All year long I have been collecting these tubes:

As one student so kindly put it, “you sure use a lot of toilet paper!” In fact, these tubes were saved and given to me by one of our custodians. The art teacher who was here before me established a system where teachers drop off recycled materials in a little blue bin outside the art room door. I have cabinets full of egg cartons, cardboard, yogurt cups, and all kinds of useful knick-knacks. (Art teachers are allowed to be hoarders!)

This project began with sketchbooks where students worked out their ideas by sketching some designs.

Then, they painted on the tubes with tempera paint. 5th graders had a lot of freedom with this project and it was interesting to see if they made something with a clear point of view or went for a design that was more abstract.

The next step was to use some scraps of painted paper (of which a lot has accumulated over the school year!) to create a top and bottom for the tube.

A handful of rice went inside and voila! a musical instrument! The rice part of this was super tricky and if the papers and glue were not dry enough the whole thing busted apart and rice was EVERYWHERE. However, they turned out pretty neat and gave 5th graders a chance to create some cool and functional artwork.

Elephant Mouse:

LOL and a Football Field:

Na na na na na na na na. . . .

YO:

YOLO:

And the TARDIS!!!

🙂