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Tag Archives: third grade

Cooperation and Playground Rules Posters

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A colorful drawing with "Support Others" and comic illustrations showing a person helping another who fell down stairs, highlighting the importance of cooperation.

This year, our school has been focusing on kindness and cooperation.  In art class, my students created posters to display around the school about kindness, cooperation and playground etiquette. Students cooperated together to make posters about cooperation! Each group received a slip of paper with a cooperation “slogan”. The Power of Cooperation C – Care for each other – Be Kind O – Obey rules O – Offer to help others P – Participate together as a team E – … Read more… →

Fun and Easy Mandalas with Metallic Gel Pens

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Fun and Easy Mandalas with Metallic Gel Pens

One day this summer, my daughter came home from camp with a circle design drawn using metallic gel pens.  I thought it looked so cool, I wanted to try it with my students in 3rd/4th grade.  I usually teach about mandalas and radial balance at this age level. Mandalas have religious and spiritual significance around the world.  They have been used for meditation and relaxation.  I showed the students mandalas including Tibetan and Navajo sand paintings, ancient Aztec and architecture.  … Read more… →

Wooden Peg Dolls: Kokeshi

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Two colorful Japanese Kokeshi dolls with painted faces and fabric clothing, standing on a white background.

Thank you to all who entered the Beautiful Oops journal giveaway.  The winner has been randomly chosen and notified… and that winner is Amanda Shaw.  Congratulations! When I was at the NAEA conference two years ago, I saw a station where people were making wooden Kokeshi dolls in the vendor area.  Every time I walked by it, either it was too full or I had to be on my way somewhere else.  So, I didn’t make one.  But, I found … Read more… →

Mixed Media Collages by Kids – Inspired by Sabrina Ward Harrison

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A pile of colorful tissue papers with a group of people seated at tables in the background.

In my last post, I showed you some of Sabrina Ward Harrison’s artwork and talked about what she shared with us at her artist visit.  Her artwork is very inspiring, messy and beautiful.  Please check out the other post to learn all about this artist. After the presentation, smaller groups of kids in grades 3-6 had a collage workshop with Sabrina.  She demonstrated how to use Mod-Podge to paste down pieces of her pinwheel shape. While she demonstrated the pinwheel … Read more… →

Clay Masks with 3rd Grade

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Three colorful clay masks, including a cat, dog, and another animal, with the text "CLAY MASKS" above them. Ideal for 3rd Grade art projects.

  To make these charming clay animal masks, we used plastic face molds (with a layer of plastic wrap in between) as a slump mold for the clay.  Another option was to use the back side of a styrofoam bowl to shape the mask.  The children added and secured the parts of the face.  After firing, they were painted with clay glazes.

Tree of Life and Talking Sticks

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Tree of Life and Talking Sticks

I forgot to share these pictures of our display when I wrote the blog post about Talking Sticks.  My co-worker Jayne taught the lesson behind these talking sticks which were Tree of Life acrylic paintings on canvas boards.  They were done by middle school kids.  Aren’t they gorgeous?

Animal Cloth Paintings inspired by Korhogo Cloths

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Colorful drawing of a purple, winged unicorn with a rainbow background and diamond-shaped decorations.

My 3rd grade classes learned about African Korhogo Cloth paintings. They had been studying Africa in their Social Studies class.  Here are some of the resources we used:  information about the cloth paintings and a couple of YouTube videos– Take a Look at African Korhogo Cloth and Senufo Art (although I do caution you that there is some tribal nudity at the beginning of this documentary in the intro, so start it after 20 seconds in).  There is a really cool tribal dance portion … Read more… →

Googly Eyed Sticker Monsters

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A child coloring monster drawings with markers on a wooden table, adding googly eyes for a fun touch.

With Halloween coming, this is an especially fun open-ended project for little kids.  I did this with kids up to grade 3 and they were super excited to come up with their own monsters. Supplies needed (Amazon affiliate links used): Peel and Stick Wiggle Eyes Wiggle Eyes Stickers On A Roll Multi-Color Markers, crayons or other coloring tools White or colored construction paper Handouts for inspiration:  Monster Dice Drawing and Examples of Monsters This is a real simple introduction and … Read more… →

All About Me Collaborative Puzzle Pieces

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Four colorful and uniquely decorated puzzle pieces with various drawings and patterns, perfect for a collaborative project.

You are part of the puzzle!  Each student in my older grades (3-5) made a puzzle piece about themselves and their interests.  I should have written:  You are a PIECE of the puzzle.  Or, I could have said: We all fit together.  I know, it’s kind of corny, but the puzzle piece making was fun. I bought a set of wooden puzzle pieces (the package came with two pieces) and I traced them onto several pieces of tagboard to make … Read more… →

Patterned Tape and Wood Scrap Sculptures

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Colorful abstract art pieces featuring various patterns and textures. Rolls, rectangles, and geometric shapes are displayed alongside elements like wood scrap.

What can you make with patterned tape and wood scraps? This is an open-ended project that is sure to delight your kids.  For some reason, colorful patterned tape is very appealing to kids (and many adults.)   Materials used: Mat Boards (donated from a frame shop) Scrap wood (donated and picked up from an art supply swap) Colored and patterned Tape The students selected pieces of wood and then wrapped the blocks in colorful tape.  These pieces were taped or … Read more… →

Chicks at School

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Handmade art of three yellow chicks with feathers on paper, ideal for school projects or classroom decoration.

We have some chicks at school.  Chicks, like baby chickens. One of the science teachers taught the kids about the life cycle of chickens and the kids watched as the eggs were incubated and hatched. They grow so quickly! With all the excitement of the hatching chicks, the students were thrilled to create some chick artwork.  Here is a mural/bulletin board that students in grades 2-3 worked together on. Next, we did a step-by-step project in kindergarten to make a … Read more… →

A World of Your Own: Creativity Drawings

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Children's book "A World of Your Own" features two creative drawings.

I have a fun creativity drawing project and excellent children’s book to share with you today. I came across this book called A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin and thought it looked intriguing, so I ordered it. I love the illustrations in the book and the story encourages children to think of how they would imagine a world of their own. On a day when I was out sick, I left this book for the substitute teacher to … Read more… →

Sand Painting with Kids

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Lively abstract painting featuring various shapes and patterns in red, blue, yellow, and green.

If you are looking for something to add a new dimension to regular painting, sand painting just might be the ticket!  The tactile experience is something exciting for children. I recently taught a unit on painting with sand to my third and fourth grade class.  You may remember my “how-to” blog post about this technique.  If you are wondering how we did our sand paintings, check out that post for all the details.  For a more advanced technique using adhesive … Read more… →

Manga Drawing with Kids

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Manga Drawing with Kids

My students had a blast drawing Manga faces again this year.  I tried this lesson previously with great enthusiasm and results.  I printed off lots of handouts I found online of cartoon faces, eyes, noses, mouths, hairstyles and accessories.  The kids used these sheets plus books to put together their Manga portrait.  I encouraged the students to include background patterns or accessories (such as a basketball) or a pet (like the dog) to tell a little about the character they … Read more… →

Painting the Sun- Metepec Suns

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Sun Paintings with 3rd Graders

My third graders ended the school year learning a little about the symbolism of the sun in Mexican pottery.  The sun has been used as a symbol of the life-giving energy and of good luck.  Cassie Stephens has a very good Prezi here about Metepec, Mexico. To make these colorful, sunny pictures we started by tracing a circle shape for the face of the sun.  Then we designed our faces with unique facial expressions, rays and other designs.  We talked … Read more… →

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