Yesterday was day #2 of my 3D art elective class.  Since many students in the class had not taken art for a year, I wanted to do a quick project to get them back into a creative mindset.  This soda can art project was something I had seen on Pinterest and it ended up being the perfect one day intro activity! 
The vocab word of the day was "transformation."  We talked about how a sculptor must transform materials into something new each time they create a three dimensional peice of work.  For example, a mound of clay is transformed into a mug.  Then I had each student pick out a clean soda can.  I asked them to transform the can into a new piece of art by changing the form as well as embellishing it with acrylic paints, Sharpie makers and duct tape.
It was great to see the surprised look on the kids faces when I asked them to stomp on their cans. They had so much fun with this activity! And while this project is actually much harder than I imagined it would be, the results were fantastic! I was very impressed with their creativity and ability to come up with unique ideas.

What did we do on the first day of 3D art elective class for 8th graders yesterday? We played Jenga!  As a first day activity it really worked well on so many levels.  First of all it was a great team building activity for students to get to know one another at their tables.  There was a lot of conversation and smiling going on which was fantastic!  After we played for about 20 minutes I asked them how the game related to the sculpture class they were just starting.  Boy did they have some great responses!
-Sometimes in art it's great to have a strategy before starting, but other times it's good to just wing it and go with what seems to be working.
-Sculptures need to be balanced.  When you move one piece, it means going back to look at the whole structure to see where the next thing should go.
-Sometimes things fall apart when creating art.  It's ok to fail and try a new approach next time.
-Making art is fun!

After playing the game and having a conversation about the connection to art, I asked each table to build an interesting sculpture with their blocks. One of my favorites was a kinetic sculpture that moved like dominos!

Imagine you were going to introduce yourself to someone that you had never met before, but could only give them five words that best describe you. What five words would communicate the essence of who you are?  This is the challenge that I gave to my students last week.

The idea came about when we started working on our first set of Artist Trading Cards for the ATC school exchange.  The theme for this month is, "All about ME: Introductions and Goals for the Year."  When I first told students about the exchange I wanted them to have a lot of independence.  I told them they could do anything they wanted on the card and use any medium that was interesting, as long as the card was about themselves.  However, as they began working we realized that the cards were very pretty, but they could do a better job of introducing themselves visually on the ATCs.  That's when I asked them to re-think how they were approaching these and start again by brainstorming a list of words about themselves. After they each had a big list of words, I asked them to narrow it down to their top five.  It was fun to hear what student's chose as their words.  Not only did I learn a lot about each student through this activity, but they also go to know each other as peers as we shared our words in class.  Hopefully the students that receive our cards will enjoy them too!

By the way, my five words are "art, teacher, family, love, learner," and my sample card for the project is the photo above.  Not only did students have to think of their five words, but they also needed to figure out how they could make a symbol that illustrated each word and how to put them all together in an interesting way. I think my students learned a lot from of these 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" miniature works of art!

So, what are your five words? I'd love for you to share them!