Art Around the World! Check out these cuties and their Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi!

I teach an after school class at my art studio called Art Around the World.  Our first stop was Egypt.

These K-2s made their own Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus just like my fourth graders did last year!  They were so cute, I had to get a group shot.

Spooooky Halloween Coffins - A Ukulele Box project with free brainstorming packet download

I hosted a special Sunday afternoon art project just before Halloween at my studio, No Corner Suns.  I had a fun group of K-2nd grade come in to make some Spooooooky Halloween Art.

I have an unlimited supply of ukulele boxes thanks to my music store owner husband,  I used them at my intermediate school last year to make Ancient Egyptian Sarchophagi, and when I asked my friend what else I could do with them she said "coffins!" and I said "eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww." Thinking of it as an old dusty archaeological find seemed way less creepy than an actual coffin.

We had 1.5 hours for this project.  I put together a brainstorming packet and we went to work. Students started by painting the outside of the boxes, then the insides black.

At a clean table, we drew something monstrous for the inside of our coffin.  We cut and attached ghosts, wolves, and skeletons!


Finally, we drew and traced the outside.


The paint was still wet when the kids left!  But they had fun and they looked great!


What else can we make from these ukulele boxes??

Easy & inexpensive projects that bring art to the streets: Make Music Day guitars, drums, & maracas.

June 21st was Make Music Day.  My husband's music store hosted an outdoor event consisting of a group ukulele class, ukulele circle, and guitar play along all for free.  No Corner Sun's Art Studio was on hand for the kiddos to help make music too!

I have been bringing art class to the community in an effort to promote my private classes.  This event was a lot of fun and very successful!  Here are some pictures from the event:




We made drums!

Materials:
coffee cans, protein shake canisters, and baby formula cans
thin vinyl cut into circles (about 2" more than the opening of the canister)
rubber bands
Sharpie Markers
scrap paper
glue
scissors
14" dowel rods
corks
7" square pieces of fabric
feathers
duck tape

Believe it or not, the only thing I had to purchase were the dowel rods for the drum sticks.  Everything else I had... ugh.
I made sure all my canisters were clean.  If they had a label I could peel off, I did.  If the label did not come off, I covered the canister with a decorative paper. I prepared enough supplies to make 20 drums!  And we made them all.
I screwed a hole into the end of the corks, and stuck the dowel rod into the end.  The children covered the corks with fabric, and used rubber bands to fasten them.  Feathers were added for fun!

We made box ukuleles!

 
Materials:
cereal, cracker, cookie, boxes
wrapping paper cardboard tubes
decorative paper
x-acto knife
rubber bands
decorations

This one, I did most of the preparation ahead of time.  I covered the boxes in decorative paper. I cut all the holes in the center of the boxes, and slits at the top to hold the "neck".  The kids only had to decorate and add the rubber bands for it to make a sound.

And we made more maracas. Great day!

Ancient Egyptian Ukulele Boxes Redux

Fourth grade recently finished up an Ancient Egyptian Art unit by designing a sarcophagus out of a ukulele box.

I had these beauties on my big bulletin board in the main hall, and they kept getting knocked off.  I relocated right outside the art room, up high!  I was able to hang more up, and I just wanted to show them off again, so I thought it was worth a re-post.

Fourth Grade Ukulele box sarcophagi!

My husband owns a music store that is Chicagoland's ukulele headquarters!  I couldn't help but be intrigued by the interesting shape of the ukulele boxes I kept seeing piled up in the alley.  Those could be art!

He started saving them for me and I started dragging them to school.  I had just enough for an entire grade level to do a ukulele box project... but what?  I put the question out to the Art Teacher's group on Facebook, but I wasn't too thrilled with the answers.  So, I went with my first instinct and turned them into Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagi.

We began with a slideshow I downloaded. from another website.  We learned about hieroglyphics and talked a bit about the history of Ancient Egypt.  We even took a virtual tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Ancient Egypt section through Google Art Project.

Next, we looked at more photos of sarcophagi and completed my sarcophagus worksheet.  Students were excited about drawing hieroglyphics, but didn't want to copy the Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi examples.  I told them they didn't have to!  They could make their sarcophagus look anyway they wanted as long as they created balance, had pattern, and used hieroglyphics somewhere.  They had a great time making Minecraft, princess, and superhero themed sarcophagi.

We wrapped our ukulele boxes in gold paper and painted our sarcophagus on tag board.

An Axl Rose sarcophagus on the left, and a traditional King Tut on the right.

I used thumbtacks through the back to hang them in our hallway.

Girl and Boy Hot Dog Coloring Page

Part two:  More hot dogs with ukuleles to color.  This is not something I used at school, but made for my husband's music store and annual customer appreciation hot dog party!  By the way, this year's party is tomorrow!

Tiki Hot Dog Coloring Page

Everyone loves a hot dog coloring page.  Especially if it's a tiki hot dog with a ukulele.  I didn't make this for school, I actually made it for my husband's awesome music store and their annual HOT DOG PARTY!