In the last few art classes, before summer break, my special ed students made these lovely creations!

These snails were a cinch to make! We used model magic air dry modeling clay, liquid tempera paint, pipe cleaners, and large googley eyes!

It was a 2 day process since the clay needs more than 24 hours to dry before painting.

I demonstrated how to roll out the clay like a snake, then rolled one end on top of itself to create a large spiral for the shell.

We rolled out another “snake” for the body with another piece. We then curled up one end of the body creating a hook shape for the head, and wrapped it around a pipe cleaner that was made into two spirals on either end for the eyes. Students watched me demonstrate first and then we did it together as I demonstrated again.

The snail shell (large spiral) was then attached, by just pressing onto the body.

I love model magic since it’s so soft to work with AND STICKY! which adheres instantly to itself. Great for so many art lessons! —-A little pricey to to buy in large quantities if you ask me, but when you need small amounts per student or for small classes like this, it’s perfect!

I let them dry on tinfoil sheets on a paper plate, until the following class when they painted them. Kids could pick whatever colors they wanted. For a final touch, I hot glued the eyes on after they painted them!

These flowers came from Pinterest. I’ve seen many varieties on this easy paper strip flower and thought we’d give it a try! All it took was pre-cut strips of paper, punched out construction paper circles for the centers, and glue sticks. I thought it was a great lesson to strengthen students fine motor skills. They did a fantastic job! I wish I had more photos of kids art and of kids working on them- but at least there’s 1!

These butterfly beauties were all created with just cut up tissue paper and watered down white school glue!

I did a similar lesson with students using this method on fall pumpkins (these can be viewed here (then scroll down to see them) which I LOVE. I just love how the colors all bleed into one another. The centers were done with just smaller strips of black tissue.

Students each received a 9×12″ 80# sheet of drawing paper with a pre-drawn butterfly in black sharpie.

They used pre-cut warm colors and did the gluing themselves, overlapping colors as they glued.

On a separate sheet of 9×12″ they used pre-cut cool colors (just various blues really) to glue on the entire paper for the sky background while overlapping shades of blue.

It was okay to go beyond the black outline since they would be cut out later. Same with the blue background– they could go beyond the papers edges, since the edges would be trimmed off later as well.

*** …I DID cut out the butterfly for students and attached to the blue background to save a step (and save time!) for one special ed class, but for my other special education classes in my other school, we had more time, so students cut them out and glued them themselves. However…. I completely forgot to take photos of them before they snatched them up and took them home!!

For our FINAL art class before the break- they created a quick construction paper ice cream cone!

I had pre-drawn ice cream scoops on various colored papers as well as pre-drawn cones that kids cut out themselves, and assembled together. They added sprinkles and texture for the cones with crayons.

They also decorated their own cute white cotton baseball caps! I got these at Michaels art supply store. They used fabric markers for decorating whatever they wanted!

Thanks so much for visiting today! 🙂 

Be sure to check back sometime tomorrow to see 1st-2nd grade final art lessons of the year as well as 5th graders AH–MAAA-ZING Grid drawings!! 

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYBODY !!!! Especially to you art teacher friends out there!!! Woo-Hoo!!!