November 28, 2011

Winter Mural: K - 2nd

The past few years, I've tried to do murals with my students...but mainly when it serves my purpose.  This usually being those odd weeks during holidays that would throw the flow of my projects way off because the weeks are only 2 or 3 days long.  The inspiration for this piece comes from Pinterest...and I've posted it & the links below.  I'm still thinking about having some classes create a few more pieces for it, but we'll have to see.  

The boarder was created for a print making lesson by Kindergarten using toilet paper rolls.
The sky is a watercolor lesson created by 2nd graders after studying Van Gogh
The houses are greeting card envelopes & collage(I had received a large box of envelopes last year, but wasn't sure what to do with them...I think this worked out well!)  The two story one is two envelopes.  That was created by my practicum students(the three people in the windows are dead on them!!)

I had one another Kindergarten class do tints to create the snowy landscape.  The cars/trucks and trees were created by a second grade class.

Like I said...I really would love to add to this, but we'll have to see if I can find the time before Christmas break.

This is the inspiration piece I found on Pinterest!

It originally comes from Gallery 2404.


  1. I saw (and liked) that Pinterest mural post, too. Your students' is just as terrific. I like the way you organized your "work force" having different grades be responsible for different aspects of the winter landscape!!

  2. It's beautiful! My problem with mural projects is what to do when kids want to take their work home. Do you cut it apart? or what? And what do you do with the mural when you take it down if you don't hand back individual elements? I always struggle with this question when doing mural projects.

  3. Wow beautiful! But I have the same problem as Phyl with murals. What to do when kids want to take it home?

  4. This has never been a problem(but I do understand how it can me). I let the kids know first thing that the project they are working on will be part of a larger work...and that they will not be getting it back. I also let them know it will be up for a month or so and that their parents can come in and look at it & that it will be on my blog. This usually helps the situation.

  5. OK, but then, after the month or so, what do YOU do with it? I hate discarding student artwork, especially something as precious as this piece, but storing all the big stuff is a challenge after a while.

    As a matter of fact, I wondered what you did w/your Chihuly assemblages - I'm planning something this winter and would love to know what you did w/them after they had been displayed a while.

  6. Phyl, my students are in the process of making a winter mural, similar to one we did last year, and let me tell you, by the time the mural comes down, the kids have picked, touched and bothered it so much while it was in the hallway, that there isn't much you can do with it, other than throw it away. This is also the time that I talk to my students about how art is not always permanent, and that there are some artists that destroy their artwork after it is photographed.

  7. We are starting a cooperative circle painting project tomorrow and will face the same dilemma. Kids will be working on sections (4 kids to a section). I'm going to have them put their 4 names on the back of their original section and tell them that I'll be cutting it into 4ths when it comes off the wall and that each will get a portion. I've done this before and haven't had any complaints. We'll see how it goes this time:)

  8. Ironically, I'm starting a mural project tomorrow too!