Friday, February 19, 2016

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!

Monday, February 15, 2016

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!

Saturday, February 6, 2016

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

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

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 )


Monday, February 1, 2016

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: