Auction Art Project - Eighth Grade Peg People Resurrection and Nativity Tableau

I recently wrote about my cool resin and wood trays, that I made with second and third grade, making a bowl from magazine's and newspapers with third and fourth grade, making a perpetual calendar with sixth grade, making a velvet pillow with kindergarten,  and my seventh graders  2 x 6" Wood Plank Nativity.  Today, I'm going to tell you all about how my eighth graders made this Easter Tableau for school's auction.

I like to scour etsy and Pinterest for ideas for our auction projects for our annual gala.  I look for things that align to my curriculum, each student can participate in independently, and something that will appeal to our gala attendees - not just the parents in that class.

I came across this beautiful "Easter Creche" on etsy.

I liked everything about this product.  The peg people were nice and large, the photographs were so welcoming, and the muted palette was just so classy looking.

I had my reservations about doing a peg people project with my eighth graders.  I attempted it the year prior, and didn't have the greatest results.  When prepping for my 2020 gala projects I saw a pretty cute Catholic peg people project on Pinterest, and thought, "We could do that!"

Uh... in hindsight... there is no way kids made those.

When I attempted our peg people nativity, I thought I was pretty prepared!  I made a handout with some examples and a place for the kids to practice.

I prepped little palettes of acrylic paint and thought I gave pretty clear step-by-step directions to my eighth graders that I only saw 1x/week for 40 minutes.

But, it was kind of a nightmare.  It was taking the class FOREVER. Every week faces were turning into blobs, "Tracing" with sharpies, or using paint pens was not helping. Fingerprints, oddly placed hairlines, and unrecognizable animal species made up our scene.

The final product doesn't look so bad, right?  Well, someone spent a lot of time over winter break repainting, tracing, and gluing halos onto little peg people.  All while trying to make it look like they didn't.

When I saw the "Easter Creche" (which... isn't an appropriate name...a creche has to do with babies. Hence the name for the Nativity scene.) Anyway, when I saw the the "Easter Creche", I really wanted to make it with my class.  But, I had to do it smarter.

Seeing the little chubby hand grabbing Jesus in the photo, I realized those peg people are pretty big.  Maybe my previous mistake was that my nativity people were just too small??  

This wasn't as easy as a fix as I thought it would be.  I found 3.5" "Angels" on Amazon, but the 3.5" "Jumbo Man Doll" was out of stock.  I didn't realize there was only one shop on all of Amazon that sold Jumbo Man Doll Peg People!  But, apparently that was the case.

Most of the figures in the resurrection tableau are women, or men wearing tunics.  The  "Angels" were fine.  I settled for smaller "Dad"or "Man" dolls from Micheals for my two centurions. They were only a half inch shorter.

This time around, I made another handout.  

I let students choose who they wanted to paint.  Everything went pretty smoothly with their sketches and deciding who would do what.

I noted on their handout that we would only be using certain colors.  I wanted to try and mimic the etsy listing with their muted hues.  I filled a set of miniature paint pots for each student. I tried making the colors more pastel than bright, but had varying degrees of luck with that.

This year I'm seeing kids in their classroom for only 30mins/week. I was elated at the end of our second class how wonderful these things were turning out.

SUUUUUUCH a difference from last year.

Of course, class make-up, personalities and skill level plays a part in every art project - but honestly- this class exceeded my expectations with how well they took to this project.

For the tomb I used the smallest from the pack of wooden trays I got from Amazon and used for two of my other projects.  It doubles as a little carrier/place to store the people and has a cave opening painted on the other side.

I was pleased with the results, and parents and gala attendees were too!

Auction Art Project - 2 x 6" Wood Nativity with Seventh Grade

I recently wrote about my cool resin and wood trays, that I made with second and third grade, making a bowl from magazine's and newspapers with third and fourth grade, making a perpetual calendar with sixth grade, and making a velvet pillow with kindergarten.  Today, I'm going to tell you about this 2 x 6" Wood Plank Nativity.

One of the most popular items at this year's auction was the 2 x 6" Nativity made by my seventh graders.

 I originally saw an item on Etsy and thought, "Hey! My kids could do that!" So, I set out to figure out how.

I first figured out how big I wanted each piece to be.  I looked at the Home Depot website to see how long wood boards were, and how much they cost.

I wanted to make the nativity out of 4 x 6 wooden rails.  They would be able to stand alone better than a size not as wide.  Those proved to be way too expensive.

I settled with the 2" x 6" boards that came in 10' pieces.

I put my drawing guide grid on ProCreate, and went ahead designing some pieces similar to the etsy listing to figure out the sizes.

This is my sketch and scribbles on ProCreate;

I fixed it and made it legible.  I gave it to my husband to procure and cut the wood.  Home Depot won't make all those cuts for you, but our friendly neighborhood Ace Hardware does.

I lugged my pieces into school and prepped my seventh graders for the task at hand!  I let them choose which nativity figure they wanted to paint.  I only have 11 seventh graders, and they've known each other forever, so it is pretty easy having a conversation about who paints what.  We had several people who wanted to paint animals or Jesus - because it seemed like the easiest!  I drew names from a cup to make some final decisions. 

I wrote up those directions and the kids got to work.  I told them they did not have to copy my designs, or the designs from etsy - but it needed to fill the entire piece of wood.

We are displaced from the art room this year. One of the most difficult parts of this was the organization and distribution of paint.  I prepped the colors in airtight plastic jars before class.  Some of the more popular colors had more than one jar. After the kids drew with pencil and traced with permanent marker, they could come up and choose one color at a time to paint.  They cleaned and dried their brushes at their seats.  I purchased a new set of Arteza Acrylic Paint in tubes, and Sargent Art Acrylic Paint bottles.  The Arteza was thicker and more opaque than the Sargent Art - but we did have to use several coats of paint with some colors - especially white.

If I were to make these again, I would probably do something to prep the wood a little better.  The paint soaked in easily and sometimes the permanent markers bled.  

I do not know where parents plan to display these, but I would also put an acrylic clear coat on top.  

When all the painting was done and the paint was dry, we retraced our pictures with permanent marker.

Parents seemed to like it, I couldn't believe this thing went for $260!  Wow, awesome.

Perpetual Calendar with Button Magnets in 6th grade for our Art Auction!

One of my schools is a Catholic School that holds a Gala and Art Auction every year.  I am tasked with making a project during art class with all the kids for every grade.

I recently wrote about my cool resin and wood trays, that I made with second and third grade, and making a bowl from magazine's and newspapers with third and fourth grade.  

For sixth grade I concentrated on illustration.  I wanted the kids to draw pictures to visually commemorate the calendar year.  I have 22 sixth graders, and chose two holidays for each.  I included all the HOB's (you know, Holy Days of Obligation) and other religious holidays, Federal Holidays, and sprinkled in some generic day's like "Birthday!" and "Vacation Starts!"  

My totally thorough brainstorm list of holidays.

This project would not of been possible without my super-awesome, ultra-hardcore button maker.  I got the 1.25" button maker several years ago from American Button Maker.  Within the last few years, the list of things you can make with a button maker has grown exponentially.  It's not just buttons anymore!  Key Chains, Badge Reels, Pony Tail Holders, and even Magnets.

The catalyst for this entire project was when I saw that I could make magnets with my button machine.  

First, I made a page explaining the project and the general directions.  This is probably not necessary in most cases, but because the class has 22 kids this year - they are divided into two rooms due to Covid restrictions.  Everything I have taught this year is written out step-by-step or on video. Because, even though there are two rooms - there is only one art time.  I have their classroom co-teacher with me each week as we divide and conquer 🙄.

The second page  I made for my students is what they were actually going to draw their designs on.  I  had their names and their "Special Days" filled out before I passed them out. They had plenty of circles in case they messed up.

The hardest thing was getting the kids to understand that their design could not go past that inner circle.  The outer circle indicates how big the paper needs to be in order to turn it into the magnet, and should be colored.

Once the designs were drawn and colored, I photocopied every one with the color copier.  I did this just in case I spaced out while making the buttons and destroyed it.  It's happened before.

I cut the buttons with my 1.25" hole punch and went to town turning them into magnets.

I didn't make a video of making the calendar magnets, but here is a fun one showing how I made some buttons and magnets of famous artists.

Once all the magnets were done, I tried to put them in chronological order.  I purchased oversized tin boxes to hold all the magnets.

I also wrote what the holiday was, when it was, and the child's name on the back with a white paint pen.

I found a magnetic calendar on Amazon that came with dry erase markers. 

I'm pretty pleased with the way it all turned out.  I wish I had more time with my students each week, because I know we could've done a better job with some of the illustrations. And, even though setting up to make 44 magnets, writing all that stuff on the backs, and putting it all together was time consuming, I actually do love making magnets and buttons.  I'll probably do something like this again!

The calendar sold at auction for $190!

Painting Winter Tree Silhouettes on Slices of Wood for Gala Auction Class Art Project

 I made a video to teach my second graders how to paint a winter tree silhouette on  Wood Slices I got off of Amazon. 

  

The genesis of this project came from my ridiculous need to make our group art project for the annual Gala Auction something curriculum appropriate.  Even in weird Covid times I thought it would be a good idea to bring acrylic paint into the second grade classroom and teach the kids about proper painting skills while also teaching them about analogous colors and silhouettes!  What could possibly go wrong?

The end results weren't anything like my expectations on the video, but they still turned out cute.

I have another whole blog post about how I put the Wood Slices in the bottom of some cheap wooden trays and covered them in EnvirotexLite Pour on Resin in case you wanted to know the WHOLE process.

Here's a quick time-lapse of when I poured the resin on the paintings.

Waaaaaay more exciting than the video of me filling the Paint Pots I used for this lesson.

Update 4/11/21.... Uh, for being such a headache, this project made the most at the school auction!

Third Grade Auction Art Project- Wood & Resin Tray with Woodland Animals

I recently shared a post about my third graders painting woodland animals slices of wood that I was going to use for our Auction Art Project for our school's annual Gala.

If you've been waiting for an update - here it is!  

If you prefer your updates in video form...Here it is!

Even before I gave the kids the slices of wood to paint on, I wanted to make sure they would fit in the bottom of the tray.  Once they were painted I laid them back in there to double check.  Wait a minute, I have 15 third graders... uh oh.

Luckily the wooden trays I purchased on Amazon came with multiple sizes, and I must of just selected the wrong one.  After some finagling... they fit!

I used some Minwax 66060000 Gel Stain , quart, Walnut to stain my cheap trays. I knew from the Amazon reviews that they were not going to stain too well, but I wanted them to look a little rustic.

Anyplace where there was glue, the stain would not cover and the cheap wood had a lot of striations that the stain could not penetrate.  Perhaps some prep before staining, like sanding the crevasses or some sort of base coat would be smart.
 

Once the stain dried, I coated the trays in generic Mod-Podge.  Also known as Sargent Art Lamination Glue I tried to use the Mod-Podge, but couldn't get the jar open.  The Sargent Art Lamination Glue doesn't smell as bad.

I also coated the tops of my students' paintings with the clear coat.  You have to make sure you coat the entire surface area of the clear coat, or once you apply the resin it may become discolored. 

I used the Sargent Art Lamination Glue to secure the wood slices to the inside of the tray.  This wasn't a good idea.  Even though I had made sure the wood slices fit before I stained and clear-coated the pieces, I was having a heck of a time getting everything to fit once again.  I kept having to peel pieces up, push them down, pry pieces of bark off... it was a mess and it ruined my manicure.  Oh yeah, and it made the bottom of my tray very bumpy and gluey textured.

The next time I make a wood and resin tray, I will make sure all the Sargent Art Laminating Glue is dry, put the pieces in, and lift them up one at a time and glue them with E6000 or something.

Once everything was secure and dry (the next day) I decided to try my hand at applying a resin coat.  I used EnvirotexLite Pour on Resin This was super easy to use.  I had it in my head that I would have to be mixing and stirring powders together - but it was all liquid.

I poured equal parts of the resin and hardener into party cups.  Mix them into one cup and stir and scrape for 2 minutes. Pour to the other cup - stir for one minute. 

I poured the first coat onto my tray and concentrated on filling the spaces between the wood slices.   Every five minutes or so I would go check on it and pop the air bubbles.  It said in the directions that your breath would pop them - but I used the end of a paintbrush.

I left the tray on my work table to harden.  I was paranoid someone was going to knock it over, put something on it, or somehow let sawdust loose and ruin the whole thing… but it was fine.

24 hours later I mixed and stirred and mix and stirred and applied a second layer of resin.

I really wanted the bottom of the tray to be level and thought I could get away with two coats - but no such luck.

24 hours after that… I applied my third layer.

I knew this had to be the last layer so I really worked on making sure the resin was level.  Once I filled in all the pits and tried to get it as level as possible, I had to let it cure for 72 hours.

FINALLY, it was done. 

Update 4/11/21

Paint a Woodland Animal on a Slice of Wood!

 Here is a video I made for my third graders.  I teach them how to paint a cute little woodland animal on a small slice of wood.

We are using these slices of wood for our annual class auction project for the school gala.  I am going to put these slices of wood at the bottom of a wooden tray and cover with resin. 🤞

I made two "How to Draw" pages of woodland animals that we are using for this lesson.

The first is "Draw Woodland Animals" like portraits.

The second is "Draw Sleeping Woodland Animals".

Here are the Wood Slices I got.  I actually purchased three different packs of three different kinds, and that link takes you to the best ones. 👍