Halloween Idea #3: Measuring, Art, and Halloween

Halloween Idea #3:  Halloween Art

Even when I do art with my students, I try to make sure that I there is an educational component to it. This activity requires careful measurement.

Students will need an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of blank computer paper.  With a ruler, students will measure and mark one inch intervals down both sides of the paper, then they will lightly draw lines across the paper at these one inch intervals.  This will give them straight lines to work with, insuring that there rows are consistent.

I always start by brainstorming Halloween symbols with my class.
Here's a list for you:  Witch's hat, witch's boots, witch's broom, witch's face, witch's cauldron, spider, spider's web, black cat, frankenstein, other monsters, goblins, ghosts, full moon, moon crescent, candy, candy corns, trick or treating bag, skulls, bones, vampires, vampire's fangs, werewolves, pumpkin, Jack-o-Lanterns, haunted house, eye balls, snakes, etc.

Once the students have a list of symbols to work with they need to decide what they will use for each of the letters of  H A L L O W E E N.  For the H, sometimes students use witch's brooms, others use bones, etc.  For the A, the candy corn and the witch's hat are popular.  What you really want is each student's creativity.  Before you let them work on their actual art paper, have them design each letter so they know exactly what they are doing.  You may even want them to color each letter before they begin, because it is important that every H looks the same, every A looks the same, etc.

When they begin to work on their actual piece of art, they should use the lines to make sure that every letter is the same height.  They will draw their symbols for each letter going across their paper from left to right (all the way to the right edge).  They begin the second row wherever they left off at the end of the first row.  They don't start over at the beginning of the word.  Some students will even put half a letter at the end of the first line, and the other half of the letter at the beginning of the second line - (this is more advanced thinking.)

I have my students make all of their pencil letters first, from left to right and top to bottom.  Once the page is filled in, I have them color all of the H's the same, then go back and color all of the A's the same, and so on.  These come out great and make a very attractive bulletin board.

Here are some samples mounted for my bulletin board: