"Putting our Trash to Work" A fourth grade recycled art project

In honor of Earth Day last spring, fourth grade students spent 9 weeks finding out where all of the materials come from that go into an art project. We discovered which resources are renewable (pencils, paper) and which are not (plastic paint bottles, cups, glue bottles, etc). Students set out to make a sculpture entirely from found and recycled materials. The only catch was that their scultpure had to have a "job."

Pet Portraits

Here is a series of dog portraits I made for a friend. These were placed in her fireman-themed baby room.

Alexander Calder and the Flying Circus Art Lesson

The Whitney Museum currently has a show featuring Alexander Calder's Circus project. Read more about Calder and the exhibit in the New York Times HERE and HERE. Last spring, my Second and Third grade students studied the work of Alexander Calder and learned about his fascination with the circus. Then, students used their knowledge of Balance and Motion to create an amazing Flying Circus with household items such as toilet paper rolls, straws, yarn, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and Styrofoam.