Spring Time Projects!

Spring is upon us and I decided to celebrate the season with some spring related projects.  Here in Texas one of our biggest prides is the state flower, the Bluebonnet!  My 2nd through 5th graders did a mixed media project with Bluebonnets and my Kinder through 1st graders did a festive colored egg hatching into a baby chicken with Bluebonnets in the background.  They were so happy with the results that I had to share the process.

2nd through 5th grade Bluebonnets were done partially in markers.  They created the grass, leaves, and stems in watercolor markers.  Then, we mixed up a small value scale of blue (3 shades) and painted those beautiful petals on.  You can see my painting demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XC794Jtefs

Kinder through 1st grade used markers and a paper plate to make their egg shells, baby chickens, and Bluebonnets.  They started by decorating a paper plate with markers.  They then drew in their chicken, background, and flowers with markers.  Then we cut the paper plate like a broken egg shell and glued it on top of the picture.  You can see the demonstration of my drawing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQIMpnBGYoY

The students really enjoyed this project and are begging me to let them take it home so it must have been a winner!

Britto Inspired Clovers

In a social media art group that I follow I saw a ton of projects around Valentine's Day inspired by Romero Britto.  I love Britto's artwork but I thought to myself, do I really need to do a heartsy fru fru project based on him?  The answer of course, no!  What's the next holiday coming up?  St. Patricks Day!  This is not a holiday that a lot of people do projects on and if they do they usually have rainbows and pots of gold.  Why not make it a colorful pattern filled piece of art!  So I found some short videos on YouTube that talked about Britto and showed his artwork.  I talked with my students about how he used patterns and colors to show happiness.  We talked about how we find those colors and patterns everywhere and how products now days push those colors and patterns because of how they make people feel.  We talked some about St. Patrick's Day and the real meaning of the holiday vs. the "American version" of the holiday, then we set out to create something different.  We decided on the iconic 4 leaf clover shape and went with a Britto inspired color/pattern pallet to it, purposely staying away from anything generic (green clover, rainbow, pots of gold, leprechauns).  This is what we came up with:

3rd-5th traced a clover shape, outlined and added patterns in sharpie, then colored with oil pastels.  Afterwards they cut it out and pasted it to black 9x9 inch paper.

Kinder-2nd used a clover printout, they colored and added patterns in crayon.  They also cut it out and pasted it to brown paper.  They then could design the brown paper how they wanted.  This picture is a clover that a Kinder student designed.  Unfortunately that Kinder student moved before finishing the project, so I finished it for him and used it as an example. 

If the students finished early, which some did, they got to use my new clipboard station for free draw!  They LOVE free draw, it is such a good early finisher reward.  and I always send them back to make corrections on their work if I feel they didn't put in the right amount of effort.  Some will try anything to finish early but they know I'll send them back if they do so it doesn't happen often. 

A good resource for this drawing center is the printouts I get from my Art Hub For Kids subscription.  I just print these out and laminate them and they're perfect for early finishers or a day of drawing centers!

I hope you enjoyed reading my post.  If you have suggestions or comments please leave a comment below!  Thanks for reading!

Black History Month 5th Grade Collaborative Art Pieces

Hey guys!  I am so proud of my 5th graders right now.  They stepped out of their comfort zone and worked together to create this super duper collaborative piece for Black History Month.

I am extremely proud of them.  To some this may not seem like the best work, but for 10 and 11 year olds that have never done anything like this before it's pretty amazing

So here's how we did it.  I first found some templates online of Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks.  I printed them off the computer and folded them until I had made 32 squares.  I then labeled each square with a letter and numbered them in order of their place in the picture, then cut them all out.  I cut 9x6 sheets of 80lb drawing paper for this project.  The students took one drawing paper and a square of the picture.  Their objective was to transfer the image onto the drawing paper so that it looked like a bigger version of the square.  Some struggled and others persevered, but they all managed to get a piece done.  We then set them all out on the table and put them in order, then started piecing them together like a puzzle.  We taped them together on the back and erased all the smudges.  Voila! They made a large scale drawing of some of the most important people to black history month!  In the picture above it is hung in the gym to go along with the 4th grade Black History Month presentation.  I later moved it to the hall which you can see in this picture.

I did, however, have 4th grade's help on the letters that spell out Black History Month.  That was simply finding an online template of the letters, printing them out, and having the students color and cut them out.  Then I glued them onto a black paper backing.  Here's some closeups of the coloring they did.

I also went online and found some insightful quotes from these people with their pictures on them.  That way if anyone wasn't sure who it was they could look at the photo and see who it is.  Here is some closeups of those photos.

And of course I want you to see the drawings 5th grade did up close too.

This project was such a big hit, I'm already thinking about what kind of collaborative piece I can do next!  Do you have any ideas?  Share them with me in the comments!

Value Scales and Spheres!

Hi everyone!  This week I am teaching 5th grade how to do a value scale and a sphere shape with shadow.  We are using ebony pencils.  These kids have had an extreme lack of teaching in the shading world so I thought this would be a good start.  Their main objective is to create a value scale and then to draw a sphere with a horizon line, light source, and a shadow.  I'm hoping this lesson goes over well!  I created a demo video to show them how to do it and to free up my hands for when they need help!

This is actually my first lesson with ebony pencils so please, if you have any tips and tricks, comment below with your suggestions!  I love the feedback!

YouTube Channel is up!

I am so excited I had to post about it!  My YouTube channel is up and running!  I will be posting all of my class demo's there if you would like to use some for your own classroom use.  My students have already been visiting my channel with their parents.  I can't tell you how great that makes me feel! There isn't many video's yet, but subscribe because more are coming!  If you want to check it out the link is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGkEYSDpejTkP3Ftt-OrCw

Love Monster Wax Resist Watercolor Painting with Demo Videos!

This week my kindergarten and first grade students are doing this fantastic Love Monster wax resist watercolor painting based on the character from the book "Love Monster".

We started by listening and looking at the artwork in the book "Love Monster" by Rachel Bright (link here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8hrvFuk3kg)

After watching the book on YouTube, we watched a demo video I made to help give instructions.

This part of the assignment did not last long, but we didn't have enough time to start painting so I let them decorate heart cutouts to take with them.  The next week was part two of the assignment.  For this part I made two short demo video's to guide them.

The demo video's are a new thing for me.  The kids really enjoyed them and told me it was "sooo cool" and asked "When are you posting them to YouTube??"  So, guess what my next move is.  Yes I'm going to start a YouTube channel for my demo videos.  At least the kids can look me up and practice their art at home!  Score one for the Art teacher!  I hope you enjoy the videos as much as my students did! ( EDIT:  New YouTube channel here!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGkEYSDpejTkP3Ftt-OrCw )

Ruler Reinforcement

Last week and this week my students are working on a project called Happy Hearts.  It is based off of a newer artist named Jenny Murphy.  You can see her website here:  http://www.jennymurphydesigns.com/

The students are doing a portion of her Happy Hearts design in order to reinforce their knowledge of how to use a ruler properly.  I showed a demo of using a 12x4 paper, dividing it into 3 boxes by measuring the proper inches.  This brought in a little math because they had to solve 12 divided by 3 to find the first inch mark and then addition (+4) to find the second inch mark.

After dividing their paper into 3 equal boxes, they had to draw a heart in each one and do vertical and horizontal zig zag lines with their ruler on top of the hearts.  They then outlined everything in black sharpie and colored with crayons.  I did this with 2nd through 5th grade.  Higher grades had to do more complex color combinations.  Here are some pictures of the results from 3rd grade:

Matisse Cut-Outs

For our lesson on Matisse I chose his cut outs to focus on.  For 4th and 5th graders I showed a short video clip that described Matisse and his cut out process.  Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLgSd8ka0Gs

We discussed his process and focused on the difference between geometric and organic shapes.  I had the students focus on organic shapes but had them add geometric in where needed.  We used glue sponges to glue construction paper into these glorious art pieces.  (By the way if you haven't tried glue sponges please do!  Another post another time.)  I'm very proud of them for the hard work they did.  Some students took it a little bit further and made visible images out of them as well and not just shapes.  Here's how they turned out!  I hope you like them! 

Lego Character Design

My students loved this and were asking for extra copies!  It was a "fun friday" and a colleague gave me a Lego character template.  I thought the kids would like it so I designed one of my own as an example and let their creativity flow.  They really took it seriously and they loved it!  All K-5 grades were begging fore more copies.  Here's my example:

They created some really good ones!  Here's some student examples in action!

Here's the template if you want to try it in your classroom.  It also makes a great sub assignment if you need one!  If this photo doesn't work just google "Lego template" and it should come up.

Low budget? No problem!

If you're in a school district that has a low budget for the fine arts this can come in handy.  Here's a few tips on how to supplement your supplies for the year.

1.  At the beginning of the school year, look up Reddits Gifts for Teachers.  You can sign up for it, it's free, and a donor will donate supplies to you based on what you have requested. 

You can find more information on Reddit's Gifts for Teachers here:
https://www.redditgifts.com/exchanges/reddit-gifts-teachers/

2. Donors Choose is a wonderful platform for teachers.  It enables you to get materials for your classroom that you are lacking with the help of donations.  Now this is not as easy as Reddits, you have to put some work into it.  First they require you to sign up (it's free), and verify your employment at your school.  Once that has been verified you can start a campaign.  For your campaign it will lead you step by step through the questionnaire.  Make sure you read the directions because it will send you back to do it again if you didn't follow them.  Then you get to go "shopping".  You can go to one of their affiliate pages and pick out what you want.  Majority of art suppliers are on the list, so no worries there.  Then when finished it will take you through some more questions.  You will have to have the campaign approved by one of their staff members so this part will take a few days.  After it has been approved you have to campaign for your classroom.  Share to social media, send out an email to everyone, do what you have to do.  You have to get those first small donations in there.  Once you do, donors on the Donors Choose website will start adding to your funds.  The best tip I can give about Donors Choose is to make sure you watch for donation matching opportunities and post them.  Also when you get emails about special offerings like Chevron's Fuel Your School you MUST jump on it.  Companies that do this with Donors Choose will usually fill your entire donation in one shot.  Oh and one more tip.  Keep your donation amounts low.  If you ask for $1000 in supplies you're likely not to get it.  If you ask for $400 or less it can get filled quickly.  And if your donation doesn't get filled at all, it's ok!  Try, try again.

After you get your supplies, make sure you follow the steps necessary for your campaign.  They will want you to post pictures, write about your students experience with the materials, and in some cases they require you to have the students write thank you letters.  Do not skip this ending step or they will not let you use the program again. 

3. Hit up your local recycling center!  If you're in need of supplies that you're not likely to find in a catalog, take a trip to your local recycling center and do a little shopping.  Most items you get there will be free or very low cost.  Items from these places will be more like your cardboard, plastic and metal containers, wire, paper goods (not the quality drawing/painting paper).  

4.  If you don't like the donation route you can always turn to fundraising.  I don't know much about these because I don't use them, but there are definitely options.  Here's a few I know about that you can look up.  Make sure that you have approval with your school to do a fundraiser first as well.

Artsonia
Art to Remember
Square 1 Art
Original Works
Kids Art Fairs
Artome
Kids Kards
Silver Graphics
Kids Kreations

Here's a good chart showing you about them from The Art of Education:
http://www.theartofed.com/2012/06/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-art-fundraisers/

For information about Artome you can visit here:
http://www.artome.com/

For information about Kids Kards you can visit here:
https://www.kidskards.com/

For information about Silver Graphics you can visit here:
http://www.silvergraphics.com/

For information about Kids Kreations you can visit here:
https://kidskreations.us/

Good luck to you!

Rainbow Xylophones!

Here's a good lesson I did with Kinder and 1st grade.  It is called Rainbow Xylophones.  This was during our lesson on colors and reviewing the order of the colors based on primaries and secondaries. 

I prepped construction paper in the rainbow colors for every student.  They had to glue them down in rainbow order.  After they were done gluing, they added small details and they had to write the words Rainbow Xylophone!  To add a little zazz to this lesson, I borrowed a Xylophone from the music teacher and played a little for my students!  If they finished correctly and on time, I let them play a little on it as well.  The smile and "I did it!" on their faces when they got the right order was worth all of the prep time it took!

Tried and True Kandinsky Circles

Since this is my first year teaching elementary level art, I decided to go with a tried and true lesson for one of my first lessons this year.  The Kandinsky circles were really fun to do and I was able to adapt it to all grade levels. 

We started out with a short lesson on Kandinsky with pictures of the artist and his works of art.  We talked about how Kandinsky liked to use shapes.  We reviewed types of shapes.  The lesson on shapes was a little more extensive for kinder and 1st and more of a review for 2nd through 5th.

I had the students fold their paper into sections.  Kinder had a half sheet and folded in half, 1st and 2nd folded a full sheet in to 4 squares, and 3rd through 5th grade folded a full sheet into 6 squares.  I hadn't received my supplies for the year at that time so I just had them use crayons to color the circles
We also had a brief discussion about color choices and making sure that we didn't put like colors next to one another because we needed the contrast for the rings to show up.  Over all the students enjoyed it.  They didn't want to stop making it until they were completely finished, which is always a good thing.  Here's a sample of a complete work.

Tempera Tape Resist Painting

Welcome to my blog! I'm just the art teacher here.  I teach kindergarten through 5th grade Art.  Let me go ahead and jump right in here!  Here's one of my favorite lessons to do with my students.  They loooooooove this lesson.  Tempera tape resist paintings!

First I have them put their names on the back of a good quality watercolor paper, at least 80lb.  After that we get out the masking tape and start taping our paper into sections.

After that we paint over it using tempera cakes and water.  I let them choose their colors and mix colors.  My classroom has one major rule when painting, you only get primary colors to mix with.  Well... plus black and white but I don't consider those colors.  Their favorite part about this assignment was coming back the next week and removing the tape!  So much fun!