Mini-Christmas projects

Made by Zoe Z.

I couldn't let Christmas go by without at least one small project! 7th and 8th graders made mini wreaths, which they promptly hung on their lockers. I purchased 9 foot pieces of garland at Dollar Tree and cut them into 1 foot sections. I made each 1 foot section into a wreath shape and twisted the ends together. I brought in different colors of ribbon, glitter pipe cleaners (which you can see Zoe used in her's), tiny jingle bells in multiple colors, and an array of other bits and bobs. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

The 5th and 6th graders made Christmas-themed banners using canvas and fabric crayons. The banners looked terrific, but unfortunately, the kids took them home before I was able to photograph them:(

Wreaths on the kid's lockers

Working with Clay

7th grade pre-Columbian Colossial Heads

We spent several weeks in the fall working with clay (except for the 6^th graders, who created paper mache hot air balloons, while reading 21 Balloons ). Each of the classes took a different approach, depending upon what was being learned in Social Studies. The 8th graders made Civil War era slave face jugs (see below), 7^th made miniature, pre-Columbian colossal heads, and 5^th learned how to make coil and pinch pots, which they then decorated in Native American style. All of this beautiful artwork can be seen in the windows of the hallway bridging the elementary and middle-school wings. Below you can see the students very creative versions of slave face jugs!



5th grade Native-American pots

Another view of the 5th grade pots



Ethan C.

Hunter F.

Zoe Z.

Sharon K.

Justin J.

Sam S.



Hunter M.

Alyssa T.

Gracie P. (my daughter)

Mike S.

Music Room Posters

Ethan C., Alyssa T., Mike S.

Our first project of the school year, at Mr. Milkin's request, involved developing some beautiful art for our Music Room.

The 8th graders broke into small groups and each designed and developed a poster for each of the four plays we've done over the past four years. They can be seen in the hallway outside of the Music Room.

Sharon K., Gracie P., Victoria H.

Zoe Z., Sam S., Hunter M.



Justin J. and Hunter F.

7th and 5th graders worked on colorful posters with general musical themes, which are now hanging both inside and outside of the music room

Some of the 5th grade posters

L-R Ben B., Sidney P., Kelsey N., Joy L.

And finally, the 6th graders decoupaged pages from old music books onto thin board. We printed and cut out silhouettes of famous composers and glued them onto the musical background. The frames were painted matte black, labels were applied, and then the "masterpieces" were hung. They can be found inside the Music Room.