Third Grade

Did you know sugar skulls and dancing skeletons are part of a holiday celebration? Third graders explored Día de los Muertos, a vibrant Mexican tradition that honors loved ones who have passed away.

Using metal tooling, Sharpies, and gems, students created embossed artwork inspired by the colorful symbols of the holiday. They learned how families celebrate with joyful gatherings, remembering those they've lost through music, food, and decorations like whimsical skeletons and brightly adorned sugar skulls. 

Their finished pieces reflect both the beauty and the meaning of this special celebration.

Third graders had a sweet time learning about the artist Wayne Thiebaud, who loved to paint yummy treats like cakes, pies, and ice cream. They looked closely at how he used light and dark colors to make his artwork look real and full of depth.

To create their own ice cream art, students mixed paint to make tints (lighter colors) by adding white. They used oil pastels to add color and blended with their fingers to make the scoops look smooth and soft. The cone came from a printed outline, and the rest was all their creativity!

This fun project helped students learn about color value while creating a tasty-looking masterpiece.

Third grade students explored the exciting world of Pop Art—a style of art that became popular in the 1950s and 60s. Artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used bright colors, bold lines, and everyday objects (like soup cans, signs, and comic books) to create fun and surprising artwork.

Inspired by this movement, students focused on crayons as their everyday object. They used oil pastels to draw and color their crayons in bold, eye-catching ways—just like pop artists did. Along the way, they practiced blending, shading, and adding contrast to make their work really pop!

This project helped students see how even simple objects can become exciting and creative works of art.

In this bright and bold project, third grade students continued exploring Pop Art by learning about famous artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. They looked at how these artists used everyday words and images in fun, colorful ways.

Students created their own pop art pieces using layered paper, bold cutouts, and vibrant colors. They experimented with design, layout, and contrast—just like the pop artists did—to make their artwork stand out.

This project was all about being playful with color, shape, and style while learning how pop art brings ordinary things to life in extraordinary ways.

In a fun and engaging art lesson, third graders joined me in a guided drawing activity to create adorable bears on white drawing paper using pencils. To add depth and texture to the bear's fur, they skillfully incorporated a multitude of short, closely spaced lines using black markers, carefully filling the entire head area in neat rows starting from the top.

Building upon their math skills, students applied their creativity to design patterns for the bears' sweaters. With vibrant and colorful markers, they enthusiastically colored in their patterns, adding a playful and lively touch to their artwork. Through this multi-faceted activity, students not only honed their drawing techniques but also integrated mathematical concepts into their artistic expressions, resulting in charming and vibrant creations.

In this hands-on project, third graders learned how to create functional pottery using the slab building technique and then shaping the clay into cylinders. To join the pieces, students used the slip and score method—scratching and adding watery clay to help parts stick together.

This project introduced students to handbuilding, a way of making pottery using their hands and simple tools instead of a pottery wheel. Once their pieces were formed, students added colorful glaze to finish their unique creations.