Engaging Back to School Art Ideas to Help You Connect with Your Students: Part Two
Back to School Art Activity Part Duex
I recently posted about one of our favorite Back to School activities that we do in our classes to get to know our students, and that we hang on our classroom walls for the year. We call this activity a Name Plate. It has had a few variations over the the years, but the most important components remain a constant. Below are step by step directions on how you can make one amazing activity that will brighten up your classroom with color, and make your class a place that every student feels welcome and connected.
Name Plate Activity Two
This is an activity that we at TTD used for years in our classroom. The students LOVE it and it adds such beauty and color into an otherwise blank classroom.
Katy’s Name Plate
What you will need:
Water Colored pencils and thin black sharpies
Watercolor paint and paint brushes
Pre cut silhouettes
Let’s Get Started!
First things first. You will need to find a bunch of images online that represent your student body. A majority of our silhouettes were sports related, but we also added in tech silhouettes, students reading, shopping, playing instruments etc. One sure fire way to make sure that all of your students feel represented is to poll your classes. Ask them during the second or third day of school what they like to do, or how they spend their free time. They will be so excited to talk about themselves.
Once you have come up with a list of ideas, Google search the images and copy and paste them onto a word processing document. That way you can manipulate the images and try to get two per page, you know, to save trees and all. You will need to print out the silhouettes, (on card stock if you have it), and pre cut all of the images. See my examples below:
I like to spread out all of my silhouettes on the back counter of my classroom for my students to choose from. I have separated them out for you in these images by gender so you can see the different silhouettes my students have requested in the past, but in my class I do not separate the images by gender. Students gravitate towards a silhouette that they feel defines them.
While some students are perusing the silhouettes in the back of my classroom, the rest are receiving a piece of water color paper. They are instructed to write their name in any format they they wish, as long as it is legible, at the top of the paper. The students who have chosen a silhouette have also received a piece of water color paper. They are tasked with tracing the outline of their silhouette on to the piece of watercolor paper, somewhere in the middle of the page. Because I do not have duplicate images, some students are tracing the image while others are working on their names, no student is sitting idly by.
Once everyone has traced their silhouette and artfully written their names on their watercolor paper in pencil, they are instructed to add 8-10 symbols that represent them. Students then outline everything on their page in a thin, black sharpie.
Next, students are given water color pencils and asked to color in their symbols and name. They do not use the pencils to color the whole page, just the symbols and their name.
After students have colored in their images and their name, they then use a regular pencil to write about themselves inside their silhouette. You can have them write free form with no specific structure in mind; they can write about their symbols and their favorite things, or you can have them use an I Am poem template to fill in their silhouette. Students must then outline their words in thin sharpie.
Last, using water, students paint their symbols. The water, mixed with the water color pencils, creates a paint effect. Students may want to use a paper towel to dab at their symbols so they don’t bleed onto the background. Once the symbols are all painted, students can use the water color paint to paint the background of their Name Plate. Make sure that they leave their silhouette white. They do not color that in.
That’s it! Job well done!
We hang up every student’s Name Plate on our classroom walls. There they stay, until Open House, when we replace them with another amazing activity. All year, students comment on their photos. When our students see their silhouettes reflected back at them in their classroom, it shows them that they are welcome, their opinions are valued, and that their classroom is a place where they belong.
If you try out this activity, let us know how it turns out! Comment below, or share a photo of your classroom walls on our Instagram @teachdistillery or our Twitter @TeachDistillery accounts!
Bottoms Up!