Ice Cream Cones in Tints and Shades

Here's my version of a project that has been doing the rounds on Pinterest for quite some time. You can see another great example of this here project at 'Splats, Scraps and Glue Blobs'.

I had my grade four students fold a sheet of A3 paper into eighths, and after demonstrating how to create both tints and shades of a colour, students painted one section of their page in their chosen colour and filled the other boxes with graduating tints and shades.

Once the painting was complete, students drew a shape to represent a dripping scoop of icecream onto one of their boxes of colour. They then cut out this shape and used it as a template to draw and cut the same shape from each coloured box.

What I really liked about this project, other than the fun topic is that it incorporates painting and collage. I gave each student a long strip of white paper and asked them to layer all their scoops on the page from lightest tint to darkest shade. They were then able to glue the pieces down I gave them the option of drawing or collaging details such as the icecream cone and any decorations such as cherries and sprinkles etc.

 

Ceramic Cake Sculptures

 

Grade 5 students used slab construction and modelling techniques to create a small triangular box, which they were then asked to decorate and glaze to resemble a slice of cake. This was such a fun project, with impressive results. Displaying these sculptures on my vintage cake plates made them look good enough to eat!

A few years ago I did a similar project, making clay cupcakes with grade 4 and 5. You can see those HERE. Either project is a great tie-in with Pop Art and particularly artists such as Wayne Thiebaud.

 

 

 

 

Candy Cane Drawings

This is a great end of year/Christmas activity for older students. Inspired by this post at 'A Faithful Attempt', I had my grade 6 and 7 students create a tonal drawing of a candy cane using coloured pencils. This was a great project to review drawing techniques like using curved lines and implying light and shade by creating tonal variance to describe a rounded object.

Students love seeing these take form and appear to pop out from the page. Handing out some real candy canes as inspiration is also sure sweeten the deal!