Stained Glass Europe Study

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am doing "stained glass" with all the kids for our European International study.

Before the lesson, I showed them this clip from Sister Wendy. It explained  briefly about some English stained glass and tidbit of history.

The first step was to get clear plastic/acetate (report covers and sheet protectors work great for letter sized-but for larger ones I used large sheets of 5mil plastic from TAP)

I mixed up some white glue and water and then had the kids arrange small scraps of tissue paper on the plastic and really make sure that the paper was nice and wet and gluey. I let these dry, and made some black card-stock frames. Final touch was black sharpie marker to outline shapes and other details.

Studying Europe

Every year, the school picks a geographic theme for their International Study. This year it is Europe (it usually is a  continent or general area of the world)  I try to do some art lessons that cater to that theme and also provide decoration for the annual "International Luncheon" where the parents bring in food from that region and they have a  celebration.

For European art I did several things:

The younger kids make paper Dala Horse from Sweden. This was to emphasize, cutting, pasting and decorating. The real horses are wooden sculptures, but these were made from red and yellow tagboard, cut and then decorated in a  folk art style.

The 2-4 grade did "coats of arms" shield that they made using elements that meant something to them or told a story. I told them about heraldry and the meanings of certain colors, shapes and symbols. They did this on paper bag paper to make them look old.

All the kids did "stained glass" which is a traditional European church/castle art form. We watched a quick Sister Wendy video on stained glass history and then the kids used tissue paper and white glue to collage the colors onto clear sheets of acetate. We will fame them in black tagboard in gothic and romanesque window shapes.

Christmas Art 2012

It seems like the whole month of November and into December was devoted to Christmas ornaments and decor that got used for the Holiday Home tour decorating the school. Here's a roundup of those items:

 Popsicle stick snowflakes got mentioned in an earlier post. Smaller versions of these got painted white and placed on the Christmas Tree.

 The K-2 class made the old standby of paper plate snowmen. Always a fun project. They decorated the school lobby.

 We also made handprint Santas with red, white and beige paint, decorated with some buttons and cotton.

 The younger kids used popsicle sticks to make triangles that we turned into Christmas Tree frames for a photo. Super easy, but fun!