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. 

 

Clay Fish Sculptures

This is a simple sculpture project my grade ones completed a while back. We used Model Magic in order to complete all the sculpting in one day. Although I don't use this product often, this air drying modelling material does allow students to model, add textures and to press bits like the shells, pipe cleaners and googly eyes directly into the clay. The next lesson we were able to paint using tempera paints and enhance details with permanent marker.

 

The Red Tree

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Image from Shaun Tan's 'The Red Tree'.

Australian Book Week is coming up with the theme this year being 'Australian Stories'. 

These grade three artworks are inspired by the children's book 'The Red Tree', written and illustrated by West Australian author and artist Shaun Tan.

The story is inspired by the experience of depression. The main character is a lonely little girl. Almost unnoticed in each illustration, a red leaf follows the girl throughout her day. On the book's last page, the girl stands smiling at a beautiful red tree, growing in her bedroom. 

 The students and I discussed the symbolism in the book before they created their own artwork showing the contrast between despair and hope.

Students were asked to create a dark background inspired by the book's images of confusing cityscapes. They used pieces of card and found objects such as plastic lids dipped into paint. I then asked students to add a red tree of any size somewhere in their picture. They were given their choice of medium, choosing collage, pastels, paint, glitter, markers and more. 

I have included so many images of the children's work as I find each one inspiring in its originality. 

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