Vanishing point

This was the art project I taught. It turned out ok as a class. We used a vanishing point and then the lines of the buildings needed to connect to that vanishing point. While I was teaching, I was very scared right away that the students were not going to catch on to the process, but everyone's in the class turned out very nice.
For an extension, there are other different types of vanishing points you could use. Using two point perspective would be a whole another art lesson or three you could use.

Twins stepping stone

We used cement mix in a pie pan or bowl. Then were allowed to use pictures, beads, and all sorts of material to make our stepping stone our own. I did not know what to put so I just make a Twins logo and called it good.
For an extension you could have each student make one to place outside the school grounds or somewhere near a park with permision. That way each student could look upon the whole class's creation and enjoy the work.

Pastel landscape

For this art work we were given construction paper and pastels, along with a picture of a landscape and we were told to create it after instruction on using pastels. The different shades of green were tough to create as I had only one piece of green to use. But the picture turned out just dandy.
As an extension you could have the students bring in a picture of their own house or a friends house and use that to create a pastel drawing.

Sand paper crayon painting

We colored Native American type artworks on sandpaper. Then used an iron and transfered the image to a piece of paper. This technique was quite tought to get to turn out perfect.
As an extension, other Native American art works could be used. Such as creating their own Winter Count, a Native American calendar piece.

Name collage

For this project we cut out our initials. Then we used pictures of ourselves or pictures from magazine to fill up the space within our initials and then laid the paper over it.
As an extension, students could create a collage of a friend. They could pick partners or be assigned partners and have them make the collage for someone else.

Lexicon Ferocious

These lexicon collages took a huge amount of time to do. First we found the words and put them on the back of the works. Then started to paint, pastel, marker, crayon, and carve out things that helped the word make sense along with the meaning of that word. The final piece was brought together by adding an element such as a picture of idea which helped that word fit. My favorite turned out to be ferocious because the picture of the guy on my colloge really brings it all together.
As an extension, one could use this as a beginning or ending to collages. This could easily tie into other colloge making pieces and help the students realize that all collages are not the same.

clay piece

This clay project was quite fun because it is always fun to make things out of clay. First we made a few practice pieces, my first item was a conoe. But then I smashed it and decided to try something else. While I obviously am not very crafty with my hands, I decided to make a bowl, which turned to an ash tray. Not something suitable for 8th graders.
As an extension, a person could have students make cups or bowls out of the clay, although their would be no uniqueness which is something great about art class. The child could bring something from home and then do their best to recreate it out of clay.