Hot Air Balloons!

     This was a fun project to do with my 4th Graders incorporating 2-D & 3-D art along with portraits.  To begin the lesson, we reviewed what we know about the difference between 2-D and 3-D art and compared and contrasted the two. Next, I gave the students white tempera paint to paint their clouds on their blue paper.  While that was drying, students drew the basket and worked on making their balloons.  I demonstrated how to fold a small section of the paper strip at the end for gluing purposes and how to bend it to make an arc and glue the other side.  Make sure to add lots and lots of paper strips so the balloons look full with no empty space showing.  Last, the students drew a small portrait of themselves in the basket.  I saved this step for the very end because even if they ran out of time for their person, their artwork would still look complete.  I also know that if we would have drawn the person first, they would not have had time to finish their project.  

Black History Month Value Portraits

For Black History Month, I wanted to do a portrait drawing lesson showing value scale.  Last week, the students were given one of 6 famous African Americans and read a short biography about their person.  To begin the lesson, we made value scales and practiced shading with pencil.  Next, students practiced drawing their person's portrait on a scrap piece of paper.  My main goal was for students to draw their person on their tie-dye paper (which we made in a previous class) and use sharpies and pencils to add the value.  However, I could see that this particular skill was far too advanced for 5th and 6th graders.  I quickly realized that drawing value portraits was too abstract of a concept for my students because they were instructed to look for the shapes that the highlights and shadows made on their faces.  Most students got so discouraged that they stopped drawing altogether.  I had a week to devise another plan before I totally scrapped this project.  So, I came up with the idea of drawing on transparencies and painting the shapes the shadows and highlights made by tracing them right on the transparencies.  I feel this was the perfect accommodation for my students in learning about value scales and realistic portrait drawings.  In the future, I will start with this technique and develop another lesson to follow this one where students can create a grid drawing and paint the value scales on their own.  We will be displaying these striking portrait paintings at our annual Black History Program!

Booker T. Washington by Adreana 

Bessie Coleman by Amani

Frederick Douglas by Jayven

Jackie Robinson by Antoine 

Rosa Parks by Faith 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  by Sidney

Mittens!

This is a great art project to go along with the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We read the story together and discussed why the story is considered a folktale and what happened in the story that is unrealistic.  Students were give blue paper and white colored pencils to fill their paper with snowflakes of different sizes and varieties.  Next, students traced their hands in the shape of a mitten and added lines, shapes, and colors.  Lastly, for some fun detail we added a yarn string and a giant die-cut snowflake and some glitter!

Fine Arts Fair

And that's a wrap. A great school year has come to an end and I had the privilege of showing off my students' exceptional talent. I did it a little bit differently this year. Instead of using the whole shook as a gallery, I combined all of the works of art to our foyer and main hallway at school. I also hung up the artwork randomly instead of grouping them by class. This was great! It looked like a real art gallery! Plus, the kids kept looking and looking at the art of their peers, not just their own. I set up a creation station where students painted melted records that I will place in the garden to resemble flowers. Here are the highlights of the evening: 

Our Picture The Music Award winners had their winning pieces on display. 

Brother and sister art winners! Shania won the school-wide t-shirt design contest while her little brother win an award for his Picture The Music art. 

Miro Drawings

     Drawing to music in the style of Miro! This lesson went flawlessly. There's something magical that happens when you combine music with art. Before the lesson, I demonstrated how to draw lines and shapes which represent the music...large shapes when the music is loud, small soft lines and shapes when the music is soft. For this lesson I added in some 'silly people' like you would see in Miro's paintings. I feel like 1st graders would be able to relate to the silly, whimsical figures. To give the drawings a real 'painterly' effect, we painted water over the marker lines. To add color, we used crayons and watercolors for the background. I'll post a finished painting soon! 
Oh....before we began, I showed this AMAZING Eric Carle video on You Tube called I See A Song.  Where has this video been all my life (ok, a bit dramatic! Lol!).  

Easy Tie-Dye

     Love, love the instant gratification this project allows. I've done this at my summer art camps before, but decided to use it with my Picture The Music lesson with one of my 5th grade classes. Take a piece of tissue paper and fold it many times until it's about a 3" square. Dip the ends into some liquid water colors and watch the colors bleed together. This is also a great way to let the kids be all 'science-y' and learn about absorption and color mixing. They were encouraged to think about what colors would best represent the song based on the mood or the feelings they got fr the song. They drew an abstract line and shape drawing that I plan to adhere the tissue paper to when they dry so the drawing will show through the paper. I'll post pics when we are done. 

Fork Printing Tulips

What a great project for spring! My kids loved this! We first drew the background and colored it with crayons. Next, we painted the stems and leaves. Then, we used forks to stamp the tulips on each stem. It's the time of year for fluorescent paint!!! I usually save the "fun" supplies for the end of the year when kids need a little more motivation and excitement in the school day. Lol. Here are some kindergarten samples:

Lesson prep

After many years in the elementary art world, I've come to really understand why art teachers need so much prep time. Our curriculum is strictly project-based and require so many different supplies. With that said, I have also come to believe that a well-taught lesson is based on how well prepared the classroom is before those kiddos arrive. They are only in our care for 1 hour so the supplies need to be ready and the tables need to be

set so that they can get the most out of the project and create the best art. Just my thoughts for the day. How are you at prepping for your lessons? 

Dubuffet Sculptures

Today in Art, the 6th Graders learned about the abstract art of Jean Dubuffet.  He is an interesting artist to study because kids can relate to his simple, graphic, bold artwork.  I also emphasize that Dubuffet was inspired by the simplicity and immaturity of children's artwork (& the art of the criminally insane, but I leave that out of my introduction).  I really love teaching this lesson because it gives students the chance to create a paper sculpture, use what they know about free-form shapes, and the end result is quite beautiful.  Here are three great examples from my 6th grade class:

Carson's Sculpture 

Celeste's Sculpture 

Brea's Sculpture

Wire Bird Sculptures

I found this lesson at Stuck in the Mud Pottery and really wanted to try it out with one of my classes.  Here is a link to her original lesson: http://stuckinthemudpottery.blogspot.com/search?q=soda+can

Here is my teacher sample:

And here are the wire bird sculptures before we had to chance to add the soda can feathers:

      I decided to tackle this project with my 5th grade students because they are a very creative group of kids.  I think they did really well with the form for their birds so far.  Basically, I told them to create a "yarn ball" with their wire; a large one for the body & a small one for the head.  Next, I showed them how to attach the head to the body, add legs, a tail, and a beak by bending the wire.  The legs attach best if you feed them through the body, having them actually attach to the top of the back.  This seems to give it more strength.  I have an endless supply of these cedar blocks, so I poked holes through the wood, added hot glue, and stuck the ends of the wire through the holes.

     Next class period, I will have the students finish the birds by adding colorful soda can feathers.  I had the aluminum pre-cut for the students so all they have to do is cut out some large tear-drop shapes for the feathers.  I found that some of the aluminum can simply be bent into shape without the use of hot glue.  However, most of the feathers and details will have to be added with a glue gun.  I have 2 in my classroom and I do the majority of the gluing and I use a good amount of discretion before letting the students use the hot glue gun by themselves. 

     I will post pictures next week of some finished pieces (hopefully). 

Time for a change in classroom management...

Ok.  It's the time of year when students are tired of us and we are...well...exhausted.  So, to keep my classes running smoothly, I have decided to implement a self-evaluation for all of my mini-artists.  I pass these forms out to each student at the beginning of class and have the students fill out the top portion while I will check the boxes when needed.  Since I frequently walk around the room as they are working anyway, I put a check mark in the boxes as they complete each part of the lesson...the listening part...the working part...the staying focused part...and so on.  It worked really well with the 1 class I experimented with today, so I'll let you know if it continues to be effective or if it turns out to be WAY too much work.  In case you are wondering, for the students who consistently have missing check marks, they will be practicing our 'High 5' expectations during the next art class instead of working on the projects.  

If you want me to e-mail you the document so you can try it in your art room, leave me your e-mail address in the comments section below.