Kindergarten and Andy Warhol's Cats

This was a delightful read for my Kinders who speculated that the Warhol's must have had at least 1000 Sam's living in their home.  They were hysterical with the idea that Hester and Sam might have slept in Andy's wig drawer with all their offspring's and they were sure the wigs must have been an extremely comfortable place to sleep.

So began a Kindergarten lesson on Pop Art, no it's not like popping a balloon, and an introduction to Andy Warhol.

Students followed a directed draw to create this sweet little composition featuring a cat in a wig and sometimes with a smaller Sam (kitten) in the background.  Students were encouraged to practice skill and creative embellishment in their work.  Choices in color for the cats were left up to the student's discretion.  Here are a few of the finished projects, definitely worth sharing!!!

Kids love Monsters!

I sent my monster to the North Pole because he is a snow monster.

I think this is one of my favorite lessons for second grade every year.  I start by reading a fun little book by Peter McCarty, "Jeremy Draws a Monster".  The book is about a young boy who never leaves his third story apartment but instead gazes out the window watching the neighborhood children playing.  One day he draws a monster that doesn't turn out to quite be the great companion he had planned for.  Jeremy sends the monster away and in the process, meets the neighborhood children and joins them in play.  My students quickly determine that the monster is quite rude and not very kind to his creator, Jeremy.  They are not surprised when Jeremy decides to get rid of the monster and begin to see the positives from the experience as Jeremy joins the other children to play.  The fun side of this project begins when I challenge my students to draw the destination that Jeremy has sent the monster off to.  We've ever explored the possibilities of a sequel to the

My monster is a blue monster.  He is in Paris.
 I hope the rain is over by now.  My monsters name is Bluer.

 book in hopes that Mr. McCarty had plans for
his monster.  But until that book is published, my second graders have stepped in with their own conclusions.  Students drew a perceived destination and then tore an organic shape to create their own monster.  The best part of this lesson for me happens once they write their artist statements to describe their work.  Most often they give the monster a name.  It's a fun project and I am so delighted with the results this year.  I can tell they really put their hearts into these.  I'm very proud of their work.  The captions under the photos are some of their artist statements.  I have posted the lesson play on Artsonia.  It can be found here.

I sent my monster to the desert.  His name is Paper.

I sent him to New York.  I used blue and red.

My monster can fly.
 I made my monster in Wacky Town.
 It's name is Jacke.

Thanks to Mr. E! A Pout Pout Fish Lesson

Back in November, Mr. E over at Art with Mr. E ran a giveaway for copies for the Pout Pout Fish book series, and I won! I read the books and couldn't wait to figure out a way to use them.  Well, I finally came up with an idea a few weeks back and here are the wonderful results made by my kindergarten students.  They began the project by cutting shapes and assembling them into a fish.  Week two was about texture as students added scales and other details to the fish.  We also investigated the under sea habitat of a fish and used crayon to create the bottom of the sea.  Week three, students finished any coloring from the week before and added the sea to their work with liquid watercolor.  Once dry, shape fish were added to the composition.  So, here is to Mr. E.  We loved the books and with the three book series were able to enjoy a new one each week to accompany the steps of the project.  My personal favorite was the one about school but I think my kinders really enjoy hear about the Deep Deep Dark!

lots of coral and sea weed in this sea

This one imagined a clam with pearl and a star fish

I love the castles in these two girl's work (top and bottom) and the
unicorn fish.  You can tell they sit closely together.

I love Children's Illustrated Books!

Hardly a Kindergarten session goes by without my sharing one of my illustrated books with the group.  Often I start the class off with a book that is a springboard for the lesson.  Sometimes, the lesson is a continuation of the week before so I select a book just for fun.  This week students were completing a lesson and I had a new book that I was eager to share with them.  I was fortunate to win this book in a drawing at an event this week.  The author, Susan E. Goodman was the guest speaker.  Entertaining and extremely knowledgeable would be two appropriate words to describe Ms. Goodman.  I thoroughly enjoyed her presentation peppered with antidotes and humor.  I loved this particular one and immediately chose it to share with my students.  Ms. Goodman takes the reader on a journey back through time looking at the parcel of land that is currently New York City.  My students were delighted with the illustrations and intrigued by the story line.  I was impressed by their very insightful questions as they began to grasp the message of the non-fiction book.  I loved sharing this book and my students were definitely engaged with the historical message.  Check it out and many of the other books by Ms. Goodman.

The Behaviors are Making me Crazy (and look old)!!!

I recently decided to try to draw a self portrait while looking into a make-up mirror and was alarmed at what my eyes were beholding.  In just a few short months, talking about since my yearly school picture, my face has added an exorbitant amount of new wrinkles.  How have I changed so much in just a few month, I thought with extreme alarm.   Immediately, the answer jumped into my conscientiousness - it's the behaviors!  This has been a very challenging school year.  The top tier students have kept everyone on tippy toes and some days teaching has been impossible.  After years of teaching I have found myself scrambling to find new methods and ideas to manage my classes.  A first year teacher shared with me a book she had borrowed and was reading and I thought it might just be able to supply me with some answers.  Luckily, I also knew of someone who owned the book and quickly sent out an email to see if I might borrow it. If you haven't read it yet, find a copy and give it some attention.  The book is Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers by Michael Linsin.  Linsin had me within the first couple of paragraphs as he explained the purpose of the book.  Seems Linsin was a classroom management authority of sorts; even offering professional development on the subject.  He had been a classroom teacher for 15 years when he decided to switch over to teaching Physical Education.  Within minutes of his first class, he knew classroom management as a specialist had an entire different look than it had for him as a classroom teacher.  This book outlines his suggested methods of taking control of your classes even if you only see them once a week.  It's a quick read with some insightful ideas and approaches.  I found myself reflecting, reevaluating and congratulating myself as I read through each section.  Some things I already did, some I definitely need to work on and in some areas I have a need to fine-tune.  With that said, I strongly recommend you get your hands on a copy and give it a read.  I think I'll be purchasing a copy for myself when I return my borrowed copy, to flip back through as a reference and a reminder.  Hopefully, with better classroom management techniques, some of these wrinkles will soften and I'll start looking a little bit more like my old self.  Oh, and this is not an advertisement, I received no compensation for this post You can also visit smartclassroommanagement.com for more information.

Printmaking Unleased

I jumped on board to follow the latest readings with the Artsy Book Club.  I have spent the last couple of days pulling together some materials for a few of the projects from "Printmaking Unleashed"  For starter, the projects are a lot of fun...for me.  I think I would be reluctant to try many of the procedures with my elementary students.  I started by creating some stencils using a hot glue gun.  I grabbed an old Teflon pan from the kitchen and my glue gun and started drawing.  It was a blast however,  the stencils wouldn't lift off of the old pan.  I went in search of a Teflon sheet and was not successful so purchased another Teflon baking pan and created some new stencils.  This time it worked like a breeze and the stencils were a snap to create.  Very successful procedure but I would not place hot glue guns, even the low temp ones in the hands of a classroom full of students.  I might consider it in a well supervised environment and small group for an after school program or club.  Most of the experimentation I have done, I feel the same way about.  Not for a classroom full of elementary students but manageable for a smaller group when well supervised.  I  am not finished yet and will experiment more.  I also intend to take all the methods and combine them in some way for a completed project.

 To the right you see me showing off my hot glue gun stenciled apron.  This was from the Swag of the AOE Convention back in the spring.  I used the painted paper towel method with the stencils.  I can see this being a colorful hit in the art room.  I'll try it this method again and see if I can get it to look a bit more refined and with cleaner lines.

Children writing children's books - Connecting Art and Writing

The Boy Who Met Aliens by Sabrina, Caitlyn and Michael

Planet Wheeee by Paige, Rachel, Jordyn, and Elisalyn

Ultimate Cheer by Chloe, Kacie and Taylee

The Butler Gets Fired

Party at Pig's House by Alyssa, Kassidy and Tatumn

Planet Wheeee

Jenny's Flute Lesson by Julia, Kileigh and Tori

All of my fifth grade students worked to create an illustrated children's book this past school year.  Out of the approximately 25 books being written, only about four were successfully completed.  I had taken a course on writing children's books last summer and thought it would be a wonderful project idea for my oldest students when school began last fall.  In many ways, it was a wonderful project idea.  Students studied the work of published authors and illustrators, learned about writing manuscripts and how to create a storyboard.  They worked in collaborative groups of their own choosing to write the manuscripts and to create the illustrations.  The downfall, it took all but about eight weeks of the school year and as I previously mentioned, only a small percentage of the books were completed.  If I were forced to measure growth for this project; I would have several measurements to qualify the learning that was taking place.  I was most impressed by the engagement in the project.  The last month had many groups "checking out" their work so they could add illustrations at home and during rainy recess times. I think this was a success and good project but I am disappointed that I wasn't able to cover some of the other projects that I normally complete with 5th graders.  So, my take away, I will do this project in a much more concise way next fall.  I'm thinking I will make the books smaller, they had concentrated on a standard 32 page book.  I'm also thinking books will be an individual project instead of collaborative group work.  I loved the enthusiasm my students showed for this project so I am sharing some of the successful illustration with you here.

The Butler Gets Fired by Jeremy, Jacob and Jeffry

Niecko by Amira

The Butler Gets Fired

The Butler Gets Fired

The Butler Gets Fired

Rex and the Rainbow Mountain by Oliva, Sadie & Jenna

Rex and the Rainbow Mountain

Rex and the Rainbow Mountain

Fourth grade connections with Writing and Art

Voices of children
Whir of wings
Bright with the sheen of the dew
Flashed like the plane-tree
Beautiful

Under the stairs
In the coat cupboard
Hiding place
I can't wait to tell

Pop
Bushes cracked
Frightful
I was terrified
Just wait
I heard another shot






These are some recent works by fourth grade students.  I had scrounged some old book discards from the school library and approached the writing teacher and asked her to collaborate with me on this project.  She worked with students to create the emotion poems.  In the art room we discuss how they might illustrate the feelings and the artwork happened with me.  I've been extremely impressed by many of these and would really love to share them all!  You can check out additional postings here and here.

Ugly jug inspired cups

First grade students are experiencing their second exposure to clay in elementary school but the transition from Kindergarten has made them a bit more aware of the quality of their work.  I never want to create that "too critical" creative environment with my students; especially at a young age when they aren't yet too inhibited to experiment.  I begin the lesson by reading the book "Dave the Potter" by Laban Carrick Hill.  This is a historical account of Dave who was a slave, Potter, and Poet.  The book supplies a wonderful cultural and historical connection for students who have just begun to learn about slavery.  I always emphasize the fact Dave was a potter despite the fact slaves were not allowed to attend school.  The book and discussion takes up a great amount of time from the first class period and generally we only create a pinch pot before class is completed.  The second week, students are encourage to "grow" their pot as Dave did in the book by adding coils of clay.  We have successfully review two of the concepts they were introduced to in Kindergarten.  Next, the new skill of score, slip and smooth is introduced as students implement the additive process to actually create the face for their ugly cup.  I particularly enjoy the idea these are intended to be ugly because students aren't stifled trying to achieve beautiful at this age.  Needless to say, they LOVE making their cups ugly.  I do model all the add ons; insisting that students start with a ball shape and then manipulate the clay to form the finished appendage.  Enjoy their completed work here!

Six more weeks of winter

The first thing my Kindergarten students said when they entered the art room was "Six more weeks of winter, Oh No!"  They were quoting a little poem we had used as inspiration for a drawing of the groundhog leaving his burrow.  They had begun the drawing last week and today added color to the composition.  I initially read them the book Go to Sleep Groundhog by Judy Cox.  A quick overview of the book:   Groundhog goes to sleep just as he always does on Columbus Day but can't get to sleep.  He tosses and turns and finally gets up out of bed to go for a walk.  This happens repeatedly through the story and the groundhog "sees things he has never seen before" on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Each time he is assisted back to bed by a character who would be found out and about on those days.  After Santa escorts him to bed, tucks him in, reads him a bedtime story with a cookie and milk, he finally settles down and falls to sleep.  Alarmingly, time speeds by and it's time for him to wake up for February 2nd.  Lots of opportunities to have students make predictions while reading.  Good use of repetitions and a fun catchy story.  After the reading, I have students brainstorm other holidays or events that the groundhog might not normally be involved in.  They discuss what he might see on those days such as Birthday Party...kids, cake, hats, streamers, and presents or Fourth of July....Uncle Sam, a parade, bands and fireworks.  With a directed draw, shapes are used to draw the groundhog just peeking up out of his burrow.  I then go into horizon line, background, and foreground with the students to clarify understanding.  Together we add a horizon line making certain to "jump over" the groundhog and not draw through him.  For here they are on their own to complete their composition allowing groundhog to discover whatever they want.  Here are a few of the completed works:

Elephant Patterns

Here are a few of the pattern elephants from my lesson plan post last week.   As a follow-up, I need to share that the cutting was a bit challenging for them.  I quickly drew the cut lines on the reverse side of each of the grids to make it clearer for most of my classes.  One class did not require the added assistance, however, it was a small class due to many students being out with illness.   I was able to walk around and work individually with students in the smaller class to help them achieve cutting success.  The next step in the process will be to draw and color an elephant on a separate sheet of white paper.  I intend to do a "follow the leader" draw using shapes to create the drawn elephant.  It will be colored gray to represent Elmer in the Elmer's Day Parade.   Students will then complete a composition that will be their interpretation of an elephant habitat.   This could be the jungle, watering hole, a zoo, etc.   After the habitat is completed, the patterned elephants will be glued into the composition.  I think these will be really cute and I will definitely be sharing the completed ones.  Check back for the update!

LOVE this new book

Have you found this book yet?  I am developing a project on pictographs and thought this would be a good supplement read when I found it on Amazon.  It is a really great book.  Here is a brief overview:  a young boy sees things that others can not see.  He imagines animals in the shapes of clouds and in the bumps and crevices of his cave walls.  No one else seems to see the world as he does.  He begins to draw on the cave walls of his home to help others see as he sees.
 I plan to use it for a Native American unit but it could just as easily work for something about the Caves of  Lascaux.  I can't wait to share this one with my students.