Very fun art teacher's blog from Ms. K and "Please Don't Eat the Artwork"

See You Later Alligators

May 16, 2013 by artwithmsk

One of my goals as an art teacher is to foster creativity in my students. It is extremely important to me that their projects are not cookie-cutter-carbon-copies, rather they are as individual as the individuals who made them. The last unit of art curriculum for the county denotes that crafting is involved. I type crafting with a grimace and a shudder because in my humble opinion crafting is a cheap way to do mass-produced art.

I was bored to tears by weaving with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders because really, how much creativity is involved in manipulating some yarn? Sure they can choose their colors but in the end all the projects basically look the same. Weaving with paper allows for a little more creative freedom. These woven alligators were inspired by several pins on Pinterest as well as from Art With Ms. Gram. 

I wanted to make sure that they did not all look the same so I made tried to give students as many choices as possible. They chose which shade of green construction paper they would use for the body and  the way they made painted paper. They came up with their own the symbols which were painted in metallic tempera. Students designed their own  eyes and teeth, and the shapes for features such as arms, legs, and tails. I think these look wild and fun and ended up really reflecting the spirit of first (soon to be second!) graders.

We began by mixing primary colors to create secondary colors for painted paper.

Students used their painted paper to weave into a piece of green construction paper for the alligator’s body.

Some alligator bodies on the drying rack:

Then heads and tails were added with more green paper.

First graders cut eyes and teeth out of white paper:

Details and symbols were painted on with shiny metallic tempera:

The display is a farewell to first grade:

Some alligator close ups:

Yes we seem to play with our food a bit more than normal families. When I saw a smile made with red apple slices and marshmallows, I knew I had to modify it to make a green gator smile. 

You will need:

Green apples (Golden delicious actually tasted best)

Flavored cream cheese (We tested the apple smiles and found the original recipe that called for peanut butter made our marshmallow teeth look like they needed to be brushed. Ick…cream cheese to the rescue!)

Raisins

Mini marshmallows

toothpick (optional)

Steps

Cut a medium to large green apple in 8 slices about 3/4 inch thick each.[You’ll need thicker slices for the top of the gator head, and thinner slices for his lower jaw.] 

Follow the pattern shown here or free hand it on your own.

Cut another apple slice to slightly less than a ½ inch thick. 

Cut a small hole in the spot where the gator’s eye would be.

Have the kids Insert a raisin in the small eye hole, and add a dab of cream cheese to create a sparkle in his eye, if you’d like.

Spread the cream cheese on the “teeth” side of the alligator’s head, and on one side of his lower jaw.  Put 3 marshmallows in between the gator jaws, using the cream cheese to hold the marshmallows in =place. If you plan on moving your gator around a lot, you may need to stick a half of a toothpick into each side to hold it together.  Otherwise, you can set it on your kids plates and watch them grin right back.