Picture
​Mrs. Benbow's 5th Grade Art Gallery
2020-2021

SYMBOLIC SCULPTURES

My students reviewed the idea of using a symbol to represent a character trait.  I explained to the students they would be creating a symbolic sculpture representing one of their own character traits using air dry clay.  I demonstrated how to knead the clay and score it with a fork to attach clay pieces to one another.  Once their sculptures were dry several days later, the students painted them with acrylic paint using fine tipped brushes.  The following day the students used a low temp glue gun to add embellishments to their sculptures.  After school I sprayed a coat of gloss fixative to add shine and help all embellishments stay in place.  The students picked colored tagboard to mount their sculpture for display.  The final step for the students was to complete an artist statement.  Each student gave their sculpture a title and provided an explanation as to why they chose to create the symbol they did and how it directly tied in with one of their own character traits. 

SYMBOLIC PORTRAIT PROJECT

After reading the novel Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis, students wrote their own metaphor or simile which connected one of Bud’s many unique character traits to a symbol. Students then painted a vignette using warm or cool watercolors and a bristle brush. An overlay of transparency paper captured their traced symbol which was later enhanced with oil pastels. Beside their symbol students traced their simile or metaphor in a font style they selected. They finished the project by writing their own artist statement. All projects were hung on the classroom art gallery wall.

Mrs. Benbow's Art Gallery  2019-2020

Welcome to our class page!
Our class finished reading the book Wonder, by R.J. Palacio.  Each student chose a character from the story and a symbol to represent the character.  In addition, they chose a quote from the book which provided an example of that character's trait.  The students worked with watercolors to create a vignette, transparency paper to trace the symbol, and sand paper to rough the surface for the oil pastels to stick.  To finish, the students typed their quote with a font style of their choice before placing the quote under the transparency paper to trace.  This was a project that took several days to complete and the results were incredible! 

Symbolic Portrait Lesson...Learn more here.