First Grade STEAM time in the art room:  

learning about the moon and reflection!

During the first 6 weeks of school the first graders learned about reflective surfaces and the moon during STEM time.  Now they are spending one lesson a week in the art room focused on STEAM and we are looking at the moon and reflection in different ways.

Our first project was to make our own moons by learning about texture.  We read the book IF You Decide to go to the Moon by Faith MCNulty and illustrated by Steven Kellogg.  

The illustrations are paintings and Steven Kellogg made great contrasts between the warm and cool colors of Earth (showing life) and the monotone grays and rough textures of the moon (showing a lack of life).  We talked about how a painting can show texture, and how an illustrator can use colors to communicate ideas.

To make our own moons we used celluclay and paper bowls as molds.  To create the texture of moon rocks and moon sand, we used aquarium rocks and aquarium sand.  The kids enjoyed exploring these new textures and materials!

The first graders learned that we can see the moon because the sun reflects off of the moon's surface.  They explored different reflective materials in STEM.  We looked at how mirrors reflect and how you can play with an image when you change the angles of the reflections.

 After exploring our mirror designs, we made small kaleidoscopes with mirror paper.  We had a lot of fun assembling our kaleidoscopes!

  

4th Graders create art with Georgia Mud and dirt!

After checking out the 4th grade STEM lessons on soils and erosion, I was inspired to learn if artists ever use dirt and mud in their art.  I was curious to see if we could be inspired to turn STEM lab materials into our own art creations.

After a short search I discovered Japanese artist Yusuke Asai.  He was a ceramic artist who found studying at the university to be too expensive, so he taught himself how to paint and spent time at zoos, museums, and other public places to research his art and find inspiration.
He chose dirt as his medium because he can find it anywhere and it brings him closer to the place where he is creating.  He also feels it is important that dirt is a living medium where seeds grow, insects live and it is a part of the ever changing natural world.

The following images are of his mural installation called Yamatane at the Rice University Gallery in Houston, Texas.  For this mural the geology students at Rice collected 27 different shades of soil for Yusuke to use in the mural!

Here at GEMS I found one shade of Georgia dirt.  The 4th graders' project focused more on texture than shade to create contrasts in our shapes and lines. 

Dirt was sifted into 3 sizes- the smallest we added water to and painted with:

 next we used the sand mixed with glue and water to create lines:

 then we created textures and shapes with the pebbles and stones.