Roll an Elf on a Shelf

We did a Roll a Turkey activity the days before the Thanksgiving break last month and one of my students requested we do an Elf on a Shelf the days before the Holiday break.  So, I came up with this for them.  I'm hoping it is not too hard for 2nd - 5th grade. 

 

What do you do when they have NO supplies at home?

All Student Works

My most frustrating challenge this year is that students don't have the basic necessary supplies they need for Art class.  Many of them lack paper and pencil.  I've often encouraged scrounging through the recycling bin to use the back of envelopes, cardboard cereal boxes and other materials to repurpose for drawing supplies.  It actually breaks my heart!  I tried using Pear Deck with all of my student for simple responses but the kick back from parents was painful.  So with the quest for other ways to make art, I decided to dig deeper into Google Drawing.  All of our school issued computers have it available so it seemed like the best first step.  I was inexperience myself so I turned to YouTube where I found this terrific video for beginners,  Easy Drawings with 3D Shapes  This guy is terrific.  One of the things he does is to keep it real.  He makes mistakes and then corrects them, he changes his mind if he doesn't like a choice.  He approaches it like a kid would so they can easily relate.  He inspires.   In my live lessons, I play a portion of the video and then stop and repeat the process with my own demo so it can be slowed down and repeated as many times as possible until we are all on track.  It took about (3) three 30 minute classes to complete the first project.  But, I am so happy with the successes!  Realize your students are going to be really pumped to continue to work with the lesson after class time so the final step on day one was to create a new Google Drawing template that we labeled "Just for Fun" so they could experiment independently without touching our in class work.  So, in the works for future lessons are Notans, using value, mosaics, and a go at perspective and portraits.  I set using Google Drawings with my students as this year's professional goal so I will need to incorporate at least 25% of my lessons using the program.  If anyone has any great lesson ideas that you've had success with, please comment and share!  Thank you and Happy Google Drawings!!

 Here's another adaption we might give a try

to when we work with gradients.

Games for Visual Meetings

I have been having a virtual visual meeting with my students once a week for the past few weeks.  Numbers are growing but it is still a small manageable group.  My goal was to offer this time to help any students who were struggling with lessons.  Despite my poking and prodding, those students still are not showing up.  Instead the time has turned into an Art visit where students share what is important to them and we draw together.  Last week I took a suggestion and the students drew along with me as I used a white board they could view.  This week I was searching for something different and decided on a "Roll-a-Dice" I found on Pinterest.  It was for making "Silly Spiders."  Thanks to whomever created it cause my kids loves it and we had fun first drawing a number of spiders and then coloring them.  I was able to locate a dice that we could manipulate on line so my students could be a part of the choosing the number as well.  I found that here.The virtual visual gave us the opportunity to share with one another by holding our work up to the camera of our computer.  As we were leaving this week, I ask the group what they would like to do when we are together next week and they suggested a Roll-a-Dice Silly Animals.  So, I Googled and came up short.  There are many animal sheet available but they are usually themed by animal and my students wanted silly animals.  Very broad but I rose to the challenge and have successful created an official "Roll-A-Dice Silly Animal" for next week's session.  I'm sharing it here with anyone who would like to use it. Let me know how it goes, okay???

The Clay Box

Summer is just around the corner.  I know many of you would like to keep your little ones busy with some hands on activities.   Check out my friend, Ruth Post, from The Clay Box.   This is a subscription service that sends all the materials for you to complete a project.   I have used some of the materials as well as the lesson instructions and found them to be easy to follow and work well. 
Ruth is a retired art teacher and this is how she is using her time in retirement.  I don't think you will be disappointed with the program.  https://www.theclaybox.org/  I'm not getting any type of kick back for this; I just think it's a great program!

Observing and drawing like Scientist

Here are some Oil Pastel creations done by 4th and 5th grade students from Observation.  I purchased several of those really large artificial pumpkins on clearance several years ago.  They have naturally aged and gotten slightly dirty creating different colors making them great for an observation work.  Students were task with drawing a pumpkin as it looked and not stylized with a rectangle stem sticking on the top of a circle.  We talked about the texture of the pumpkin and how it was not truly smooth but had irregularities that we wanted to make apparent in our work.   Using oil pastels in analogous colors, students them added color and dimension to their drawing.  I'm really pleased at the variety of the completed projects and how each of them hints at the 3D element of the pumpkin.  They were allow to finish them as they chose which is evident in the many different backgrounds.

Did you know? Are you even interested????

A while back a co-worker handed me one of those plastic shoe box containers full of old crayons and other miscellaneous trinkets that her grown children had left behind in her basement years ago.  She knew I melted down broken crayons to use as prizes in the art room.  I was thankful to receive them but didn't get to the box right away.  My colleagues are great about sharing broken crayons with me so I had a fairly large stockpile.  A few weeks ago, I started peeling the crayons in the box to begin the crayon making process and came across some labels I had never seen before.  I retained one determined to learn more about what it was.

I didn't have to do much research to discover this terrific site that enlightened me as to the contest that occurred back in 1993 for students to name a crayon.  I know I have seen the crayon, Macaroni & Cheese in newer boxes for crayons since that day.  The site was truly fascinating with a complete history of crayola.  If you're into this type stuff, just over and check it out.  It was interesting to discover the visual changes that have occurred to this common everyday material in the Elementary Art Room.  

5th grade Bobble Heads

I was so pleased with the results of 5th grade clay bobble heads this year.  They were very creative with their various approaches to the assignments.  Here are a few photos and videos.

Student's wolf

Student's Elephant

Student's monkey with a banana

Puppy by student.  I was impressed by how she placed the
front feet on the bobble and the back feet on the base.

Jasper Johns interpretation by 5th grade

 "Alphabet" by Jasper Johns was the piece used for inspiration.  

At a recent professional day experience, our group shared ideas for printmaking.   One of my colleagues shared a variation of this project.  She had planned the project as a color mixing experience for Kinders.  With a twist, I introduced it to 5th grade students who totally enjoyed the color review and the opportunity to add individualized touches to their work. 

Week one student were given tempera colors in the primaries and instructed to paint all the colors of the color wheel.  They were further told they could not mix colors on their pallets but instead had to mix right on the painting surface.  There were not specific instructions as to how the finished work should appear, only that it should be non-representational.

Week two students used tempera in the fluorescent primary colors to mix secondary colors and print using bubble wrap.  They did the mixing right on the bubble wrap.  Very messy, but they all seems to really enjoy the bubble mixing process. (Paint one primary on each end of a strip of bubble, fold and rub the two ends together to mix.)  At this step, they reviewed show colors "work" off one another and were reminded that complementary colors seem to "pop" when used together.  Personal choices were made as to where to place the different color prints.  As they completed this step, drawing paper was used along with any left over paint to practice painting letters and numbers using a flat paint brush.

Week three began with additional practice with the paint brush if students felt it would be beneficial.  They moved on to adding letters and numbers to their paintings.  I was delighted with the variety and the enthusiasm as students moved through this project.

Winter Cardinals

Sharing some watercolor painting done by 4th and 5th grade Art Club members over the past two weeks.  Working toward understanding transparency with watercolors to achieve varying hues from a singular color, watercolor wash, and managing brush use in a more professional way.  They used a tracer to place their bird but the rest of the composition is free hand.  I'm proud of these kids, they worked really hard!

Norman Rockwell Illustrated Narratives and QR codes

Fifth Grade students investigated the narrative style of the work of Norman Rockwell.  In small groups they worked to "read" select illustrations to determine the messages that were being portrayed.  They were particularly sensitive to details that help to establish time periods and lifestyle clues.  Individually they created their own narrative over the course of several class periods.  Once the illustration was completed, they took their work to the Language Arts teacher where they wrote an accompanying narrative for the illustration.

 As a part of a full school show off night, work was exhibited with QR codes to link the illustrations to the written work.  In the classroom, the written narratives also contained QR codes that linked back to the illustrations.  This was established as a cooperative work between the Art room and classroom teachers.

A previous post along with the lesson plan can be viewed here: http://khyman.blogspot.com/2017/01/artistic-narratives-introducing-norman.html

Sorry I've been Neglectful and ARTOME'

I will start this post by apologizing.  I can't believe I have neglected this blog since April.   The last several months of school seemed to be only slightly manageable...too much to achieve with so little time.  I was busy but there is no excuse for neglect.  So this post is my first attempt at catching up a bit.

I brought in Artome' to put on an art show at one of my buildings this year.  Frankly, I was very skeptic about having an art show at all.  I was certain that no one would show up and I would devote a tremendous amount of my time to an event that would be an embarrassment.  We've all been there, send out the announcements, invites, etc and only a handful of people show up.  The response was always, they would have come if you put out snacks.  Really, that keeps the people from administration from showing up?  For years, my principal didn't even bother to show.  I think that was the hardest blow.  I really felt a general lack of appreciation for anything I was doing.

So, when my "new" principal put the idea of an art show out there I was more than reluctant.  I kept hoping the idea would dissipate in the hectic ebb and tide of the school year.  Maybe she wouldn't notice if I conveniently "forgot".   I began to see postings on Art Teacher-ing pages about Artome' and everyone appeared to truly be pleased with their outcomes.   The idea of now having to mat each and every piece of work and frantically hang them with high hopes they wouldn't fall off of the walls was very appealing so I decided to dig a little bit deeper and look into the possibility.  After all, it could be a win/win.   My principal okay-ed the idea and the parent's group agreed to take on the money making venture.  I signed on and the process began.

Let me say, it was not as easy as I thought.  I easily spent between 20 - 24 weekend hours over the span of three weeks preparing all the artwork, labeling, checking for correct spelling and categorizing the way I wanted the work to be exhibited.  It was not a complete win/win...I had to put some work in.  But, the day of the show was fabulous.  The crew of two young men came in and quickly set up the show, filled me in on information I might need and defined their roll for the evening.  I walked down the aisles making certain all the art was hanging correctly and that I hadn't grouped too many like pieces together.  It looked pretty good and I was nervous but ready.  I still feared we'd be a wash out with few attendees.  Boy was I incorrect!!  It was way beyond my wildest expectations and the parent/teacher organization made some money as well.  Best of all was the attendance by a school council member.  I'd say this was a BIG WIN/WIN for the art department and I own some of that myself.  Feeling great about Artome'!!

The 5th grade chorus provided
entertainment toward the end of the
event.

The Orchestra provided a wonderful
backdrop to the show.

Buttons to identify student volunteers

Gallery information about the show

Welcome to our Art Show

Before the crowds arrived

It's clay time!

Loading the kiln

I pushed my clay unit off until after February Break this year.  Here we are at week four and the greenware is going into the kiln.  I taught a few of the old standbys with the kids and threw in a few new projects this year as well.  Third grade explored the Egyptian burial process and are creating Canopic Jars.  We stepped into Ancient Greece for fourth grade and they are created urns to be decorated with slip or underglaze with geometric patterns.  Clay is a favorite unit of the year.  In about a month I will post some of the completed projects.

Canopic jars - the Jackal was a very popular choice

A powerpoint for the Canopic lesson

District Exhibit for Youth Art Month

Student work top row center

Last night our local museum hosted the opening reception for our county YAM event.  The turnout was fabulous with people from the community as well as families and students.  It was great to see a few principals in attendance as well as our city's superintendent.  Hopefully, this is the begging of a great art movement for our county.  Photos capturing my student's work and some of the performers from last night.

Student work top row 2nd from right

Student work bottom right

Student work bottom round print
Top left

Student work top center

Student work top center

Student works - near bottom center
Bird and Bear

student work fish

High School band kicked off the night

One of my school's alumni now in HS band

Elementary Musicians performed

I have a new love

Diffusion geometric to organic

I have fallen head over heels for a new art "medium".  In the beginning weeks of school I venture into a local distributor and purchased a mega size container of coffee filters.  I intended to utilize them as dots for an annual dot day project.  Students used them to demonstrate symmetry and for mandalas.  Check out the link to our Artsonia pages to view those.  Along the way, they were used for a project to demonstrate the difference between geometric shapes and organic shapes  (draw geometric, spray with water and they turn into organic shapes).  At some point,  I became totally hooked on the diffusion qualities obtained with coffee filters.   My students have added them to Morris Burton projects, used them to make trees, as well as Artist Trading Cards.  The other day I decided to play with one for a project for an Art with Mr. E project for his #aheartadaychallenge.  The ideas are totally endless.  My newest effect was dropping on some Kosher Salt.

Morris Burton

Analogous colors for trees

Start with shapes

Spray with some water

Let it diffuse

Morris Burton using the paper the filter was sitting on to dry

Dropping on some Kosher Salt

If you haven't attempted these

Close up of  Kosher Salt affect

yet, pick some up and try it out

with your students.  The "WoW"

effect is totally worth the experience.  

For now, I'm off to do some creating 

with these new papers.