Painted Paper Robots

Third graders had a great time using colored, painted, and metallic papers to create these little robots! We painted papers for our first 55-minute class period and spent the next two class periods cutting shapes for our robots.

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

Kindergartners and first graders love the book I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! To make our projects, we used watercolor to paint designs all over our traced hands and arms. Then we painted our background with some kind of abstract design or color composition. Finally, we made our paintbrush with cut paper and chalk. The results were very nice!

Mexican Bark Paintings



Mexican Bark Paintings
by Third Grade Artists

I love teaching children about different cultures. This project was one of my most successful! After viewing many examples of Mexican Folk Art and bark paintings, children used oil pastel and paint on brown paper to create their masterpieces!



Aztece Sun Stones

Fifth graders recently studied the Aztec Sun Stone in Art class. The Aztecs lived in Mexico from around 1300-1500 AD. They worshipped the sun because it provided life to all people. They carved a huge stone disk, three feet thick and almost twelve feet in diameter that is now known as the Sun Stone or the Aztec Calendar. When the Conquistadores arrives, it was buried after no one was able to destroy it. In 1760 it was found buried in Mexico City and is now in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

The Stone shows how the Aztecs believed the world went through four creations and destructions. They used glyphs, or picture symbols, to communicate meaning. It is a complex and fascinating calendar system with the face of the sun in the center of the radial design.

Fifth graders were able to create their own radially symmetrical design using gylphs. They began with pencil and repeated shapes around the circle and creating an interesting sun face. They added paint and marker, finishing their projects with cut pieces of construction paper!