Monday, March 21, 2011

Update and Neighborhood Collagraphs

Wow!  I've been gone for quite some time so there's much to update.  Second Graders are just about completing a big printmaking unit that coincides with their Social Studies unit about urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods.  We spent the first day of the lesson discussing all the things that make our community urban and the various things we see while traveling in it (the stores, cars, people, tall buildings, and so on).  We learned that geometric shapes (shapes found in Math) and organic shapes (shapes found in Nature) can be used in creating a collagraph plate of a part of our neighborhood using manila folders.  This took about two class periods.  Afterward I introduced the tools used in creating a print (brayer, printmaking ink, and of course collagraph plate).  We went over the steps in creating a print, and two by two I had students come over to the "inking station" and ink their plates while the other students worked on an activity sheet.  The fourth day students used pieces of scrap paper to create a symmetrical boarder around their print (we'll need a fifth day for all students to complete their prints, it's tough only having two brayers available!). 


Friday, January 28, 2011

Matisse Inspired Goldfish Bowl

These were created by some very talented Second Graders.  I was first introduced to this lesson by a lovely K-6 Art Teacher whose class I took over as a long term substitute last year.  Her version involved more coloring with crayons and painting with watercolors...however she did have the students include a window in the background and corners to indicate a room.  While blog surfing I realized that this lesson is quite popular and can be done in a variety of ways so I decided to attempt it myself with the students.  Although it is a very involved lesson with multiple steps (about 4-5 sessions) the learning is worth it.


Kindergarten Update and Pendants

Snowflakes that were begun the day before Winter Recess...simple oil pastel resist.

Textured pendants - one day for exploration and another day for creation of final piece.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Textured Mittens

First Graders just completed these lovely textured mittens.  We began by reading The Mitten by Jan Brett, which served as a great inspiration for the students.  They then were introduced to the word texture (the way an object feels) and began cutting up strips of various fabric.  On the second day we discussed the word symmetry and used the analogy of a butterfly as an example from nature.  We arranged our fabric strips from the week prior in a way that was symmetrical, thus creating a pair of matching mittens.  The third day students cut up glitter paper (made by brushing glitter glue on regular construction paper) and arranged their pieces to form a border surrounding their mittens...similar to the the borders surrounding Brett's lovely illustrations.  This lesson was inspired by the lesson found on the color, collage, and much more blog (http://colorandcollage.blogspot.com/), one of my favs!


Sunday, January 9, 2011

Inspiration for Future Art Lessons

I'm dedicating this post to art lesson ideas gathered from some wonderful art teacher blogs from around the web!  I plan on creating lessons inspired by these posts and appropriating them to meet the needs of my students.  Thank you to all the art educators who constantly inspire me to try new and exciting things!

Kindergarten
http://modernartsmock.blogspot.com/2011/01/1st-grade-picasso-faces.html  
http://linesdotsanddoodles.blogspot.com/2010/12/ten-black-dots-kindergarten.html
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hme/k_5/shapebook/toc.html
http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2011/05/city-shapes-and-sounds.html
http://aheartists.blogspot.com/2009/09/first-grade-cityscapes.html 
1st Grade
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1005798@N23/pool/page5/
http://sgpart.blogspot.com/2010/08/lots-of-lines.html
http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/2010/09/16/lines-and-more-lines/ 
http://artlessonsforkids.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/lines-all-around/
http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2011/03/still-life-collage.html
http://mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com/2010/03/mr-mrs-gadget.html
http://artolazzi.blogspot.com/2011/03/kandinsky-paintings.html
http://www.artismessy.org/?p=495
http://mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com/2010/09/name-projects.html
http://ms-artteacher.blogspot.com/2010/09/joan-miro-animals.html
http://snippetygibbet.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-grade-architecture.html 
2nd Grade
http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/2010/01/collagraphs.html
http://pantherspalette.blogspot.com/2011/02/2nd-grade-starry-night-paintings.html
http://davinciswings.blogspot.com/2010/02/2nd-grade-printmaking.html
3rd Grade
http://artwithrmotta.blogspot.com/2010/12/3rd-grade-torn-paper-landscapes.html
http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2011/03/picassos-guitar-cubism-for-2nd-graders.html
http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2011/01/matisse-inspired-studio-collages.html
http://vividlayers.blogspot.com/2011/05/contour-shoes-3rd-grade.html