2nd Grade - Symmetrical Monsters

A classic since the beginning, second graders learn a transfer technique to make both sides of their monster's face symmetrical.  It's a little tough at first, but once they get the hang of it, the results are awesome.  Take a look:

4th Grade - Folk Monsters

I love this project.  It's so much fun from beginning to end, and the ideas the 4th graders come up with are unique, creative, and often hilarious.

I first introduce the kids to a handful of monsters from ancient japanese folk tales.  These monsters have a variety of functions in the stories:  some explain some science about the world (earthquakes or monsoons), some teach a valuable lesson (take care of your shoes, clean your bathroom), and some are just plain strange (one monster creeps around and cuts your hair for no apparent reason).  After the introduction, the fourth graders are free to come up with their own monster, and, in their picture, give clues about what the monster does.  See if you can guess in the pictures below.

4th Grade - Cartoons

Before winter break, the fourth graders at Central had a chance to explore one of my favorite things: cartooning.  I provide the kids with a sheet that has suggestions for drawing different expressions with eyes, noses, and mouths, which they combine into their own character.  The idea is to make up some context for the characters too; interesting cartoons have their own world.  We all have a lot of fun with this project, and some of the basics we learn with this one apply to a lot of the other projects we work on after.  Take a look.

4th Grade - GRINCH MUSIC VIDEO!!

I get really excited about a lot of our projects, but these music videos are some of my favorite things.  Having an extra day with Ms. Gertz's fourth graders (and a handful of Mr. Hayes' fifth graders) this quarter provided the perfect opportunity to tackle another song.  I give each kid a piece of paper with the lyrics printed on the bottom, then they draw what they think they lyric is supposed to look like.  Check out our other videos here.

This year, we did "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," with mostly 4th graders and a handful of 5th graders.  Enjoy!

2nd Grade - Making Money

This has been one of my favorite projects that the kids get super in to from the beginning.  It helps us work on adding details to keep our artwork interesting.

Dolla, dolla bills, y'all.

I tell the kids that I've looked into the future and seen that, strangely enough, everyone is going to become president someday.  When we are president, the rules change quite a bit, and one of the perks is that the president gets to put his or her face on a freshly designed dollar bill.

But this comes with a catch.  To protect the country against counterfeiters, we need to add lots of little secrets and details to our dollar bills that make it much harder to replicate.  The second graders love to share some (but not all!) of their secrets with each other during share time.  See if you can pick up any from the examples below.

3rd Grade - Album Covers

A new project for 3rd graders, but one we did last year with 5th graders.  For the few weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break, the third graders pretended to be award-winning musicians designing their debut album cover.  The goal was to get the album cover not only eye-catching, but also reflective of the type of music they would make.  So, we studied a handful of album covers and talked about how we could tell one looked "country" or "pop," and used their ideas in our own album design.  Each 3rd grader had to invent his or her own band name and album title, too.  Check out a few awesome examples.