Sculptured Donuts

One of the presentations in the Art of Education Winter Conference was sculpture donuts presented by Sarah Engel.  I immediately knew this was a definitely project to include in my Art club plans this winter.  Sarah suggested referencing Andy Warhol and Pop Art as a historical connection but it really spoke Wayne Thiebault to me.  So that is the approach I used.  This took two 45 minute sessions.  Week one they formed the donuts out of newspaper and covered them with Rigid Wrap.  Students created 2 or 3 donuts.   Week two they were painted with a light brown paint, iced with the glue and shaving cream mixture and covered with art foam sprinkles.  To finish them off, after they had set up a little, we placed each donut on a doily and 6" plastic plate.  The kids were so excited with anticipation of pranking their families into believing they were really donuts!

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Speaking of Art Club

You might be wondering why any sane Art Teacher would take it upon themselves to do an art club every week when no one expects it from them, no one ask them to, and it's not in the contact.  Let me start my answer by saying that the Art Club is the highlight of my week.  I have the opportunity to be creative and enjoy the company of ten really great kids each week who want to spend some time in my room with me.  For me, that's just a gift with a big red bow on it every Thursday afternoon.  No matter what type of week I am having, I know I will walk out of Art Club feeling relaxed and appreciated.  Ten is the number of little artist I have this year but I have had closer to 20 in years past.  I don't want to go beyond the 20 mark but the range of 10 - 15 is really the cream.  A few of my little artist are behaviorally challenged in their regular day but in the Art Club, they are in their element.  They do have to agree to follow my rules with the understanding that they can be removed from the group if behavior becomes a problem, it seldom does.
Art Club activities range from crafty type activities to painting with everything in between.  This year we have thus far painted with acrylics, done gelli print and collage and created holiday decorations.  Presently, students are creating with clay.  I usually demonstrate an idea each session but they can go with it how they wish.  I'll be certain to post some finished clay projects in the future.  Art Club begins in October and runs through April Break which is generally mid April.  We meet Thursdays after school.  Parents do pay what averages out to about $2.50 per week for students to participate.  The school parent organization collects that money.  It covered the supplies, mostly with a stipend for me when we finish up in April.  No one is getting rich financially but many of us are benefiting from a very rich experience; speaking for myself, I know I am!

Gelli Print Collage 

Original Buttons

Snow man  Christmas Ornaments

Acrylic Painting on Canvas Board

Planning for a new Art Club Project

Back in the summer I ordered way too many packages of white buttons from NAEIR.  I had plans for some cute little snowmen pins for the Art Club to make for their teachers for the holidays.  I think only one of my 10 art-clubbers was into the idea and I have way too many white buttons left over for any human being to own.  So what does one do when faced with this dilemma?  Well of course, you hit up Pinterest for some ideas!!!  I found quite a few ideas but am going to try to shoot this one to the group for approval and hopefully use up a lot of those buttons.   Here are some visual steps for how we are going to put this together

Gather up some supplies.  This is a paint medium that I will use to glue the paper on the canvas panel.  The paper was smaller than the canvas so I plan to tear it into organic/free-form shapes and glue those down for the background.























Acrylic medium underneath the papers and then again on top.  It goes down opaque but dries clear.









It won't need to dry long so while I waited; I pre-arranged how I hoped the buttons would puzzle together to form the heart.  My plans were to avoid any type of symmetry but once I began to place the buttons I soon discovered that symmetry was the best approach.  I grabbed some glue that was handy to put them down but plan to use Tacky Glue for the students to use for the final step.  I'm considering a ribbon glued to the top of the heart or some well placed stenciled or cut out letters.  I guess, students could even use sharpies to add a personal message.  Hopefully, this will be a win!!

Gelli Print Collages by 4th & 5th grade

Art club students are beginning to complete their collages made with gelli prints a few weeks back.  I'm so pleased with their enthusiasm for this project.  So here there are:

Gelli Printing and collage

Last spring I ordered a class set of Gelli plates for my classroom and immediately became intimidated and overwhelmed with thoughts of managing a class using them.  I shared the process with my fellow art teachers and hoped I would find courage to use them in my classroom.  Baby steps last week when I pulled them out for the Art club to use.  Here are some pictures of student's work "in  the process".  I laid out supplies, stencils texture tools and other found objects and allowed them to experiment and to personally discover the limitless possibilities.  They printed on book pages, newsprint, construction paper and drawing paper.  I had hoped to have deli papers for them but the order didn't arrive in time - next time I'll pull those out.  WE had a blast!  Collages will be made using selected prints on canvas and also for cards.  Pictures to follow when they are completed.

We used large paper as a place mat to keep things
organized by student.

Playing with texture making tools both purchased
and made from old credit cards 

Adding stamps for mask and then stamping
on other prints to create ghost prints

Gyotaku rubber fish worked well, too!

Recycled Robots

3rd grade creation

So I took on a 2nd grade/3rd grade Art Club for the month of May.  Not a lot can be accomplished in four short sessions so I focused on something I could not do in a regular classroom setting without a great deal of planning and hoarding.  I decided to turn to recycled materials.   For weeks I searched and hoarded things from home and the art room in preparation for the project.  Old glue stick containers - check, paint brush handles with no brush - check, pencil nubs - check, mint containers saved and begged - check.  The list could go on.  I made a quick trip to the Dollar Tree for some unusual miscellaneous things to add to the growing pile and then allowed the group to pick, chose and create.  I was excited to find small bottles of Tacky glue at the Dollar Tree as well that were used to assemble everything.   One can of silver spray paint was purchased to applied once the bot was created.  (20 robots - one can of spray paint)  Finally the feathers, googly eyes, buttons, and chenille sticks came out to add embellishments.  And yes, this is not my original idea...I saw it somewhere and just ran with the idea.  So here are a few of the finished masterpieces.  Really proud of these kiddos and so thankful to the staff that they pitched in to find the recycled materials!

3rd grade

very creative 2nd grader

3rd grader

3rd grader

3rd grader

2nd grade

2nd grade

2nd grade

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!

ArtBots by the Art Club last Wednesday

 The Art Club made their Art bots last week and we couldn't have had a better time!

Who says it has to have only two eyes?

Is that a banana????

Into Toucan Birds

creating ArtBots

Make mine unique

Planning for some ArtBot creations!

I just visited my local Dollar Tree to gather supplies for the art club to make ArtBots.  I'm so excited! I have wanted to do these for quite the while but couldn't validate purchasing all those mini motors everyone was talking about out of pocket.  A few electric toothbrushes and pool tubes later we are in business.  I'll be sure to post photos of the Club Kids work in a few weeks.  

STEAM  should translate to FUN!

Do you shop NAEIR?

I signed on with a teacher's membership quite some time ago and have check out the site several times since signing up but never seems to accrue the required amount of merchandise to place an order.  Earlier in the month I finally found enough merchandise and placed the first order.  Now I am so hooked!!I was delighted when the first order arrived with all of my quality goodies.  There was a lot of stuff for my $50.00 purchase.  When my art club students ask to do some creating with Duct tape, I knew just were to look to economically purchase the needed supplies.  Well, the boxes arrived today.  I can't wait to see the kids faces  when they come to club next week!  We will be in duct tape heaven!

Images from the Night of Excellence

Borrowed this from a post.  Notes to the artist.
 I was disappointed that only one child received one.  

The Night of Excellence is a school wide event in one of my buildings.  Each classroom showcases work from the year.  Most are in the nature of state projects, unit work, or other grade based curriculum.   I was thrilled to be able to showcase  a few canvas paintings from my after school Art Club program.  

Looking in from the doorway

A few of the painting up close with the artist labels

Art was on the tables and the window shelves

A few more up close pictures taken facing the doorway

Next week - school number two!  I'll post photos from that one when it is over.  It will showcase works from all students grades K - 4th.  It's been a very busy month!

Looks like Yellow Snow!

One of my student created this during our clay unit in the after school Art Club.  He used neon tempera paints to add the color and we grabbed the stick arms from the tree out front.  Too cute, don't you think??

MINIONS!!!

 I am so enjoying the Art Club kids and our once a week meetings.  Deciding to run an Art Club rather than an afterschool program has given me a bit more freedom in the projects we do as well as allowing more input from the group.  Every few weeks we briefly discuss and plan what we would like to do next as a group.  I throw out some ideas to kick start the discussion and students submit ideas as well.  The first week we met, we started the club in that way and one of the first request I received was to create minions.  I happened to be working with Model Magic in the younger grades so that medium came to

mind.  I also had a bag of plastic easter eggs that I felt might use as a form and cut down on the amount of clay we would need to use.  Each child was given a 5 oz bag of yellow to cover their egg to create the body of the minion.  We used blue, grey and black for the other elements and students used a model of a toy Minion for inspiration along with their own experiences and observations.    We used one bag of white (5oz), 6 (5oz) bags of blue and the large bags of both gray and black.  A few smaller bags of black and gray would have been sufficient but I was unable to find the small bags locally.   The eggs had been purchased at the end of the season a few years ago for 5 cents a bag.  We took photos for Artsonia immediately and the students took these right home with instructions to allow them to dry before they handled them too much.  The project took about 40n minutes and the kids were thrilled.

Oh, after I came up with the plan and purchased all the materials,  I found a minion kit by Crayola at the local Michael's store.  It was around $7.00 to make 2 small minions.  All total, 14 students created minions for about double that cost.