Quick! I need a 4th Grade filler lesson!

More than half of my 4th grade students had finished their coil pots, but there were still at least 5 in every class who had not.  Anybody who has ever taught clay and had to keep 100s of projects straight knows the difficulty in keeping classes together and still have a good result.  How was I going to keep everyone busy and learning while others finished their pots?  I had recently seen this video  where William Wegman's weimaraner dogs bake bread.  The kids love it!

So I searched for Wegman art lessons and found a very good one at Art Projects for Kids.  What a great idea!  The only problem was that on order to print out the .pdf of the dog pix, you need a Scribd account, for which there is a fee.  Why pay for something when you can get it for free?

So, with 8 minutes before the kids walked through my door, I put together a word doc from these pictures found on Google Images:

(If I could figure out how to upload the doc for you, I would)!

So, everyone kept busy, finished their projects, and are all back at the same place before we start our Claes Oldenburg project next Friday!  Whew!

The LONGEST Coil!

My first graders had an experiential modeling clay lesson in anticipation of making dog scultpures next week.  Specifically, I wanted them to understand how to make spheres, cubes, cylinders, pyramids and other such geometric shapes.  We also counted the number of sides of each shape (Gotta slide those Math standards in whenever you can!)

As a wrap-up, I challenged students to make the longest coil from their piece of clay that they could.  I humbly suggested that they try to make their coil longer than they are tall...

Well, it seems that the collaborative spirit is alive and well in 1st Grade, because here's what they came up with:

 

Yup - that's a modeling clay coil that stretches the ENTIRE length of the art room!  Top that!

Progress:

The majority will be completed this week -we'll have to look up to do our class critique!

Up Into the Heavens: An Installation

High School Drawing/Painting III students:

Our high school art room was BLAH!  A new semester meant that all of the artwork that previously adorned our walls had been taken home with the first semester students.   The fluorescent lights cast a yellow pall on the dingy white drop ceiling.

We needed a project to spruce up the joint as well as teach drawing & painting skills to a diverse group.  Drawing from numerous historical references, here's what I came up with:

Students were repeatedly instructed that their contribution to the project must use all of the tricks involved in linear and atmospheric/aerial perspective. We did an in-depth review of 1 point linear perspective and the ways to achieve deep space on a 2-D surface (Size, foreshortening, value, overlap, placement).  Because some students in class were accomplished painters, but others had not painted since middle school, we also did some atmospheric perspective  using acrylic paint.

I decided to join in the fun, so as a preliminary step in composing my example ceiling tile, I photographed my own kids from below (Remember: I want my drawing to look like it reaches into the skies above!):

(If I am able to finish my tile, I'll post it later)

STEP 1: Complete as many thumbnail sketches as needed to work through your ideas.  Remember that there has be a profound sense that your image reaches far above.  What can be done to achieve the greatest illusion possible?

STEP 2: Select a tile: Installation artists carefully study the site where the art will be placed.  Does your image belong closer to a light, the windows, the door, or doesn't it make a difference?

STEP 3: Prime your tile!  Luckily, I have leftover primer and donated paint, so this did not deplete my painting supplies.

STEP 4: Use vine charcoal to sketch out a contour drawing.  Blot excess charcoal dust with a damp paper towel to avoid muddying colors later.

 STEP 5: Paint!  Start in the background, working your way into the middle ground and then the foreground.  At this point, I demonstrated keeping a cool base color to mix with all other colors to provide unity and increase the sense of atmosphere.  both unify the painting

 LOOK at the engagement of these kids in their work!  I have never seen anything like it!

 This will be our last week where class time is devoted to the project.  Once completed, I will post pictures of the installation as well as a complete lesson plan with rubric.  Keep looking up!!!

SECOND GRADE LEGO ROBOTS

It's that PRINTMAKING time of year again!  Inspired by Filth Wizardry and the ZILLIONS of Legos that my son possesses, my second grade art students drew simple shapes to make robots, and then dipped them in tempera paint to mimic robot gadgetry.  We talked about how robot bodies look a lot like ours, except that instead of curves, they have lots of straight lines.

We then used colored Sharpies to outline shapes and fill in the robot forms, while watching The Lego Story on YouTube.  My normally rowdy 7 & 8 year olds were mesmerized, on-task and had a blast!

 

 

Materials:

Day 1

12" x 18" white drawing or manila paper

Stancups or other small paint containers

Tempera Paint (We used 6 different colors)

Paint shirts/smocks

Trays of Legos

Photos of robots

Drawing pencils

Day 2

Colored Sharpies and/or thin markers

The Lego Story video

Total time: 1 hour

Be prepared for messy hands on the printing day.  I had to lay down the law after my first class somehow got paint on the BACK of their hands and all over their palms, but things settled down after that.  Would I teach this again?  Yessireee, and perhaps try on metallic paper!