End of the Year Poetry and Art Books

17 July 2012
Okay - so I'm a little late in posting this ... I guess I've been enjoying the start of summer too much.  ;)

Those of you who follow regularly know how much I love doing art projects with my students.  If you click on the "Friday Art Feature" button on the right column, you can see all the fabulous art we have completed this year.  We've completed all our art on 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper this year, with one goal in mind - compiling them into a fabulous art book at the end of the year.

Do you remember these crate stools I made last summer for my classroom?  I bought the crates at Staples, and legal-size hanging files fit perfectly in them.  I use one to store some phys ed supplies, but the other two are full of student files - one for their portfolios, and one for their art projects.  By the end of the year, we had quite an impressive collection in our art folders!  But that wasn't all - because we had "published" all of our poetry in such a visual way, they became art pieces, as well.

During the last two days of school, students organized their art and poetry pieces together to make their very own books.  Each book had between 20 and 30 pages.  I had the students create their own covers for the book (we used cardstock so they would have a little more strength).  They were free to create anything on the covers of their books.  We laminated the covers, and all the art pieces had already been laminated over the year.  I pulled out my binding machine ... and voila - an impressive book the students could be proud of, and the parents would appreciate so much more than a bag full of papers and supplies brought home at the end of the year.



We tried to arrange the poetry and art in a way that "fit" for the books.  For example, our "If I Was In Charge of the World" poems went with our "Recycled Earth" pictures.



I really liked how some of our art and poetry just naturally fit together - I think I'm going to do a lot more of that next year.  Perhaps, each time we finish an art project, we'll do a poem to fit the theme of the art.

Happy Tuesday!!!

26 comments

  1. Oh, I love this! I have already pinned so many or Friday Art Features, but what a great idea to hold on to them all year and create a book. I know you said you used 8x11 paper for everything, but was it all the same exact kind of paper or did it vary in thickness? Just curious. Thanks for sharing this great idea. I can't wait to try out some of your projects this upcoming year.

    Amanda
    The Teaching Thief

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    1. Thanks, Amanda! Most of it was plain old white paper, but I did use a thicker cardstock for our painting projects.

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  2. I love all of the art that you do with your students :)

    Elizabeth
    Fun in Room 4B

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  3. I love this! We lost our art teacher this year due to budget cuts. I think incorporating art with writing will give me a focus. Thanks for sharing!

    Krazy Town

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    1. Thanks, Suzanne! I'm really going to try to incorporate a writing piece with each art project this year!

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  4. I love the idea of a Friday Art feature. I try to add some sort of art/drawing activity with a lot of the poetry & writing that we do. Did you do this with your 6th graders as well?

    Justin Greene
    http://inthegreeneroom.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thanks, Justin! I'm really going to try to incorporate a writing piece with each project we do. With our poetry, I had them draw some sort of picture in the white space, and we mounted the poems on scrapbook paper.

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  5. I love your ideas! I am thinking of all kinds of things to do with these ideas!! LOL still procrastinating on Brock project. :) I did discover a cool Writing resource...The Write Beginning by Lisa Donohue. Have you read it?

    Jen B
    jen.bellinger@hotmail.com

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    1. Thanks, Jen! I don't think I've read that book - I did just get "Writing Sense" - same authors as the reading strategy book "Making Sense". I haven't read it yet, though. I'll have to check out The Write Beginning ... I do have a weakness for buying books. ;)

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  6. Wow...this is fabulous Jen. I am going to say it...wait for it...wait....I LOVE IT! :) The Earth in particular is really eye catching and such a great idea for Earth Day. I like how you mixed the two things together. Really smart.

    ~Steph
    Teaching in Room 6

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    1. Thanks, Steph! I didn't really have plans to match the art and the poetry - as we were going through their portfolios, some pieces just seemed a natural fit!

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  7. I love your blog! I am a fellow Canadian blogger, who is just getting started with blogging! Come and check out my new blog!

    http://mstteacher.blogspot.ca/

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    1. Thank-you! Good luck with the blogging journey - we definitely need more Canadian blogs!

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  8. Greetings! I just wanted to let you know that I am your latest follower and (if you don't mind) added you to my blog list! I love your site and all the ideas you generate! You are truly amazing!
    Have a great day!
    John (from Created by MrHughes and "Share the Wealth" Saturdays).

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  9. WoW - cool new look! How's your summertime going? Did you see that Barb at Grade ONEderful had a linky party this week for Drama? Your drama circles would be PERFECT if you do linkies (is that a word?) and have a chance to go link up:

    Drama Queen

    Barbara

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  10. HI! I just found your blog through Pinterest and I love all the amazing things you have done! I am your newest follower! I look forward to reading your blog!

    Check my new blog out if you have a chance!

    Ashley
    Inspire, Dream, & Create! 

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  11. Amazing! I am sure your students were so proud of their projects. I love your new blog design too!

    Kristi
    Learning's a Hoot

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  12. I am your newest follower, I found you on TT. I teach 4th and am so excited to connect with other upper grade teachers! I am going to go back and read some of your older post!
    

Layla
    Fancy Free in Fourth

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  13. LOVE LOVE LOVE your new blog design!!! So cute!!!! Great job!! I also am IN LOVE with those poetry books... I just adore the kids-made covers!! I am going to use your idea for something, I just haven't thought of what yet... :) haha

    Bridget
    Little Lovely Leaders

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  14. Great site! I am your newest follower. I have a new blog as well Please visit Visit P.J. Jots!

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  15. Wow! I love the new blog design and I LOVE the recycled Earth art project idea!

    We did art projects in the classroom last year to match all of the students' poems, but we glued them all into Bare Books (maybe cheaper for you than laminating and binding?)They're fancy, hardcover books that are the size of normal pages. Check them out here: http://www.barebooks.com/books.htm

    We have art as a special at my school, so luckily I don't have to teach it- but I might try to collaborate with the art teacher for some poetry/art projects next year. I do NOT like leading art projects, so maybe I'll get better quality if I just write the poetry lessons around the art projects. Plus, it makes me SO sad to see the kids throw out their artwork from art class because it's too big to bring on the bus!

    Thanks for the ideas!
    -Kayla

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  16. I love this!! I use poetry in my classroom, including the "If I Could Change the World" poem. I would love to share ideas! Please check out my blog. And let me know your email if you are interested in sharing ideas!!!

    Brianne

    From Behind the Lavender Door

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  17. So glad I came across this idea for their artwork! I've been trying to come up with a thoughtful way to store their artwork so that they don't all just throw it out (I had troubles with this last year with some of my students). Definitely going to try this for this year!

    Christine
    Confessions of a Modern Day [ex] Substitute Teacher

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  18. I LOVE the idea of art and writing going together. This was my first year back in fourth grade after 16 in third and I did a little, but want to incorporate so much more next year. Do you have a list of poems that you use with the artwork, and/or artwork ideas that were in your book? I would love to pick your brain. :) mmurray@conejousd.org Thanks so much for more inspiration.~Malena Murray

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