Recycled Mixed Media Owls

You may remember this project from last year but I definitely had to do it again because it was so successful with my previous fourth graders. A few years ago I was given some outdated children's dictionaries and I saved them until I developed this project. I was inspired by artist, Susanne Buckner's owl paintings and so then process began.  

 

-The students started by using recycled dictionary pages from old children's dictionaries. 

 -Using watered down Elmer's glue and brushes, the students created a collage with the torn book pages. 

- Next the students painted some sort of perch (branch, rock, fence, etc) for the owl to set on, on top of the book pages. We learned about tints ( a color plus white) and shades (a color plus black)

-The sky was colored with the edge of a pealed crayon so that the pattern of the words would show some. 

-The owls were drawn and colored using oil pastels on a separate piece of paper. 

- For the final step, the students cut out the owls and then I hot glued a packing peanut in between the owl and the background so that the owls were three-dimensional. 

Third grade foil embossed leaves

Our third grade students are finishing up some beautiful foil work! The students started this project by collecting Fall leaves, studying the texture and shape and then drawing them to create an interesting composition. The students learned about possitive vs. negative space as well as texture. We discussed transforming our malleable foil from a 2d form to a 3d form by embossing them from the back of our foil. Finally the foil drawings were painted with black ink and once they dried, the students took a some of the ink off using a dish scrubbing pad to create this aged look. The leaves have been mounted on black and also one colored piece of construction paper and each student added a finished pattern around the edge. They really don't get enough justice in the photo! Each one is unique and successful, we just love them!