.  … Read more… →

Personal Patchwork Drawings by 4th & 5th Graders

By | | , ,
1 Comment
A colorful grid composed of various patterned and solid squares, spelling out "BELIEVE," with a drawing of a cat in the bottom left square.

I got this project idea from the Art Teachers group on Facebook.  A teacher had posted a similar personal grid lesson from high schoolers with stunning results!  I loved the concept and adapted it for my 4th and 5th grade class. The first step is to divide your 12″ x 18″ paper into 3 inch squares using a ruler.  Then you fill in each squares with drawings and designs that are personalized to tell something about yourself.  The catch is … Read more… →

Happy Veteran’s Day!

By | | , ,
Leave a comment
Children's drawing with "Thank You!" text, a red flower, and a bald eagle. Handwritten note says "Thank you for your service! Happy Veteran's Day!

Today is Veteran’s Day.  A day to remember our history and the people who fought for our freedom and safety. Every year my students create Veteran’s Day posters that are displayed at the Senior Center for their Veteran’s Day ceremony.  My fifth/sixth grade students go on a trip to the program and sing a few patriotic songs and participate in the ceremony. You can see some of the artwork made in year’s past and read more about this lesson in … Read more… →

Pop Ups and Interactive Parts in an Artwork

By | | ,
Leave a comment
A handmade notebook with colorful scrapbook-like pages, featuring a circular orange piece with "Make things" written on it. The notebook includes interactive parts that bring each page to life.

I read my 5th/6th grade class the book Beautiful Oops, which many art teachers are already familiar with.  It’s a great message, but also the interactive parts are very inspiring and fun! We also looked at Barney Saltzberg’s other book A Little Bit of Oomph.  Both of these books have parts that fold out, pop out, twist or turn! Here is a video from Workman Publishing about the oomph book.  You can see the pages of the book if you … Read more… →

Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

By | | , , , ,
8 Comments
Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

Have you heard of the artist Shinique Smith?  I just love her artwork!  It’s very gestural, colorful and it just draws me in to look at more closely.  I love the use of fabric with graffiti-like painted marks.  Her art combines traditional art media with non-traditional materials like clothing and stuffed animals.  She is influenced by street graffiti and Japanese calligraphy.  She works in paintings, drawings, installations, wrapped bundles, sculptures and videos.  There was an exhibit of her artwork in … Read more… →

Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings

By | | , , , , ,
2 Comments
Illustration of a tree figure and a green bear with a water gun, labeled "Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings.

After looking at the art of contemporary artist Nicolas Lampert, my students combined two or more different objects or creatures to create hybrid drawings.   Here are the steps to this lesson: 1.  Start by discussing the machine animal collages and the machine insect collages by Nicolas Lampert.  Ask questions such as” How do you think Nicolas made these pictures? How do they make you feel? Why do you think he combined animals or insects with machines? How would these … Read more… →

Medieval Day at School

By | | , , , , ,
2 Comments
Medieval Knight Sculptures

Near the end of the school year our 5th/6th grade students put on a Medieval Day for the entire school.  They researched and planned activities including dancing, food sampling, jousting, catapulting, exhibits and displays and of course, ART! My 5th/6th grade classes made paper mache knight sculptures starting with a newspaper armature.  They added Medieval clothes and weapons to accessorize.  Some of the materials we used were cardboard, wood, cloth, leather, raffia, doll hair, yarn and felt. One of my … Read more… →

Inspired by Artist Justin Vining: Abstract Whimsical Landscapes

By | | , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment
A whimsical landscape with swirling roads, trees, houses, a sun, and various colorful patterns.

This may have been my favorite unit we studied all year!  We looked at the whimsical landscapes of contemporary artist Justin Vining.  Here is one of his paintings: We watched videos of him talking about his influences, watched time lapses of his paintings and emailed him some questions about himself.  He responded to our questions in this interview I posted previously.  This was a perfect artist to study for us because Justin lives in Indiana in a rural area and … Read more… →

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

By | | , , , , ,
1 Comment
Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Every year, my 5th/6th grade class carves rubber stamps with symbols they have designed.  This year, we stamped extra prints on tissue paper with acrylic paint to make collaborative artworks.  To stamp, simply use a foam brush to lightly paint acrylic paint on the stamp. Then, the tissue papers were decoupaged (with hard-finish Mod-Podge) on these fun triangular canvases called Squangles.  These are going to be put in our school auction at the end of the year.  We made three … Read more… →

Veteran’s Day Poppy Posters

By | |
2 Comments
Hand-drawn US map filled with flag pattern, text says “Thanks Veterans” on a red background, ideal for Veteran's Day posters.

Have you seen the art installation of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London?  It is amazing!  If you follow that link, there is a video about how the installation was made. The poppy is a remembrance symbol for soldiers who have died in war.  The symbol comes from the poem “In Flander’s Field”, where poppies grew in a field over the graves of soldiers. Each year, our 5th/6th grade class gets a visit from the wife of a veteran, … Read more… →

Mosaic Stepping Stones and Coasters

By | | , ,
7 Comments
Mosaic Stepping Stones and Coasters

I have been wanting to make some more permanent artworks to beautify the school grounds.  I had pairs of kids working on these stepping stones.  This was such a fun project I am planning on making more in the coming years ahead to add to our collection. I have never made outdoor stepping stones before, so I asked for advice several times on the Art Teacher Facebook group.  I just want to give a shout out to them for answering … Read more… →

Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

These gorgeous radial designs were made by fifth and sixth graders by using their name.  You can see all the steps to make these in a previous blog post.  The only difference is that now we use light tables (or hold it up to a window) to trace the design over and over again.   We focus on learning about the characteristics and history of Islamic art, which connects with their studies in Social Studies class. We love using the … Read more… →

Foreign Language Art Postcard Contest

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
Foreign Language Art Postcard Contest

Last fall, we participated in the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers postcard contest. The theme was Languages:  Literacy for Life.  The students created postcards to fit this theme and one winning card was chosen to be reproduced in a pack of postcards that was given to all of the association members.  The members were encouraged to use the postcards in correspondence to parents or administration.  This would be a wonderful idea for arts advocacy! This is the card that was … Read more… →

Art and the Brain: How do kids imagine their brains?

By | | , , , , , ,
4 Comments
Art and the Brain: How do kids imagine their brains?

[cryout-pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”100%”] How do you experience your brain? What does your brain do for you? How can you express the feelings of your brain? [/cryout-pullquote] Students at our school connected with a scientific researcher to create diverse and artistic representations of their brains.   I teach art at a school for gifted and talented children.  Our students are highly interested and curious about science, so when I was contacted by Ayla Kruis to work with her on a project … Read more… →

  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.