Forest Grove and Bauer Elementary: 5th Grade Interior Design Dream Rooms

This project was a huge hit with the 5th graders!  The creativity and problem solving involved in these bedroom design projects was exhilarating for the kids.  Over and over students said it was there favorite project EVER!

Students were given the challenge of becoming an interior designer.  An interior designer is an artist who helps decide what a room will look like from the wall color to the cabinets and furniture.  Each year we learn about a variety of artist careers. This project gave students a chance to exercise their spacial skills.

Here is a great student made video about the job of an interior designer!

Each child was challenged to use his or her creativity to choose colors and decorations for their room. The ultimate challenge was building furniture!  Students used low temperature hot glue guns to build cardboard beds, chairs and tables.

The assignment was to create a bedroom design but some kids made a good case for creating other rooms such as kitchens and living rooms. 

One particularly creative idea was to create an RV bedroom!

A number of students were so thrilled with their assignments that they worked on items at home and brought extra supplies from home such as carpet, foam and fabric.  Nice work kids! 

This was also a great project for collaborative learning.  Students spent time explaining to other students how to make things and helping find items of interest in magazines. 

Learning Goals: I can...
- Explain what an interior designer does (as opposed to an architect or graphic designer)
- Create a model of a room
- Use a hot glue gun safely
- Build at least one piece of furniture my own way (using problem solving)
- Choose colors and accent pieces for my room that fit how I would like my dream room to be!
- Participate in a critique giving feedback to others and evaluating myself

Forest Grove and Bauer Elementary: Texture Hen Collages

Second graders read the book Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum to learn about texture. This is a fun book with great illustrations. The author uses interesting texture words.

On the first day of our project, we painted paper and talked about how to use brushstrokes to create a rough textured look for the feathers and a smooth look for the hen's coat.

Next, we talked about collage and strategies to use when using glue and scissors to create a collage.

Here are some sayings we use in the art room for good craftsmanship!

Glue: "Just a dot, not a lot!"
Scissors: "Turn the paper, not the scissors! Scissors always point, up, up and away!"

Finally, we added the background using oil pastel to make it appear like dirt texture (visual texture) and rocks so that we could actually feel the texture (tactile texture).

Learning goals: I can...
- Create texture
- Create a collage
- Use good craftsmanship

Forest Grove and Bauer Elementary: Farms and Forms

Wow!  First graders continue to amaze me with their skills!  The only tool we used to create these drawings was a parallelogram stencil! I decided I would give each child their own parallelogram to trace since the parallelogram is the hardest part of drawing a cube.  This was a new shape for most students and we certainly discovered how useful it could be!

First we traced the parallelogram in the middle of the paper.  Then we used the side with the green line as a straightedge.  This also gave the children a reference point for line lengths and directions.  We talked a lot about line directions and relationships: horizontal, vertical, diagonal and parallel.

Check out this "how to" video I created to show you how I taught the kids this lesson!  I these videos can be a great resource for other teachers and families at home!

The Barn Drawing Video: I don't like to use stencils  for entire pictures.  Usually, if I give one to the kids I only use them to help students understand how big to make the first shape.  This was a new idea that I came up with that took stencil use to the next level! Enjoy!

On a step by step project like this, we always start with pencil.  We do the toughest part on both sides of the paper (the barn in this example) and the kids decide which of their own drawings is best.  Then they edit the better drawing.  Once the kids learn to do this process (2 drawings) it helps them stay positive and keep moving forward.  Even when the kids make a mistake they know they will be able to do a second drawing and edit the best one later.  Usually, half the kids pick their first drawing and the other half choose their second drawing.  I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I have!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Show line directions and relationships: horizontal, vertical, diagonal and parallel

- Explain which 3D shapes (forms) were used to create this picture (cube and cylinder) 

- Use a parallelogram as a tool for drawing (as a stencil, a straight edge and to estimate distances)

- Paint and color carefully

- Explain what an architect does (art careers)

Inspiration for this project came from here.