3D Biome

For this project we learned about different biomes. We learned what animals belonged in each of those biomes and then had to choose an animal and the biome it belonged in. I chose a jellyfish and made an aquatic biome because that is where jellyfish are found. We learned about background, middle ground, and fore ground as well and had to apply that to our work. My background is everything drawn on with oil pastels, middle ground the starfish and fish that are sticking out some, and then fore ground is my jellyfish because that is the focal point of my piece and sticking out the most. We got to use oil pastels to decorate how we wanted and then also cut out construction paper to get the shapes and designs for the middle and fore ground.
An extension to this project could be done when learning about each specific biome. If they were learning about the aquatic biome they could make their project like mine with any sea creature, if learning about the savanna they would make theirs with animals found in that specific biome and so on. But with that I think the students should have to do some researching of biomes and present that when they create and present the biome that they made. Explain what other types of animals our found in the biomes as well.

Rainbow Fish Tissue Paper

This project we learned about warm and cool colors. We learned that the warm colors are red, orange and yellow. The cool colors being blue, green, and purple. The project was based on the book Rainbow Fish and that was read to us while we made our tissue paper fish. The fish were already cut out and to start we had to make a fishy face to receive the silver sequence which represented the "unity" that we learned about as well. We were to tear tissue paper and use a glue/water solution to make them stick to the paper. The tissue paper bled so you got different colors throughout the fish. We made a cool colored fish and a warm colored fish. When we were done we added our eye and our unity piece.
An extension to this project could be done when learning about aquariums or the ocean in a biology classroom setting. In an older classroom they could cut their own "sea creature" out and make it unique and different from everyone else's. It is a great way to get kids to understand the difference between warm and cool colors.

Coat of Arms

This lesson we learned first about the history of the symbols on the front of shields and what they stood for we then learned about what the different symbols and designs meant so we could chose which ones we wanted to use on the front of our shields. We were to choose which symbols and design we wanted. I chose a pencil because I am artistic, arrows for loving, bumble bees for hardworking, and the fire at the bottom for independence. The colors represented different things as well, pink for romance, gold for elegance, and blue for confidence. We first laid out our design on a plain piece of paper and used a tool to press that exact design firmly on the paper and then it would go through onto the foil. Once on the foil you use sharpie to go over your design and then we made a frame.
An extension to this project could be when learning about the medieval times for middle school grade. I feel the students would get an understanding of what the symbols were placed on there for while learning about the medieval times as well as writing a paper that goes along with what they learned about the medieval times and presenting to the class their shield as well as they research.

Van Gogh Inspired Collages

For this project we first learned about Van Gogh and then we were to make our own Van Gogh inspired collage. You could choose any city scape you would like as long as you had some representation of a Van Gogh piece. For example, the swirls and colorful sky. I chose to make my city scape a farm scape. Being from North Dakota and living in South Dakota now, there isn't much for big cities. The first step was to use tissue paper and glue those pieces down and then make your city scape with construction paper and finally add symbols or draw using oil pastels or crayons. If I were to do this project for my class I would do the same project but make them choose a city scape based on where they would like to live when they grow up. This would get them thinking and coming up with ideas of what type of place they would like to live in. I then would have them share with the class why they chose that place and what they chose as a representation for that place.