Little Poetry Figures

I have a thing for little boxes.....I save them until I have a class set and then we make something! 

- like valentines
- robots
- puppet boxes
- and many dioramas!

So for this project it started with this little puppet and we then expanded using the concept of having something in the little box that we then reveal.  Earlier in the year we made robots out of Dove soap boxes that had a message inside written by the robot.



This puppet uses a small treat box (Smarties) like the ones you give out at Halloween or in lunches.

Unfold the arms of this puppet and you reveal his dream.

Here are some other ideas using the same size box.......

A bird dreaming of her nest of eggs.........

and a robot dreaming about a vacation.

Materials Required:

- piece of paper and pencil

- a class set of little boxes, containers

- white paint or gesso

- scissors

- tacky glue

- acrylic paint

- odds and ends for embellishments

- hand written or typed text

Procedure:

On the piece of paper sketch out a plan for your figure and one sentence poem.  You need some sort of cover or flap to hide the opening in your box.  I had arms, a wing, and a door.

Take your little treat box and open up flat.  Cut out a little window in one of the large sides.  Paint over the outside with white paint or gesso.

Paint in a little scene for the inside of the box.  If working with young kids just paint in a background.  Add details by drawing/coloring them on plain paper and then cut and paste into place.

Glue box back together.  I use elastics to hold it together when drying. Paint outside of the box with acrylic craft paint. 

Find other pieces for your figure and paint if necessary.  For the robot I painted 4 cubes for the legs, I wound 2 pipe cleaners around a pencil for the arms, and I painted half of a cork for a head.  Look around at what you have on hand.  The kids will amaze you with their ideas.

Glue all your pieces in place.

For the bird I had a pompom head, feather tail and wire feet.

Finally add the text of your poem.

That's it.  You can make a whole collection and you'll never look at a little box the same again!

See you later.

Wood Houses : Art and Poetry Project

This is a project that I came up with a few months ago.  I used it at Christmas time for the Grade 3's but you can use it anytime.

It's a house that also has a poem incorporated with it.

Mine states:

" My House
Is warm and snug
full of people I love
and a DOOR
to shut out the
world"

(I think I was  a little stressed at the time)

The kids had a great time making them and it was fairly easy to execute.











MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- piece of wood 5 inches high, I used 1 1/2 X 3 1/2 timber ( or 2 by 4's)
- saw
- sandpaper
- acrylic paint
- wax paper
- white paper, colored paper
- pencil crayons, fine sharpies
- tacky glue
- thin cardboard or chipboard
- Mod podge
- a poem printed out in computer text or hand written

PROCEDURE:

Now the timbers I bought were 8' long.  My volunteer carpenter (thanks Mr. B) cut them on an angle in 5" sections.  He cut a 10" piece and then cut into 2.

You get 19 houses for each 8' timber.

I had the kids sand all the edges.  They loved that part.




We wrote their names on the bottom in sharpie.

I then had the kids paint the houses with acrylic paint.  No need to paint the top or bottom.Place each house on a small piece of wax paper.

The kids tended to paint the front first and then we set them upright and turned the wax paper so they could reach all the sides.

Let dry.

Take your cardboard or chipboard and cut out a roof.  We used rectangles that were 4" by 2 1/2".

You want a little overhang at the sides.

 Paint one side of the cardboard.

Let dry.

Now we will work on the windows.

For the Grade 3's I made up a sheet of windows for them.

This way they could do their drawings and then cut out the windows.

The top windows were 1"x1"
- the big front window was 1.5"x1.5"
- we had a back window that was 2" by 2.25"
- and 2 side windows that were 1" X 1.5"

Using pencils, pencil crayons, colored paper and fine sharpies the kids made little scenes in the windows. For the Christmas houses there were a lot of Christmas trees and decorations as well as family members.  Make sure you don't use washable markers as they will smear when you go to Mod podge the house.

Glue windows into place.  Make sure the top windows are about an inch down from the top edge of the wood so you can see them after you attach the roof.  The door was a rectangle cut from a piece of colored paper with a door knob drawn in.

For the roof cut little shingle shapes out of colored paper and glue into place starting with the top row.  Stagger each row so it looks like real shingles.  The kids also drew in some of the shingles with a white gel pen to mix it up a bit.  Attach roof to the house with tacky glue.  You want the back of the roof flush to the back of the house giving you a nice overhang in the front.

Print out or nicely hand write your poem.  Cut out sections and glue into place on the house.  Finally Mod Podge the whole thing for a nice shiny finish.  If  the windows wrinkle a bit don't worry everything will flatten out as the Mod Podge dries.

That's it.  The grade 3's wrote a short sentence starting with "My House at Christmas....."

I can envision a nice Valentine themed house.

See you soon.

Dandelion Poetry Project

The abundance of dandelions in Calgary this year has provided me with lots of inspiration.  You might remember this project.

Well.......in a similar vein I have been doing a collaborative project with my colleague Kim McCullough. ( a teacher who is a fantastic author).  She also collaborated with me on the Woven Nest.

We are trying to develop projects that combine creative writing and the visual arts.

The premise for this project is "dandelion wishes".  You can click on the picture to see larger.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolor or heavywieght sketch paper
- disk tempera
- paintbrush
- fine and heavy sharpie
- white sharpie, white gel pen, or computer/hand written text
- glue if using computer/handwritten text

We did this project with Grade 4.  Kim spent a Language Arts class with the kids discussing dreams and wishes.  By the end of the class they had typed out a poem.

We started the art portion by sketching out a silhouette profile.  After seeing the results I would advise all future classes to sketch out  the hand and/or arm. It just ties it together better.  They also sketched in the seed head and some loose seeds blowing away.

I had a few reference photos to assist them.  Next time I think I will have them pose and have a fellow student sketch out their profile.

They then painted in their backgrounds using disk tempera.  Most opted for the twilight scene.

To get that spotted texture you can see in the first picture just sprinkle on some water drops while the background is only partially dry.

Let dry.

Using black tempera they painted in the larger portions of the silhouette and then used black sharpies for the finer detailing of the seeds.

Here you can really see that spotted texture.


Next you need to add the text of your poem.

You can use white pencil crayon, white gel pens, white sharpies, or cut out typed/handwritten text which you then glue into place.

Click on photos for a closer view.

Great work Grade 4!