Third Graders Are Masters of Japanese Ikebana!

Oh boy, what an amazing undertaking! I was looking for something challenging and interesting for my third graders to do this year, and was inspired by this post for Ikebana in the art room. After sitting down to plan it I realized this project would take AT LEAST ten weeks to complete because of all of the steps involved, but I was resolved to go for it because I figured it offered an opportunity for a variety of skills to be learned and materials to learn how to work with. My fear was that perhaps the students would get bored and complain that they were tired of working on the same project for so long, but I found the opposite resulted. Students were very engaged in all of the steps and I feel this project was an excellent opportunity for them to practice focus and commitment to a goal.

Second Grade Fall Leaf Art Investigations

This fall my second graders were "art investigators". I brought in a variety of autumn leaves and encouraged my students to look closely at what they saw. Looking Closely is one of our ways of "thinking like an artist" that we talk about often in my classroom. 

Super-Sensory Model Magic Secondary Color Mixing

Providing my 2nd and 3rd grade students the opportunity to learn about how to make secondary colors out of the three primaries using hands on mixing and mashing of "clay" was a blast. I've never seen so many smiles and excitement!