Each August, third grade artists at Apple Glen Elementary in Bentonville, Arkansas, start the school year planning, creating, and exhibiting a clay relief mural. These mural projects have helped students to acquire not only art knowledge and techniques, but an even more important kind of knowledge: what it means to plan and successfully complete a…

Reports the results of a two-year case study of 144 third and fourth graders' art materials preferences. Results indicate that the students preferred different media for different reasons, with favorites being clay, craypas, felt-tipped pens, and cardboard or wood. Maintains that art educators should take into account students' perceptions about…

Describes an art activity that (1) began with students interpreting slides of artworks by Chicago (Illinois) artists and (2) led to students creating artworks directly on slides. Explains that students included descriptions and meanings of their works. (CMK)

Describes an art lesson in which third-grade students create mounted trophy fish. Explains how the students created the three-dimensional fish, the board on which to mount the fish, and the small paper plaque with information about the trophy fish. (CMK)

Presents an activity that connects art, science, and nature in which elementary school students learn about deciduous trees. Explains that students create a torn-tissue collage, using fall colors for a background and drawing a silhouette of a tree without leaves on top of the background with black crayon. (CMK)

Presents a second and third grade art activity called "Weaving in the Round" that teaches the students about weaving. Describes how the children created their artwork and includes lists of materials and learning objectives. (CMK)

Describes a project that focuses on the concept of heroes. Explains that heroes include males and females, instead of differentiating between heroes and heroines. States that the students locate a picture of a person they see as a hero and recreate the human figure through cut-paper collage. (CMK)

Describes a second and third grade art activity in which students used celery cores to create pictures in the style of Georgia O'Keefe. Explains that the students learned about O'Keefe's artwork and describes how the students created their prints. (CMK)

Describes a lesson for third-grade students that begins with an examination of bird prints done by John James Audubon and moves into the students creating their own torn paper birds. Introduces the students to the beauty of birds and focuses on the environmental issues that face birds and their habitats. (CMK)

Believes that curriculum integration is the key to successful teaching for the future. Describes an Action Research Project where four teachers made connections across the disciplines of science, music, and art as part of a grant project called "Connecting the Curriculum." Summarizes the art project in which the students created flip…

Describes an art lesson for third-grade students in which the teacher invited various members of the community to act as drawing models for the students while simultaneously providing the third-graders with role models. Explains that the models were intended to provide students with visual interest for drawing and an intrinsic social value. (CMK)

Presents two children's literature-inspired art projects. The first project, for second grade students, uses the book "In the Tall, Tall Grass" and focuses on the art concept of depth. The second project, for third graders, uses the book "If the Dinosaurs Came Back" to teach color contrast and overlapping. (CMK)

Describes an activity for third-grade students in which they learn about early American landscape painters, specifically Frederick Church, Thomas Moran, and Albert Bierstadt. Students create natural landscapes, using the basic elements of landscape compositions. Discusses the process. (CMK)

How third, fifth, and sixth graders made sculptures from polystyrene strips is described. Specific instructions for introducing the lesson are provided. (RM)

Describes an art activity for use in a unit on agriculture in which third grade students create packing crate labels. Students compare examples of packing crate labels, identifying the name, image, product description, and visual elements such as color and balance. Discusses the process of creating the labels. (CMK)