Beautiful Things

I get so tired of the same art projects over and over again. It seems like every art project we do includes construction paper or water colors. This year I am on a mission to give my students opportunities to create art with as many different medias as possible.

I got the great idea from a co-teacher to create a "Beautiful Things" bucket. At the beginning of the school year I sent home a brown paper bag with each student. The only directions were to fill the bag with any thing they were willing to part with and that they thought was beautiful. We received bags full of stickers, scrapes of materials, old wrapping paper, bows, greeting cards, and even a pair of old pajamas!

Once we had collected all of the "Beautiful Things" we put them in our sensory table and did a sorting activity. The students sorted all of the items by color into smaller bins.

Now, anytime we have free choice art the students can use the "Beautiful Things" as an art tool. Adding a collage aspect to the students' art has been great. 3D art is always fun and creative and the students enjoy using items in new ways.

I have also used the "Beautiful Things" for more structured activities and lessons. As a class, we created a "Kaleidoscope of Beautiful Things" for our wall. The students matched "Beautiful Things" with colored hexagons and glued items on. Then, we arranged the hexagons to look like a giant kaleidoscope. The students used water colors to decorate the borders.

The students love looking at the giant kaleidoscope through their mini-kaleidoscopes. This collage art has been a big hit, everyone who visits our room comments on how great it looks, and the kids loved making it!