1st Grade Day of the Dead Skeletons

Have I mentioned that my 1st graders are a VERY difficult group this year?  That being said, I had meant for this project to be completed last week so they could be hanging before November 1st and 2nd, however that didn't happen.  We spent the majority of two class periods before this with our heads down, practicing being quiet.  I have 24 seats in my classroom and one first grade class with 24, and one with 25 students!  

Either way, the first class has finished the project and the second will finish theirs on Monday this up-coming week.  This project came directly from Pinterest.  What is great is that the timing of Dia de los Muertos lined up perfectly with the 1st grade NYS Common Core Listening and Learning Strand about the human body.  In that strand, the students learn about the muscular system, the nervous system, and the skeletal system.

I brought down this model skeleton from the health room, which the students loved!  He was, however, covered up with a sheet most of the time (which sort of made him more creepy...but otherwise he was too much of a distraction to all of the other classes!).  

I had intended that this project would only take us 1 1/2 days to complete...but it actually ended up taking 2 1/2 days due to student behavior.  After we finished up our pumpkin patch drawings, we took 10 minutes at the end of class to view a power point about the Day of the Dead (that was the half day).  On the second day, I had intended that the students would quickly review the primary and secondary colors (since I had covered them so extensively in kindergarten), and take 10 minutes to paint their cardboard.  I was planning on going over the skeletal system with them and then building the skeletons on the cardboard that day.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  It took us an ENTIRE period to paint a little 5"x7" piece of cardboard and to clean up.  

So, I ended up having to take one day to paint the background and one day to make the skeletons.  Since I'm getting so close to my maternity leave, I wanted to make sure these got done so they could be graded by our 10 week marking period next week.  I had intended to take one more day to make the flowers but either way, we were able to make the skeletons and flowers in one class period.

We also didn't get a chance to mod podge these like in the original post from Pinterest, so I'll probably just spray them with some glossy fixative spray before I hang them. 

These are the seven elements on my rubric for this project:

1.       Skeleton Bones (shows all major bones: skull, spine, ribs, pelvis, collar bone, arms, legs & joints)

2.       Background (painted background one secondary color using two primaries)

3.       Marigolds (built marigolds to fill in the negative space around skeleton)

4.       Used Creativity (positioned skeleton in an interesting way)

5.       Used Good Craftsmanship (Neatly glued all pieces to cardboard.)

6.       Has a Good Composition (Used entire piece of cardboard.)

7.       Used Time Wisely (Didn’t rush artwork; didn’t waste time)

6th Grade Day of the Dead Masks

Finally!  I can share my 6th grader's Day of the Dead masks!  These turned out pretty great!  Some really wanted to go with a Halloween skull over a Mexican Day of the Dead design...but nevertheless, I had some really great craftsmanship on these!  I had the students fill out the rubric before I graded them, and they were pretty honest and dead on with their grades compared to my grades...which shows they understand what they were learning about and they understand when they aren't working to their potential!  Check back onto this previous post to see the rubric I used to grade these assignments...

I think next year, if I do this exact project again, I will try out using tin foil that was suggested to make the mask forms more of a skull shape...I think that's the only thing that could have made these better!

 
 
 

Rubrics Galore!

Well, on this dreary, rainy day in the North Country, I've sat down to finish my plans for this week.  In doing so, I created some rubrics for my up and coming projects that I figured I would share with you!  I'm sure that in time, over the years that I use these, they will be altered to my needs, but here is what I will be giving the students to see how I will be grading them.

First of all, I have altered my generic rubrics for K-2 since I last shared it and I think I have finalized it.  I have been using it to grade my projects such as the Primary Lines, Secondary Shapes, Rainbow Kandinsky and the Roy G. Biv collages and it seems to be working well!

This next rubric is one I created during the week for my current 6th grade project, Day of the Dead skeleton masks.  

I am going to have my 6th graders fill this rubric out, questions and all, on their own once finished with their project and then I will use the same rubric to give my grade.  Since this is the first time I am using these rubrics to grade them, I want them to be able to see if we are on the same page with their artwork. This will also give them a way to write me a reflection after I hand these back with their grades.

Next year, I think I will try the tinfoil trick to make these more skull shaped!  They still look pretty good...these guys will get one more day. I especially love the green one with the yellow cross...the student gave him a gold tooth!

This next rubric is for the next project my 3rd graders will be doing.  We just finished up with our birch trees, and now we are going to move onto talking about texture in drawings and in sculpture.  Last class, I gave them the drawing assignment to draw a house with texture, adding in that it could be a haunted house if they'd like, since it's getting close to Halloween.  I do have a student in 3rd grade who is  Jahovah's Witness, so I can't really do specific holiday projects, but I like to try and give students projects that they can make into holiday projects should they decide to around the holidays.  Anyways, I allowed the students to use texture rubbing plates for their drawing and next class we will finish those and then talk about the different textures used. 

Then, we will look at real pictures of houses and I will introduce the final project.  I did this project last year and it was a big hit.  We will be making stuffed paper bag houses, again with the option of creating a haunted house.  I won't let students use the rubbing plates for the sculpture part, however.  Instead, we will talk about creating the illusion of texture by using lines and shapes (bricks, siding, cobblestone, etc.) and we will talk about creating actual texture by using different materials (cotton, pom poms, pipe cleaners, smooth paper versus crumpled paper, etc.).  Here is the rubric I will be presenting to them for the house sculpture project:

The last rubric I created this weekend is for my 5th grader's color wheel project.  We are currently in the process of drawing, cutting out and tracing 12 designs to paint the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  This year, I will also be having the kids add a flare to their design by painting each color's complement as well.

Student will also have to answer five questions about the colors they learned, as part of their grade.