Food Play....

"Sniffy" the mole.

Friday was a "Play with Food" day.  Kids enjoyed it, so did I!

These were done by high school students.  

They loved looking through the book, Play With Your Food, by Joost Elffers.

The blonde on the left was named "Barbara Streisand"....Nope, I didn't ask?

Mother's Day Weavings!

I saw a Christmas ornament idea using embroidery thread and cardboard circles.  I decided to use this idea for Mother's Day with my grades 5/6 students.  I used cardboard hearts though instead of circles.  (Ouch, cutting cardboard hurts, and I didn't even have to cut them all b/c I had help, but still ouch!)  These hearts look much smaller in the photos, but they're actually about 7" across and 7" tall.
This was a great texture project too.  The only hard part of the lesson was teaching some of the students how to tie their pieces of yarn together when they added a new color.  I taught the proper knot technique by giving students practice yarn first, but there were still a few kids who needed quite a bit of "knotting" help.
After the weaving, kids made their card and attached it to a piece of yarn to be used to hang the heart in a window or on a wall.

Mother's Day Hands

Okay, how is it that I've been an art teacher for 9 years and this is the first time I've done an art lesson where the kids have to trace their hands?  Hmmm?
These cute Mother's Day cards were done by my grades 2/3 and boy did they have a hard time tracing their hands!  (Thank goodness I happened to have their lesson scheduled the day before a different lesson w/ my 1st grade students.  I had planned a different card, but they were still supposed to trace their hands.  NO WAY was that going to happen, I took the time that night to make heart templates for the 1st graders to use instead of the hand tracing.)

I saw this idea on Pinterest. It was a photo and the link went to Tumblr.com, then I couldn't find the original?  This always happens when I get into Tumblr, does anyone understand that site?

Inside the card, the classroom teacher had the students glue in their Mother's Day poems that they'd been writing.  I love the teachers I work with, they're so appreciative of my art lessons.  I am really blessed.

Mother's Day Hearts

Thank you Kristin at For the Love of Art for sharing this lesson. My 7th grade students had fun using it for their Mother's Day cards!  Splatter paint is always a hit, and so fun for me to find another project where it can be incorporated:)
We used oil pastels on 6x8"construction paper for the concentric heart drawings.  Then before cutting and weaving, I gave students 2 pieces of small scratch paper and had them draw one heart on each.  Then we went through the process of cutting one of the papers in vertical strips up to a line that was drawn horizontally near the top of the paper.  (Approximately 1/2 inch from the top.)  Then second piece of paper was cut into horizontal strips.  Those strips were then woven through the vertical strips, and then came the whining..."Mrs. Smith, I can't see a heart, this doesn't look good."  At which I reminded them they were working with scratch/practice paper and the "REAL" one decorated with many colorful hearts will look great.  I love the way they turned out.  Some kids have a hard time accepting art that's abstract, and they had a hard time seeing the beauty in their woven heart.  The more we do this kind of art though, the better their appreciation becomes.  (Prayers said, fingers crossed.)

Jazzy Guitars Grades 5/6

Doing this lesson really helped the kids get the concept of rhythm and movement in art.  Diagonal lines and shapes for "movement".  Patterns and repetition for "rhythm".  I repeated that over and over again and pretty soon the kids were saying it on their own.

BIG thanks to Holly at "Lines, Dots, and Doodles" for posting this lesson and inspiring me!

The steps were:
Draw with pencil
Trace pencil with black marker
Paint everything, don't worry too much about staying in the lines b/c going to go over them a 3rd time
Paint over black lines with black paint

   

Inky Monsters

You know those art lessons that you really want to do, but continually move it to the back burner because you're really nervous about trying it?  (Or maybe it's just me?)
The first time I saw Stefan Bucher's "Daily Monsters" I flipped.  So wonderfully simple yet fantastic.  I so wanted to share the idea with my students but my fears were:
1.  Ink.  My classroom is not an "art room".  I don't even have a sink in my room.  (So far, I'm the only art teacher I know without a sink.)  Hence, using INK for a project seemed daunting at best.
2.  Blown Ink Monsters.  Sometimes when I give my students lots of freedom/little instruction many of them freeze and look at me like I just told them perform brain surgery.  I then spend a significant portion of the period coaxing these students to really stretch and come up with something creative w/o me spoon feeding it to them.  I realize this is my job, but when my lessons are more structured and the expectations are more defined, my job becomes easier.

Well, I bit the bullet before spring break & assigned the students the task of creating their own "Ink Monsters".  I showed them some of the Daily Monsters created by Mr. Bucher first.  Then my fears quickly disappeared and I had a blast watching and listening to my students create fun and fanciful monsters.

Step 1 - drop some ink on paper, we used white construction paper size 5x7"
Step 2 - blow ink around with a straw, we tried skinny stir straws too and they didn't work as well as regular straws. I also cut the straws in half, thinking the kids wouldn't have to blow as hard.  I'm not a scientist though, so  I have no idea if this was true.
Step 3 - Embellish the ink blot w/ a black marker and create a monster.

These are some of the Monsters they created:

Easter Art Time

Easter Break started for us on Friday!

Our artwork celebrating the holiday.  My favorites are the Easter Lily flowers drawn by the 2nd/3rd graders & even though everyone else thinks they're beautiful....I had multiple kids extremely frustrated with their "flower drawings".  They word "ugly" was stinging my ears often during this lesson.  

Sigh. 

When I shared with a friend that my high school students were so displeased with the "prints" they made & the fact that they couldn't get past the idea that "prints" are not supposed to look like drawings, etc.  He said to me that they haven't developed yet a sensibility that it takes to see art in that way.  Makes sense.


Ahhhhh what a beautiful feeling when the art lesson is truly one that stretches the students and takes them out of their comfort zone and they are pleased with their results.  These are the days I feel like I've won the jackpot.   (This didn't happen w/ the lilies below, but I'm not giving up.  Can't wait to try again next year:)  Hope you enjoy them.

1st Grade "Crosses on a Hill"

2nd/3rd Grade "Easter Lilies & Cross"

5th/6th Grade "Mosaic Crosses"

Mosaic Trees

Another idea found on Pinterest........ Loretta Grayson is the artist who inspired this lesson, I love her colorful art.  See lots here and more info. about her here.

The original on Pinterest were small square paintings that looked like they were done on canvas w/ acrylics, but after reading Loretta's blog - she uses a wonderful combination of pastels and paint, etc.  Because of resources, I decided instead to do the project as a paper mosaic.  It took 2 sessions, and I think they turned out great.
Steps:
1. cover 8x8" tagboard w/ mosaic paper squares
2. draw circle on 4x4" paper, cover w/ mosaic squares on opposite side, then cut out circle.
3. draw black tree branches and glue onto circle, then glue onto background.

These were done by 5th/6th graders:)

Cleaning up........

It's almost end of March, and still, I'm reminding students proper clean-up techniques.  Who am I kidding, they're kids, of course they still needs reminders.

P.S. Do you use these palettes too?  I'm not a fan b/c they're hard to clean, but I also hate using disposable stuff like small condiment cups, wax paper palettes, etc.  Tried pill boxes once, but I bought the circular kind which were impossible to clean.  Saw them at the $1 store so I couldn't resist, I bought 8 of them:(

What's your FAVORITE paint palette for 20+ kids?