Loving the Winter Cardinals!

Hope all of you art teachers out there are hanging on! This time of year can be stressful in and out of the classroom! I just re-did my tables in my room because I felt it was time for a change. Here's to hoping it helps!
Things with my co-teacher Ms. Tripp are still going well. She is taking over the classroom for one last rotation as there are only 3 left until she graduates. Very exciting time in life!
Here is a bit of what we have been up to lately!

Winter Cardinal- 3rd Grade

 I have done a Winter Cardinal project the last few years that people always love, but I came across this idea at Deep Space Sparkle http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2010/02/14/cardinals-in-winter-art-lesson/ and decided I liked it better! I used to have the kids draw multiple cardinals in an "action" pose so some were flying and some were on a branch. I like this one better because I feel the zoomed in view of the cardinal's face is more striking.

During our first class we did a draw-a-long for the cardinal and branches. The students then got the three primary colors and painted their cardinal, the beak, and the sky. The next class the students got  neutral colors (black, brown, and white) and painted their black outlines, the black on the cardinal, the brown branches, and splatter painted the white snow. I told the students we would all splatter paint at the end of class together, so some students did their journal assignment until everyone was ready. I demonstrated how to tap the brush on your finger while hovering close to your paper to splatter paint with control. I made sure to tell the students that it is not a blizzard, just a light snow! ;-)These turned out really well and look great in the commons!

 

 Pop-Art Portraits- 4th Grade

 

 I originally saw this project on Pinterest... here is a link to heidabjorg's flikr site with an 8th grade example:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/22303677@N06/5760781594/

Students looked at the work of Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein would take a panel out of a comic and make it into a large painting. The paintings have black outlines and are usually filled in with dots, just like in a newspaper. Students learned about correct facial proportions and drew their face while looking into a mirror. They traced the outline with sharpie, then filled in with paint dots using the handle of a paintbrush. Portrait goes POP!

 

 European Castle- 1st Grade

 

 This project is a combination of good ones I had seen online. Two of the places that were an inspiration are Deep Space Sparkle: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2012/01/05/fairy-tale-castles-art-project/ and Painted Paper: http://paintedpaperintheartroom.blogspot.com/p/2009-art-show-fairy-tales-and-fables.html
To start we read Alice the Fairy by David Shannon then looked at images of castles in Europe. (And I may have thrown the Disney castle in there too!) I had the students use 9x12 white paper to create their castle texture. The students got a tray with neutral colors in it: black, brown, and white. I demonstrated how to fold their paper into thirds. (Like a burrito!) We painted the top third of their paper brown with a little black to look like wood. I told them to get brown on their brush then dip just the corner of the brush into the black. The bottom two thirds we painted white with a little black (to make gray) in circles to look like stone.
The next class we did a draw-a-long to create the background for their castle. They traced with sharpie and painted with tempera cakes.
The next class we cut our castle out. One third of the gray paper is the long part with the "castle line" cut out, the other gray paper was cut in half the long way to create two skinny towers. The brown paper was used to make the triangle roofs and curved door. With scraps, the students also made small windows! These will look great for the Europe section of our "Around the World" art show!

New Zealand Kiwi- Kinder

One section of our Around the World art show is going to be Australia/ New Zealand. The Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand and also a nickname for people who live in New Zealand. We looked at pictures of Kiwi birds and watched a You Tube video of a Kiwi so we could see their size and how they walk. (Kiwi's are flightless birds about the size of chickens.) I always love to put the elements of art into my projects, so we learned about primary and secondary colors while creating our Kiwi's.
First we got yellow paper and stamped red and blue paint on it so that all three primary colors were represented. The we did a draw-a-long on a separate paper to create plants that are found in New Zealand. We traced these with sharpie and painted them with secondary color tempera cakes.
The next class we cut out our bird by tracing gallon ice cream tub lids for the body and large yogurt container lids for the head.
Students then cut out their plants. We talked about overlapping and how the plants could be in front or behind our Kiwi. The students used marker or crayon to add the Kiwi's long, thin beak, his eye, and other background details. I love the small bird in the sky on the artwork on the right!

Aboriginal Dot Art- 5th Grade

 



Students learned about Australian dot art then made their own including some Aboriginal symbols. Students drew a few symbols/Australian animals with pencil, traced them with liquid tempera, then used the handle of their paintbrush to make their dots. It works best when students choose one color for their background that they have not used anywhere else. Another tip would be to only let the students use a small number of symbols/animals and have them draw large rather then choosing many symbols they would have to draw small. These two are especially successful because they both have a large focal point.

Already mid-October!

Now that we are a few months into school, things are in full swing! Miss Tripp (My student teacher/ co-teacher) is using these next few days to take over the classroom completely, which means I have a chance to update my blog. :-)
Having a student teacher has been very rewarding. I am normally the only art teacher in the building so it has been great having someone to bounce ideas off of. Although she is on her own for the next few days, we have mostly been co-teaching. This has allowed us the opportunity to occasionally split the class in half so we can give more attention to individual students. Sometimes we have taught the same lesson, sometimes we have taught different lessons. We have also been able to really help struggling kids since there is two of us in the room. With both of us in the classroom most of the time it has also allowed us to learn more from one another. In the co-teaching model I am supposed to be there most of the time, but we both felt that I would be doing her a disservice if I did not give her any time in the classroom by herself as that is how it is in the "real world"! So, she is getting 2 rotations (8 days) by herself, then I will go back in as more of a helper until near the end of her time here. So far Miss Tripp is doing GREAT!

Below are a few of the projects we have done so far this year!

Title: My House/ Grade: Kinder/ Time: 2 classes
Students used line and shape to create a house. Students used glue with control.
This is one of the first projects I do with Kinder because it focuses on line and shape. I start with the Popsicle stick house on the first day. First we have a discussion about proper use of glue bottles (dot, dot, not a lot! And I call the white stopper on top the glue's "belly button"!) so that there are less questions and less mess. We go step by step one stick at a time and I do not tell them what we are making until they recognise it at the end! We start with the bottom stick, then make an "L", then a "U", then a square. Then we add diagonal lines to make a triangle on top of the square and all the kids recognize what we are making at the same time... "A HOUSE"!! I let this dry until I see them next time.
The next day we use sharpie to draw lines (we learn vertical, horizontal, diagonal, bunny hop, zig-zag, curly, and spiral) and shapes to create the details of our house. I do a draw-a-long with them, then give them about 5 min. to add any other details they would like. The students used crayon to color. Notice the more woodsy/mountian scene Miss Tripp did with them at the top, vs. a beachy scene at the bottom!

Title: The Frame/ Grade: 1st/ Time: 2 Classes
Inspired by Frida Kahlo's painting "The Frame", students used pattern to create a decorative frame around their self portrait.
On the first day I introduced Frida Kahlo to the students and showed her painting "The Frame", and we talk about self portrait. The students got a card stock rectangle pattern to trace to make the "frame" around the edge as the students are too young to use rulers effectively. Next we learn basic facial proportions and draw our face with pencil in the draw-a-long style. The students also pick a pattern to put in their border that is made up of things they like so that we can get to know each other.
The next time the students trace with sharpie and color with crayon. The more coloring the better!

Title: Garden Gnome/ Grade: 2nd/ Time: 2 classes

Students used basic shapes to create their Gnome. Primary color watercolors were used to paint their Gnome. Students listed things in a garden that could be secondary colors, then drew a garden with those things in it. Last, they cut and glued their Gnome into their garden!

Title: Van Gogh Flowers/ Grade: 3rd/ Time: 2 classes

Students looked a Van Gogh's Sunflower series. They drew their own vase and flower, then traced it with a glue line. The next class, the students used chalk pastel to color it in. Some students also experimented with color mixing using the chalk pastel.

 

Title: Northwest Coast Native American Paintings/ Grade: 4th/ Time: 3 classes
My art teacher friend Mrs. K. originally did this project. Students learned about the natives of the northwest coast. These Native Americans had very specific types of art they created using ovoid and u-form shapes. Students chose an animal that they would find in Alaska or Canada and filled it in with the ovoid and u-form shapes using tempera cakes. The students then got to travel to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and see some authentic NW Coast Art!

 

Title: Value Self Portrait/ Grade: 5th/ Time: 3-4 classes
Students learned about basic facial proportions, and we did a draw-a-long of a general face in their art journals. I also went around and took a picture of each student. (I printed them in black and white on the school's printer.) The next class the students drew their own face with pencil while looking at their photograph.  We talked about value and shading to make their face look 3D. During the last class, we cut our portraits out and glued them to colored paper. We talked about things we value in life, and wrote those things on the background of our paper. The students learned two different meanings of the word value!

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully it won't be 3 months until my next post... :-)

My first ever blog

Well, here I am about a decade late, writing my first blog ever. :-)
This blog is going to focus on my art classroom. I have been teaching elementary art for 4 years- about to start my 5th- and am always looking for ways to bring technology into the classroom to make my teaching more relevant and efficient.
This year I am excited to introduce Miss Tripp into our art classroom! She will be co-teaching with me for the fall semester. This is going to be a great experience for the students as they will have more one-on-one attention. It will also be a new adventure for me as I have not experienced co-teaching before, so I will try to update this blog with what we learn along the way!
Count down... 11 days until school officially starts!