Peter Max ATC

One of the lesson plans from this past summer's Art of Ed On-line Conference featured the work of Peter Max.  It was intended to be done with fluorescent oil pastels included in the swag box but with no budget in the beginning of the school year I could not order additional oil pastels to pull the project off with my students.  So I adjusted by using fluorescent tempera paint and some scented markers to create a mixed medium ATC card.  These were done by 4th grade students.  We are really excited to have this work included in the Mini Matisse ATC exchange this spring.
 
  

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.

Make a trade

Hall bulletin board to explain to experience to those not involved at school

Thanks again to Nicole Hahn over at Mini Matisse for organizing this year's ATC trade.  What a terrific experience for my students.  I really enjoyed seeing all the varied cards and once the students understood they were theirs to keep; they were pretty psyched as well.  Here are a few photos from our experience.

A little close-up view

I posted this bulletin board in the hallway with photo copies of some of the cards we received.  The card wraps were posted with links to the states they came from.  This way non-participants were exposed to the experience and were able to read about the schools we received cards from.

Let me see your card, too!

Want to trade?

This was great...I love the art I received!

We loved trading.  The only dissappointment was the missing artist information on the back of some of the cards.  We were able to think like detectives in some instances to solve a few of the mysteries but wish that everyone had taken the time to add the information to each card.

Here is the worksheet we used to evaluate the cards.  In the center, students attempted to recreate their card.  The lower right circle was to contain three things students liked about the card or the experience of participating in the trade.

Most of all we can't wait to join in the trade again next year.  Thanks again Nicol Hahn!

It's Happened!!!

The amazing Nic Hahn has completed the sorting of the 2016 ATC trade.  Our cards are in the mail and on their way.  My students are eager and I must admit, so am I!!!  I can't wait to see that little package arrive and be able to share the trade with my students.  Nic posted a few photos on her blog, here.  I was able to locate photos of our two schools and the receipt of our cards.  Funny, but I've honestly worried for weeks that they might not arrive.  Here are our cards: I'll be sure to update when our packages arrive and how we continue managing the trade in our schools.

Working on ATC in 4th grade

4th grade ATC

Students in both of my buildings are participating in the ATC exchange with  Mini Matisse over on blogspot.  I decided to structure the cards around particular lessons so that students would be exposed to artist or concepts by grade level and then able to prepare their card with some specific parameters.  Fourth graders investigated the artistic style of Laurel Burch, folk artist, who was propular within the last 40 years or so for her whimsical jewelry designs and other commercial items.  Students were drawn to the colors and patterns and jumped right in to develope their own individual ideas for their subject matter.  Burch is most well known for her cats but has also included other animals in her work.  Students choose cats, horses, dogs, unicorns from stencils I had prepared ahead of time.  A few creative individuals dabbled with their own personal ideas.  The backgrounds were created using coffee filters.  Students drew a variety of geometric shapes.  These were squirted with water.  Students watched in amazement as they discovered the shapes were morphing into organic shapes.  Finally, a way to truly demonstrate the differences in geometric and organic shapes.  The results were breathtakingly beautiful.  We have stashed away the left over scraps for future projects, these were too beautful to throw away!

White Fang by Analeah

Dragon by Hope

Wacky Birds for ATC cards

First graders have been drawing Wacky Birds this week in the form of Artist Trading Cards.  I first wrote about this project here a few years ago.  That year we used the birds in a cooperative project that still hangs in the hallway in one of my schools.  The original worksheet came from Expressive Monkey.  I love this worksheet and have used it for years.  So back to this year, we have been making ATCs to trade with other first graders in another state.  They had approximately 100 students so I decided to have my group make at least two cards each.  Open the flood gates...some students made between 4 and 6!!!  I'm not certain yet how I will handle the extras but I do intend to send at least one down to New Jersey from each student.  As the numbers demonstrate, they had a blast and just wanted to make more and more.  Thanks to my donated stash of scraps of card stock, it was not a problem with the cost of pre-cut ATC.  If you haven't done one of these projects yet, you really should try them out with your students.  They are quite the hit!

4th grade ATC trade.

I have wanted to participate in an ATC exchange for a couple of years now and just couldn't seem to pull it together.  Sitting here right now I am wondering "why not??"  This was the easiest day ever and the results were pretty good.  I allowed my students to create a card of choice using a medium of choice as well as subject matter.  We began by throwing out ideas and talking about how we would want to represent our school to students across the country.  Would we want to illustrate something about our community, our interest, the art that we have made or would we just want to present our creative selves?  Since, this was a choice lesson, the end results include all of the above.  The first batch of twenty is in the mail, off to a small school in SD and now we will practice being patient.  This week, we will pull together another 80 to send off to another program in another direction...don't have that address, yet.  Then, I'll be looking for another place to trade with maybe using another grade.