Recycling Art Project

For this activity we were asked to create a work of art with recycled material. We were given some background information on recycling and how much it really affects our Earth. We were given a pop can and asked to create a fish with our pop can. They had a few examples they did themselves and incorporated at least 3 colors and 2 patterns. I created a blue fish because I had a blue can and then glued on the fins with the different patterns. I also added a simple pattern on the fish. We also were given another activity to do while we waited for the paint to dry on our activity. The instructions painted the cardboard beforehand and then we were asked to glue down the caps according to the color. For example, we used green bottle caps for the seaweed and orange caps for the fish. The picture I have is not the final project but it is a example of the activity. This was a really fun activity and they wrapped up the lesson by telling us that we can all work together to help save the environment just like we did on our projects. They also said they only saved material for this activity for about 1 to 2 months and they gathered lots of materials, this shows us how frequently we use bottles and it takes a long time for them to decompose.

An extension activity for this project would be having each student come up with a different way on how they could help recycle or reuse materials. They would have to write two to three sentences telling about their idea and even as a class they could decide on the best one and do it in their classroom. This could be a activity for science and language arts. 

Scratch Art

For this activity we created a scratch art mitten. We were given instruction to first color a piece of paper with at least 2 different colors. After we colored out sheet we taped it to cardboard and painted it with black paint. The paint was tempera paint with soap in it. After we painted it we needed to wait for it to dry. While we waited for the paint to dry we listened to a book called Mittens and it was about animals and a missing mitten. After we read the story we created a mitten design on scratch paper. After we created our design we traced it on our scratch art paper and transferred our design. This was a lesson plan designed for 2nd graders. It was lots of fun!

An extension for this activity would be to have the students create a story to go along with their mitten. They can either write or draw a story to go along with it. If I had them create a story I would have this activity for third or fourth grade. It was a really fun lesson.