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Thursday, October 15, 2015

School-wide Mural

J.W. Killam Family Tree

Year two~ Each student traced his/her hand and selected one color to decorate the hand with symbols that represent themselves or a design.  Students used colored pencils, markers, and crayons.

To view year one and the making of the tree, click here.











31 comments:

  1. What did you make these out of and how did you create your mural?? It's BEAUTIFUL! Love the gradient into each color.

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  2. Hi Sarah,
    Thanks for the compliment and comment! I love knowing someone is checking out my blog! Comments make me smile!

    Each child was given a 1/2 sheet of 80 or 90 # white drawing paper (nothing fancy) and told to trace their hand. Then each student selected a color and used colored pencils, crayons, and markers in that one color to draw small pictures that represent themselves or a design on the hand. The whole hand needed to be filled in. A few kiddos used analogous colors (neighbors on the color wheel) or just missed the whole one color concept. I put most of those along the bottom of the tree.

    Finally they cut out the hands and I laminated each as I wanted them to last for the year and beyond. I grouped the hands into like colored piles and began taping them to the tree painted on the wall. I did try to make lighter and darker hand piles within each group. Ex. light and dark blues, etc.

    To paint the tree, I used black semigloss interior paint on top of bricks. Then used white chalk to draw the tree. The Chalk is easy to wipe off with a damp rag if you make a mistake. Finally I used Martha Stewart silver interior paint- small tub available from Home Depot.

    There are about 400 hands on the tree.

    Hope this is useful. :)
    Amy

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  3. lOVE IT TOO, I´M GOIN TO TRY AND USE THIS IDEA FOR ONE OF MY PROJECT.

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  4. Lee-Anne and Lil, Thanks so much for the comments. It is nice to know others are getting something from the time and effort it takes to maintain the blog. Have a great summer!
    Amy

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  5. I love this! What does the page in the middle of the tree say??

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    1. It says- We are each unique and beautiful, but together we make a masterpiece!

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  6. This is beautiful, and what a perfect quote! I like to begin each year with a school-wide collaborative piece and this is perfect! Thank you for taking the time to share : )

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  7. beautiful. very beautiful... so beautiful it touch my soul!

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  8. Did the silver paint go over the black paint? Or did you have to paint each separately?

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    1. I used latex black interior paint and then Martha Stewart silver paint (the small jars) right on top of the black. Used chalk to draw the lines first- just wiped away any mistakes with a damp rag. :)

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  9. Looks great! I am hoping to do something similar at my school for anti bullying day. Just wondering how you managed to stick the hands onto the bricks?
    Thanks

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  10. The bricks are painted. I have used masking tape -with a ton or re-sticking- total pain. This year I have coffee filters on the tree and they are staying up great with permanent glue dots. They have not pulled the paint from the brick (I have re-positioned some) and have stayed up since early October. I would go with that. :)

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    Replies
    1. Amy - I love both of your school trees! Our school is looking for an idea that we can put together for K to gr 8 - I'm interested to know what you did with coffee filters on the trees...

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    2. We definitely are interested in borrowing this idea. :)
      However, what do you mean by using the coffee filters. You lost me there.
      Thanks!

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  11. I love this idea for inspiring feelings of family and community. Do you have pictures of this year's tree? I would really like to see how this evolves each year.

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  12. I love how this inspires family and community. Do you have pictures of this year's tree? I would like to see how this project evolves from year to year.

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  13. I love this idea for inspiring feelings of family and community. Do you have pictures of this year's tree? I would really like to see how this evolves each year.

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  14. Beautiful! Great project for use of color, collaboration, and self expression.

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  15. Is it ok to “steal” your idea for my school? I’m moving to art this year after 20 years in the classroom. This would be an amazing all school project for me to start off with! This is awesome!

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    Replies
    1. Yes! By all means- we are meant to inspire others!

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  16. Great post I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this interesting and knowledgeable article.
    Friends of education

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  17. Beautiful! We have a center of unique and special people with disabilities of all levels and just acquired a new building , I've been search for the perfect project for our entrance lobby and THIS IS IT!!!!! Thank you for the inspiration and your creativity! We've done trees before but never this elaborate! I'll send pictures as our's develops!
    Thank You again!
    Teresa Punzi/The Smart Place

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    Replies
    1. Just made my day! Thank you, Teresa! I would love to see your completed project. Take care.

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  18. The tree is beautiful! My school is going to use the idea for a Unity Day project in October. Do you know the dimensions of the wall you have it on to fit all the handprints? We have about the same number of students and are just trying to figure out how big we need to cut paper to assemble it on. Thank you!

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  19. Thank you for the compliment! The black is about 8 feet tall and 12-14 feet long. Hope that helps.

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