From Greek Vases to Ndebele Designs: Another Creative Week

This week we completed two important projects in the art room: The Ndebele Tribe Designs and The Greek Ancient Vases. It has been incredible to see how the students responded to these challenges with so much creativity and color.

For the Greek Ancient Vases project, students selected their own background colors, where they glued their vase and then decorated it with colorful lines and Greek-inspired designs. Throughout this project they practiced many different skills: using symmetry, cutting, gluing, designing, and coloring. The final results could not have been more spectacular. At first, I wondered whether this project would be appropriate for my 2nd and 3rd grade students, but once again they proved their creative abilities and their willingness to take on big artistic challenges.

As for the Ndebele Tribe Designs, our 4th and 5th graders did an amazing job. Some classes created their designs using oil pastels, while others explored the repoussé technique. In this process, we created relief on aluminum foil and then used permanent markers to add color and detail. For this project, I had the help of Ms. Villalba, who came to help finish the project and see firsthand how talented our students are. We were both truly impressed by the results. The designs were incredibly creative and vibrant, and of course the students really enjoyed learning and experimenting with this new technique.

On Wednesday I had my 1st graders, and since it was Miami celebration week, we made colorful paper fans—perfect for our warm city! We played a dice game where students had to color and draw shapes depending on the number they rolled. After that, they faced the challenge of folding the paper accordion-style. It was quite a challenge for some of them, but in the end everyone succeeded. They left the classroom feeling proud and a little cooler, holding their bright and cheerful fans.

I’m truly happy with everything we accomplished this week, and now we’re ready to continue with new projects and more creative adventures.

See you next week! 🎨