Finished Ladies and 5th Grade Quilts

As promised, here are photos of our finished ladies-with-the-alligator-purse from second grade:

Freshly painted with tempera block "Biggie" paints.

Love the cleavage on this lady!

I use "When I did this project I learned" strips sometimes on projects (not my idea, I got it from Paula Z, another art teacher in my district).  I let students choose where to glue it (top or bottom) and we brainstormed some possible answers first.  Here's a couple of examples of what students wrote:

This is a rather high student, she decided to use her notes from her sketchbook for hers.

This is a more typical second grader.  Many of them wrote "I learned how to draw [or cut, or paint] better."

Second grade will move onto real alligators/non fiction sort of things next.  But what have upper grades been up to?

In fifth grade, we looked at the arts and crafts of American Pioneers.  Specifically, quilts, and here's some of theirs:

 

They're small, only 9 x 9.  They made two grids, a white one divided into nine 3" squares, and a construction paper one divided into nine 3" squares.  The white one got painted (with watercolor, on the blank side, not the drawn grid side) and later cut out to be glued onto the construction paper one.  We had to work them out on a worksheet FIRST, before any cutting happened.

I then stapled and/or taped each individual quilt square onto large paper to make class "quilts":

They turned out great, and I hope they'll remember some of the things they learned about pioneer quilts later on in the year when we talk about the Underground Railroad!  I have a little surprise up my sleeve for our next quilt project [which will be in the spring].