Georgia Elementary Art Studio

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!