Dale Chihuly Sculpture

With the criteria of teaching the 2nd graders the difference between Geometric and Organic Shapes, we made a sculpture in the likeness of Dale Chihuly, with recycled plastic bottles. 

Day 1:

Talked about the differences between Geometric and Organic Shapes, then designed our pop bottles using shapes and patterns.

Day 2:

Talked about the artist, Dale Chihuly and his method of glass blowing. Then the students each painted one bottle. 

Day 3:

The students cut their bottles into a spiral shape (leaving the cap on, to help me hot glue them together on a paper towel tube), then made eye-patches to help remind them of the artist's name. 

Here's the video!

Read, Look, & Listen

As the second part of my class period with the monster bookmarks, I talked to the students about what kinds of things we can learn when we read about art. My CT has these very large prints of works of art with the information about the artist and art on the backside. I didn't have them read all of the information, just about the art and artist because there was a lot of information on there for the teacher as well. I passed out a worksheet that looks like this, one for each group:

I explained to them that they will work in groups by tables and had to decide who is going to have what role. I also talked about each role's responsibilities. The writer (writes down all of the information), the leader (keeps everyone on task), the reader (reads the information), and the reporter (talks to the rest of the class about what they learned). 

They had a great time with this, I really think they enjoyed working together and still have their own special responsibility. 

You can see in the picture, that the students still had out their bookmarks. Some groups were so excited to use them that they put the bookmarks on the corners of their worksheets or the large picture of the artwork. :)

Monster Bookmarks

I found a tutorial not too long ago about making monster corner bookmarks. I loved the idea and was excited to share it with my cooperating teacher. We thought this would be a great project for the 1st and 2nd graders. She informed me that these students have a reading program for the summer where they get points for so many books/pages read. I started this project with the 2nd graders yesterday and they LOVE them. "It looks like they're eating the book!" -One of my many clever students. :)

I had a station with all of the supplies needed. (Picture to come) The students used a tracer for the body with their choice of 6 different colors, strip to make the eyeballs, irises (6 colors choices again), and teeth.  

For the dimensions of the tracer, you can look to the tutorial I found (link found above). I am just showing you the materials that I had set out for the students. They used the strips to cut their own circles for the eyeballs and irises. Then they cut triangles half way through on the smaller white strip to make the teeth. 

I had so much fun with these, I can't stop making them. Thank goodness for "Stumble Upon".