Adventures of an Art Teacher

1930's Art Education Picture Study

2012-02-08T22:59:00.001-06:00

The class I'm taking right now is History, Theory, and Philosophies of Art Education. The module we just finished was about Art Education from 1900-1945. I read about how "picture study" was used to teach Art Appreciation and sometimes use Art to integrate other subjects. It reminded me of something my grandma gave me recently, so I pulled it out to re-examine it. It was a teacher's edition of a picture study published in 1933 from the Instructor Picture Study Series, Selected and Arranged by Mary E. Owen, depicting Flower Girl in Holland painted by George Hitchcock.

The inside of the folder is printed with a description of the painting and sample questions to ask the students. Here is the description and questions, written by Gertrude Herdle:

This picture gives us a feeling of peace and tranquility. A road follows the bank of a winding canal. Sunny fields border the road, and, far away, red-roofed houses cluster around white windmills. A flower girl has stopped before a neat brick house, to sell her wares. There is a mirror fastened to one of the window blinds, so that the housewife can see who is waiting outside. This useful little device is found on many Dutch houses.

The gently curving lines of the road and the canal carry the eye through the background of sunny landscape to the point where the banks of the canal seem to meet. The upright lines of the tree trunks divide the composition into a number of parts. They help to keep the many horizontal lines of the picture from becoming monotonous.

The artist was interested in showing light and shadow. See the dappled pattern on the road. The shadow of the house falls across the picture, and the girl's dress is dull in tone. The foreground would seem dark, if it were not for the gay flowers. Their hues of red, blue, yellow, and white are in delightful contrast to the softer shades which make up the remainder of the picture.

Questions

Describe the kind of country which you see here. How do you know that this is a picture of Holland? What is the importance of canals to Holland? Can you name the trees bordering the canal?

What is this quaintly dressed girl doing? How does she carry her burden? Describe the house. What do you suppose is the purpose of the mirror on the window blind?

Is there sunlight in this picture? Where is it most beautifully shown? Name all of the details which you see in the background. What color on the horizon furnishes a note of contrast to the colors of the fields? How is a sense of distance given us?

The other side of the folder has "Helpful Material for the Teacher" but I don't think I'll take the time to type that. The picture study was given to my Great Uncle Harlan for 3 years perfect attendance in 1933. When Harlan passed away a few months ago, my grandma thought I might like to have the picture study. Also inside the folder was an Easter drawing, typical of holiday Art at the time. I was excited to find that I had something tangible to connect me to the history I was reading about.

Crayola Color Sticks- Comparison and Review

2012-02-05T09:24:00.001-06:00

I finally have enough Crayola Color Sticks to use with a whole class*. I tested them at a KAEA conference a couple years ago and decided to give them a shot. The students really like them so far and I'm pretty impressed too. I wanted to make sure they were really a good value so I decided to be a little scientific and compare them head to head with Crayola Colored Pencils.

*Last year I didn't notice that a class pack only has 10 of each color so there were not enough for a whole class.

I applied even pressure for both supplies and only put down one layer of color. You can see that the layers of color look almost identical. The students seem to be able to get richer color with the color sticks than the colored pencils. They must be easier for little hands to regulate. Of course, I'm not suggesting we get rid of colored pencils. There are certainly times when colored pencils would be the better choice. For example, when trying to color in small, precise spaces.

The box boasts "Create think lines & broad strokes" and that works to a certain extent- use the flat side for broad strokes and an edge for thin lines, but once the corners get worn down a little bit, the edges don't work easily, at least for me and my students. I tried using them color sticks on a mandala and found that I was having a hard time getting into small spaces. If I was having a hard time, then the students definitely would have. It would take some getting used to. I'm actually planning to let the students use color sticks and colored pencils together on our next project. It will save them time sharpening when they only need colored pencils for small spaces and when they need different colors.

So up next, a Pros and Cons list for Color Sticks.

Pros	Cons
· Better value- lasts 4x longer	· Bigger upfront investment
· Rich color	· Not as many color choices
· Bold, broad strokes	· Harder to get into little spaces
· No sharpening required- less wasted time and materials
· Blends well
· Seems sturdy
· Pentagonal shape doesn’t roll off tables easily

And now, the final comparison- PRICE!

At first, the Color Sticks appear to be much more expensive, and they are. But I will argue that they save money in the long run.

*Prices from Sax.

Crayola Colored Pencil Classpack- 12 color set, Pack of 240

$37.99

Crayola Color Sticks- 12 color set, Pack of 120

$59.87

To get the equivalent number of pieces, two boxes of Color Sticks are $119.74

But don't give up on them yet! Since Color Sticks last 4 times longer, here is how the prices really come out.

Crayola Color Sticks $119.74

Crayola Colored Pencils $37.99 x 4= $151.96

If you have room in your budget to invest in some Color Sticks, I recommend them!

Art History Snowmen Bulletin Board

2012-02-02T22:15:00.000-06:00

This is the only snow we've seen in my part of Kansas since we got maybe an inch back in December. I'm not particularly a fan of being cold, but it would be nice to have one nice, pretty snow this winter!

If I had unlimited time with my students, I would have had the older kids research an artist or movement, then create a snowman (snowperson) inspired by the Art History they learned about. Because I only see my older students for 40 minutes, every other week, when they don't miss due to holidays, conferences, breaks, etc., I knew they would not have time to do the project the way I would want. So, I changed the idea from a student project into a bulletin board. I spent a bit of time brainstorming artists whose paintings gave me ideas for snow people. Some flopped, some turned out ok and made it onto the bulletin board.

I didn't talk to the students about the bulletin board, or even really encourage them to guess. I just thought it might spark interest. It would have been more successful as a learning tool if we had covered the artists who inspired the snowmen. I heard some students saying it was "cool" as I was hanging the bulletin board but I don't know if they ever had a chance to stop and read it. I did have several teachers trying to guess, so that was fun! One told me she saw an art reproduction puzzle at a toy store and it helped her figure out a snowman. Another said she should see if her daughter could put her experience in Art History classes to use to figure it out.

By the way, it's harder than you might think to design somewhat recognizable Art History snowmen!

Some, I thought of right away. Like this guy, inspired by Magritte's The Son of Man (though the "Man" has a face in his painting).

The Mondrian snowman was an early idea as well.

My Picasso snowman started to get a little tricky. Why? Cubism doesn't usually keep clearly defined edges of painted objects and I needed to be able to cut out my snowman. So this painting was my inspiration. I tried showing the nose from two different angles and incorporating patterns like in Picasso's painting.

My Keith Haring snowman was pretty easy. You can kind of tell from the photo that I used clear tape to hold the lines next to the snowman without being attached by paper.

And this guy is inspired by Matisse's cut paper artwork. It was hard because I figured the snow should probably still be white! I tried to layer organic shapes but nobody really "got" this one.

I have little notes written to myself with ideas for next year. I may try it at my other school where we have Art twice as often and have more time for Art History.

Tips for Teaching Elementary Ceramics Without a Kiln

2012-01-30T21:37:00.001-06:00

I've been thinking about clay lately. So far, I don't have access to a kiln. Other Art teachers, who are just trying to help with a "can-do" attitude, have offered the advice of "Get the high school Art teachers to fire it for you!" Well, when I have 750ish students, and they have waiting lists for Art courses, you can bet that their kilns are too busy firing work for their students to consider firing my students' work. But, there is good news! I am hopefully going to be getting a kiln by next fall! The fire marshal has approved a spot in the boiler room and one of my principals is excited and working on getting funding lined up for me. I don't even care too much that there are a bunch of stairs to get into the boiler room. All I asked him was who to check with to see if a location would be approved and he jumped right on board and took over making all the phone calls. Now I'm supposed to pick out a kiln (I'm told I want a computerized Skutt kiln?) and give him a price range so he can work out the funding.

*If you are curious about any of the projects pictured here, view my post from last spring: http://artteacheradventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/finished-clay-projects.html

In the mean time, I'm still working without a kiln. So here are a few tips I've come up with in my long, 2 1/2 year career.

No talking with clay in your hands. The best wayto do clay projects with my school schedule is one class period for wet clayand one class period to paint. To help students focus and finish on time, myrule is that there’s no talking while working with clay. The students are soexcited that they really don’t mind working silently. (Most of the time.) I tryto play music or read a book like “The Pot that Juan Built” by NancyAndrews-Goebel while they work.
Buy Air-Dry clay- If you can afford it. Somepeople say that there is no difference between air-dry clay and regularearthenware clay but I disagree. I order air-dry clay and when dry, it isharder and sturdier than the earthenware clay leftover from the previousteacher in my position.
Cover basic skills but plan sturdy projects.Avoid attaching long, skinny pieces without support. It’s ok for the projectsto be a little thick. Thick = Sturdier.
Paint dry pieces. Obviously glaze is not anoption with no kiln, but painting works well. I’ve used tempera and even watercolor. Just remind students not to use too much water or they will start to rehydrate the clay.
The most important tip: Emphasize the process over the product. I know that being unable to fire clay projects leaves them in a fragile state and probably more than one project will be dropped in the hallway on the way home and shatter beyond repair. Because of this, I really emphasize to my students that the most important part of the lesson is learning the skills and getting practice. When pieces break, the students are sad, but I can remind them that we’ll work with clay again next year and they still learned a lot.

Do you have any no-kiln-available clay tips? If so, please share in the comments!

Kindergarten Dancers

2012-01-28T14:09:00.003-06:00

This lesson started off with me just wanting to incorporate Dance with Visual Art. One of the KSDE Visual Arts standards is about students making connections between Visual Arts and other disciplines. I remembered that my mom had give me the book "Katie Meets the Impressionists" by James Mayhew, and when I reviewed it, I thought it might work well. It tells the story of a little girl who visits an Art museum with her grandmother and is able to climb through frames into the paintings and have little adventures with the people there. Toward the end of the book she ends up performing on a ballet stage with Degas' dancers before escaping through the frame back into the museum. *After reading to the first class, I skipped a few paintings from the book so the Kinders were more likely to still be interested when it got to the dance scene at the end.

We talked about dancing and watched some short video clips of ballet performances on YouTube. I actually found a ballet based on Degas' paintings but ended up focusing on a clip from Swan Lake since it showed the male dancer doing lots of lifts and I wanted to show that it's not just "girly". Everyone was impressed with the skill of the dancers. Next, we talked about our joints and how they let our body bend and move. We practiced moving our necks, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. I think this is important- the students are much more likely to try to draw what they see when they are reminded of this. Finally, the students took turns posing like dancers in the giant frame while their classmates made gestural (as gestural as Kinders get) drawings of them, trying to show movement.

In the next class, students who hadn't had a turn posing got their chance and the students either added costumes to their first drawings or made a new drawing of a dancer using oil pastels. These were more about the process than being gallery-worthy finished pieces. I am still developing my philosophy of teaching and so far it's just been "a little bit of everything"- giving the students a little guidance but sometimes keeping my distance so they can discover and do things their own way.

I'm guessing this is dancers doing a lift.

This is by one of my PreK students. :)

They all found their own ways to show movement.

This student actually sort of made a gestural drawing using crayon!

Messy Mondrians

2012-01-24T22:06:00.005-06:00

Kindergarten at my school, as I'm sure they do in many schools, studies a letter a week. A couple months ago for "M" week, I wanted to do an Art lesson that incorporated the letter. At first I had "magenta monkeys" in my head but I never came up with a lesson I was excited about. Then one day I had some extra liquid paint from a lesson with paint droppers and not wanting to waste the paint, I decided to play! I came up with an idea that I really like: Messy Mondrians.

Most classes used paint droppers* to drip horizontal and vertical lines of black paint across their papers in the first class, after the Mondrian introduction and discussion, of course. In the second class, they were given only the primary colored tempera cakes to paint in their shapes. A few classes used cardboard to stamp horizontal or vertical lines and colored with primary colored crayons. I prefer the dripped artwork over the stamped but uneven scheduling with two classes, and students who were too chatty in another, meant changes were necessary. I wish I would have checked the diluted paint for the droppers more carefully because I added a little too much water and it ended up gray instead of a rich black..

*Some people might think I'm a little crazy for giving Kinders paint droppers. For the most part it was fine. I did have one little mishap. As I was describing how you only need to squeeze a little bit of paint at a time on the edge of your paper and let it drip to the other side, I was holding a dropper full of paint in the air in front of me, and a little boy who can't always control his impulses shot his hand out and squeezed the dropper, splattering black paint all over the table and one little girl's paper. He immediately said "Sorry!" but I was stubborn and didn't let him use his dropper independently since he had shown poor judgment. At first he was upset but I went on helping other students and told him when he was calmed down, I would help him. He came to get me a few minutes later and I had him direct me as I dripped paint exactly where he pointed for one side of the paper, then I held the dropper with him and let him squeeze the paint on the other.

The last 2 years I've done a collage Mondrian lesson with Kindergarten. The students took some of the elements of Mondrian's artwork (primary colored squares and rectangles and black "lines") and arranged them in their own composition. I think I was getting a little bored with it and wanted to try something different. (I just saw a mixed media Mondrian lesson on Artopotamus that was pretty cool!)

Modification, Differentiation, and Adaptation via Artful Artsy Amy

2012-01-22T17:50:00.002-06:00

I just read a great post, Modification, Differentiation, Adaptation and the Art Classroom , over at Artful Artsy Amy and I suggest you check it out! She has put together a categorized list of ideas to help you help your students in a fair, discreet, respectful way.

My best tip in this area has to do with students who are color blind or have trouble differentiating colors. I actually got this idea from one of the 5th grade teachers at my school a couple years ago. We used it for one of his students my first year of teaching and I just pulled out the trick a couple weeks ago when a new student started. The idea is to assign a "Color Buddy". This would be a friendly, helpful student who sits near the student with color trouble and helps them find the colors they need when it is important to the assignment.

Now go read the post over at Artful Arty Amy and add your tips in the comments!

Nick Jr. Does Art Appreciation

2012-01-22T14:24:00.001-06:00

I was watching Nick Jr. this morning while my son played and was excited to see a little segment, Mighty Fine Art, where Moose and Zee talk about "Moose-terpieces" in an Art museum. I couldn't find the videos on YouTube but I did locate 4 of them on Nick Jr.'s website. I think these short videos would be great to use with Kindergarten or 1st grade. Check them out!

Mary Cassatt "Mother and Child"

Paul Klee "Castle and Sun"

Pablo Picasso "Still Life with Guitar"

Georges Seurat "Looking Upstream"

Kindergarten Tint and Shade Triangle Trees

2012-01-19T20:18:00.000-06:00

Oh, Pinterest, you give me so many ideas.

Source: purlbee.com via Katie on Pinterest

I saw this quilt pinned a couple months ago and right away knew what I would do with the idea. I love how simple and graphic it is and the strong shape. A big part of the Kindergarten math curriculum at my school is learning the 5 basic geometric shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, ellipse) and I like to support that however I can. Last year we did wax-resist pyramid paintings for "triangle" but I wanted to try something wintery this year, and this was an easy 2-3 class period project.

Day 1: Using tempera to paint 4 different greens.

1. Green right out of the bottle

2. Mixing yellow and blue

3. Green with white added- TINT

4. Green with black added- SHADE

Before painting, students folded their papers hotdog and hamburger style to make a "t" down the middle. Reviewed paintbrush technique but not cleaning since no water is required for this as long as you do the shade last. Just rinse brushes at the end of class!

Day 2: Make some trees!

We discussed the quilt picture, students identified the shapes, and pointed out the different colors and patterns. I asked the students to tell me what they were looking at a picture of and most said "Christmas trees" (it was December, after all), and I used that opportunity to put in a quick science lesson about evergreen trees. Next, we cut the papers into 4 sections and I showed how to cut triangles. I gave students the choice between drawing triangles first or "drawing with scissors". I tried to get them to cut their first 4 triangles so big that they touched the top AND the bottom of the painted paper then they could use the scraps to make "baby" trees. I had pre-cut, or more like chopped since I definitely didn't measure, some brown pieces for trunks. We covered "just a dot, not a lot" for glue bottle use and they went at it.

*Tip- Save the painted paper scraps for students who missed the painting day.

Day 3: Some students would have had time for this at the end of the 2nd class but I decided to utilize "peer tutoring" and have them help struggling classmates with their gluing instead. In the beginning of the 3rd class, we reviewed different kinds of lines and practiced drawing them in the air with our fingers. I have no actual proof, but I'm convinced that getting the kinesthetic action helps the students remember it better. And it's a little silly and fun. After our practice, the students used construction paper crayons to add patterns to their trees. I told the students about shadows and gave a 30 second demonstration. Most tried to add shadows then added other details in the background. I had a couple students who missed the first 2 classes so they just made construction paper crayon drawings of patterned trees.

Skills/Concepts Learned or Reviewed: Geometric Shapes, Cutting, Gluing, Lines, Patterns, Color Mixing, Tints, Shades, Thinking about Composition

This student said she made a whole forest.

It may look like this student was just being sloppy by gluing every scrap of paper she could find onto her background, but she had a whole story about how all the trees in her forest fell down.

I love the letters on this tree!

*I forgot to say earlier that this is doable as a sub plan. I was there for every painting class but was gone for one afternoon of gluing and another afternoon of adding patterns. I was afraid it might turn out too cookie cutter but I think it's ok since nobody traced anything and the students were free to add whatever colors and patterns they wanted on trees they placed wherever they wanted.

KS YAM Updates and Personal Timeline Grad Assignment

2012-01-17T22:36:00.000-06:00

First of all, are some YAM updates for Kansas Visual Arts teachers.

If you happen to be a high school teacher, the Harry Hart Memorial Senior Scholarship entries are due to Lynn Felts (lynnfelts@cox.net) by January 31st.

Our YAM celebration has been on the last Saturday in February in recent years but this year it will be held March 31st at the State Capitol. Make sure you get your student art entries to your area reps by March 10th if you cannot deliver it yourself on March 30th (the night before the display.)

You can read about our Youth Art Month plans here: http://kaea.com/yam.html

Our YAM rep, Shawny Montgomery, has put together a handy little booklet with instructions, ideas, samples, and forms.

And now because I don't want a post without a picture...

Last week I started taking my 2nd graduate course working toward my Master's in Art Education. The class is History, Theories, and Philosophy of Art Education and our first assignment is an introductory personal timeline kind of thing. I thought since I spent so much time on it I would go ahead and share it here! It was hard to decide what to put on it. If you've been reading for a while, you know I tend to ramble on a bit. My husband says it's because I don't know how to edit. I say it's because all the details are important to me!

The photos with white outlines are mine, black outlines are student's work.

Romare Bearden Inspired Artwork- 5th Grade

2012-01-16T14:41:00.000-06:00

The only handprint turkey I've ever been excited over!

My 5th grade students made artwork inspired by Romare Bearden. I had thought about doing a project inspired by him since I started teaching but hadn't found just the right inspiration yet. I read that the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City was having an exhibition of his work, Romare Bearden stamps were being released, and his 100th birthday would have been last September so the timing seemed right.

Source: beardenfoundation.org via Katie on Pinterest

(Feel free to send me a letter with these stamps.)

To begin the project, I showed a PPT from http://www.oshkosh.k12.wi.us/aboutus/elementaryertpowerpoint.cfm. The students discussed some of the artwork and I pointed out how he assembled his images from different materials. I really emphasized that he used images to construct NEW pictures instead of just cutting and pasting whole images and that the scale did not have to be "correct." I also showed the following video because I liked how they compared improvisation and play between jazz and Art.

The assignment requirements were to create a mixed media work of Art about music. The students had to include something cut from newspaper or magazine (or both), something cut from construction paper, something hand drawn, and at least one instrument from the collage sheets I created. To make the collage sheets, I asked our music teacher to save catalogues for me. I went through and cut out tons of pictures of instruments then laid them out on the copy machine. I did not group the instruments by type (woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc.) though that might have made it easier for students to find specific instruments they were looking for. I put them together however they fit on the copier and enlarged to create different sizes.

These were organized at one point...

I thought we could do this project in 2 class periods, and some were pretty much finished in that amount of time. However, I did add a 3rd class to the schedule to let more finish, and several students asked to come in during recess to work on their projects. I think that's a sign of a popular lesson- students giving up recess! In the 3rd class period, students used watercolors to fill in white space, and wrote an artist statement when they were done.

Yesenia312 says this about his/her art...

I did my art to represent Romare Bearden art. I was inspired by his art. He is a great artist. I found out about his art by Mrs.Morris, she showed us his art on the internet and thats how I figured out, and why I did it.

This might be my YAM entry...

Grace3554 says this about his/her art...

I really liked the way this came out. Better than I imagined it! I didn't want to just paint everything, I wanted to make it colorful. Some things, as you can see, I made them so you have to think about. Like the girl playing the violin. That's her left hand. Thanks for reading this!

This student said her band was named "The Toasters". I didn't notice they were missing the 2nd "t" until last night.

I love this one. I wish he hadn't missed the last class so he could have finished.

I like the watercolors on this face.

"Music is Art" became a popular phrase to add to the projects.

Told ya so.

This student named his band and put thought into their environment.

Cole1264 says this about his/her art...

I made a jazz collage with pencil, paper, magazines, and paint. I learned that almost everyone can be artistic. I like my picture and think the best part are the players.

Questionable placement of the lady's hands but unintentional.

I like how the fingers were cut out and put over the sax.

Snowflakes and Blog of the Year

2012-01-15T15:06:00.000-06:00

I posted last week about the Art Ed Blog of the Year contest going on over at the Art of Education. Jessica posted the finalists today and I was excited to see that my blog is a finalist! The good part is that you can vote for several blogs, though you can only vote once. I was also really happy to see the three blogs I nominated were in the finals as well. If you have a minute, head on over to the Art of Education and vote for our friends!

Some of my Kindergarten students worked on a snowflake drawing together during a shortened Art class before their holiday parties started back in December. I showed them this image

Source: theartofed.com via Katie on Pinterest

(which I think I saw for the first time on the Art of Education) after the students told me everything they know about snowflakes (like they are made of ice, come down when it's cold, they are all different).

We talked about how there were a lot of different designs made from lines and shapes. I rolled out a long piece of paper on the floor and students who were already done with their previous project went over to draw snowflakes using cool colors. I love how Kinders will automatically lay down on the floor to draw or play with things.

For most of the time they worked very nicely together. When more students finished it started getting crowded so I had to ask for some volunteers to go read a book so new students could get a turn. Some switched out and the problem was solved. They really enjoy working together on projects like this.

ATC Swap with Mrs.Knight's Smartest Artists

2012-01-15T14:54:00.003-06:00

A while back (like, way back I just can't remember when) I saw a post on Mrs.Knight's Smartest Artists looking for schools to swap ATCs with. I love ATCs and my students do, too, so I jumped at the chance and emailed her. My 3rd and 4th grade students made Fall or Sunflower themed Artist Trading Cards to send to 3rd and 4th grade students in Georgia. They were pumped to be sending something to students in another state. Each student created a series of 3 ATCs- 1 to keep, 1 to trade with a student in their class, and 1 to send to Georgia. I encouraged them to send their best card to Mrs.Knight's students, something they would be excited to receive. The students got to choose and use several techniques including regular drawing with crayons or markers, collage, wax resist, or regular watercolor. Here are some results!

I thought this was cute.

"This is a pumpkin and it is orange and it is going to gorgia. From Giavonni."

I wanted to put the work on Artsonia but not photograph 3 times as many projects as usual. To solve the problem, I took a piece of white paper big enough for 3 cards to fit on top, arranged their series of ATCs on top, and only took one photograph.

Here are the super cool cards we got in return!

Thank you, Hope!

Perseverance

2012-01-10T18:28:00.000-06:00

This student's artist statements are always pretty darn negative. It was hard to do this, I don't like that, etc, etc. I thought this statement, written about his Jazz Painting, was going to be the same. I'm glad I quit rolling my eyes long enough to read the last sentence:

But when I finished it looked like a Masterpiece.

I am so glad that he finally saw something in his artwork he was proud of.

2nd and 3rd Grade Snowpeople

2012-01-09T21:38:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple snowpeople projects my 2nd and 3rd grade students completed in December. I have to say snow"people" because you know, it's an inclusive term and doesn't leave out the lovely snowladies.

2nd grade students learned how to overlap circles and create the look of spheres by adding VALUE with oil pastels. We've been on a value/shading kick in 2nd grade. My Tuesday classes who had an extra day practiced drawing and shading spheres in graphite in the first class then finished drawing their snowpeople scenes in the second class. Some still don't quite get that the shadows would always be on the same side but at least they are starting to understand shading. I'm hoping it will help when they start working on their duck stamp drawings in a few weeks. I left this lesson last year when I was on maternity leave and I think it went pretty well this year. I wasn't super excited about it, probably because it's a lesson you see all the time, but I suppose there's a reason it's tried and true! One little boy put his snowman in a leather jacket, which was super cute, but then he colored his sky in black behind it and it sort of disappeared. We're working on contrast...

I had intended for 3rd graders to make snowpeople prints. but we made some changes..

I demonstrated overlapping the circles to make them look like stacked spheres on a snowperson, both as if you were looking straight at it and as if you were looking up to give them more options, then reviewed horizon lines. The students had a lot of freedom- their only requirements were to make a snowperson with overlapping and a horizon line. Any other features and details were up to them. They drew on these dense fiber board things, I really have no idea what they were used for but they are awesome, then traced with glue. *Of course when you trace a drawing with glue, you have to remind the students not to draw anything too small and to leave space between things so the glue lines don't run together or turn into big blobs. This started as another lesson I left during maternity leave.

Last year the students used rainbow crayons made from recycled crayon stubs to rub over paper and make their drawings show through. I thought it would work to print the glue lines but when I tested mine, the glue was so bumpy that it was hard to make out the picture. I knew the students' lines were even bumpier so we changed the plan. I used it as an opportunity to talk to the students about problem solving and things not always going how we plan. I wanted to show them that even though my first idea didn't work very well, I didn't give up, just came up with something that would work better.

I haven't decided if covering the tables with vinyl cloths save time or not when cleaning up from painting...

In the second class period, I gave each table the primary colors, white, and just a tiny bit of black tempera paint to use. *It's amazing how many students will tell me I forgot green paint, for example, immediately after we review mixing primary colors to make the other colors they need! I showed them how they could use blue to add some shading (VALUE!) to their snowpeople. They were excited about making tints just like in their Polar Bear paintings. I gave them two brush sizes to use and suggested that they use the tiny brush to paint over the glue outlines of really important things. I actually don't mind the effect of the super-cheap-tempera-paint-I-wish-I-wouldn't-have-ordered here. It acted as almost a glaze and looked pretty cool with the glue showing through for snowflakes.

No fashionable snowlady would be seen in public without her makeup and best jewelry.

Students who missed the glue day drew with crayon then painted.

Art Of Ed. Announces Art Ed Blog of the Year Contest

2012-01-08T20:47:00.001-06:00

Did you all see this? I'm passing along the information just in case you didn't yet. This is not me fishing for a nomination! There are so many blogs I could nominate so this will be tricky! Though Jessica did tell me on Twitter that we can nominate more than one. That should make it a little bit easier!

Please note that I copied this information from the Art of Education to help spread the word. To nominate a blog, you most comment on the original post at the Art of Education or by emailing theartofed@gmail.com with "My Favorite Blog" in the subject line.

From the Art of Education:

What’s your favorite Art Ed Blog? It’s time to open up nominations for our 1st Annual “Art Ed Blog of the Year” contest — the blogosphere’s only contest for exclusively honoring Art Education blogs. With so many great blogs out there, many who don’t get recognized, we thought it was about time!

We’re looking for your nomination for the Top Art Ed Blogs of the Year. The winners will be promoted with a permanent space on the AOE Blog, be featured in the Blogging for Art Educators online class, get kudos in our Weekly Quick Tips Newsletter and will receive a special Award Badge to place on their website.

Nomination

Please nominate of your favorite art education blog(s). Do so by posting your favorite blog in the ‘comments’ section at the Art of Education. You may also send your nomination in an email to theartofed@gmail.com with ‘My Favorite Blog’ in the subject line.

Be sure to include a link to the blog you’re nominating.
Be sure to include WHY you like the blog, what sets it apart.
You are welcome to nominate your own blog.
This blog, The Art of Education, is not eligible for nominations. Sorry!
Make your nomination by Sunday January, 15th.

Committee Consolidation

After all nominations are made, the AOE committee will vote on and produce the finalists who will then qualify to be included in the vote for ‘Art Blog of the Year.’ Finalists will be selected based on the quality of their content, the frequency of their posts, reader involvement, etc.

Voting

On January 16th, the finalists will be posted here in a ballot format so that readers can vote on their favorite blog. Voting takes place between January 16th and 20th. Be sure to come back and vote! Nominated blogs are welcome to share the ballot link with their own readership so there are as many voters represented as possible!

Results

The top ten blogs will be selected by, of course, YOUR or votes! You will be notified if your blog is a winner. On January 21st, we’ll announce the winners and the top ten blogs will all receive a unique Award Badge which they can proudly post in the side column or other prominent location on their blog!

I think this will be a great way to honor some of the amazing Art Ed Blogs out there and help them gain the exposure they deserve!

We need your nominations to get started! Let the world know which blog you think is best! Go ahead and enter your nomination right now in the comments section at the Art of Education and be sure to let your friends know about this contest through social media, email, and more!

When Inspiration Strikes

2012-01-08T20:41:00.002-06:00

You never know when you're going to get what could be a great idea. I made gingerbread cookies before Christmas break and took one in my lunch box. I was getting ready to sit down to eat when I dropped the cookie inside the baggy and it cracked. I bent to pick it up and thought- Oh! Make Humpty Dumpty, cut him apart, and put him back together again! I wrote myself a little not and took a picture (before I ate the cookie) to remind myself.

This seems like a fun idea for Kindergarten. I bet most of them already know the rhyme and we could practice ellipses. I think it would be cool to see how many different ideas they can think of for how to put Humpty together again...

Done List

2012-01-05T19:51:00.001-06:00

The new semester started for me with a work day on Tuesday. Instead of focusing on my growing "to-do" list, I decided to post my "done list" for that day.

1. Change the bulletin board at one of my schools. This bulletin board is REALLY long! I have to get used to it being so much bigger than my other bulletin board. I wanted to do something simple since I'll be changing it out again in a few weeks. This will do- especially since it ties in with Art projects from December. Shapes are Flat, Forms are 3D. A Circle is a Shape. A Sphere is a Form. I tore paper for the snowy ground (not that we've really had much of that here in Kansas.) The border is snowflakes that 2nd or 3rd grade printed before break. I can't remember which grade because it feels like a loooong time ago!

To make the snowflakes, I gave the students white tempera, cardboard tubes, old paintbrush handles, and cardboard pieces leftover from the Klee-Inspired Geometric Shape Fish project last September and talked briefly about radial symmetry before letting them play on this blue vinyl-y paper stuff that we inexplicably have reams and reams of at school.

2. "Cleaned" one of my classrooms. There is still a lot that's not perfect in this photo but it is a lot better than it was! I finally had time to put away some of the supplies I ordered last semester that had been sitting in their shipping boxes along the cabinets. I also put away the paint we won't be using for a while and organized the paintbrushes.

3. Cleaned off my kidney table and got reference photos sorted by species for the Jr. Duck Stamp program.

4. Put together research and reference images for the State Fish Art Contest.

5. Painted papers to test upcoming projects for my younger students.

6. Went to the district office (twice) to hang artwork. We scheduled 1 month for each Art teacher and a couple stray months for faculty work. The displays are set up above file cabinets right in view of the administrative offices. The secretaries told me they really appreciate the color!

Listening

2012-01-02T22:14:00.000-06:00

Listening is pretty darn important. One of my classroom expectations is to be a good listener. Every once in a while I get a class that is soooo chatty (some might say disrespectful) that we have to take a time out from the project and do a different kind of lesson based on listening.

This is what I do when "drastic" measures are required.
I'm sure you've all participated in or at least heard of this activity before, but just in case you haven't, here is a description:
Put the students in pairs and give each a number 1 or 2. (Or any other labels you want to use.) I try to sneakily put the students who need the lesson most in the same group*. Tell one group to think of a story they will tell their partner and while they are thinking, tell the other group what their job is going to be. Their job is to be the worst listeners they can be. Tell them to do things that are problems in your classroom when people should be listening. I told them to play with supplies, avoid eye contact, get out of their seats, interrupt, and anything else I could think of. Send the group back to their partners and allow about 2 minutes for the storytelling to take place. You may need even less than 2 minutes. The first time I did this with a class, I had to stop early because students were getting so upset that they weren't being listened to that they started yelling at their partner. Not quite what I had in mind.

After students are sufficiently frustrated, stop them and ask how the storytelling went. Talk about the things that were happening and how it made them feel. I make sure to tell the students that the activity is not a punishment, I just realized that maybe they didn't know what it is like to try to convey information and not have a good listener. Call it forced empathy. Then I have a short, but candid conversation, where I tell them how it makes me feel when I work really hard to plan lessons that I think are important and will be fun for them and have students being disrespectful and not listening. I may play up the hurt feelings just a bit with my younger classes.

If I really need to drive the point home, I have the students write and make an illustration. I recently had to do this with a class of 2nd graders so after our discussion, I gave them paper and asked them to write about why you should be a good listener or how it feels when someone won't listen to you. I added pictures of the most legible papers.

What have you done to address listening issues in your classroom?

What Would You Do...

2012-01-02T21:38:00.004-06:00

...with this idea?
Idea: Printing heart shaped leaves and then __________.

Whenever I do a project with students using real leaves, (Yes, students, REAL leaves) the kids get so excited about redbud leaves since they are heart shaped. I wanted to do a quick, easy project with Kindergarten that involved printing the heart shaped leaves.

Because leaves are cool, printing is fun, and kids love hearts.

The pictures here are just little 5 minute experiments. I set up a different station at each table one day in October and sat at one of the tables to help students print their leaves. I gave them a quick demo then let them print their leaves and add lines and shapes with crayons. Oh, I waited too long and the redbud leaves were shot but then I noticed I could substitute morning glory leaves which are also heart shaped. The yellow paper is just because I happened to have extra yellow construction paper cut down. I think just using different colors would make this cooler. Maybe a Jim Dine meets Andy Goldsworthy idea? Or Andy Warhol for that matter...

Source: artnet.com via Katie on Pinterest

I thought I would try posing the question/problem to our little Art Teacher blogging community to see if anybody has a brilliant idea! I don't necessarily want this to be a "Fall" project, just something inspired by the shape... If you have a cool idea, please share! I want to collect lots and lots of ideas to add to the others I've come up with. I can try them out when the leaves are back and post the results.

Best Art Class Ever- 6th Grade Planets

2012-01-01T22:03:00.000-06:00

Way back in October I was doing a music inspired lesson with 4th-6th grade. 6th Graders spend I think a whole 9-weeks studying astronomy and one of my favorite CD's is a performance of Gustav Holst's The Planets. So my music-science-art fusion Planets lesson was born. In the first class, I gave a super quick introduction to Abstract Expressionism, focusing mainly on Jackson Pollock, then went further back into Art History to introduce Wassily Kandinsky. I talked about how Kandinsky is credited with making the first purely abstract paintings and was really influenced by music. We had the same rhythm/harmony discussion as in my 4th grade Jazz Painting classes then I jumped right into the task for the day: create 4 abstract expressionistic paintings inspired by 4 of Holst's planets. The students were each given a piece of 12x18 inch white paper which they folded "hamburger" AND "hotdog" style to create 4 sections. I had primary and white colored tempera paint at each table and cups of diluted tempera paint available to the students. They had about 2-3 minutes to paint for each song. They painted with their brush trying to fill in the whole rectangle then used paint droppers to drip and splatter paint (ties in Pollock) on top. I believe the 4 planets we listened to were Mars bringer of war, Venus bringer of peace, Jupiter bringer of jollity, and Uranus the magician.

I said in the title of this post that this was the best art class ever. I really mean that. I have never, EVER, had 6th grade students working so quietly. And they were LOVING it! Even with only a few minutes to paint each section, every student finished. I had to take a video to kind of prove it to myself because I could hardly believe how smoothly it was going. If you watch the video, make sure you have the volume turned up so you can really get a feel for it.

After the first class I asked the students to let the extra dripped paint run off their papers into the trash can. I recommend that, otherwise your floor or counter will look like this under your drying rack.

I don't think I told the students what we would be doing with the paintings until we were done, mostly because I wanted them to fill the whole space. In the second class, the painted papers were cut apart and the students used their paintings to create a collage. I didn't really teach them anything about astronomy, but we did brainstorm some things they could include in their artwork- planets, rings, moons, stars, asteroid, etc. I gave the students compasses to use if they wanted but also demonstrated cutting a circle freehand.
TIP- Save the scraps of painted paper for students to trade for adding details or for students who missed the painting session.

I know we should let students figure things out for themselves but I did show them how to make a ring for a planet. The overlapping and cutting out negative space was really throwing most of them.

Students who had enough time used oil pastels to add details. I tried to get them to add value to their planets to make them look like forms instead of shapes but that translated to drawing circles around the edges.

My Judgment: Overall, I think we all enjoyed this project. I think I will try to come up with something to make the backgrounds more interesting. I didn't want them to be too complicated since there were lots of colors and patterns on the planets, but the solid black construction paper looks a little flat if they didn't have time to add oil pastels.

Kindergarten Butterflies

2011-12-26T21:02:00.000-06:00

Back in the end of September/beginning of October I did a butterfly lesson with my Kindergarten students. I had recently seen two different butterfly projects that inspired me and the timing was great since the monarch butterflies were really moving through Kansas. I even took a chrysalis to school and though we missed the butterfly actually emerging, the students were really excited to see a REAL butterfly! They named her Dotty. Now back to the lesson... My project was inspired by the following lessons. One from Artsonia, and one from There's a Dragon in my Art Room and her original inspiration was from Art Project Girl.

Source: artsonia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: plbrown.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

This was a 3 class period project and while we managed, it was a bit stressful at times. If I do this project again, (as-is, anyway) I would probably save it for 1st grade. It had a lot of good things to introduce- mixing colors, horizontal and vertical, cutting and gluing, etc., but it was a little too much for a lot of my Kindergarteners still fairly early in the year.

Class 1- Introduction to landscape, drawing a horizon line, painting blue sky and green grass.

I projected some photos of landscapes to show the students and focused on pointing out the horizon line. I told them that the horizon line is where the sky comes alllll the way down to touch the ground. I knew that this would be a knew concept for most of them since I still have 5th graders occasionally draw the big empty space between the sky and the ground but something happened that I didn't expect. A little boy raised his hand and when I called on him he said "I don't believe you." It took me by surprise because usually younger students just eat up everything you say! As soon as he said that other students saying they didn't believe. Luckily I have some big windows in my classroom so I pulled up the blinds and had one table at a time come look outside so I could PROVE that the sky comes down to touch the ground. The rest of the first class was painting the grass and the sky.

We had to put papers on the floor to dry. I have since purchased an additional drying rack and some cheap closet shelves.

Class 2- Mixing yellow and blue paint to make green, painting phonebook pages and adding texture, mixing red and yellow to make orange, turning "B"s into butterflies.

I gave each student a half piece of yellow construction paper folded in half. I wanted to have them paint a "B" on one side that would be painted and folded to print on the other side ensuring a symmetrical butterfly. To get all the students to put their B on the correct side, I had them fold their paper "like a book". I demonstrated how to write a capital letter B and the students wrote their letter on their paper in pencil. I checked each one to make sure it was on the fold not the open side then had them open their "books." Next I showed how to paint mixed orange tempera paint inside the B, fold, and press to transfer paint to the other side. Next we mixed green paint and used texture combs that would later be turned into grass. I had painted on newspaper before but decided to try phonebooks because I always see people trying to get rid of them. It worked OK but the paper was flimsier than newspaper and curled a bit when dried.

Class 3- Review horizontal and vertical, cutting phonebook pages into strips, gluing "grass" to background, cutting and gluing butterflies on top of grass, turning butterflies into Monarchs with black and white oil pastels, adding purple flowers with oil pastels.

I was amazed at how many kids cut their butterflies in half (and at how many different ways they discovered to cut the butterflies in half) but I just tried to show them how to make the pieces touch when they glued them in place. I reminded the students how monarch butterflies are orange with black and white designs and if there was time, the students used oil pastels to add details to their butterflies. Then if there was STILL time, I reviewed secondary colors and the students used purple oil pastels to add flowers.

Student who missed the 1st class used solid blue for the background.

Stray ladybug hanging out with the butterflies.

You can view more examples in our Artsonia exhibit.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T18:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you! I am definitely enjoying catching up with family and just having a chance to relax and catch my breath before heading back to school to teach the spring semester and starting my second graduate course. I hope you all enjoy your little break and get to spend it with family and friends.

Military Assembly and Artwork

2011-12-22T23:21:00.000-06:00

My schools are close to a military base so we have lots of military families. Just at my K-3rd school, we have 29 students and 7 staff members with immediate families in the military. Last week we had a big assembly to thank those families for their sacrifices. Families, our superintendent, board members, and the Adjutant General of Kansas were in attendance. The students came into the gym silently then sang patriotic songs and wove flags as the families entered. My principal and the Adjutant General spoke, the families were introduced and applauded, we showed a slideshow with pictures of the servicemen and women and their families, there was more singing, and then the highlight of the morning was one of my Kindergarteners getting the best surprise Christmas present ever when his dad got home from a deployment in Kuwait.

I wanted some 1 day lesson plans for the week of Thanksgiving and I wanted to contribute to the military assembly somehow, so I came up with some patriotic Art projects to do with 1st-3rd grade. 2nd and 3rd grade students made abstract drawings on 4 inch square paper using red and blue markers. We talked about color symbolism and how we could use elements from the American flag but change them to make new designs. I used the drawings as a border for the giant bulletin board outside my room (that I apparently didn't photograph). They frame a sign painted on butcher paper that says "Thank You, Military Families!"

My 1st grade students made artwork to "Give our troops a hand". While the students wrote names on their light blue construction paper, I called one group at a time over to my table. I let the students choose either red, white, or blue paint. I rolled the paint on one of their hands, gave them a paper towel to squeeze with the painted hand, and sent them straight to the classroom bathroom to wash up. When their hands were clean, red, white, and blue oil pastels were used to add lines and shapes.

Christmas Cheer

2011-12-22T16:54:00.001-06:00

I know a lot of people use this time of year to talk about commercialism and greed...

But I have been overwhelmed with all the love, compassion, and giving I have seen in the last couple of weeks.

Teachers from across my school district came together to help a family in need. A Kindergarten teacher posted an ad in the district to see if anybody had a spare twin bed to donate. When her students were writing letters to Santa, this student asked for a Transformer and a bed. The student had to sleep on the floor, along with other siblings, because there were already too many people sharing one bed. Another teacher saw the post and emailed it out to everyone in the district. I read the email and was totally caught off guard by it. I never stopped to think about kids in my district not having a place to sleep. I didn't have a bed to give but I kept thinking about and praying for that family and all my students who are facing difficulties. I was so happy to read a letter that the student's teacher put in the district newsletter saying that not only had beds been donated for ALL the kids, they had new bedding, gifts for the other siblings, giftcards for the mother to buy other things they needed, and of course a brand new Transformer toy. One of the teachers and her husband drove all over picking up the donations and others helped get everything set up in the family's home. Awesome.

I work in two Title 1 buildings so a lot of my students are very low income. We are lucky enough to have the BackSnack program in my buildings that send food home with children for the weekend when school breakfasts and lunches are not available. In addition to the food sent home with those students (throughout the whole school year,) we have had winter accessories like hats, gloves, and scarves donated, a certificate for a free meal and a candy cane for EVERY student donated by a local church, brand new pairs of shoes donated (don't quote me on this but I believe by Payless Shoes) for students in need, and I'm sure the list goes on. We also had a really nice assembly to recognize and thank all the military families where one little boy got the best Christmas present ever when his dad got to come home from Kuwait and surprise him. But, I will post more about that (and the accompanying Art projects) after I find a link to the news story.

And finally, Christmas cheer brought to you by my 98 year old Great Grandma, or, Old Grandma as my brother and I have always called her. I live in a small town where our local newspaper still publishes all the kids' letters to Santa. This year Old Grandma sent her own letter in.

Dear Santa,

I’ve never written to you before so I guess it’s high time I did, so here goes. Maybe that’s why I never got the doll buggy I wanted years ago.

Now about this year - I don’t need a thing. I have everything I need or have room for but sure hope you can bring all the little kids what they ask for. Hope you and Mrs. Claus are both well. Thanks for everything.

Dorothy, Age 98

I heard from one of Santa's helpers that Old Grandma might be getting a doll buggy of her own this year. I'm sure he won't forget to bring Old Grandpa a surprise, too.

And, yes, in case you were wondering, I DO know how incredibly lucky I am to still have 2 great grandparents living, in addition to all of my grandparents. Christmas blessings all around!

Organic Shape Monsters

2011-12-19T22:15:00.000-06:00

The inspiration for this lesson came from Joanna Davis at We Heart Art- Organic Shape Monsters. I love (LOVE!) her idea of using yarn tied in a not to teach organic shape.

Source: ourartlately.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

I pinned the idea for the yarn, intending to do something different with it, but my 1st graders and I were kind of on a monster/wild thing kick so it stuck in my head! I do try not to look at many photos when I'm planning that way it's easier to kind of put my own spin on it. Not that there is anything wrong with not spinning, or that I really spun this one all that much. Each student got a piece of yarn that I had already tied in a knot and moved it on their paper until they got an organic shape that they liked. They traced with pencil then added details. I told them that their monsters had to have a mouth and at least one eye, some sort of pattern, and a way to get around (does it walk, fly, swim?) After planning in pencil, the students used markers to add details. I always have to remind the students to use the right size tool for the job. I put out regular size markers for coloring in big areas and skinny markers just for tracing lines and adding little details. Of course you'll always have a few students trying to color in their whole monsters body with a teeny tiny marker. I like to just hand those students a marker of the right size and walk away.

The first class was for drawing and starting to add color. I didn't want to keep these as plain drawing since the students had already made Wild Thing drawings and I was trying to decide what exactly to do when I saw a photo my Art Teacher friend, Miss Ihrig, posted on Facebook of her students monsters cut out and glued onto bright colored construction paper- perfect! It was also good since I hadn't cut or glued much with 1st grade yet this year. I took the opportunity to talk to the students about contrast before I let them choose their construction paper. I have a bunch of little girls who LOOOVE pink and would make everything with pink markers and pink crayons on pink paper if I let them. The problem is that monochromatic artwork when everything is the same color is a little hard to see. (They can't quite pull off the subtlety of Rothko's black on black paintings...) I encouraged them to try holding their monster up to different colored backgrounds to see what looked best. Most just pretended to consider other colors then picked their favorite anyway. :)

After carefully cutting and gluing, I asked the students to write a story about their monster. If they needed more prompting, I asked them to tell me their monster's name and something they like to do. I printed off a half sheet writing paper template so they would have the lines they are used to writing on. When the writing was finished, I taped it from the back so their story is visible below their artwork. Students who were super speedy added details to their background with construction paper crayons. Or markers if I didn't notice in time! I think the story was the most interesting part of some. I have some leftover writing paper that I held onto for future lessons because it made their writing so much easier to read.

4th Grade Jazz Paintings

2011-12-15T21:23:00.000-06:00

Source: kbraunweb.com via Katie on Pinterest

I discovered Ray Berman's paintings when I was researching art from southern Africa. Ray Berman grew up in South Africa but moved to Swaziland during Apartheid. He makes colorful abstract paintings that show the influence of the urban jazz music he grew up listening to. My 4th grade students viewed images of Berman's paintings, like the picture above and compared them to Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII below.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Katie on Pinterest

My district's Art curriculum focuses mostly on the Elements of Art but with this project I wanted the students to think more about the Principles with this lesson and what they have in common with music. The students were able to identify rhythm and harmony as being music and art words. It was pretty easy for them to figure out that "rhythm" in Art is like a visual beat but it took a little more prompting for them to get the definition of harmony. I'm about to tell you a little story of embarrassing myself for the sake of education. I asked the students what it means if people are singing in harmony. One answered "singing the same song". I knew that wasn't quite going deep enough so I asked the student to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and to keep singing no matter what I did. I let him get about half a verse out before I started singing from the beginning in my very best horrible opera voice. The students laughed and then understood when I pointed out that they would have to be singing together, not just the same thing. So "harmony" in Art is the elements working together and looking good together.

And in the next part of the lesson, technology failed me, and later the music teacher saved me. I had found some videos of South African Jazz on YouTube as well as another website that would play South African Jazz music. I tested the link the week before and when I went to play the music for my first class, my district's internet filters had changed and YouTube was blocked. Then the music on my backup website would not play. So instead of listening to jazz while creating abstract paintings, my students painted to REM. Good music, but not quite the same. I talked to our music teacher and she hooked me up for my classes the next week. She brought a bunch of jazz music VHS tapes and showed me how to run the audio from the VCR through the speakers in my classroom. I just had to fast forward through a few speaking parts to get to the music. I can't remember the titles of some of the songs but let's just saw there was some laughter. I had enough paint out at each table* that I didn't need to refill any and was able to paint along with the students (when I wasn't fast forwarding) and we all enjoyed it. It's not uncommon for me to play music while the students paint, but this was one of the first times I had asked the students to paint the music.

*I've found that my students get better results with abstract painting when they are given only the primary colors and white. They can mix any color they want without you having to refill or waste supplies and it keeps everything unified.

The schedule ended up being uneven again so only one class finished the project how I had originally planned. I played music again in the second class period and the students were to draw, cut, and glue an instrument then add lines with oil pastels that showed the beat of the music. I'm kind of glad that the other classes' projects remained abstract paintings because in most of the pieces, I felt the instruments actually took away from the project. I invite you to check out some of the other results below or see more in our Artsonia gallery.

Camryn363 says this about his/her art...

This is a saxaphone. We listened to music while makeing this. The lines are to the beat to the music.

Peighton14 says this about his/her art...

In this picture I made an instrument to go on top of my design. The notes are coming out of the instrument.

1st Grade Wild Self Portraits and Wild Thing Costume

2011-12-14T20:44:00.000-06:00

This is a project that had a few nice results, but was overall very frustrating for me as well as the students. First, we looked at some Abstract Expressionist paintings and talked about how the style looks wild. I started by projecting Lavender Mist by Jackson Pollock and asking the students to just look and think before they said anything else. Then I asked them to share observations or opinions. Some said it was pretty while some said it was "nothing" or definitely not Art. If they said it wasn't Art, I asked them why. I told them it's ok to have different opinions but they should think about the why.

Source: nga.gov via Katie on Pinterest

I showed the first class a video of Pollock painting but they were super bored so I just showed a photo to the rest of the classes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Katie on Pinterest

We also looked at a de Kooning painting so I could show them an abstract style where you can still pick out some recognizable features.

Source: nelson-atkins.org via Katie on Pinterest

Up to that point, everything was going ok. My plan was for the students to make Abstract Expressionistic paintings the first day that would serve as the background for cut paper self portraits. The painting was pretty messy, and there was a clothing casualty when a para's white sweater got paint squirted all over it, but not too bad considering what they were up to! I put out tempera paint in the primary and neutral colors. I got smarter after the first class and took away the black paint.

Naked person with 3 toes...

In the second class, I demonstrated cutting and gluing construction paper shapes. I showed the students how they didn't need to cut out the part of the body that would be covered by clothes since it wouldn't show. I think only a few actually did it how I showed them and just made the arms and legs stick out from behind the clothes. Even after tons of reminders that it wouldn't show and things like "you only have 5 minutes left to work so make sure your self portrait has a face and clothes", I ended up with LOTS of little naked people, thankfully not anatomically correct! I think I can usually figure kids out but I just could not get inside a 1st graders' brain and understand why they couldn't let go of having to make the whole body then put clothes on it. I guess because they know their bellies are under their shirts in real life so they have to be under the shirts of their artwork. I dont' know. But none of us were enjoying it enough to add another class so we called it good practice with cutting and gluing and moved on to something else.

I also just realized that I never posted the Halloween costume I made for my son. Now do you understand the Where the Wild Things Are kick I was on? I thought about making a Charlie Brown costume but decided that would be too easy. :)

I eventually decided to make my son be a wild thing. I painted bleach stripes onto a brown zip-up hooded sweatshirt then sewed some cheap brown furry fabric onto the hood. I cut slits in the fur so it would fit around the felt horns I made. I really just cut two layers of the horn shape, sewed it, then flipped it so the seam was on the inside. I kind of popped it open with my finger before pinning it down and they really stayed standing up great. They are actually still standing even after being washed since it's a fun jacket now. The pants were a little trickier. I started with a base of brown sweatpants and covered them with layers of a cream colored fabric cut to resemble the texture of the wild thing's legs from the book. I used fabric glue to help hold it in place while I sewed. I had to sew it by hand and I'm glad I checked it before sewing all the way down because there was a problem: I forgot about the elastic in the pants! When I sewed on the fabric it made the pants way to tight to pull up. So, not willing to give up, I pulled off the layers I had sewn on, sewed them together separately, and added velcro so I could just wrap it around after we got the pants on. I also added a furry looking feather boa from Hobby Lobby (my happy place) to make the tail. So in summary, it took a lot of time and problem solving, and probably didn't cost less than a store bought costume, but I'm pretty proud of it. My mom always made our costumes and I've always wanted to be that kind of mom.

I am Wild When I...

2011-12-14T19:27:00.001-06:00

Before the movie Where the Wild Things Are came out a couple years ago, there was a really awesome blog for it (We Love You So). They posted things about the movie, Maurice Sendak's book, and just cool artwork. One thing I remember seeing, though there is too much information for me to locate the exact link now, was a kids' activity where they were asked to finish the sentence "I am wild when I ______." I wanted to do some WTWTA art projects back in October and didn't want to stick with just drawing wild things (though we did that too, in 1st grade). I printed off sheets with the beginning of the sentence and space for the students to dictate their writing to me. I read the book to them and we talked about the story, especially the parts where Max was acting wild. I asked them to think of when they are wild like having fun, not wild like going to hurt someone. The students drew an illustration for their sentence and I wrote it for them in sharpie. If I were doing this with older kids, I would have asked them to write their own sentence. Since some of the Kinders are still learning to recognize letters, I figured there was nothing wrong with me printing it for them. This project was easily done in one class period. I loved the different answers the students came up with. Some tried to tell me exactly the same thing as a student they were sitting by but it didn't take too much prompting for them to think of something else to say.

"I am a triangle"- what a silly little boy, he is a Pre-K student that comes to Art with a Kindergarten class.

This little guy was definitely inspired by the book!

Visual Poetry inspired by Austin Kleon

2011-12-10T22:43:00.001-06:00

I first learned about Austin Kleon when his "Steal Like An Artist" essay was being posted all over the place last spring. (By the way, the book version is coming out in the spring.) I explored the website of the "writer who draws" and saw his newspaper blackouts, like the one below, Overheard on the Titanic, which are super cool!

Source: 20x200.com via Katie on Pinterest

Kleon makes poetry by starting with a newspaper and blacking out the words he doesn't need to make a new meaning.

I decided it would be fun to try the technique with my 6th grade students. Because I wanted to make it a one class period project, I chose about 20 newspaper articles/horoscopes/editorials with interesting words and photocopied them. Part of me wanted to just give the students a newspaper but I knew I would end up with students who had not chosen an article to work on by the end of class. I suggested that the students scan the article for words that jumped out at them and underline those words with pencil. That way they could see their choices and construct their phrase or sentence while still being able to fix mistakes. Next, they were supposed to draw a box around the words with sharpie and black out the words they didn't need anymore. By drawing the box first, the students were less likely to get in a hurry and black out an important word. Quite a few are pretty hard to read because they still got too close to the words. If you do this with your students, make sure to remind them to leave as much space around the word as they can. I didn't say that had to, but most of the students checked with me before starting with sharpie. I was able to give some advice, like to make it shorter, or construct a new meaning because some were basically summarizing the article. Another thing the students have to think about is how to direct the viewer/reader's eye. If the article has columns based on how they use the sharpie, the students can make you read left to right or down each column.

Before I presented the lesson to the next group of students, I found one of Kleon's newer blackouts that makes a subtle picture with the negative space. I encouraged the students to think more about the negative space and the overall design. I'll admit that a few students were a little confused as to why we were doing this in Art class. I told them that it was part poetry and part visual art because of how they created the design with sharpie.

Source: store.austinkleon.com via Katie on Pinterest

You all know how I love bulletin boards. I was ready to switch out my design and thought this would be a good opportunity to explain what the artwork was all about. Plus, I was excited to use the old joke. I covered the background in newspaper first. I don't have many borders so I put out an email to see if I could borrow a red border from anyone. I got some offers but the reds were all more red-orange, not what I had pictures. So, I decided to just dry brush a red tempera paint border on. Then I used some of the leftover red paint to make a frame around the explanation. I had die-cut letters for "What's black and white and 'read' all over?" and glued them to black construction paper so I can reuse the title some day and not have to worry about keeping all the letters together. I filled in the extra space with some student work. Also, I was relieved to find out that most of the students still know this joke! Or at least some silly version of it.

Mandalas & Inspiration Avenue

2011-12-08T20:07:00.001-06:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was taking a *FREE* online Mandala class from Willowing.ning. I really enjoyed it! I usually prefer asymmetry but I wanted to learn more about mandalas so I can feel confident teaching my students how to make them. We used a compass and ruler to create the design then I painted some with watercolor pencils and some with regular watercolors before adding more designs with ink.

The circles are a little distorted. Since the paper doesn't fit easily on my scanner I had to photograph them. One of the shapes I created in the mandala on the left reminded me of a cicada so I just went with it.

Inspiration Avenue hosts a weekly blog party challenge. They disappeared from my blog roll for about a month* but I actually remembered to check the theme this week. This week's theme is Christmas Balls. I had yet to finish one of my mandalas so I thought I would be festive and turn it into an ornament. Maybe I'll find a relative to give it to for Christmas!

*They show up again now all of a sudden so I don't have to remember on my own!

Easy Sub Plan- Bold Lines

2011-12-07T21:01:00.001-06:00

I needed an easy sub plan a few weeks ago and I was reminded of a lesson I saved as a Favorite on Artsonia. I'm sure lots of you have seen this lesson before, I recently saw it on the Kids Artists blog.
If you are on Artsonia, the lesson was posted by Linda Welling from Cedar Creek Elementary School. The lesson id is 2665.

The basic idea is for the students to draw a bold, interesting line in marker then "echo" it with different colors. Next, the negative space is filled in with line and shape designs.

This lesson was done with 4th and 6th grade classes in one 40-minute class period. Judging from the results I found when I got back to school, it was enough time for most students on 9x12 inch paper. I left the same sub plan last week but apparently forgot to specify the paper size. (40 minutes is NOT enough time for 12x18 inch paper!)

It looks like the students enjoyed the project and some of them definitely took the idea and made it their own!

This student figured out that writing in cursive makes one line. By the way, it cracks me up that students in Kansas make things about surfing!

Several students filled in all the negative space with color but still made some cool patterns. I like what she did in the lower left corner.

Getting geometric...

These two were pretty straight forward and very cautious. It shows the personality of these two students!

And a few students drew pictures of objects instead of lines and shapes. Objects like hotdogs. :)

African Art Bulletin Board

2011-12-07T20:16:00.001-06:00

I really enjoy making bulletin boards- here is the display I created at my 4th-6th grade school to show everyone outside the Art room what the students had been learning about inside the Art room. The background is painted directly on the bulletin board so I don't have to mess with butcher paper unless I really feel like it. I wish I had time to make my own borders every time! This time I cut construction paper into strips that had a consistent width but were different lengths. I just dry brushed an analogous color to add interest then arranged and glued onto black paper which I laminated.

I designed project descriptions with some of the reference images and resources for each project. Copies of these also went to the district Art show so viewers could understand the significance. I added QR Codes in case some iPhone toting parent stopped to look but I just checked and found that nobody has scanned them. I will keep adding QR codes to things just in case, and because they are just fun! I also have a QR code outside each of my classrooms directing people to our Artsonia galleries.

Letters cut from painted paper

Map of Africa with yarn connecting the project to the location of the culture

3rd Grade Polar Bear in a Snowstorm

2011-11-29T20:31:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd give you all a break from my African Art lessons and show you something different that we just finished last week.

I remember when I was in grade school, somebody would hold up a blank piece of paper and exclaim that it was a "polar bear in a snowstorm". I always thought it would be fun to really make a picture of a polar bear in a snowstorm.

This was a two class period project. First, we talked a little about idioms and the polar bear in a snowstorm saying. Then I used a paint chip to introduce "value" to the students as an Element of Art. I demonstrated painting blue at the top of their paper, white at the bottom, and gradually blending the two to make a tint of blue in the middle. This was really good practice for the students and something they had never really tried before. Most were able to get a pretty smooth transition and while some ended up with stripes, they still created new values. I used blue construction paper for the background so we could use up some of my not-so-high-quality tempera paint and not have to use 5 coats. At the end of the first class, I passed out 9x6 inch white drawing paper and the students started drawing polar bears. I printed off some photos for them to reference and offered to demonstrate drawing a polar bear so the students could follow along if they wanted. Usually when students draw along with me, they are more confident because they can see how I approach drawing. This time it backfired! The students kind of freaked out about it (for lack of a better term). Needless to say, after the first day I didn't demo and just told students to do their best looking at the pictures.

In the second class period, the students finished drawing the outline of their polar bears then I demonstrated using blue construction paper crayons to add some shadows to the bear's body. The students cut and glued their polar bears to the background then added shadows on top of the snow. The last step was to add flecks of white paint to make the snow storm. In the first class we tried using toothbrushes to flick the paint and that didn't work very well. Tuesday rolled around and my new plan was to water down the paint and put it in a spray bottle. As long as the students didn't go crazy squirting a bunch of times without looking, it worked well. I also think it could be fun to use the spray bottle for some Abstract Expressionistic paintings some day.

I hope you'll check out some more examples below. It was pretty entertaining to hear the students make up stories about their artwork and see the different bears.

This was created in one class since the student was sick on the first day. Just gave the blue paper and a white crayon to create value in the background then everything else was the same.

Some students drew quickly and used their scraps to create large polar bear families...

Some got in a hurry to make lots of polar bears and just cut out bubbles...

Some polar bears were feeling a little blue...

Some made bears that were really looooooong...

Some polar bears were leaping so fast that their shadows could not keep up...

And some had really tall shadows!

We all enjoyed this project (especially making the storm) and as I was hanging the paintings this afternoon, I was already hearing positive comments! The end.

Paper Towel Problem Solved

2011-11-29T20:15:00.001-06:00

I had a problem. In my classroom bathroom (my room used to be a preschool classroom), I would find tons of paper towel trash all over the floor whenever students washed their hands after a messy project. I tried just remind them to get their paper towel in the trash can and telling them we shouldn't make our awesome custodians' jobs harder and none of it worked.

One day I was thinking about Emotionally Intelligent Signage like I've seen on Daniel Pink's blog. I came up with an idea that is not exactly emotionally intelligent but catches the students' attention with something they can relate to.

I printed a really simple sign (shown above) that says:

Paper Towel in the Trash Can 100 POINTS!!!

Paper Towel on the floor... GAME OVER

Added some smiley faces and sad faces and some burst shapes behind the points, laminated it, and taped it to the paper towel dispenser. At first I didn't think the students noticed it. Then a couple weeks ago, some started asking me why it was there, and now I have students who come out all excited because they "Scored 100 points!" Now there is rarely a stray paper towel on the floor, even on days when almost every class is painting. Now I just need to get my older students to stop using the paper recycling box as a trash can...

4th Grade Ndebele-Inspired Plaster Paintings

2011-11-22T21:54:00.001-06:00

In my last post I told you a little bit about traditional houses of the Ndebele tribe in Southern Africa. My 5th graders made paintings inspired by the outside of their houses while 4th grade students made artwork inspired by the inside. From Evergreen.edu,

"The second form of early designs were made by dragging the fingers through wet plaster, usually cow dung, to leave a variety of markings, from squiggles and zigzags to straight lines. In this form of painting, the entire wall was divided into sections, and each section was filled in with contrasting finger paint patterns..."

Source: academic.evergreen.edu via Katie on Pinterest

When I read the part about dragging fingers through wet plaster, I just could NOT get that idea out of my head! I knew that there were several small boxes of plaster left from who knows how many art teachers before me and I had never had a use for it before. I decided to do some experimenting and find a way to use it for this project. I do not have ~~very much~~ any real experience working with plaster so I learned on the fly. My first experiment was just a regular plaster/water mixture on cardboard which obviously flaked right off when it dried. Next, I tried mixing in glue and mod podge and that seemed to do the trick. It was kind of hard to get the right consistency every time so it worked really well in some classes and not that well in others. I finally figured out that part of my problem was the container I mixed it in. The first class of the day went really well. When I tried to mix more plaster in the same container, I hadn't had time to clean out the first batch of plaster so it reincorporated and ended up really lumpy. Just wish I would have realized it sooner! Modeling Paste would be a MUCH better choice than plaster for this project but I didn't have any on hand and couldn't order any supplies yet.

The first class was a quick introduction and demonstration. Each student got a piece of cardboard (I chopped cereal boxes into pieces) and wrote their name on the back. I went around and dumped some of the plaster mixture on each piece. The students spread the plaster quickly then used their fingers to divide it into sections and draw lines to make patterns in each. Some designs were pretty complicated and some were very simple based on how the students figured out to manipulate the plaster. When it didn't work out, it was more my fault than the students'. I told them that we were just trying something new to see how it would work and reminded them that we can learn even from "failures". I don't have any pictures from the first day because I was covered with plaster and didn't want my camera to be too!

In the second class, we reviewed different color schemes (warm, cool, complementary, monochromatic, neutral, primary secondary, etc.) and the students were supposed to pick one color scheme to use on their paintings. Some stuck with their scheme and some got confused and used different colors but that's ok, too. I did suggest using one color to paint the grooves from their fingers to make it easier to see the pattern. Prior to the painting session, I did quite a bit of work. The cardboard was bowed and I saw some really cool designs just starting to chip off. I was too stubborn to give up on the project, so I sort of glued as much of the plaster back to the cardboard as I could using bottled glue and mod podge. I also found that mod podge worked really well to seal everything back together after the projects were painted.

Bowed cardboard...

I'm filing this project in my "maybe try it again someday with better materials" category.

Complementary color scheme

Primary colors

Warm colors

Neutral colors- this one reminds me of a rib cage

Intricate design with cool colors

5th Grade Ndebele-Inspired Paintings

2011-11-20T19:57:00.001-06:00

My 5th grade African-inspired Art lesson was based on painted houses in South Africa created by the Ndebele tribe. (I had to look up how to pronounce it!) The designs on the houses are so cool- definitely the most inspiring thing I came across when researching Art from Southern Africa. The houses are painted by women in the tribe and usually feature geometric shapes, bright colors, and symmetrical designs.

Source: ndebelevillage.co.za via Katie on Pinterest

I decided that the project would be creating a painting that was inspired by the house paintings. The students were to make a symmetrical design with geometric shapes and then to tie in color theory, they had to mix each secondary color and at least one tint.

Source: academic.evergreen.edu via Katie on Pinterest

THIS was the best resource I found to explain the significance and process of the traditional Ndebele house paintings. The first step in creating the designs is to divide the wall into sections by creating diagonal lines. I let the students use the straight edge of a ruler to make diagonal lines (a big "X") from corner to corner and the rest of their designs were created with black tempera paint directly on the paper. Some acted nervous about not using pencils first but once they got started, everybody just relaxed into the process.

I originally planned for this to take 2 classes (I'm always optimistic) but I had to add a 3rd. The first day was for the introduction and using black tempera paint to plan out the symmetrical geometric design. In the 2nd class, the students were given tempera paint in the primary colors and white. In the 3rd class, the students finished painting with color and then did touchups with more black tempera paint. Several finished early and had time to write artist statements about their projects:

Cole1264 says this about his/her art...

I made a painting related to the Ndeble tribe with many colors. I used regular paints and geometric shapes. my art teacher told us to make them and make them imaginative. I learned how to say the name and I learned that mostly women do the painting. I think my painting is colorful and artistic. but, I think I could have used a bit more designs. I think the best part of my painting was the colors and the shapes.

Destiny2778 says this about his/her art...

I made a painting that is inspired by the people of the Ndebele tribe. my painting is a mixture of shapes, colors, and crazy designs, but I wish I didn't make so many shapes, that ws really confusing! Well... thanks for choosing my art to look at! :)

Kaelan34 says this about his/her art...

This is a painting that uses primary colors, secondary colors, and a tint color. People in the Ndebele tribe draw designs on their houses. Then they paint in the designs. Then they have a colorful house. it's pretty much what I did except on paper. This was a fun project.

I really loved this project and I think the students enjoyed it just as much as me! I'm calling it a keeper! I think it worked because the inspiration caught their attention and they were able to make personal choices within a structure. You can see more in our Artsonia exhibit.

When did "Craft" Become a Dirty Word? +Mandala Class

2011-11-16T22:09:00.001-06:00

This is something I think about from time to time... The definition of "craft" from dictionary.com is

noun

an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill,especially manual skill: the craft of a mason.

skill; dexterity: The silversmith worked with great craft.

skill or ability used for bad purposes; cunning; deceit; guile.

the members of a trade or profession collectively; a guild.

a ship or other vessel.

Craft would include things like weaving and pottery, which most of us would probably argue falls in the realm of Art. When did "craft" become a dirty word (at least to Art teachers...)? When did the definition change?

Probably when people started referring to trace this, cut this, glue it here, follow the directions at summer camp kind of stuff as craft.

And while I'm thinking ~~out loud~~ in writing, who says you can't make Art out of "crafty" materials? I can't remember the name of the artist, but this lady visited and gave a talk at ESU when I was in college and I remember her saying "I should be able to make Art, anytime, anywhere, and out of anything." That's why I don't turn down many donated materials. (That and my fear that Art budgets will continue to decrease each year.) I have a bunch of little furry pom-pons that someone gave me last week, I plan to use them to help my younger students explore texture and then let my older students use them to construct relief sculptures like the ones my 6th grade students completed last spring. I'm not trying to insult teachers who don't take supply donations- they may not have room to store them or may not have the need. But my point, I guess, is that I think Art can be made out of just about anything. And now I need to end this post and head to bed because this is starting to get really ramble-y.

One more thing, though! If you are interested in learning more about mandalas, Willowing.ning is hosting a FREE Mandala class taught by Guadalupe Brizuela Cabal. It started on Monday and will last two more weeks but it's not too late to join! I created 4 designs today- 2 starting with the template she provided and 2 all by myself with a compass and a ruler. I'm really enjoying it so far.

2011-11-15T20:49:00.001-06:00

My 6h grade African-inspired Art lesson was based on kangas, a garment popular in part of Eastern Africa. I read something that compared kangas to t-shirts because they can express lots of different ideas. The kanga information website that seemed the most authentic is Swahili Language and Culture. From my research, I found that the basics to a kanga design are a wide, even border (1), a central design (2), and some sort of saying (3). I showed the students images of kangas from SLC and my favorite is below. Some of the sayings would probably be easier to get the true meaning of if we were part of that culture, though I've read that they can have many different interpretations.

Source: culturemobile.wordpress.com via Katie on Pinterest

After discussing some of the kangas we saw, the students brainstormed idioms that they were familiar with. I was really impressed with how many different idioms they thought of! -I love idioms, so many possibilities for Art and Writing connections! The idea was basically to start with some sort of idiom or other saying, think of a simple illustration that could be drawn to illustrate the saying, and then design a pattern in the border.

My example at completion of the pencil/Sharpie step.

I planned for the first class to be introduction and drawing and the second class to be painting. Almost all of the students could have used another class period to work on these. Several came in during recess or finished at home using other media. My planning problem? I forgot about the ruler quandary that makes simple tasks take twice as long as you think they should. Even though I showed the students how to just line the edge of the ruler up with the edge of the paper then use the straight edge, there were still major problems! I have written about this before and I still just can't understand what the problem is. It took some students most of the first class just to get the border lines drawn on their paper. But, I was being stubborn and didn't add any time because these are the students I only see for 40 minutes (more like 30 when there is no pass time built into the schedule and we have to clean up at the end) every other week) and the students who said they would rather do more projects and work quicker than fewer projects with more work time. I sent any artwork that was not finished home and I maybe ended up with half of the projects for the grade finished. I'm not sure how successful the visual was, but I think this lesson has potential. If I teach it again, I will probably use different media. I could probably have given the students a template to work on but really, if they don't already know how to use a ruler to make a straight line, someone's gotta make them learn! Anyway, here are some of the finished paintings so take a look!

Paint Chip Game

2011-11-10T21:13:00.001-06:00

Paint chips are all over Pinterest! I've seen all sorts of projects using them and while I would feel guilty taking enough from the store for 100+ students to use, I didn't feel too bad taking just one of each primary, secondary, and neutral color. (I also took an extra black to help illustrate value.) I laminated the samples, cut each strip apart, and put them in a pencil case with the following directions to be used during an 8 minute rotation.

1. Sort the rectangles by color (al the reds together, all the blues together, etc.)

2. Put the colors in order of the color wheel (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)

3. By yourself, pick a pile of one color, like all the oranges. Put the rectangles in order from dark to light.

4. With extra time, invent your own game to play with them!

In the photo above, the directions are just taped to the bottom. I have since laminated the directions and added another piece of laminated paper with some vocabulary on it. Since I just had groups working on this for about 8 minutes, it was a good activity. The students were proud when they accomplished 1-3 and got pretty creative inventing their own games with #4. One group invented a game that was kind of like Go Fish but with colors and I'm sure there were several other good ideas.

This was a good way for students to work together to play with color and value and use their imagination and creativity to invent a game.

South African Rock Art- K/1st

2011-11-04T11:11:00.001-05:00

The inspiration for my Kindergarten and 1st grade African projects was Rock Art from South Africa. I know we are all familiar with the cave paintings in Lascaux, but I had never thought much about cave paintings in other locations. When I saw rock art that depicted giraffes, I knew I found my inspiration! I knew the students would be interested in the animals, it was a great way to introduce/review texture, and how can you go wrong when learning about some of the world's oldest artwork? I started the first class off by projecting and discussing this image. I asked the students first what they saw and then what they thought the animals were painted on. They really had to look and think and eventually someone guessed rock.

Source: blog.travelpod.com via Katie on Pinterest

I did a "follow the leader" drawing with Kindergarten- I tend to start them out pretty structured and gradually give them more freedom, plus, I think it is a good way to model how I look at drawing things and just fine in moderation- then in the 2nd class, the students crumbled their paper, rubbed with crayons on their side to show the texture, and added warm color with crayon. You should have seen the looks on the students' faces when I asked them to wad their drawings into a ball! I had to reassure them that it would be OK because some really didn't want to do it at first. I planned to draw elands (I had to look to see if that was really the plural form!) because I read they are the most spiritual animal in the San/Bushmen culture but after one class, I switched to giraffes. It must have been that the animal was unfamiliar but the students had a really bad case of the "I can't"s when we attempted elands. The giraffes went more smoothly overall. At the end of the project, most students had time to add other animals or people to their drawings.

First grade students had reference images of giraffes, elands, and horses. I did a probably 5 second drawing of each on the chalkboard to show how to break it down into smaller shapes and make them less intimidating then let the students have at it. They drew in pencil first, then colored their drawings with crayon. We discussed which colors to use and listed red, orange, yellow, brown, white, and peach.* I really stressed pressing hard with crayon and at the end of the class, told the students we would be using a faux-batik technique. I thought it would be a 2 class period project but needed to add an extra day to make sure they could all finish with crayon. In the 3rd class, we used the following technique for crayon batik that I learned from A Faithful Attempt. Most people suggest using copy paper but I actually used some 50# drawing paper that is not so good for drawing (gets fuzzy and tears when you try to erase). It worked pretty well so I'm glad I have a use for it now.

*TANGENT! If you don't want to read about a "race" thing, skip down to the next photo.
Ok, discussing crayon colors led to a big discussion about SKIN color! Not what I had in mind! When I was listing colors, I said "peach". A student asked what peach was and before I could hold up a crayon to show them, another student says "That's what color our skin is. Well, except for _______ and _________ and..." I jumped right in and said that nobody has skin exactly that color because it's just a crayon, we all look different and it's ok, it's part of what makes us unique, blah blah blah, now back to the project. The student who pointed out the different skin colors is not a racist. She was not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, it was like it just occurred to her that we don't all look the same. As the students were working back at their tables, I hear little conversations breaking out about skin colors again. Now, I think I work in a fairly diverse school but the majority of the students are white. A little girl came up to me and said "_____ said that I'm black." I waited and she added "but my mom says I'm 'dark brown'." I talked to her and the whole class AGAIN about the crayon/skin color thing and thought we were good. I got an email from her mother the next day asking that the seating chart be adjusted so that she would not be next to the little boy who "made racist comments". The mother was not being unreasonable or making demands, just concerned and said that she wanted to make sure her daughter continued to have the best experience possible. I replied to the email and said that I would adjust my seating chart but I wanted to explain the situation. I told her that the little boy who made the comment was not trying to e racist, just making observations without the maturity to realize that it could be insensitive. The thing that I think is funny about the whole situation, is that when the little girl talked to me, she was more upset that he said the wrong color for her skin than that he said a color at all. Now I'm trying to be even more vigilant about correcting students when they refer to "peach" as "skin color".

I made a step by step visual for my bulletin board.

2nd Grade Kalahari Animal Silhouettes

2011-10-27T22:19:00.001-05:00

This is the lesson my 2nd graders completed for the African Art themed project the Art teachers in my district were doing K-12. I found another artist whose work I really enjoy and the students respond to on the Art of Africa. The painting (image from Pinterest below) is called "Crocodile and Elephant" and was created by Andry Kashivi, an artist from Southern Africa.

Source: theartofafrica.co.za via Katie on Pinterest

This lesson ended up taking three 40-minute class periods.

Day 1: Introduction. View and discuss the artwork with lots of emphasis on description and breaking the painting down to elements. After the students identified the animals, they learned the word silhouette (ok, some learned it) and identified the shapes in the background as organic. I told them that they would be creating artwork inspired by Kashivi's paintings with brightly colored organic shapes in the background and the silhouette of Kalahari Desert animals on top. After the first class, I realized that I would need to guide the students through drawing their organic shapes or they would never, ever finish painting. I asked them to draw two lines from side to side and one line from top to bottom that were a "medium amount of curvy". I had to get kind of specific or some went crazy with lots of loops and I knew it would take too long to paint. I did tell the students that their shapes did not have to look exactly like mine, they just needed to use the right kind of lines to get a good amount of shapes. Most classes had enough time to begin painting at the end of the first class.

Day 2: Finish painting! I put trays of tempera paint in bright yellow, orange, magenta, and green at each table. Students who painted fast added a second coat of paint. We all really enjoyed the bright colors.

Day 3: I showed the students images of Kalahari Desert animals and put black and white copies at their tables. The students were given a half sheet of black construction paper on which to draw their animals. Originally I was going to have the students paint the silhouettes but they acted freaked out and said they would rather cut. I'm undecided on if this was a good move or not. In my demonstration I showed the students how to just draw the outline of the animals, not all the details on the body. I spent a few minutes modeling cutting the shapes and showed them my tricks for tricky areas. I also asked them to flip the animals over when they glued so that no pencil marks would show. Some remembered, some didn't. In the last few minutes of work time, I showed the students how they could use the end of their paintbrushes to make dots for eyes with white and red paint. You can see in the picture below that some went a little crazy with the dots!

The next picture is a comparison of 2nd grade cutting skills. The student on the left was really careful and didn't chop off any limbs. (I did show students who accidentally cut off legs how to glue both pieces on their paintings so that they touched "like puzzle pieces".) The student on the right... well, I'm not sure what kind of animal it was supposed to be. Even though some students struggled with cutting, most were trying hard. Some just cut out blobs of shapes and didn't cut in between legs, for example, until I asked them about it. Then they acted confused!

I think if I were to teach this lesson again, it would be with older students. These examples are probably the best results from the grade. I think it was just a bit too tricky for most of my 2nd graders to translate the shape of animals, and not so familiar animals at that, into silhouettes. I think the silhouettes would have been easier to see if they were painted instead of cut out but then the drawing would have been a problem. But, we reviewed shapes, learned about some new animals, and had fun making some colorful artwork so in that way, it was a success. You can see the rest of the student artwork in our Artsonia gallery.

How can I not do this lesson again?

2011-10-26T22:24:00.000-05:00

Not a very good quality photo but you get the idea!

Every once in a while I like to read through the comments left on artwork in my school's Artsonia gallery. I just noticed a comment that a little brother left on his sister's clay turtle from last year.

The turtle is colorful, I am sorry for it breaking! I will make you one when I make mine in 1st Grade!!! love-- Jason

How sweet is that? How can I not repeat the lesson now? :)

Commenting

2011-10-25T21:59:00.001-05:00

Enjoy some golden mums...

I just wanted to write a quick post to tell those of you whose blogs I follow- I'm reading even if I'm not commenting! I usually check for new posts while I'm eating lunch (and doing other multitasking) at school and for some reason, I am never able to comment from there. I can read all my blogs and I've even written posts (usually hoping someone reading somewhere can help me find a quick answer to a problem) but when I try to comment, Google makes me log in multiple times and tells me I don't have permission or access or something like that. Sometimes I have enough mental fortitude left to remember to pull up the post at home before bed and comment, but by then I've probably forgotten what I was going to say. I know I'm not the only one with problems like this. Anyway, just wanted to tell all of you wonderful bloggers that I AM reading!

Mixed Media Paper Weaving

2011-10-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

This project was done with 4th-6th grade students in my ED class. It started off as being loosely inspired by Kente cloth. We noticed that the warp and weft strips of Kente cloth often has contrasting patterns. I gave the students two long strips of paper, markers, and a handout with what the colors traditionally symbolize in Kente cloth. I didn't tell them they had to use colors based on the symbolism, I think they all just used colors they liked to make their lines and patterns. We used Mr.Sketch markers and I love the bright colors. It was taking a REALLY long time (it ended up taking 4 class periods) so I eventually gave them tempera paint to use for their second strip or to fill in gaps on their first. Some didn't finish filling in all the white space and that's ok, too. The last class was for actually weaving the paper. I showed them how to fold one piece in half and cut vertical slits to make the warp and cut the other piece of paper into horizontal strips for the weft. They all did a really good job with the over, under pattern. We added tiny dots of glue for extra security and the weavings are now being displayed in the hallway.

Working with this class is kind of unique. I really enjoy the smaller class size (never more than 10 students) so we can try some things that I wouldn't attempt with a full class. These students, who span 3 grades, are mostly in a self-contained class but sometimes miss for special activities with their individual grades. So, it can be kind of tricky to get projects finished when some miss and others are there. 3 of the students missed half the class periods we spent on this project. 2 of those 3 were gone on the day we wove and one was there but only had 1 paper finished, hence the piece kind of in the middle with construction paper weft. I just let him pick the colors he wanted and create his pattern. Sometimes it can be stressful to figure out how to quickly adapt lessons for students who have missed and sometimes it's kind of a fun challenge. The worst is when a younger student was gone, doesn't tell you they were gone, and just sits there while everyone else works until you notice 10 minutes into class because you've been so busy passing out materials and helping other students! But, that's an issue for another day.

I had a really short week! I ended up staying home with my sick son on Monday and Wednesday though I did go in for conferences Wednesday night and 12 hours yesterday. I know I really worked my hours for today but it was nice to have a scheduled day "off." Hope you all have a great weekend!

Steve Jobs Quote

2011-10-21T08:42:00.002-05:00

‎"We do not teach the arts to create great artists anymore than we teach math to create the next generation of mathematicians or language arts to create the next generation of writers. We teach the arts in our schools to create great people so they are empowered with skills and knowledge to be successful in life… to do great things regardless of the vocational pathway they choose." Steve Jobs

Enough said.

Sub Plans- Lesson Learned

2011-10-19T08:09:00.001-05:00

Sooo.... I used to have a folder with sub plans in it. Then I decided to re-do the whole thing and ditched it. I had it on my to-do list but turns out it should have been a lot closer to the top! Today is the second day this week that my son has been sick with some sort of stomach virus. It was also the second morning that I found myself trying to quickly type sub plans and email to our school secretary! I had plenty of ideas, I just wanted to be able to present them better so I put it off. Lesson learned!

Conferences start tonight after school and go 12 hours tomorrow. I'm hoping that he'll be feeling better by this afternoon so I can go in (and just because I feel bad when he's sick.) Not that I'll probably have any parents stop to see me, I just would rather only use 8 sick hours than 12 since I had to use all my days last year for maternity leave.

What Inspires You? Inspiration Avenue

2011-10-17T22:00:00.003-05:00

I recently started following the Inspiration Avenue blog. They feature a weekly themed challenge for your artwork. This week was the first time that I read the challenge on time and it worked out for me to make an entry! Even on the weeks that I don't get to the challenge, I still enjoy thinking about how I could interpret it and seeing what other people come up with. The theme for this week is "On the Wings of Inspiration"- what inspires you? When I think about what inspires my artwork I come up with color, texture, and nature. I think that's why I really enjoy night photography and keep adding to my series. Color and texture are definitely my favorite Elements of Art and I emphasize them when I make my own artwork

I keep thinking my garden is done for the year and then I get a nice surprise! I have some beautiful cosmos blooming right now. We are supposed to get a hard freeze this week so I'm glad I made myself go out in the cold night to make some photos. You can see some of my other night photography on my Flickr account!

Cardboard Construction and Water Painting

2011-10-16T22:36:00.001-05:00

I'm sure we've all read a lot about using stations or centers in the Art room. I don't use them regularly, but I do utilize them at least a few times a year. I used stations last week with some of my 3rd grade students. I wanted the students to type artist statements for their first projects into Artsonia so while one student at a time was doing that, the others were rotating to different stations. I wanted to come up with stations that did not involve drawing, just for something different. One, geometric shape tile pictures, I had used before but I tried a couple new things. I had 4 stations total and the groups rotated to each during the class period. They ended up with about 6-7 minutes at each station.

1. Water painting on the chalkboard! I read about letting Kinders paint with water on sidewalks at the beginning of the school year and that idea stuck with me. (I first read about it on B Art Z but I think the original idea came from Hands Head n Heart) One day I was trying to explain to some students how to turn their brush to cover a wider area and it popped into my head to show them with water on the chalkboard. I guess this is one time I prefer it to a whiteboard. For this rotation, I just put styrofoam cups with a little bit of water in them and big brushes on the chalkboard tray and let the students paint lines with water. I didn't tell them what to paint, just let them explore and be amazed at their temporary paintings. It worked pretty well besides when a couple students decided to use the brushes to fling water instead of "painting" with it. We just wiped with paper towels to speed dry time for the next group.

2. Building with recycled materials. This was so obvious that I can't believe I never did it before! I save all my paper towel tubes. I like to use recycled materials for projects, I just have to have over 100 of anything before I have enough for each student to do a lesson. I pulled out some paper towel tubes, cardboard pieces, plastic trays that someone gave me, and the little "ladders" I saved from old watercolor trays. I told the students when they were at that table, they just had to build something from the materials working together with their group. I did not set a specific challenge. Some used it to create architectural designs, some decided to see how tall of a tower they could build. I did put a stop to the tall tower thing temporarily when students started to climb on top of the tables to reach higher. Honestly, they were being careful and I think it would have been pretty safe (my brother and I were always doing stuff like that when we were younger) but I figured since we were at school and I don't want to get in trouble, they could only build towers as tall as they could reach from the floor. It was cool to see them learn about balance and figure out how to make the structures more sturdy. The students asked when they could do it again! There was definitely lots of critical thinking and problem solving happening!

I found a big tub of blocks so one other station was individual building. This student wanted me to take a picture of her tower, too.

I have plans for other non-drawing (not that I don't love drawing) stations but I have yet to test them out. I promise to share the results after I do test them with students.

3rd Grade Kalahari Animal Prints

2011-10-12T18:46:00.000-05:00

Africa is a focus for my district's K-12 Art team this year to coincide with our high school's Cultural Heritage Week. Every student is learning about Africa and creating an African-inspired artwork. 3rd grade students were inspired by the artwork of Katunga Carimbwe, whose prints I discovered here while searching for Art from Southern Africa. The Art of Africa website specializes in Arts and Crafts of San/Bushmen people. There is a lot of cool artwork there so I encourage you to check it out! (An upcoming post will show you a 2nd grade project inspired by another artist found on that website.)

Source: theartofafrica.co.za via Katie on Pinterest

I really enjoyed Carimbwe's printmaking and thought the students would respond well to the stylized animal imagery. The assignment was to draw an animal from the Kalahari Desert (which I've read is not a "true" desert due to the amount of precipitation but let me get back to the point,) and turn it into a print. I ordered some 4x6 inch plates made out of the same kind of foam as meat trays... and I can't remember what it's called!

In the first class, I showed the students images of Carimbwe's artwork and asked them if they could identify a theme (animals/nature). I read them part of the artist's biography and showed them where Southern Africa is on a world map. Next, I showed them where the Kalahar Desert is. I wanted to avoid lumping everything into "African" so my strategy was to pick a specific place and research animals that live there. I printed reference photos for several of the animals from that habitat and put them in folders at each table for easy access.* I gave a quick introduction to printmaking and passed out some cheap drawing paper cut to 4x6 inches to match the plate size. The students had the rest of the class to choose and draw a Kalahari Desert animal. I did point out how the artist used patterns and borders in his prints and encouraged the students to do the same.

*And now I remember why I don't use folders at the tables very often. It drives me BATTY when the students don't put the papers back in the folders neatly, which is the case about 98.3% of the time. If the papers are just thrown in there they get all bent and torn which defeats the purpose of the folder!

In the second class, the students placed their drawings on top of the foam plates and traced with pencil. If you use this method, it is really important to have students trace back over their lines on the plate after removing the drawings to make the lines deep enough. By the time they finished that step, there wasn't a ton of class time left! I demonstrated inking a plate and pulling a print and the students had time to make one print. It was at this point in my first class that I realized I was going to have to add one more class period. I haven't been able to order supplies yet (and actually haven't gotten an answer to what my budget's going to be yet) so I had to use black tempera paint instead of printing ink. It worked ok, but printing ink definitely works better.

In the third class, I had the students use watercolors to hand-color their prints from day 2 while I worked with individuals. I had one printmaking station set up and called one student at a time over to me. I gave them a private demo and helped them get one nice black and white print. Even though I hadn't planned on 3 class periods, it was cool to see the original drawing, a more traditional black and white print, and a very colorful print!

I had to narrow down my 105(ish) students' work to the top 4 that will be displayed in an Art show at the high school and it was HARD! I can't wait to see what the students write for their artist statements!

Vincent Van Scarecrow

2011-10-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

This is the scarecrow that I put together for a contest in my hometown. I am involved with Jackson County Arts and this is the idea I came up with for our entry this year. The body was already made from last year and while I doubt that Van Gogh was over 6 feet tall like our scarecrow, it worked. I made a paper mache head starting with a brown paper bag stuffed with newspaper. I added more newspaper and lots of masking tape to finish the base. I used liquid starch (that's all I had at school) to make the shell. I looked at several different self portraits of Van Gogh as a guide. I figured since it was a scarecrow and kind of a caricature I didn't need to put pressure on myself to make it totally realistic. I tried to leave brush strokes and not over-blend the paint. I found three colors of yarn that I combined to make his hair. After thinking it was going to take FOREVER to cut the yarn into little pieces, I finally realized that I could wrap all three strands around my hand to form a loop and cut lots of pieces at once. I added a gauze bandage around his head after I checked to make sure I was covering the correct ear. It bugs me a tiny bit that the "parts" don't match but I was just pulling the most recognizable parts from different paintings as inspiration. I even made a quick painting for the occasion- Starry Night over the Pumpkin Patch. After I stuck his head on my dog decided he was bad news and started growling and barking at the scarecrow.

We set up the scarecrow last night but had to take the accessories down so they wouldn't blow away. He looked really creepy without the supplies- like he was going to get you! It was pretty cool to see people stopping to pose by Vincent and I'm happy to say that we won 1st place! I'm already trying to think of ideas for next year. I have lots, I just need to figure out which are easy enough for people who are not art history buffs to figure out.

Reading Makes "Ewe" Smart

2011-10-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

We are working REALLY hard at school to encourage students to be "joyful readers". We use the AR program and while it motivates some students, well, not so much for others. I have always loved to read. I was the kid who never got in trouble except for staying up way past my bedtime reading with a flashlight under the covers so I'll admit that it can be hard for me to understand why kids wouldn't like reading! I try to talk to students about books I've read, ask them what they are reading, and model being a joyful reader during the 45 minutes weekly that one of my 5th grade classes comes to my room to AR read. I don't think I probably need to convince any Art teachers that it's important for kids to read- it should be important to everyone! But, if someone happens to be reading this that needs some convincing consider the following:

The 2 most common reasons that kids drop out of school are

Not feeling connected to their school and

LACK OF READING ABILITY!

The photo above is of my current bulletin board. It was up in time for Family Reading Night (happy accident with the timing) and has gotten a good response. I saw a poster with the saying last spring and took a picture with my iPhone (love that thing) so I would be sure to remember it. I saw a cool sheep painting on Pinterest that had lots of spirals and since I'm a sucker for them, I decided to use that idea. I usually take more time to make my lettering but I was in a hurry so I just painted the words on some paper. I'm getting ready for my next display so the sheep is probably going to go live outside the library with a sign that says something like "flock to the library for a good book." I think it's time to paint a new bulletin board background...

I'm re-reading the series!

I also made a little sign to hang on the wall where the students line up at the end of class that displays what book I'm reading, what page I'm on, and how many pages I've read at school this year, at least when I remember to update it. I just printed the words on copy paper then drew the book shape and laminated. I wish I had read that you can erase sharpie from laminated things with an eraser earlier. It really does work! It works SOOO much better than using a dry erase marker.

Source: misskindergartenlove.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

On my next sign I'll probably still print the words but I want to paint the paper to make it a little more interesting before laminating. Even though my sign is a little sloppy with dry erase smudges, the kids don't care! They look at the sign when they are in line and ask me about the books.

Do you do anything to encourage students to read? Not just your school's program but you?

Setting Goals and Turning 25

2011-10-05T20:33:00.002-05:00

In just over a month, I will turn 25. I have been trying to think of some sort of goal for the year. I tried a PROJECT 365 in 2010 but abandoned it about halfway through because I was sick and worn out from my pregnancy. I want to set a goal that is challenging but achievable and focused on making Art. I really think it is important for Art teachers to make our own Art. Now I just have to do it in stolen moments after my little guy is sleeping. I thought about doing another Project 365 but I want this to be enjoyable not stressful. While I take photos almost everyday, I don't do things half way and can just picture myself scrambling trying to find something to make a good photograph of when I should be in bed at night. I'm thinking my goal might be to make 25 pieces of Art over the 52 weeks. That is about one piece every 2 weeks. It could be a photo that I'm particularly proud of, painting, collage, anything. As long as it's Art that I'm making for my own purposes, not for a lesson plan! It seems doable at this point.

Do any of you set goals for your Art making?