In the Art Room: Mad Scientist STEAM Lesson for First Grade!

 About three years ago, I did a project titled Mad Scientists. We focused a lot on color mixing and drawing three dimensional shapes. We even did some bubble printing. The end result looked like this:

And you can find all the lesson details here. 

And while I really did enjoy this lesson, along with my students, when I went to do it again this year, I decided to put a different spin on it...and include scientist self portraits!

 This was a lesson that took several days. I have 30 minute art classes with my first grade, twice a week. Here's how we broke it down:

Day #1: we watched two wonderful bubble videos. One explained the science of bubbles and the other showed GIANT bubbles being blown on a beach. We went to our seats and filled our construction paper with bubbles using chalk. I walked around the room with my Target Dollar Spot bubble gun and we took bubble dance breaks throughout the class. It was super fun.

 Day #2: We learned how to draw three dimensional beakers! Here's the video I used then and this year too. We drew in pencil first and then traced in Sharpie. Feel free to use it in your art teacherin' world:

Day #3: We read Mix It Up and learned how to use the primary colors to fill our bottles and create the secondary colors! Early finishers met me on the floor and we also read Mouse Paint. 

 Day #4: We drew ourselves as Mad Scientists!

Day #5: We traced our drawings in Sharpie and added color with construction paper crayons. Many were ready to start cutting out their portraits. 

 Day #6: We put it all together! Many kids wanted to add more bubbles when they were finished so after they collaged, they returned to bubble making. 

 I really love this new layer of this project...each one is so stinkin' amazing. 

 Next time, I'd love to share with them more about famous scientists. We spoke a lot about Einstein...but I do want to share more with them, especially female scientists. 

 We used so many different media and learned so many techniques in this project that it was so fun. 

You'll have to let me know if you give it a go!