Rainbow Spider Webs

My Grade 3s created these happy little spiders in rainbow webs inspired by this activity on Artsonia by Gateway Elementary. This is a great activity for Halloween but one that kids enjoy any time of year.

They first learned to create a pattern using line to draw their web. Students then used coloured pencils, crayons and textas to colour the different areas inside their web. 

Once they had completed colouring their web students created their own spider by making a mini pompom. Making a mini pompom using a fork is a great little textile activity for this age group.

If you haven't seen this before you can see the instructions here at 'Jellyfish Prints'.

My students made spider legs from pipe cleaners and added googly eyes to complete. Students glued their spider to their web drawing. 

 

Scarab Beetle Sculptures

These scarab beetles were made by grade 6 students who were studying Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians worshipped scarab beetles as an embodiment of the god Khepri. Pendants made to resemble Scarab beetles were often worn by the pharoahs as a symbol of their wealth and power. 

Students created a small clay body for the beetle after viewing photographs of scarab beetles. Three ridges were made on the underside of the body. After firing and glazing, the legs, made from short pieces of wire covered in masking tape were glued into these ridges with a hot glue gun. Students also added small glass beads as the eyes. Similar beetles were created by a group of grade one students a few years ago. They can be seen here.

More Glitter Spiderwebs

This is a little project I did a few years ago and recently did again with Grade 1 students. It's a great way for them to explore line and pattern and could be a cute Halloween project too. Click HERE to see my first attempt at this project as well as the instructions. This time I made sure they went over all their pencil lines with the glue so we could use MORE GLITTER!! Because well, I love glitter.

Ladybird Paintings

 Grade 1 students used a range of techniques to create these ladybirds.
The green background was made with a dry brush effect, dabbing the paint onto the page. The red shells were painted and then fingerpainted with black dots. The legs were printed with a piece of thick card dipped in black paint and the leaf shapes in the background were drawn in oil pastel.

Clay Beetles

 I gave each student a small ball of air dry clay with which they sculpted a large flat circle for the beetle's shell and a small flat circle for the beetle's head and joined. They used clay tools to decorate. I had cut up short pieces of rainbow wire and gave each child 3 pieces to embed in the reverse side of the beetle to make 3 pairs of legs.

When dry, the beetles were painted and the legs could be bent so they could stand. I also used some spray varnish on them to stop them chipping and make them shiny.