we heart art

papel picada

2012-03-01T10:46:00.002-08:00

My fifth graders created these beautiful papel picada using bright sheets of copy paper! (Staples/Office Depot have reams of 500 sheets of neon paper--which you need to use because you can't really cut through construction paper!)

We used some of the techniques found in the book "Making Magic Windows" by Carmen Lomas Garza, who also explains the history behind papel picada and how she became so good at it!

Part of the fun was watching the kids as they opened up their papel picada and saw the different shapes and patterns they had created.

The other part I loved was watching them feverishly trying to layer their pieces so they were "just right"---even, symmetrical, and all visible (the three "musts" upon completion).

Just like every single one of my kids, these projects are all individuals.

Speaking of which, there is some interesting fodder over on a blog that I contribute to monthly regarding process-oriented art education and product-oriented art education. Where do you fall?If you tend to ride one side of the fence or the other, how do you nurture both theories? I find myself showing and guiding, but let the students take it from there. Many times they choose not to deviate from my examples. I left a lengthy comment about how students lose that zest for wreckless abandon once they get to intermediate elementary grades. What do you think?

batch watermarking using picasa

2012-02-28T07:10:00.005-08:00

I had a few questions on my last post about "batch watermarking" photos for use on your blog. As I said before, I think it's a good idea to watermark all your photos because there are some really dishonest people out there who will try to pass YOUR idea off as their own. TRUST ME.

I like using Picasa because it's FREE and EASY! In my "other life" I am a photographer and use Adobe's Lightroom for my professional pictures because I add a graphic watermark to my photos. For now, we'll use Picasa.

When you're in your Picasa gallery, select the photo(s) you'd like to watermark. See the screenshot above. To select multiple pictures click the first picture, go to the last and as you click on the last, hold down the "shift" key to highlight them all.

Go up to file,then scroll down to the option "export picture to folder".

This pop-up menu will come up. Up near the top, just click where you want your watermarked pictures to go. Down on the bottom there is a spot where you can check "watermark". Click the box, then right below it you can type in your web address/blog name, etc.

...and THAT'S IT! I learned the hard way, I hope this helps some of you out so you can learn from MY mistake. And please, pin away from my blog. I love seeing the things you extrapolate from my lessons and make into your own!

"pin"spiration

2012-02-27T19:02:00.002-08:00

Like many of you (I'm sure!) I've been "pin"spired by quite a few things I've seen on Pinterest! Most of the time if there is a lesson of mine that is an original, I'll put a "pin it" button on the bottom of the post, but now, I'm pretty much granting full pinning rights from my blog to Pinterest because I have this handy dandy "permission" pin over there>>>. You can get it, too, if you like your stuff pinned!
One thing that I have done more of lately, however, is watermark my photos that I use in blog posts. I'll never forget the first time I saw one of my students' projects on Pinterest and it had been snatched with no credit given to me (or to my student, I should say!) and had been repinned 57,000 times. Yes, 57,000 times and someone passed my exact photo off as their own....so I've been watermarking more. It's a good idea that you do it, too.
While in Art we're all "borrowing" ideas from one another, from a Master, a children's book, something in nature, or an idea on Pinterest....our artwork belongs to our kids. Make sure you've given yourself credit!
There are a lot of photo editing programs out there that will "batch" watermark your photos for you. For ease at school I prefer to use Picasa, and at home I like Lightroom. If you need help watermarking your photos in either of these programs, leave me a comment with your email and I can email you instructions!

watercolor o'keeffe's

2012-02-23T12:54:00.005-08:00

I love working on O'Keeffe projects every year...she's a great AMERICAN artist to discuss and her work really makes my kids LOOK at what they are drawing. Sometimes it is just so hard to have students draw what they SEE and not what they THINK THEY SEE.

Last year we did some beautiful O'Keeffe's using a viewfinder and magazine/calendar pictures. This year we used the same basic technique for drawing the flowers, enlarging the pictures onto a 12x18" sheet of watercolor paper.

This year I wanted to do something a little different, and decided to focus the project on contour line and contoured details. I had them use black pen to outline their drawings, then use watercolors to paint orgainic shapes over the tops of their flowers.
This was my "pin"spiration, this wet-on-wet flower I saw on Etsy. The shop is called "Terrace Gallery".

Some students really understood the concept of organic-vs-geometric shapes, and some just had fun with color. Either way, I'm loving the results!

As usual, thanks for stopping by!

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picasso's guitars

2012-02-23T12:42:00.002-08:00

Our Inspiration: Violin Hanging on the Wall. Possibly begun Sorgues, summer 1912, completed Paris, early 1913
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)Oil, spackle with sand, enamel, and charcoal on canvas25 9/16 x 18 1/8" (65 x 46 cm)Kunstmuseum Bern. Hermann and Margrit Rupf Foundation

We used ALLLLL sorts of nick-nacks and doo-dads for this project, and I suppose the sky is the limit! For the guitar bodies we used Folia corrugated colored cardboard. Lots of painted papers were used for different pieces and parts, and the backgrounds were made with tempera and texture palettes.

The only "direction" I gave them was that they had to incorporate music notes and a piano keyboard into the background somewhere. The rest was up to them!

These were made by third graders, and took 2x 55-minute classes. The finished size is 18"x24".

makin' macchia

2012-02-22T06:03:00.008-08:00

My kindergartners are making these beautiful "Macchia" in the style of Dale Chihuly! These are SUPER duper easy to make and every single one of them turns out breathtakingly beautiful.

Before we even started, I showed them a portion of the video "Chihuly in Action" so they could see how glass is actually blown and made. We then viewed some macchia from the Macchia Loop on his website. We talked about how "macchia" means "spotted" in Italian and about the process we would use to create Macchia of our own without using the dangerous supplies Chihuly uses to create the real deal. The kids loved how Chihuly initially called his Macchia series "the uglies"!!!

You will need:

3 coffee filters per child

Water-soluble markers (Crayola work perfectly!)

HEAVY spray starch

cups or yogurt containers

rubber bands

mat-board for final display

*I found that 3 works nicely for a display and they were able to complete this many in one class period. Obviously, vary this for your needs!

Process: Have students use marker to color designs on the coffee filters. Make sure you have something underneath (scrap paper or place mat) to catch the colors because they bleed through. Lay completely colored filters over cups and secure with rubber bands. I allowed my students to spray their own projects with the starch. They loved to watch the colors bleed together! It takes about 6-8 hours for the macchia to completely dry. It takes about 6-8 hours for the macchia to completely dry. When they were dry, we took them off and arranged them on a piece of 8x8 matboard!

You could extend this project in many different ways--

Make a "ceiling" of Macchia similar to the ceiling at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Have students use color schemes on each different coffee filter (complimentary, secondary, primary, tertiary, hot, cool,etc)

Have students re-tell the macchia-making process or write about it (cause and effect)

*We used our iPads and an app called Fotobabble to re-tell the process of creating the Macchia. These Fotobabbles were displayed with the students' work. More on that later!

Happy Macchia-making!

Matisse Vases

2012-02-18T05:43:00.001-08:00

This Kindergarten project was inspired by Henri Matisse's "Purple Robe with Anemones" (above). I love the colorful, playful, graphic background and the wild flowers in the vase.

I think this was my FAVORITE Kindergarten vase ^^^. I LOVE the anemone-like flowers. It seems he really "got it" (in a kindergarten-way!) It's so honest, isn't it?!

Here is another of my favorites for sheer beauty :)

We did this project on a 12x18 sheet of white, cut the vase out, made designs on 4 sheets of 6x9 colored paper, and glued the vase on.

a friday funny

2012-02-17T05:59:00.000-08:00

Marcia from Vivid Layers had this Art Teacher Meme on her blog that I just HAD to share. Happy Friday, everyone!

Blotto Butterflies

2012-02-16T05:50:00.001-08:00

I've been on this "blotto" kick ever since Melissa at the Chocolate Muffin Tree re-introduced me to the wonders of blotto! My kids LOVE it too!

My first graders made these beautiful blotto butterflies in tall grass. We talked about proportion, and how (if we were bugs) big the grass and plants would seem!

Then the "blottos" came in to play, we had fun squishing the paint around to make our symmetrical wings. (Some got a little over-zealous and tried to put paint on top of paint, so the symmetry was off...experimentation, no biggie!)

Lastly, we used pipe cleaners as antennae. With our mega-spring-like weather here in Florida these days, these bright blotto butterflies are beautiful additions to our hallways!

tropical birds

2012-02-16T05:01:00.002-08:00

I saw these birds on another blog (which one? HELP!!!!) and thought they were so adorable! My fifth graders drew the birds on black paper and traced their lines in glue.

They then used chalk pastel to color the background (and consequently make a HUGE, dusty mess in my classroom!!!)

I love how folk-artsy the birds look, and of COURSE I love the colors!

You definitely need two days for this project, day one is for drawing and tracing in glue (the glue needs about 24 hours to fully dry).

I did a similar project to this last year when my fifth graders made lizards. They really seem to enjoy using these mediums!

woven cities

2012-02-15T05:45:00.001-08:00

I've been "Pinspired" by some adorable woven houses I've seen on Pinterest by Painted Paper. I've never really used painted paper as adornment for things...but let me tell you---I HAD THE BEST TIME SPONGE PAINTING these papers that we used for our weavings! (yes, I did it, not the kiddos).
For this project we used two 6x9 "looms" (made of paper) to create the houses. The kids then went crazy with the scrap box and used various painted papers, pieces of folia cardboard and oil pastels to create their little neighborhood!

(Would you like to ride on THAT tire swing?! Looks like an insurance claim waiting to happen!!!)

The kiddos then went to town using the splatter box to create their starry sky background. They had so much fun...I love all of the interesting details, and I LOVE the colors!

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happy heart day

2012-02-14T09:21:00.002-08:00

Planned chaos. Those words describe this project to a T! (View exhibit A--above--methodical).

And Exhibit B, here, chaotic. Yes, these are my Kindergartners stamping used tissue paper tubes bent into hearts. We taped them to hold their shapes.

They also used crayon to create a "background" of lines!

As my Kindergartners say, "easy peasy lemon squeezy" lesson. Sorry I didn't share BEFORE Valentine's Day. DUH!

making art together

2012-02-10T05:49:00.001-08:00

I've posted on the joys and successes my students have had creating collaborative circle paintings before....and I've now posted about the collaborative process on PreK and K Sharing!

Something magical happened while my students were creating these large panels...they innately learned to think like real artists and execute their ideas in a manner I've never seen before. Some students who feel like they "can't" (an inferiority complex I'm really struggling to help MANY of my students overcome, especially in the test-taking grades) now feel like they're accomplished, worthy artists. Thier "piece" has become part of the "whole". It's been one of those teachable moments on so many levels that I wouldn't trade for the world.

I've seen several collaborative murals popping up around the art-blogging world, and one thing has been consistent: the satisfaction the children have for a "job well done" means even more when they create something with their peers!

Please hop on over to see what else I have to say about this...or to post a link to YOUR circle paintings!
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foil embossing

2012-02-03T12:04:00.001-08:00

This was a project that ALMOST never "was". I had envisioned something totally different, and was frustrated after I had the students start this and realized it just wasn't going to happen. Long story short, my fifth graders "drew" on canvas with glue and we were going to let the glue dry and paint monochromatically over the top.

It didn't work. I was CRUSHED! ALL THAT MONEY ON CANVAS---we had to salvage them! I saw some foil relief projects on Fine Lines and was so glad I did! She inspired me to have the kids go back over their original design with more glue and add yarn for more elevated designs.

We then used spray adhesive and laid foil over the top. They pressed the foil down around their yarn pieces to create that embossed look.

Lastly, they used colored Sharpies to color the recessed areas and left the embossed "lines" silver.

This was definitely one of those projects that promised to be an epic FAIL, but turned out to be a favorite amongst my fifth graders.

This project was the perfect mixture of perfecting the "process" of making art, along with the glorious "products" created. For a thought-provoking take on the subject of "process-vs-product", I invite you over to PreK and K Sharing for a good read. I hate when projects don't turn out the way I had envisioned....but I am ecstatic these exceeded any expectations I originally had!

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heARTwork, project 2 (first grade)

2012-01-31T05:56:00.000-08:00

My first graders just completed these beautiful positive/negative hearts in honor of "Jump Rope for Heart". As complicated as it looks, it was only a two-day project! There are a LOT of different elements in here, but our main focus was on positive and negative space.

On Day 1 we used tissue paper and glue water to create a colorful background (the same technique we used in these hearts).

On Day 2 I gave each child two 6x9 sheets of colored paper (two different colors). We folded them in half like a card and I gave them a 1/2 heart stencil. They traced the stencils and cut out the hearts. Obviously, the negative pieces (the "scraps") were glued onto the paper and the cool tissue paper background peeked through. We did some oil-pastel designs on them to dress them up a bit. For the positive pieces (the hearts) we did some "blottos" (thank you Melissa from the Chocolate Muffin Tree---they loved doing this and I forget sometimes to stick to the basics!) and glued them onto the coloful background caddy-corner from each other. We then added some black accents to make everything POP!

These hearts are making everything very COLORFUL at our school as we prepare for Jump Rope for Heart, as well as Valentine's Day!

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heARTwork, project 1

2012-01-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

My younger students (grades K-2) are emulating the work of Jim Dine right now. We have a BUNCH of heart-related things going on at school right now, so while I usually don't like to do "Valentine's Cute"---I thought these would be a great tie-in to all things "heart".

The background has been created out of tissue paper "painted on" with a glue/water mixture. I love this technique because it creates a really cool tie-dye look! Next, the kids used a large (half) heart template to make the black heart (we drew on them with oil pastel first). Then they glued them on to construction paper and used the "fancy scissors" to cut a border around the heart.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for the third heart layer until I saw these from Melissa at the Chocolate Muffin Tree! We cut out the hearts first (using the fold-symmetry technique) and put a little paint inside and pressed. I forgot how much fun that was! I'm sure you could use any sort of painted paper or media for another layer!

Lastly I had them use the leftover tempera to make swirls and lines that radiate from the heart. If they had lots of extra time they used oil pastel as accents.

We did this project in two class periods---one to create the background and the black heart, the second we did all the layering and accents. I did this project with my second graders.

I just love their heARTwork!!!

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valentine's "dream catchers"

2012-01-20T08:43:00.001-08:00

My Fourth graders are working on these beautiful heart-shaped "dream catchers" this week and I'm so giddy over them! We're using wire to form the heart (*they're using approximately 16" of wire each) and yarn to wrap and make the webbing.

TO keep the yarn from slipping and sliding on the edges, they're wrapping the yarn AROUND the wire (once to the right of the yarn, and once to the left of the yarn) to keep it in place before criss-crossing it to another spot on the other side. They are able to use pony beads on their dream catcher if they desire.

Here is a little closer view of a finished product. You can see the edges where they wound the yarn around the wire a couple times before criss-crossing to the other side.

*I had LOTS of disgruntled students during this project. Many heads banging on tables. Many kleenex-laden tables wiping tears away. Yes, a few projects became projectiles across the room in frustration. Their beef? The yarn was slipping on the edges and they just didn't understand how to wrap it a couple times before moving along. Once they got the hang of it, though, they felt silly about throwing tantrums.

**I should mention I have some of the most OCD students on the entire planet.

**I should also mention that said tantrums continued after I told them I wanted to hang them in my windows instead of allowing to take them home. Ahem. I'm so MEAN!

winter matisse collages

2012-01-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

My second graders just finished these beautiful collages-a-la-winter-a-la-matisse this week! We used cool-colored papers and worked on cutting snowflakes as well! I love how they turned out, and (despite tears over broken snowflakes) the kids were really happy with their finished products!

Happy Winter!

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Glue U

2012-01-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Don't you feel like sometimes even though you've been doing things for so long....you still have LOTS to learn?

Oh, wait, it's just ME?!?!

Just kidding, I can see your heads bobble up and down as you read this post!

I've felt for the last few months that I've lost control of the glue usage in my classroom. Remember when I bought the "tap caps" and was so excited about them? FAIL. They got all clogged up, then my kids would unscrew them and glue would come pouring out....UGH. I went back to using regular glue bottles. I emphasized my poster of Fred Flintstone saying "a little dab'll do ya" (yes, I made it, yes, you can copy it!)...I emphasized the "no puddles of glue" on my No No Board. I had some 5th graders decorate my glue bottles with threatening messages. I had them count glue dots ("one in each corner and one in the middle!").

I kept getting HUGE messes no matter what I did or said. Cue exhibit One (of many):

I decided to take matters into my own hands.....use a scrap piece of paper and put a puddle of glue on it for glue usage. The kids have to dip their fingers in it to glue their papers down. You will see the following occur:

1. They don't like the feel of it, so they don't use much. WIN!

2. There is no opportunity for huge puddles. WIN!

3. They see their results are so much better...and I'm praising them, so they're happy. WIN!

4. I told them if they do this right for a couple projects I'd give the bottles back---so they're trying to impress me. WIN! ( it's so successful- will I ever hit the bottle again?!)

5. They scold EACH OTHER when they use too much. Less harping from me and I can enjoy teaching more. My voice is saved. WIN!

6. We can stack papers at the end of class because no glue is squishing out! WIN!

I just thought I'd share my glue-y success with you all...I'm glad I finally figured out how to keep it under control after all these years!

PS- did you know? Coating the necks of glue bottles with Vaseline before screwing on the lids will aid you as you need to take them off for refills!

Happy weekend!

three hundred

2012-01-11T05:47:00.000-08:00

Holy polar bears, ya'all...I'm about to hit three hundred followers? This is just nuts to me, a simple little blogger from a simple little school in little old Venice, Florida. I've learned a lot in the last year of blogging...and learned what a great network we Art Teachers (and others! THANK YOU!!!) have formed across the blogosphere.

I'm just flabberghasted, humbled and honestly surprised! I leave you with a few of my Coca-Cola Polar bears that my second graders finished (and dressed-up). You can see the entire lesson here.

Thank you from the bottom of my....desk....(I swear, it's under this mess somewhere.) I appreciate every single one of you!

two of my favorite books!

2012-01-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

I know for many of you Kindergarten remains the hardest to teach and/or be inspired to create lessons for! (Trust me, I KNOW!) While I by no means consider myself to be an expert, here are two of my tried-and-true Kindergarten art lessons which incorporate literature as well! You can read more about them in my contributing post on PreK and K Sharing.

What are some of YOUR tried and true Kindergarten art lessons! Be sure to leave your lesson link in the comment section so we can all go and check them out!

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more luli sanchez dot paintings

2012-01-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

As I was passing back artwork in second grade today I realized that I hadn't posted more pictures of our luli sanchez dot/circle stamps! While I know this idea isn't unique, you may want to check out some of some of her beautiful and inspiring fabrics! My original post is right here.

Happy stamping!

where OUR wild things are!

2012-01-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

This post is looooooong overdue, as my third graders made these super-cute (ferocious?!) Wild Things based off the book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. They first began creating their wild thing using crayon and watercolor...this took an entire day to complete.
On day 2 they created these LARGE backgrounds using fluorescent temperas on 18x24 sheets of paper. We wanted our wild things to look like they were dancing, recreating the "wild rumpus" that takes place in the book. I love how animated these figures are juxtaposed against their colorful backgrounds!
What is also AWESOME about this project is that it was featured in our local newspaper, the Venice Sun. An arts-supporting-reporter came and interviewed me and took lots of pictures of my kiddos at work. I love and appreciate people that think the arts are important! (duh!) You can read the article online here.

aerial perspective snowmen!

2011-12-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

My fourth graders have been working on simple perspective. Last week we did a "one-point perspective" project and this week we are working on aerial perspective! I just LOVE these snowmen (and the kids do too!)

I'm not gonna lie, I found this lesson over on Pinterest.

The Holidays are LOOKING UP! What are some of YOUR best holiday projects?! Post your link in the comment section!

peppermint play-doh!

2011-12-10T18:18:00.001-08:00

Recently I made some Peppermint Play-Doh with my son. We're planning on giving it to his little friends for Christmas, but I'm also going to use it for centers in my classroom this week! I can't wait! For the recipe, and other great play-doh activities, check out my post on the PreK and K Sharing Blog!

stringing up the lights!

2011-12-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

I needed a QUICK fill-in-the-gap lesson for my fourth graders, but I'd imagine this could be done from grades 2-5 and they'd all love it just the same! We used gray 9x12 paper and black sharpie to make the tangled lights and bulbs. We then used chalk and smeared it from the inside out to create the "glow". I love these!

A Friday Funny

2011-12-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy Carmen Sleeth, Cranberry Elementary

This is NOT what you think it is, so get your mind out of the gutter! An awesome blog reader and fellow Art Teacher sent me this picture today. I recently held a workshop in my classroom about radial weaving and had some of my kiddos' circle paintings hanging up. She was inspired and did the project with her first graders. She showed them the video and told them that all they could make on their work were circlular images. THIS was what she got from one of her students!

Carmen, thank you SO much for brightening my day!

Happy December!

2011-12-01T05:09:00.001-08:00

The Coke Bears

2011-11-28T12:50:00.001-08:00

My Second graders have been discussing different careers that would require some Art knowledge and they are totally enlightening themselves! They are realizing that MANY, MANY careers out there require some knowledge of color, graphics, design, etc. It's so fun to see their little minds work!

I heard recently that Coke was putting out new Coke cans for the Holiday Season which would be white with polar bears on them, and a portion of the proceeds from these special cans would go toward protecting the polar bears. To my kids, it's just another Coke can. After today, though, I really hope they realized that someone designed that can, probably someone with an artistic bone in their body.

The Coke polar bear campaign has been around since 1922! Over the years the commercials and print ads have really evolved...but this is an ad that my students can relate to! So today, after reading about the lore of the Coke polar bears, we whipped up some of our own. We used 12x18 blue paper and styrofoam printing paper. The kids drew their polar bear onto the styrofoam and printed it. We used the leftover styrofoam to make small nose, eye, and mouth stamps. Lastly, we used fabric scraps to make a scarf. I had a bunch of kids that wanted to "dress them up" even more, so I may just let them go to town next week with the fabric and yarn bins and see what they come up with!

Here is an example of the bears before I give them artistic license next week! I will be sure to post some "after" pictures, too!

"Embracing" Handprint Art

2011-11-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

I was recently told on my Artsonia site by an anonymous commenter "If I see another piece of handprint art I'm going to SCREAM"! What are your thoughts? Do you utilize your Kindergartner's (or other levels') handprints to create artwork? Do you feel that sometimes you should forego standards and benchmarks and just make art for "arts sake"?

I have my thoughts spelled out in a post that I write for a blog called PreK and K Sharing (http://www.prekandksharing.blogspot.com/) . Come on over and see what I have to say!

mixed-media owls

2011-11-17T06:47:00.001-08:00

I am on such an owl-kick this year it's not even funny. How many differnt ways can you make an owl? Don't answer that (but if you have an awesome owl lesson, I'd love you to link it in the comments section so we can all see!)

I made these little ditties with my first graders, who needed a quick-fall-ish-fill-in-a-day project before Thanksgiving break.

I've mentioned before my addiction to hoarding everything artsy...so I rounded up some corrugated paper, some origami paper, pipe cleaners and feathers and the kids went to town!

back to basics

2011-11-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

Florida isn't really known for it's seasons...in fact our seasons are centered around footwear. We have flip-flop season (aka March-December) and close-toed-shoe season (January and February). Of course half of us crazy Floridians wear sandals all year round!

That being said, I can't tell you how many of my kiddos have never even seen a leaf fall off a tree (or knew that leaves changed colors in the fall). I had a colleage head up to her rental home in New Hampshire and asked her to bring me back a box of leaves. She was perplexed (she never knows what my intentions are half the time! Ha!) but obliged....

Sometimes I like to get creative with art projects, but sometimes the tried-and-true art projects are just as beautiful...my students just LOVED making their leaf rubbings. I didn't give them any color scheme(s) to work with, I just let them explore and they had a GREAT time! I love that sometimes with art it's not necessary to reinvent the wheel, even though we all try to.

Happy Fall, ya'all!

circle, circle, dot, dot weavings

2011-11-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

These were some simple weavings with 1" strips and some 1/2" strips glued on every other one.

Yes, I pre-cut their paper looms for them.
Yes, I realize I'm crazy. I've learned my lesson over the years, though, because watching some students cut looms is A.G.O.N.I.Z.I.N.G. It doesn't matter how many different ways I show them, measure them, etc half of them end up being a total disaster.

The result of my labors? 100% perfect results from EVERY.SINGLE.STUDENT, which to a first grader, is what makes the world go 'round. Their beaming faces after completion make my world go 'round!

luli sanchez dot paintings

2011-11-10T06:10:00.001-08:00

I was so inspired by the beautiful fabrics that Luli Sanchez (http://www.lulisanchez.com/) makes! They are so simple and understated, but the simple geometric patterns were a great "jumping off point" for some upcycled bottle cap printing done by my fourth graders!

*Recently I was cited by the Fire Marshall for storage in my classroom. I hoard stuff BIG TIME in case my budget doesn't add up, which will probably be the case in the near future! Alas, I decided to dip into my bottlecap stash and that is what we used for the dots (the back sides) and the circles (the bottoms) for this project!

I gave them each 4 colors of paint. They printed the backs (dots) first in rows across and down their papers. On day 2 we printed the circles (rings) in empty spaces and on the tops of the dots in some cases. Sometimes there were distinct rows of circles and dots, and sometimes things got a little confusing. Either way, they turned out GREAT!

One hang-up some of my kids had were the imperfections some of the stamps made. Many of them wanted to have complete circles....but after looking at Luli's "professional" work, they embraced their imperfections, too.

I have lots more to photograph and add...I will do another post with a photobomb later!

Recycled CD Fish

2011-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

Another "recycling" project, this one is pretty self-explanatory...we used old programming CD's and scratched DVD's to create the body of the fish. The fins and other "body" parts are made out of Wonderfoam! Lastly, we added jewels and sequins (if desired) to the CD to make it even more (as one of my kids said) "glitzy".

I will have to take a picture of the display for these guys in our display case...so fun!

circle painting

2011-11-04T02:13:00.000-07:00

We were asked to complete a 10-foot panel for a Principal's luncheon with the ACE (Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County) recently which needed to depict the art form of "Media Arts"...of which I do very little. I do not have a bank of computers or iPads (YET!!!) so we needed to get creative with our approach! I decided to do this special project with a group of 6 2nd grade self-contained ESE students. We watched a video on Circle Painting (www.circlepainting.org) and went to town creating our large panel (pictured above). I also added the words "Media Arts", our school name, and the website name. It hung in my classroom for a week or so before I had to surrender it to the ACE.

The logistics of that project were simple, and because I only had 6 kiddos working on it it was even EASIER! I had 12 colors of paint. I assigned each student one color of paint, and they had 2 minutes to paint circles. After 3 minutes they handed the paint to the person to their right until we had gone through all the paint colors!

The following week I gave each of them their own large paper (18x24) and did the same thing with the paints and brushes so they could make their own paintings. These are currently hanging in my room and they look amazing!

While I realize that circle paintings are supposed to be group efforts, I was glad they were able to create a panel of their own. They are SO stinkin' proud of their work (and so am I!)

radial weaving on CD's

2011-11-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've been doing my best this year to pare back and try to teach kids that art isn't all about expensive supplies from expensive art stores. Sometimes the most beautiful art is made out of things that we have right in front of us! Enter the CD mandalas! I was given a huge stack of iMac CD's a few years ago that I knew I wanted for something.

We used some simple loom string to create the "loom". You tie the end off (around the CD) and just go 'round and 'round and 'round (it is VERY important that you have an odd number of warps! We've found that 11 or 13 warps fit nicely!)

I don't have my students tie ANYTHING, not even the selvedge edges of their weft threads. we just let them hang out and make sure the weaving is nice and tight. At the end of the project we just cut them off.

For this project I made sure that my students had SOME kind of direction as far as color choices. They were: monochromatic, gray scale, hot colors, or cool colors. I hate when kids do beautiful weavings and have the most bizarre color combinations like lime green, red, and periwinkle. Bleck!

The "yucky" part of the CD (the part with the writing on it) is the backside. The shiny part is the front of the loom. Some of my kids did theirs backwards on accident, but since the weaving covers up most of the cd and only shows the edges, they still looked nice.

Not only does this project focus on the creation of a woven mandala, when you put display all the CD's next to each other, it's also a great way to talk about how colors play off of each other, as in Kandinsky's Study of Concentric Circles.

When all of my students are finished with their weavings, we plan to display them as a full unit(yes, all 125 of them!) I sure hope it's as impressive in person as it is in my mind!! You can see more of these beautiful weavings on on "Make it...a Wonderful Life" here http://makeitawonderfullife.blogspot.com/search/label/kid%27s%20art.

Happy weaving!

kinder owls

2011-11-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I have a really hard time with Kindergarten, so when I see a do-able lesson for my little guys, I pounce on it! I found these cute owls on Pinterest, and I think someone had found them from Mrs. Brown.

I gave each student a 12x18 piece of gray paper, and 3 strips of 1.5"x18" brown(s)---light brown, medium brown, and dark brown. They tore the strips into smaller pieces and put them in piles on their tables. This is a GREAT fine-motor skill! We also practiced using little dabs of glue to hold the feathers in place. Of course with my new tap caps this is working BEAUTIFULLY!!! We also practiced making eyes that were the same size by folding our paper and cutting two pieces at once.

Because I have some pretty speedy kiddos, I had the ones that finished working first practice making stars in their skies. (***GREAT "star" trick---have them make a capital A with a long stick across the middle....then criss-cross, and criss-cross, and you have a perfect STAR!)

I have some more owl projects coming this week---they have such personality!

Paul Klee Fish

2011-10-26T00:39:00.000-07:00

Paul Klee was a very interesting artist who ended up using lots of geometric and organic shapes in his artwork. He valued the "primitive" art of children, and the whimsical shapes and designs in which they created. I think that is what I value most about my childrens' artwork, too!

For this project, we used 12x12 white paper and folded it 3 times to make an invisible set of lines on our papers. On this, the kids wrote their names in crayons OVER and OVER and OVER. Then they chose one color of watercolor paint to paint on top.

We then made some funky fish out of paper, crayons, marker, and (sequins if finished early for extra pizzazz!)

I was so happy to see that so many of my kids didn't take the background literally and used different colors other than blue (for the "water")! Each child is SO proud of their work because not only are they unique, they're personalized!

folk art houses

2011-10-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

I saw these cool paintings on Etsy and thought they were so adorable, so I did this lesson on Folk Art with my fifth graders. If I had it to do over again, I'd do it maybe with third grade to teach paintbrush control...my fifth graders got a tad bored with it and most of my boys thought their projects turned out "girly". I, of course, LOVE THEM!

We used orange and red construction paper to start, then used pencil to draw our basic layout. The kids used tempera paints mixed with a touch of white so they would stand out on the colored construction paper. For the patterns on the top we used bright acrylic colors. Lastly, we used liquid ink and paintbrushes to outline everything!

The Starry Nights of Summer

2011-10-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a Van Gogh lesson in a couple of years. The last lesson I did the kids were so frustrated with the "impressionistic style"--dashes, dashes everywhere-- that I decided to quit fighting with them and I took some time away and taught Monet instead. We watched "Getting to Know theWorld's Greatest Artists" (I'm not big on videos, but this one crams in every detail about his life in 23 minutes!) and then revisted Starry Night.

We then created our own version of the Starry Night, one with which our kiddos could relate--a starry night over the Gulf of Mexico. We used tempera paint on black paper and I just ADORE the way they all (all 126 of them!) came out. I usually don't say that about many projects, but I love the whimsy of each of these paintings. I hope the kids are as proud of them as I am!

untitled project

2011-10-05T07:51:00.001-07:00

I was "pinning" the other day and came across this gorgeous, fluid watercolor painting. For the life of me, I couldn't find the source of it, I just kept being re-routed to tumblr.com. I thought it was amazingly beautiful!

I decided to make something similar with my third graders. This project took a day to paint the background with free-form shapes and brilliant colors, then left to dry. On day 2, we only took 10-15 minutes to "blow" the ink into spider-y stems across our papers. (Yes, I used water-soluble liquid black ink, not paint). I just ADORE how these came out. Each so beautiful and unique!

And no, I couldn't come up with a clever or witty title for these paintings. We used this as a springboard to "naming your painting" in class, too. The students loved coming up with names for their own paintings!

Holley Portraits

2011-09-29T08:10:00.001-07:00

I did these Holley portraits a few years ago with my kids (before we had a classroom blog) and never took pictures of them. My fifth graders loathed the writing process and there were a LOT of groans and frustrated, blank faces during the project. Writing in Art? Oh the horror.

I recently dug this project back up because I needed an adaptive lesson to teach at a MagnetEd Conference this past weekend. I've also seen them popping up on Pinterest quite often and thought that maybe I should revisit the whole thing. So here ya go, I'm digging it back up.

I think one reason that this project is so difficult is because it's immensely personal. What do I write about? Give me some ideas. Are they thoughts or traits? What if someone laughs? Do I want someone to know THAT about ME? While teaching this at the conference this weekend I think I had only one person actually finish it. The rest of my participants were doing what I love most about conferences: adapting it to their grade level or coming up with different ideas with similar results.

Some of them?

Having students write personality traits around a picture frame with a photo of themselves in it.

Using your child's fingerprint and writing personal traits about them--a great gift for grandparents or a beautiful keepsake.

Giving students prompts for ideas (such as: I like, I adore, I am, I want to, I long for, I don't understand, I live for, I eat, My family is, etc.) This way, students as young as fifth grade can use the prompts from which to dive off.

I personally love the idea of using this for my own children. What a wonderful keepsake for yourself or a gift for grandparents (thanks, Tammy!)

There are a ton more examples of Holley portraits, as well as a history behind them which can be found here. http://eatock.com/project/holley-portraits/

Good luck and happy thumbprinting!

*yes, for these I photocopied ALL of my students' thumbprints. I first enlarged them to 400% and then used that 400% copy and enlarged it 200% more. This is the perfect size for a 9x12 sheet of paper.

organic shape MONSTERS!

2011-09-29T05:58:00.001-07:00

This is a great lesson I do every year with my Kindergartners and I never get tired of it! It is a great lesson to teach about geometric-vs-organic shape. First, I read them the book "Jeremy Draws a Monster" by Peter McCarty. It is an excellent book about a boy who draws a monster who is not a very good friend. The students then decide that if they were to draw a monster they would make a nice monster, even if they looked mean. I just love the answers they have for everything!

I give each of them a piece of string and we practice making ORGANIC shapes with it. They usually call them blobs, but by the end of the class, they've got it down pat: ORGANIC.

Then they take a black crayon and trace around the string. This will be the basic shape of the monster.

We then discuss the elements that will make up our monster: will he be mean, nice, silly, scary, or happy? How do we make a scary mouth? What do silly eyes look like? I also have each student make up a pattern on the monster's skin. This is good because I can't tell you how many of them just scribble over the whole thing green (we do this in the beginning of the school year---so yes, there is a lot of scribbling still occuring).

I just love these guys! They are all so unique and colorful...and the students are incredibly proud of them! It's a win-win lesson plan because there are no defining shapes or characteristics...monsters can look weird because they're not real!

tap cap

2011-09-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Be still my beating heart. My NEW favorite invention EVER! This is the "Tap-N-Glue" cap. We have had some serious problems with lids breaking off glue bottles, pencil leads being trapped in glue bottles (from kids trying to unclog the opening), glue holes cut by rogue scissors "I was jussss trying to help, Mrs. Davis"! Not to mention the sheer amount of glue squashing out from under tiny pieces of paper. Oy.

With this super-fantastical invention, all the kids have to do is press the bottle down on their paper and the perfect tiny amount of glue comes out. My older kids are annoyed by them, but whatever. It is MY classroom after all!

I believe they are in the neighborhood of $1.87 each. It is definitely worth the investment. One of our Kindergarten teachers told me she's had hers for 5 years. I'm sure they take less of a beating in her room, but still...

Lid, I love you. Welcome to Art!

Hands Across NYC - a 9/11 Tribute Project

2011-09-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

Every year it gets harder and harder to talk about September 11, 2001. My fourth graders who just finished these projects couldn't quite grasp what happened that horrible day, but the memory in my mind is still so fresh and vivid. They weren't even born when it happened, and only know of the Twin Towers. So bizarre.

I think like all of you I can remember the who, what, when, and where's of that day. It was especially bizarre for us here in Venice (FL) because President Bush was reading in a classroom in our school district that morning and most of the county was tuned in via CCTV and had no idea what was going on. Only the teachers who had had their kiddos in Specials at the time came blowing through my door and told me to turn on the tv. At that moment, I witnessed in horror(with my class of third graders) as Tower 2 collapsed.

To make matters even worse the hijackers had learned to fly right here in Venice. They lived on a street in my school's population. We were put on a limited lockdown that day, no unnecessary movement of students, because of those links to Sarasota/Venice. No more Specials. I had nothing to do that day but sit and watch the news coverage.

Horrifying. And yet, these students don't really know about it. I had to teach them about 9/11 and instill in them the importance of creating artistic tributes. I love the way they turned out...

I hope they realize the significance of the work they just made and that sometimes art isn't created just to decorate a room. Sometimes you have to make art that makes a statement!

Max-inspired Liberties

2011-09-06T08:32:00.001-07:00

For my Fifth-grade September 11 "Tribute" projects, we made a Peter Max-esque Liberty! I showed the students a quick video of him working (from YouTube) and we dry-brushed our backgrounds with primary colors. This took an entire day.

On Day 2 we used black ink and paintbrushes (no erasing!!! These students KILL me with their endless erasing...time to teach them to "own" their mistakes!) to make our Liberty busts.

I absolutely ADORE these! In some of the paintings you can also see how the students incorporated their names into the artwork like Peter Max did.

photo contest!

2011-08-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

What is your most blissful moment? A tranquil sunset? The gaze of a child? The moment your child was placed on you? (Yes, that's me...at that moment with my first-born!)

I'm giving away a $20 gift code to www.mpix.com on my facebook photography page to the person who garners up the most votes for their blissful photograph!

It doesn't have to be the greatest picture in the world, it just has to capture the moment! Head on over to my page, "like" it...and scroll down to read about submitting your photo! I do not choose the winner, it is based on votes :) Hope to see you on the flip-side!

identity grids

2011-08-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

I love having the kids do personalized work at the beginning of each school year-- and typically I start out with some sort of self-portrait. Well, 10 years of doing that for seven classes each day for a week is really mundane, so I decided to switch it up this year. With my third graders I am doing these "identity grids" and they love them!

We start out with a 12"x12" sheet of paper and fold it into 16 squares. We talk about identities. The most obvious part of your identity is your name--so we write our names in "bubble letters" jumbled about through the paper. One letter per square. We then talk about other things that make us unique, that make us individuals--and brainstorm those ideas on the board (favorite holidays, foods, artists, hobbies, etc). They then draw a different symbol in each of the remaining squares.

The above example is mine, but I can't wait for the kids to finish their so I can show you! They are all so colorful and unique...and I'm learning a little something new about each child! So fun!

september 11 tribute artwork! - a call for art plans!

2011-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

HELLLP! I'm looking for some fabulous patriotic art projects to do with my kiddos right out of the gate this year. I'd love to be able to have a whole unit on symbolism and patriotic artwork to correspond with the 10-year anniversary of September 11.

Do you have a wonderful patriotic art lesson (any level) that you'd like to share? Please link your lesson in the comment section and I will link your lesson to the bottom of this post!

Check out these wonderful patriotic works of art:
Pointillism USA Maps and Collage Flags
www.rainbowswithinreach.blogspot.com - an inspirational story on how she created her 9/11 tribute book!

www.sunnydaysinsecondgrade.blogspot.com - a link-up for classroom projects to celebrate 9/11

Stationery card

2011-07-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

Striped For Fun Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has custom baby invitations and birth announcements.

View the entire collection of cards.

posting pause

2011-07-05T12:39:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posting on my part for the past few weeks! I really thought I would use the summer time to catch up on my blog, to dream up new lesson plans, to inspire myself for the year ahead.

In reality, I've been focusing on this little babe, my newest arrival, Chase born on June 22nd. He's my newest treasure, and my photographic muse this summer. Hoping to get back in action soon!

DAD photo collage

2011-06-17T12:39:00.001-07:00

This is a really different type of post for me, but it's what I absolutely love doing in my "free time". I'd love to call myself an "amateur photographer"...or maybe it's just called a "mommy photographer"...either way, I love taking pictures of my kid(s) **(My son is 2 and I have another little boy due ANY day)**.

Usually to process photos I like, or for clients, using Lightroom. I've also used Picnik for other things, but I just realized you can make photo collages using Picnik! I love this feature, especially for blogging purposes! Hoping to enhance my blog for next year, you'll definitely be seeing more collages on here!

This is also a super-cute idea for Father's Day...which I'm taking to have processed today so I can have it ready for Sunday (can you say LAST MINUTE LARRY?!)

Happy digital collage-ing!

7 supplies I love...

2011-06-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Katie over at Adventures of an Art Teacher blogged today about 8 things she was glad she ordered this year. I LOVE this idea! I could only come up with 7, but the gist of the post is the same. I also love getting ideas and recommendations from other people about what works in THEIR classroom(s)! At the FAEA supplier convention I am often overwhelmed with products they are throwing at you and never really get a chance to test anything out...these are my favorites, tested and APPROVED!

#1. This book, "Art" by Patrick McDonnell is a wonderfully inspiring book about what exactly "art" is. I like to read this book at the beginning of the year to inspire kids and make them think about what they will learn in Art class. I'm always on the lookout for new books to read to my Kindergartners, especially, and this one does not disappoint.

#2. Crayola Multicultural crayons and markers. They're a little pricey, but will get you through the "my skin is tan, mine is brown, mine is white" awkward moments. The markers are great, too, and I keep them hidden until we actually do a project that requires them. Like I said, a little pricey, but worth every penny!

#3. Large Crayola oil pastels. I used to use smaller oil pastels, but they would disappear literally in front of my kids' eyes. These are also ribbed on the sides, to prevent rolling off the tables and being crushed and ground into the floor (can you say MESS of EPIC proportions?!) I also like how they (start off) with a pointed tip.

#4. Sax Liquid Concentrated Watercolor paints. Oh liquid watercolors, where have you been all my life?! In the past, doing a crayon resist project has been a nightmareishly loooooong process. With these, I put a bit of the concentrate in a shallow dish, add some water, and there you have it. No more refilling the watercolor pallette over and over and over. They do seem to stain the tables a bit, but nothing some 409 won't get off!

#5. Miracle Sponges Compressed Sponges. Oh Nelly. Be still my beating heart. These start out about the thickness of cardboard when dry. You can cut out your sponge-stamping shape, put them under some running water, and then they puff up into a regular sponge. Yes, they're just like those things that magically grew out of capsules when you were a kid....I love these and used them a few times to make different shaped stamps for (especially) my Kindergartners.

#6. Scrapbook paper pads. On clearance. I scope out the local craft shops for holiday versions of these paper blocks, or use coupons from Michael's to buy them. They're great for cutting up to use for collaged borders or backgrounds, etc.

#7. Amaco Velvet Underglaze in Bright Red. I have searched and searched for an underglaze that a) covered in minimal coats and b) had a nice, true red color. This is the one that has worked best for us! I also like to use underglazes and then a clear glaze on top of all our projects. So far, so good with this 2-step process and my kiddos.

There are other things that I couldn't live without...but these are things that I've found this year to be extremely useful, things that I will continue to order for years to come! What are some of your favorite finds this year (or things you cannot live without?)

we ain't gonna paint no more! (splatter painting)

2011-05-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

This book, called "Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont (illustrated by David Catrow) is an Art Teacher's delight. It's a sing-songey book about a mischevious little boy who sneaks into his paint stash and gleefully paints himself silly. I am in love with the illustrations in the book, and my kindergartners like to "guess" what body part he's painting next using rhymes.

It's a fitting book to read at the end of the year, too. Guess what? We Ain't Gonna Paint for another 2 months! We might as well enjoy our last couple of days here. *Really you can do this lesson anytime, I just like having projects that really hook the kids in at the end of the school year for my own sanity!

After reading the book, we talk about illustration and self-portraiture. Do we think the boy in the book was a portrait of the illustrator, David Catrow, as a child? Students then draw (in crayon) a self-portrait on 12x18" paper. This is the "clean"version of themselves, the angelic child their parents think they are! On day 2 we put our papers in our splatter box (a big paper towel box---which looks SO lovely on day 7 of this project!) I thin down some red, yellow and blue paints (in case they mix on the paper we still have nice colors and not muddy colors) and show the kids how to shake and splatter.

Needless to say they LOVE it!

The end results make me laugh after a long day of "sit, stop, come here, go there, tie your shoes, put your shoes on, yes you may go to the bathroom, time to clean up, push that chair in".

Happy splatters!

name aliens

2011-05-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

I love doing this project with my second and third graders. It's a great way to teach organic shape and symmetry...creativity and imagination are of upmost importance as well! This is also a great project to do at the end of the year when you feel like you're "losing" the kids--they always perk up when I tell them we're making monsters or aliens.

Start with a folded sheet of paper. To make sure the pieces come out symmetrical and not in two pieces, I tell them to point the FOLD toward their BODY. They then write their names on the paper (if they have a shorter name with extra space, have them use their last initial too).

I then have them draw a contour line around the top of their name. They cut on that contour line.

When they open up their "name", they have a unique organic shape that resembles an alien or monster body. I have them draw details in pencil, trace in black sharpie, then color in marker.

I have students say they make entire "families" of aliens at home (using Mom's name, Dad's name, their dog's name, their brother's name, etc.) This is also great for a "rainy day" project at home or at school.

I know this isn't a new concept or anything, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded of simple lessons that can be pulled out of the "vault" in a pinch for a lesson. It's also a great way to teach symmetry, organic shape, contour line, geometric shape, etc. A win/win if you ask me!

graphite animal drawings

2011-05-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the year. My fifth graders are fried and so am I. We've run the gammit of projects this year and I needed something for them to do to reinforce drawing skills.

It is very possible that if you asked my students right now what they thought about this project, they'd say they hated it, that it was "boring", and that it was too hard for them.

Obviously their results prove otherwise! I think they're just used to doing "exciting", colorful projects and the grays and whites of a graphite drawing doesn't appeal to them. Fair 'nuff.

I love their drawings, and they are a beautiful visual reminder of just how far they've come this year. Had they done this on day one, they'd be a visual mess of thick contour lines and scribbly fur.

You've come a long way, my dear fifth graders...

end of the year "art test"

2011-05-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

Traditional "pencil and paper" tests are agonizing in Art Class. "Why, Mrs. Davis, why?"..."When are we going to draw?"...."Isn't this ART class?"....

Agonizing I tell ya!

I've developed a great 12-question DRAWING TEST which I use at the beginning of the year as a skills-readiness test, and at the end of the year to compare, contrast, and show growth.

I had these grid papers (11"x14"--legal size paper/vellum) printed, though I've used plain folded papers, too. In each of the spaces, the students will draw one of the following:

Box 1: Draw me something BLUE

Box 2: Draw me an OLD shoe

Box3: Draw a picture of your Mom or Dad

Box 4: Draw me someone who is really MAD

Box 5: Draw me a picture of a road with no end

Box 6: Draw me a picture of your best friend

Box 7: Draw me a frog on a log

Box 8: Draw me a FUZZY dog

Box 9: Draw me something you can't reach

Box 10: Draw me a day at the beach

Box 11: Draw me a window with a VIEW

Box 12: Draw me a picture of YOU!

Because we have 55-minutes, I allow 3-4 minutes per drawing, adding as MUCH detail as possible in that time frame. They may go back and add to a previous "answer" if they have extra time.

What does this teach the kids? Well, for one, they don't realize they are being tested. Secondly, it shows me how students can use pencil to visualize or conceptualize concepts like texture, perspective, emotion, proportion, form, etc. For example, in box 8 I ask them to draw a FUZZY dog. They need to manipulate their pencil to show the fuzz. If they simply draw a dog, their answer is wrong.

I should also add that I only allow pencil on this "test"....so with question #1 (draw me something blue) their answer could be anything from a sad person to a blue crayon. This test emphasizes the importance of imagination, too.

This is a great wrap-up lesson for the year, especially in second and third grade (where I typically see the most artistic growth in my students) or a great filler-lesson if you're like me and some of your classes are on different schedules here at the end of the year.

Do you use drawing tests to assess your students? Do they love them or hate them? Do you use them to determine grades or growth? I'm curious to know since I feel this is an area I am lacking in my classroom---I tend to focus on DBAE art minus the "assessment" because I feel all students should feel accomplished and proud of their work. Testing usually makes them resent coming to art...except when I do sneaky tests like this!

terrr-iffic tigers!

2011-05-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

I teach my kindergartners about Henri Rousseau and love doing this simple perspective lesson with them. They're 100% fool-proof (which is uuber important for a Kindergartner) and even though it's a step-by-step drawing lesson, each of them turn out with their own "personality".

I love the innocence of a 5-yr-old's painting!

painted peacocks

2011-05-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is a terrible picture of this project and doesn't do the poor guy any justice! I cut down a white paper to 10x16" (so it would be the perfect size to mount). We drew a resist on the white paper in white crayon and used blue glitter watercolor paint to paint over the resist. We then used some blue and purple tempera to paint the body and feathers.

The "eyes" on the feathers are layered paper circles and we also used black crayon to trace inside each of the feathers since the fringe kind of got lost in the painting process.

Lastly, we mounted on black paper and used silver Sharpies to make a framed border. These were so fun to make and are very striking in "real life"!

i scream, you scream...

2011-05-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

We all scream for these tint and shade ice cream cones! I won't lie, I borrowed this lesson from www.artolazzi.blogspot.com and my kids LOVED it! We started out with a 6x24 sheet of paper, folded it twice to make 4 equal squares, then made a value scale with paint. I gave the students four colors to choose from: green (mint), brown (chocolate), pink (strawberry), orange (sherbet). They kept adding white to their blocks of color to change the VALUE of the color.

I then gave each of them a 6x9" paper to create a shade of their original color (adding black) to make the "cone". This took an entire day.

On day two, we talked again about VALUE and MONOCHROMATIC COLORS. I taught them how to assemble their stacked ice cream cones on sheets of 6x24" black paper. Their "value" scale had to go from darkest (cone) to lightest (top scoop). They were welcome to add a cherry to the top, as well as hole-punched "sprinkles".
This was a great way to teach the students about tint and shade as well as value scales! (And you can imagine the moaning and groaning afterward about hunger pangs!)

tint and shade collage

2011-04-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is yet another wonderful idea from www.thechocolatemuffintree.blogspot.com (sorry, Melissa! I don't know why my hyperlink isn't working in Blogger!), adapted for my Kindergarten and First Grade students! This weekend I was, er, shopping at a certain home improvement store and, um, "sampled" a few of their paint sample sheets. I am going to have to hit up another nameless large home improvement store sometime this week for a few (hundered) more!

First off, I cut all the sample sheets in half and put them in a basket on their tables. I had them lay them out in "favorites", primary colors, secondary colors, spectrum order, etc. We then discussed tint and shade. They were to then choose 4 sheets of color(s) they liked and arranged them in their personal space from lightest to darkest.

The trick was that they had to use EVERY SINGLE SCRAP from their four sheets. No one was to throw anything away! We talked about abstract art, also, as they were to NOT make a picture out of anything. We were focusing on color, not on a subject here.

This was really fun and I think I am going to do this next year, adaptable to Picasso faces or something of that sort with my older students! That means a few (twenty-ish) more trips to another unsuspecting home improvement store! Gheesh!!

torn paper eagles

2011-04-20T09:00:00.001-07:00

I love torn paper mosaic projects because:
1. The students are engrossed in little, teeny, tiny, miniscule bits of paper.
2. All projects are successful
3. You can do this project with varying levels of difficulty and varying subject matters.
4. It's a great "filler" when your kids are in end-of-the-year-or-Easter-Break-mode.
5. It's semi-therapeutic (except for the clean-up!)

In light of the recent video-feed sensation of the nesting eagles, we decided to continue our American Adventure unit with a torn paper mosaic of an eagle. These are done on 9x12 paper and we did them in Third Grade.

I love the look of the torn paper on the eagles---this is also a great project to discuss implied vs. actual texture!

the versatile blogger award!

2011-04-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Awesome News! I was given The Versatile Blogger Award by a blog I just discovered: The Chocolate Muffin Tree. She is the mom of a preschooler, but you'd never know it because her crafts are right up my elementary alley! I love how she re-purpouses common household supplies for her projects!

First here are 7 things that you may not know about me:

1. I am currently 7 1/2 months pregnant with my second boy, Chase. My kids are juuuuuust now starting to ask questions!
2. I have also taught swimming lessons after school for the past 10 years. It's my "summer" job and I still love doing it!
3. I have a secret addiction to peanut butter and jelly!
4. I have two dogs, a Pug and a Boston Terrier, that snore and sleep in our bed. *sigh*
5. I cannot keep an indoor plant alive to save my life!
6. I am versed in just about every art form except crocheting, and some of my kids even know how to do it and I don't!!!
7. I have never started, pushed, or dealt with a lawnmower my entire life. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look if I had to!

Now to the 10 bloggers that I feel are worth such an Award:

Artful Artsy Amy

Art For Small Hands

Art at Chesterbrook Academy

Use Your Coloured Pencils

The Elementary Art Room!

ARTolazzi

To accept the award, there are several steps:

-Thank the person who gave you the award and link them back to your post.

-Tell us seven things about yourself.

-Award ten recently discovered bloggers

-Contact these bloggers and let them know they've received their award.

2011 garden arts fest at venice united church of christ

2011-04-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Our efforts to make the VUCOC/Garden Elementary Arts Fest "bigger and better" than last year came to fruition last Thursday night! This year we had the YOUNG AMERICANS (our chorus) and the Gator Band play for all of the parents. Art awards were handed out, refreshments were had, and the VUCOC was a great venue for all!

The church did a wonderful job setting up the artwork, adjudicating the artwork, and promoting the show! We couldn't have asked for a better turnout!

I put about 1/2 of the glass sculptures in the show. The rest will reside at the South County art show in a couple of weeks.

It was quite a colorful show!

The students were very proud of their work!

Everyone received a ribbon...award of Merit, award of Excellence, or Emerging Artist. While the award itself means nothing to the students, the ribbon means everything!

I think the smiles on their faces tell the whole story!

On behalf of all our Garden Gators, we thank the VUCOC for their warm hospitality in hosting our Arts Fest. See you next year!

bunny sculpture tutorial

2011-04-12T08:49:00.001-07:00

This is a quick "tutorial" on how to make the bunny sculptures I had in this post. They were quite the rage and I had kids in tears who missed art that week, so I had a few extra visitors here and there so they could make their bunnies!

A 9"x9" sheet of green. Fold the sides in and have the kids cut fringe to make it look like grass!

Roll two pieces of 3"x9" strips of white and glue them together to make the bunny's body.

Glue on ears, nose, feet, etc. I LOOOOOOOOOVE sticker eyes from Sax Arts. They are cheaper than the "googly" eyes and don't slide down from too much glue...just stick it and forget it!

Add a cotton-ball tail...

We added a little Easter grass for pizzazz...

...and called it a day!

happy spring!

2011-04-12T08:47:00.001-07:00

I just love these Kindergarten Gardens at night!

my little chickadees

2011-04-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

This is a great springtime project I learned about on The Chocolate Muffin Tree. We used cardboard scraps to stamp out the tree branches, potatoes to stamp the chickadees' bodies (you could use ANY color of paint and call them ANY sort of bird!). We used very skinny pieces of cardboard to twist the tails and heads. Afterward, I gave them some Easter grass (LOVE that stuff!) and let them tear it up and make some "leaves" on their trees with it. Of course this could also be used as a nest as she does on the link above. I will post some more student examples once I have my camera back in working order!

bunny sculptures

2011-04-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

These are great centerpieces, egg-hiding-places, and just all-around wonderful paper sculptures of bunnies! I make these with my Kindergarten and First Graders each year and they love them every single time! Materials you will need: 1 9x9 sheet green paper (for "grass") 2 9x3 pieces of white paper (for the bunnies' bodies) -- you could sub toilet paper tubes for these 1 4 1/2x6 piece of white paper for the ears and feet 1 small piece pink paper (for nose and ears) 1 small piece blue paper (for eyes) wiggle eyes (I use the sticker eyes from SAX Arts) 1 cottonball some crinkly easter grass (just for fun!) I will post a step-by-step tomorrow. My camera is M.I.A and I had to take these from my cell phone!

build-a-burger!

2011-03-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

I saw these super-cute colossal burgers on Artolazzi's blog, and I just HAD to do them with my fifth graders! This spurred a whole class discussion (for the duration of our project, which was 2.5 classes) about the food challenges on Man v. Food. It was so much fun!

Each student got a sheet of black that was 24x12. They started with the "placemat" and then the bun. For the bun, they ripped some corrugated cardboard to expose the bumps and filled up their burger from there!

I love the different textures and elements the kids managed to fit into the burger. This was a great lesson to teach the kids how to fill and entire composition, too!

voice your view: art in our community

2011-03-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Back in February I wrote this post about our fabulous visitors from FireBug Studios. Because time got away from me (I hate it when that happens!!!) I neglected to put up any pictures of the finished products!

This project was a grant submitted by me as a Building Blocks PLUS grant to the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc. The grant was about students participating in the entire artistic process, from idea-generating to production to galleries. This was the second part of the grant: making glass sculptures. Each student was supplied with a round piece of glass and had MANY different sizes and shaped pieces with which to work from there. The artists from FireBug taught the kids how to cut the glass and we had very FEW injuries!

I purchased the wooden stands from FireBug for $2 each (the entire glass project cost about $20/student) and they currently reside in our display case at school!

This is, of course, agonizing for the kids as they want to take their work home SOOOOO badly! I am transporting every single one of them to our Art Show next week at the VUCOC, so they have to endure a wait just a little bit longer!

I thank the Education Foundation from the bottom of my heart for granting us the money to do this project. I know it is something the kids will remember (and cherish!) forever!

recycled sea turtles

2011-03-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

I love doing paper-making activities with my kids to teach them about recycling and repurposing "unwanted" scraps. This also comes with a heavy (messy) price, but my kids have fun nonetheless!Materials needed: Light green and dark green paper pulp for each table/group *I added glue to the pulp also* Glad Cling Wrap Paper Bowls LOTS of paper towels! Paper, eyeballs, background for Day 2. I gave each child a paper bowl and some Glad Cling Wrap (trust me!). They turned the bowl over and wrapped the bowl with plastic wrap. They then used their hands to scoop out paper pulp and put it on the top and side of their bowl. Water was running everywhere, but my second graders had a BLAST! We used sponges to soak out the excess water and allowed them to dry in the sun for 5-7 days.

On Day 2 we popped the bowl out, carefully took off the plastic wrap, and made them look more like sea turtles. I gave each of them a blue piece of paper to create a "habitat" for the turtle to swim in. *Honestly this "habitat" isn't the greatest, but it was the ONLY picture I remembered to take!

A fun take on papermaking, and a "different" method of creating sculpture!

winner winner!

2011-03-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

For the third year in a row, my student has received top honors in the CVS/Caremark "All Kids Can....CREATE" art show in the state of Florida! Last year we had a student win and he made the trek up to Washington, DC to participate in the show opening!

We got word today that my fifth grade student, Meredith, has created an artwork which is one of two finalists headed to Washington, DC to be judged by CVS and the VSA. Meredith has overcome many obstacles, is an amazing artist, and I couldn't be any more proud of her! Congratulations, Meredith!

britto hearts

2011-02-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

I was tired of doing Jim Dine hearts this February. While he is a wonderful artist who truly visually depicts love in his paintings, I wanted to mix it up a bit this year. My third, fourth, and fifth graders were learning about the art of Miami-based artist Romero Britto and his use of bold color and pattern in his paintings.

We used 18x24 sheets of paper, 2 9x12 colored sheets of paper, and painted four patterned pieces of paper. We traced hearts and glued them on. A little twist on all things Valentines...and the boys didn't even seem to mind!

My fifth graders did some wonderful Britto vases. You can check them out here.

hot glass!

2011-02-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

I wrote a grant this year to the Education Foundation of Sarasota County entitled "Voice Your View: Making the Connection between Art and Life" which was to focus on art in our community. We are lucky to live in a wonderful area which supports the Arts tremendously, and has a rich artistic and cultural influence. There are an abundance of galleries, museums, art centers, art shows, and murals which adorn our little town. We are indeed lucky that our children have 55-minutes of Art per week in Elementary School.

I wanted my fifth graders to be aware of our artistic surroundings. I wanted to expose them to art that is literally around the corner from us. Last week we went to the Ringling Museum and viewed their beautiful collection of Baroque and Modern Art. This week we were lucky to have two artists from Firebug Studios (thank you Ms. Leanna and Ms. Lois!) teach us the art of glass fusing!

The students learned about glass and how it is "made", how to use glass cutting tools, and how to create these fabulous funky faces!

(Ms. Leanna helping Kristin cutting a piece of glass)

(Ready for transport for firing!)

Using local artists is a great way to advocate for your program, drum up business for their program, and to promote the Arts in general! I was so happy that the students learned about art experiences that were local, and that their excitement trickled down to their parents (I've received numerous phone calls about how much FUN they had!), how the excitement has trickled down to other grade levels ("when are WE going to do THAT?!"), and all the compliments from staff members on the beautiful display we have going in the display case.

And in case you're wondering...is this SAFE? Absolutely! Glass cutters are not sharp. I told the kids the only way they will get cut is if they misuse or mishandle the glass. We DID have some major glass carnage today, however, as one shelf in the display case crashed on top of another shelf and we "lost" 6 sculptures. They will be replaced, but always remembered!

I hope to post more pictures of the finished display very soon!

reflective monets

2011-02-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

We're totally on a Monet kick in Kindergarten and the kids LOVE it! This week we talked about reflection and how reflections are opposites. For this project we used 12x18 turquoise paper, oil pastel, and tempera paints. There are other supplies we needed, like sponge daubers (sponges clipped into clothespins) as well as q-tips. More on that later!

Beginning with a pre-folded paper, the kids drew "water" in oil pastel below the fold. We used blue, green, purple, and white. They also drew the footbridge above the water, and then we talked about how to make it reflective below the horizon line as well.

Using my magical "sponge daubers" (cut sponge in clothespins!) the students sponge-painted bushes along the horizon line and mossy trees along the sides of the papers.

They used yellow for a little accent to blend with the green, to make it look like the sun was shining on the leaves. We also talked about how Monet would paint at different times of the day to achieve different results. The kids decided this was painted during "lunchtime because the sun is really hot then and it's bright".

The students then used q-tips to add orange and pink flowers to the bushes. We used oil pastel to reflect these, as well, in the pond.

As you can see, Monet's garden has made quite an impression on my Kindergartners!

romero britto flower vases

2011-02-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

I was first introduced to the artwork of Romero Britto as I was hanging a bulletin board for our P.E. teacher here at school. She had a cool poster about your heart, done with funky patterns and bold black lines. She told me she got it at her P.E. Conference and I was smitten from that moment! Her daughter lived and went to school in Boca Raton, FL and was pretty familiar with Britto's work as well.

Why didn't I know about Britto?!

I have worked on Britto projects with my third, fourth and fifth grade classes. Inspired by the print above (perfect for Spring!), my fifth graders made these beautiful patterned vases with simple patterned flowers inside.

We kept it simple, painting some of the petals solids and some patterned. I'm afraid if we filled everything with patterns it might have gotten really messy!

The outlining was done with liquid black ink applied with a small paintbrush.

So in case YOU weren't familiar with the art of Romero Britto, now you can be inspired to learn more!

I will share some Britto projects from my third and fourth graders soon!

mini monets

2011-02-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

I found a new love this week, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Self, meet liquid watercolor. Self, why haven't you heeded the advice of others for the last 10 years and bought this stuff before?!

This week my Kindergarten and First graders are reading the book "Philippe in Monet's Garden". It's a lovely story about a frog who is being bullied and makes a safe haven in Monet's garden. We're at a crossroads here at my school with bullying and name-calling, so it fit in very nicely! (And who says Art doesn't encompass multiple disciplines?!)

We looked at the Waterlilies series pretty closely. We talked about the different animals and insects that might call waterlilies home. The kids had to draw (at least) 8 waterlilies in pink, yellow, and white oil pastels. They used green to draw some lilly pads for the flowers to sit on.

Then enter "my new love": the liquid watercolor. Oh my. It paints like buttah, without the mess of water, watercolor sets, etc. The best part is that I diluted enough for all my kids to use today and tomorrow as well...without the waste!

This project will be the first of a few focusing on Claude Monet for my little guys. They were really "impressed" with their own results!

the cutest owls you've ever seen!

2011-01-31T11:21:00.001-08:00

At Christmastime I saw these fabulous felt owls on That Artist Woman's Blog. I swore to myself that we'd make some owls...and then..well, time got away from me and missed that opportunity!

Fast forward to January--second graders do a HUGE unit on Audubon in Science and most of the time I piggy-back on their lessons. This year I wanted to do something super-fun for them and decided it was time to rock the owls! The prep for this project is not toooo bad (it's half origami, half drawing) but there are quite a few pieces involved.

You will need:
1 5" or 6" circle tracer for each child
4 colored pieces of paper for each child (I used 6"x9")
1 large 12x18 sheet of black paper
4 strips of scrapbooking paper (appx. 1.5"x4")
various pieces for beaks and eyes
feathers (optional)

I had each student make 4 owls. This way they could pick out their "favorite" three to use on the project. This works out well because inevitably a second grader will ruin one of them and will cry!
This project took two days, using the following steps:
Trace and cut out 4 5" or 6" circles on bright paper (you could use browns, whites, and grays, I suppose as well!). Glue the scrapbook paper on (put only a dot on the very bottom of the strip, the part that is closest to the bottom of the circle--this is VERY important!)

Fold the top of the circle down, right above the scrapbook paper. You will actually fold the flap over the scrapbook paper.

Fold in the "wings" diagonally---from the bottom corners of the scrapbook paper to the corners of the top flap.

Pull your scrapbook paper through the fold(s) and glue it to the front of the top flap. Glue the wings down and the top flap down as well!

Add layered eyes, beaks, and feathers! *(Note: to make the eyes out of layered papers, start with the black circle first. Glue the black circle onto the white paper, cut out the white paper, and glue the white onto a colorful piece of paper! This insures that your eyes are layered and EVEN!)

Use oil pastel (or paint?!) to create a branch for your owl family to sit on. Glue the owls down and you've got a beautiful mixed-media work of art!

*My second graders are finishing these this week. This is MY example, I will be sure to post a second-grade gallery of owls later this week!

mood painting

2011-01-28T11:33:00.001-08:00

I introduced my Kindergarten and First Graders to the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky this week, as well as his series of Compostions. In a round-about way, this was thier first taste of abstract art.
"What is THAT?"
"I wouldn't pay a penny for THAT!"
"He's FAMOUS?"
"I could do better than THAT!"
(gotta love that brutal honesty of a Kindergartner, right?!)
The week prior I cranked up the rock music. We tore tissue paper while we rocked out. We used glue water to affix our tissue papers onto our white paper. We watched as the pieces overlapped and colors ran together. We felt better working out our frustration!!!

This week I cranked up Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata in C". I gave them black paint. I let them have 5 minutes to show me (without pictures) what they felt like when they listened to this music. While the painting varied, for the most part, paint strokes were long, shapes were organic, and the mood was somber.

In the end, they were proud of their work and the two different moods they felt while making them. I wish I had a gallery to hang all 250 pieces...they're awesome!

o'keeffe update (again)

2011-01-24T11:44:00.001-08:00

I'm about to go set up one heck of a bulletin board...
Sadly, one that I am probably more excited about than my administration...

But with beauties like this, how can I resist?

I could do twenty blog posts about my fifth graders and their O'Keeffe flowers

(or so)...

I don't think there was a bad one in the bunch...

and I wish I had twenty bulletin boards!

This one is worth putting in the vault and saving for next year...

o'keeffe update!

2011-01-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

I am just so excited about how these "viewfinder" projects turned out! If you missed how my fifth graders started this lesson on O'Keeffe, just check out their beginning stages right here.

This was a small assortment of MANY that I could speak of. Good thing I've dedicated two bulletin boards for their display!

o'keeffe shells

2011-01-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

My third, fourth, and fifth graders have examined the life and artwork of famed American artist Georgia O'Keeffe for the last two weeks. I wanted something natural that the kids were able to relate to...and something...um..."non-floral"?! I have had some shells in my cupboard that have been begging to be used for something, and this was the perfect project for my fourth graders!

It truly was a test of patience on my part...teaching shading to 9 year olds who call it "coloring". Oy. In the end I think we all learned a little something, and their artwork definitely shows the beginning stages of VALUE! Score!

If you live in an area where shells are NOT readily available, I've seen some shell packs in Sax Arts catalog. In fact, I think some of the shells we used were from that catalog! Each was assigned a shell and we drew in contour on day 1. On day 2 we made a 5-shade value scale and then used that to parallel into our lesson on shading and value.

I entered one of these at the last minute into a community art show over the weekend and it won a first place ribbon! I love it when things work out like that!

happy feet!

2011-01-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

I saw these on ARTolazzi's website and knew it was the perfect lesson for my first graders and Kindergartners! After all was said and done, they learned a LOT about geometric forms (circles, right triangles, etc) as well as collage!

For the snowflake "frame" they used pieces of cardboard dipped in white paint. They loved it, though some of them got VERY messy. First grade is doing a huge unit on penguins in their classrooms right now, so their teachers want these for writing prompts and for decoration. I love when teachers take a work of art one step further, or extend the lesson into their classes. It truly shows that art can run the course of all subject matters.

Speaking of that, I was reading in People Magazine this past weekend (on their last page- the "Top Five") about actor Ricky Gervaise. The question was for the actor to mention a "hidden or secret talent". He said he's gotten into painting lately. Abstract mostly. He also mentioned that he considered Art to be man's greatest achievement.

My little art heart melted. In this great time of educational uncertainty...some folks get it.

o'keeffe beginnings

2011-01-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

My fifth graders are doing a great O'Keeffe project right now and I wanted to share (their yet unfinished) projects! First, I had them create a "viewfinder" from a piece of white paper to place atop a magazine or calendar picture of a flower. They were to find an interesting view of the flower and tape it on. They drew the enlarged version on a piece of black paper, making sure that whatever was seen in the viewfinder was showing on their black paper.

We're working on blending with the oil pastels. This is a great project for them to really concentrate on a small area of a picture and to look and see how many "versions" of a color are really in that red flower!

So far, so good! I will definitely post some of the results. I like what I see so far, and so do they!

Rousseau's Tigers

2011-01-04T05:19:00.000-08:00

I saw these terrific tigers in an ad in Sax Arts Magazines. They were advertising crayons, I think. Far be it from me to get inspiration from anywhere, I thought they were interesting...and taught the students about implied line, perspective, distance, habitat, and composition. Who knew you could get all of that out of a little drawing of a tiger?! Well, to make them even more marketable, I tossed in a lesson on Henri Rousseau's love of jungle animals and composition, and I had a pretty well-rounded lesson.

I did this lesson with kindergarten and first grade. With both levels I did a step-by-step drawing, breaking the tiger down into smaller pieces and parts. I love teaching this way; the kids are able to take a complex image and piece it together. The smiles on their faces when the entire drawing comes to fruition is priceless. I live for those moments!

With my kindergartners, we stuck to using crayon. This made my life much easier. With first grade we used watercolor paints, which worked quite nicely, and we learned to use one color first (and do everything we needed to paint in that color before switching to the next). This also made my life much easier!

I did this lesson last year with my kids and definitely plan to do it again this year!

Keith Haring Action Figures

2010-12-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

We used Keith Haring's dancing figures as a way to discuss the Principles of Art. After much discussion, we decided that we were able to hit on every single one through a simple marker composition of two dancing figures! The kids had a great time with this one, and while the monotony of the radiating patterned lines got to some of them, they were proud of their finished product!

We discussed the Principles of Design and when finished, I had students write their "answers" down in groups. You can read what they wrote in quotes at the end of each Principle:

Emphasis in a composition refers to developing points of interest to pull the viewer's eye to important parts of the body of the work. "The emphasis of this work is clearly the dancing figures, which are large and solid-colored. The "hot" color scheme also is brighter than the cool colors, giving a bit more emphasis to that figure and pattern."

Balance is a sense of stability in the body of work. Balance can be created by repeating same shapes and by creating a feeling of equal weight. "We worked to create balance by making our figures the same size on each side of the paper."

Harmony is achieved in a body of work by using similar elements throughout the work, harmony gives an uncomplicated look to your work. "The patterned lines give harmony to this composition. Because there are radiating lines everywhere, the composition is harmonious!"

Variety refers to the differences in the work, You can achieve variety by using difference shapes, textures, colors and values in your work. "Though both figures are the same (dancers) they had to be in different positions, which created variety!"

Movement adds excitement to your work by showing action and directing the viewers eye throughout the picture plane. "The radiating lines around the figures makes them look like they are moving, even though they are not!"

Rhythm is a type of movement in drawing and painting. It is seen in repeating of shapes and colors. Alternating lights and darks also give a sense of rhythm. "There is rhythm that we created by using patterns of hot colors and cool colors".

Proportion or scale refers to the relationships of the size of objects in a body of work. Proportions gives a sense of size seen as a relationship of objects. such as smallness or largeness. "If they head was too large, or the arms were too short or too long, the bodies would not have been in proportion."

Unity is seen in a painting or drawing when all the parts equal a whole. Your work should not appear disjointed or confusing. "The two parts of this drawing are unified because they represent Keith Haring's work and have patterns".

This work was done by my fourth graders, as was the writing.

Happy Creating!

aaaaaaaand we're off!

2010-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today seemed to go by so slowly! The day before winter break and the kids have been wired on candy, hot cocoa, our sing-along play, and holiday parties. I'm thankful for three o'clock.

I'm also thankful for two weeks to enjoy my family and my time off. Our school was hit with a tragedy this morning as we learned that two of our coworkers lost their husbands early this morning. One of the women is on my team and my heart goes out to her family. I will hug my family a little tighter tonight for sure.

I have a post scheduled for tomorrow, and that'll most likely be it for the remainder of 2010. It has amazed me that since I began this blog in September that I've had 54 people "follow" me and the amazing work my kids do. Really, I am nothing without them, and have had a great time blogging for the past 3 months!

Relax, renew, and energize for the next couple of weeks...we deserve it!
Happy Holidays!

-Joanna

Gustav Klimt's "Tree of Life"

2010-12-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

I've seen this lesson done many times over, and I've loved it. So simple, but they turn out beautifully and the kids are so proud!

For this project Iused black 12x18 paper, gold paint (yes, metallic!) and random shiny sequins and other little bits. First, we talked about Gustav Klimt's "Tree of Life" painting and noted the swirly branches. I had kids duplicate the branches on their own paper using a paintbrush dipped in gold paint (NO PENCILS!) The paint dried fairly quickly, so they were able to glue the sequins on during that same class.

Our classes are 55-minutes. Of course if you have shorter classes, you may want to cut the size down or save the sequins for another day!

This was a fun, quick 1-Day project with stellar results! You can't go wrong!

American Flag Collage

2010-12-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

Our secondary students are "travelling" all over the United States this year, working on art that inspires us from the 50 states. In honor of Veteran's Day and Election Day, we made these American flag collages that were inspired by Faith Ringgold's "Flag" story quilt.

Students used blue and red-colored pieces from magazines (I pre-pulled a ton of stuff out of magazines for them so the temptation of looking through magazines instead of working wasn't there!) and they used the pieces to create the flag.

The project was done on a 12x18 sheet of white paper, the blue section measures 8"x6" and each stripe was made by tracing the edges (thickness) of the ruler. This worked pretty well without having to measure each line!

I just love the way these turned out! I was going to have the kids write a story in the white spaces (like Ringgold did) but I decided the more simplistic they were, the better.

Winter Snowglobes

2010-12-13T05:29:00.000-08:00

Art With Mrs. Smith is where I got the inspiration from. My kids just adored this project and I hope to make it a "regular" holiday project in coming years!

I used 12x18 black paper and gave the kids each a sheet of 12x18 newsprint. They drew the LARGEST oval they could on their newsprint and cut it out. This was used as the masking area as the students drew the "rays" and smudged them radiating from the snowglobe.

I forgot to mention we used white oil pastel. My first group I used white chalk and we had fingerprints. Everywhere. Yuck. The kids drew simple evergreens in the globe and topped the whole baby off with some glue dots for glitter. This was the "snow" in their globe. Glitter does make the world go 'round, ya know...

...well, not my world. Probably my custodian's world, but not mine.

I digress.

They're lovely, and the kids love them. Glitter and all!

Snowflake Snowmen

2010-12-12T05:43:00.000-08:00

Even though most of my kids have never seen snow, making snowflakes with them is super-fun! I love the uniqueness of each cut the students make, and they are THRILLED when they have a "really fantastically awesome" snowflake they can show-off to the class! We start with a winter wonderland background on Day 1, and they pretty much think this is the entire project. We do a crayon resist of evergreen trees, snowflakes, and snowy hills.

On Day 2 I give them all 3 different sizes of copy paper (6", 4", and 3") I show them how to cut snowflakes and then we glue them on in a snowman shape! The "snow" that the snowman sits on is a torn piece of paper.

We use scraps to make the hat, scarf, and arms, and markers to make the button eyes, coal mouth, and carrot nose. I've used real buttons before, but they just slide off and make a big mess. I've also done this project where we actually wove a scarf on a chipboard loom (so obviously that project took a wee bit longer than the 2 days you see here!) but it was very nice. I can't seem to find pictures of that one anywhere...

Each snowman is unique, and each one says a little about the child that made it..like this one...did he forget to drink his V8?!

I just love them. I hope this inspires you to make your own with your kiddos!

Rudolph the Handprint Reindeer

2010-12-11T05:23:00.000-08:00

As a mom, I'm kind of a sucker for "all things handprint". What parent isn't?! As a teacher of 7 classes a day, and a needer-of-lesson-ideas, sometimes I have to just do a "cute" project that the kids love. I agree "the handprint" can be a bit overdone sometimes, but these reindeer were just too adorable not to make with my kindergartners! They created the background (snowflakes and snow) and used their handprint for their cut-out rudolph. Some added other trees, sleighs, etc with scrap papers if they had time.
Love them!

keith haring wrap-up

2010-12-10T11:23:00.001-08:00

American artist Keith Haring has reached a special place amongst my third and fourth graders this year. I love teaching the kids about his work, they seem to respond with wonder and child-like excitement over his cartoonish dancing figures.

I went to an arts symposium last week and the keynote speaker gave us a challenge to use her activity (which mainly tied to language arts, but was adaptable to ANY subject, showing how the arts can be infused with ALL other academia). I wanted to use it, and this was the perfect lesson.

First, recalling on all the facts, information, and personal history I have told them about artist Keith Haring for the past few weeks they were to (individually) come up with a sentence about him. Every other person was to start their sentence with "Keith Haring" and the subsequent people were to start their sentence with "and he/his".

They had two minutes to work. I broke them up into groups of three. They had 10 seconds to figure out who was going to be the "sculptor" and who were going to be the "two pieces of clay". Then they (silently) go to work, you know, cause clay can't talk! The sculptor had to mould their clay to represent their 1/2 of the sentence.

So, for example, here in the green shirt is the "sculptor". His "clay" is beside him.

The "clay's" sentence was "Keith Haring died in 1998" okay, yes, they got the date wrong. But check her out. She is clearly dead."...and he made a lot of random dancing figures". This was third grade, they were stuck on the dancing figures and his death.

"Keith Haring did a piece of work on the highway" (referring to his "Crack is Wack" mural on a New York exit ramp.

" ...and he had a shop called the Pop Shop."

When the lesson was over, the kids told me they really enjoyed it. NOT ONLY could they give me some facts about Keith Haring, but we (silently) learned about compound sentences. Recalling information, writing it down, and acting it out....will allow them to retain it for an unspeakable amount of time!

Thus infusing the arts with language arts....aaaaaah, there's a concept.

Perspective Snowmen

2010-12-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

This was a super-cute project which focused on different "views" of the same snowman! I gave each student 3 5"x5" pieces of watercolor paper and a Sharpie. On the first piece, they were to draw a frontal view of a snowman, on the second a profile view, and on the third it had to be a close-up.

We used watercolor paints to paint these in, blending cool colors for the background. They were then mounted as a triptych on a sheet of 6"x18" black paper.

A great project with a "cool" effect!

Quilled Christmas Trees

2010-12-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

In First Grade we made these great quilled Christmas trees! It's definitely a twist on the old "tree with ornaments"---and really challenges fine motor skills, too! I had plates of 1/2" paper strips on the tables and after they cut out their respective trees, quilled (rolled) the papers around a crayon to get the desired shape. They used a small "puddle" of glue (my worse nightmare, mind you!!!) and stuck the ornaments in place.

Some had quite a few that unraveled, but that kind of added to the "primary-ness" of it all...overall they did a wonderful job and this was a great activity!

Winter Cardinals

2010-12-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned it several times before when we do seasonal projects that our school is located in southwest Florida. We are really at a loss for seasons here, and most of our kids have never seen snow. For many it's hard for them to visualize what snow is like, or to conceptualize winter in general! Ha!

For my second graders, this is a great (and valuable...and ON CURRICULUM lesson! Go figure!). They do a unit on Audubon first thing when we come back from Winter break. I just love the simplicity of this lesson, the simplicity of the supplies (tempera paint on blue paper!) and the gorgeous results! We're able to talk about Audubon, his birds, winter, composition, and nature all in one! And who says we're not team players?

...and we have a winner!

2010-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

For the third time in 8 years I have a student who has taken the "Best of Show" honors at the Sarasota Airport Art Show. Only 50 pieces are chosen, matted, and framed from all of Sarasota County to hang (grades K-12). One wins Best of Show, and that student is fourth grader Giavanna Bassi!
Congratulations, Gia! Your family (and twin Gabby!) are very proud of you! Gia's winning entry was a Batiki Totem and was just gorgeous! Totally deserving of the honors!

For her efforts, Gia won $200. She tells me she is going to put it in the bank and save it for college. Wise choice, girl! Congratulations (again!) on your accomplishment!

EZPZ Colorful Snowflake Collage

2010-12-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

This is another sweet lesson for second or third graders that I used for a one-day-fix lesson due to the schedule being off. The kids did this right before Winter break and the results were great! We used 12x18 black paper, thin computer paper to make snowflakes, and used oil pastels to fill in the negative space with colorful snowflakes. An easy project with GREAT results!

EZPZ Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Right before the Winter break I'm always in the need for an emergency one-day-filler lesson here or there. With our schedule and rotation and field trips and assemblies and and and and...sometimes I just need a quick lesson so we can start fresh in January. These were simple projects for Kindergartners and First Graders, they taught simple perspective, observation, and imagination! They were so cute!

*I made and brought in a gingerbread house for them to look at, quickly taught them how to draw a house in simple perspective, and then had them decorate with crayons. No pencils-all crayons on dark brown paper. I just LOVE how they turned out!