The Joy of Teaching

State testing is stressful for students and teachers alike. Plan some creative art lessons to help students wind down from the demanding test schedule. Listed below are two lesson ideas for grades 1–6 to help your students relax and tap into their creativity after testing.

Self-Portraits

Help your students relax with a mini lesson on Vincent van Gogh. Using the elements of texture, line, shape, and color, students draw and color a self-portrait and glue it to a tissue paper background.

Begin the lesson by introducing students to the artist Vincent van Gogh. Pair the introduction with a read-aloud book such as Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story about Vincent van Gogh by Laurence Anholt. Reading aloud to students helps them relax their minds and their bodies, and allows you transition into your next lesson.

Supplies needed:

• Tag board or thick paper: two 12″ x 14″
• Pencil
• Black fine tip marking pen
• Hand mirror (or class picture)
• Paintbrush (or colored pencils)
• Tempera paint (optional)
• Foam egg carton
• Torn bits of colored tissue paper
• White glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Students draw a portrait of themselves from the shoulders up using a mirror or picture. Make sure their heads touch the top of the paper and their shoulders go all the way to the bottom of the paper.
2. Using a paintbrush or colored pencils, students color in the picture.
3. Students trace over portrait lines with a black marking pen.
4. Using watered-down glue, students cover the second sheet of paper with torn tissue paper bits.
5. When the tissue paper is dry, students glue their self-portrait onto the background.

Download your free Vincent Van Gogh art lesson here. For more art lessons, check out How to Teach Art to Children.

Mother’s Day Cards

Get a head start on your Mother’s Day cards with this fun butterfly pop-up note. Simple and easy to put together, this project is perfect for little fingers. After finishing their card, have students create their own acrostic poem for “Mom.” Check out books from your school library on butterflies and insects so early finishers can quietly read when they are done.

Download your printable from How to Make Greeting Cards with Children.

Art can improve students’ motivation and concentration and is an excellent addition to your curriculum during testing week. Give your students something to look forward to after testing and rejuvenate them for the next day!

For more art lesson ideas and inspirations, read The Case for Art in Schools and Ways to Integrate Art into Your Lessons.

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Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.

The egg-drop science experiment has always been a go-to project for all ages, whether in the classroom or just for fun. This version of the science experiment involves a new challenge to make the students think more creatively: Challenge your class to drop an egg using only recyclable materials to protect it.

In your science project, students may not use plastic or synthetic materials in their designs. That’s right: no tape, styrofoam, straws, or balloons to keep the eggs safe. This twist requires more creativity, encourages recycling, and reinforces environmental awareness.

How does it work?

The goal of this experiment is to drop your egg from a two-story window (or the top of a ladder) and have it survive the fall with no cracks or breaks. How do you prevent damage? Impulse.

Impulse is a change in momentum and in physics and is expressed as: impulse equals force multiplied by impact time.

To reduce your impulse and chances of the egg breaking, aim to reduce either your impact time or force. Or in third- or fourth-grade terms: Make the egg contraption so it lands softly on the ground or rolls/bounces when it hits the ground.

Ways to reduce impulse:

• Cushioning
• Parachutes
• Bounce effect

Examples of designs using recyclable materials

So how do you find a design that works and uses no plastic? During a high school version of this experiment, these different designs produced the same result:

• One student simply stuck her egg in the center of a Charmin ultra strong toilet paper roll and tossed it out the window.
• A second pair of students fashioned a parachute from a used paper shopping bag and tied it to an egg cradle. The cradle was a layer of paper surrounding the egg and tied at the top. Underneath that was a layer of marshmallows, contained by another layer of paper and also tied at the top.
• A third student packed a paper take-out box with marshmallows and slipped her egg into the center.
• Another student designed a paper cone attached to a paper parachute with thin string, with the egg sitting in the middle of the paper-padded cone.

These designs are all made of recyclable material and can safely deliver an egg to the ground. Though the physics behind the matter can be fairly complex, it’s easy to simplify it to fit your class’s age. Everybody has dropped an egg out of a window, but challenge your class to do it using recyclable materials!

Reinforce students’ understanding with a reading selection on energy storage and transfer: Download your free reading comprehension activity here! (From Evan-Moor’s Read and Understand Science Grades 4-6.)

Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.