Spot the Panda...thank you Gergerly Dudas

Spot the Egg

You've most likely seen these "Where's Waldo" type photos all over Facebook and other social media links over the past year. They are created by the Hungarian Artist Gergerly Dudas.  You can find more of his work on his Facebook page, here.  With just two more days with many of my classes, I was stuck for an idea to carry my third grades classes through the end of the year but also be something they could reasonably finish.  It occured to me that I could incorporate the work of Dudas and empasize repetition and the concept of Space for an end of the year review.  I started by searching and printing out several of the images.  I projected them using my document camera as I introduced the artist with a little background information about his work.  I couldn't find much because he is a current artist and I only found a twitter account and a facebook account for him.  The kids were so excited to search for the hidden items in each picture.

Spot the Panda

Here are a few of the images that I used.   I told the students we would be creating our own "Spot the Panda" project.  They were so enthusiastic and creative in their thoughts.  I will share some of their work next week once they have completed them. Today they drew the images, next week they add color.  Just a few simple instructions...use overlap, keep your image simple and easy to repeat and hide something.

Spot the cat

Borrow some Cuisenaire Rods

Cuisenaire Rods

These are called cuisenaire rods or sometimes you have them as cubes.  They are used in most Math programs to help students quickly make number associations.  The white rod is a "1" and they progress up by color to the orange "10".  I recently attended a professional development session focusing on using the rods more effectively with elementary students.  As I looked at the rods, all I saw were possibilities for pattern  With the focus on making connections I decided to use a set in the art room and see if my students could create a pattern project using addition combinations.  I challenged students to pick any number 6 or above to focus their patterns on.  The patterns would represent the addition facts for their number with the goal of creating a colorful pattern in the process.  The big build up was that students were told to not explain the project to their Math teachers to see if the teachers could recognize the connections.  This was our secret!  I pre-drew a 10x9 grid for the students to work with.  All the pre-made grids I could find were too small and the finished product would have been tiny.  The rods are actually measured in centimeters so I used the same measurements for the grid I created.

Diamonds of Orange and Blue or Ten

 Ten "X"

I love you 9 X over

Self Portraits in the style of Klimt

Student Work

Tree of Life

My growth project for this year is focused on self portraits.  For the 

fall, students drew a basic self portrait to learn the "mathematics" 

of the face.  I wanted to help students with the placement of 

features and break habits of placing eyes high on the forehead,

making ears too small and other placement issues of the face.

For the second portrait, I decided to approach the subject

by introducing the work of an artist and using their work as a 

guide for individual work.  Third grade students focused

on the work of Gustav Klimt and primarily the right panel from his

work "Tree of Life".  The goal was to place their portrait inside a

patterned blanket created with line and color.  The backgrounds were 

completed with gold sticker paper to mimic the gold leaf Klimt 

often used in his work.

Cinco de Mayo - Fiesta!

One of my buildings always puts on a school dance around this time of the year where the teachers work to raise money for the PTA.  The theme for this year was Fiesta.  Art students create the decorations for the dance.  Fourth grades students created patterns in lively colors on white paper that had been cut into 9 x 4.5 sheets.  I had envisioned them as the skirts for Senoritas but once the papers were accordion folded; they didn't quite measure up in size.  The folds immediately brought to mind the beautiful fans Senoritas waved as they danced and the work took it's own life.  The fans made beautiful decorations.   The lesson incorporated math with the patterns along with an exposure to the culture of Cinco de Mayo with vibrant color and dance.

Lines, Patterns and Emphasis

I recently introduced my students to Zentangles.  Although I have an instructional poster which I shared with you previously here, I encouraged my students to be totally original with their doodle designs.  I introduced the lesson by having them practice on another piece of paper.  Then they created the box and divided it with a string.  The focus then went to our vocabulary wall where we reviewed basic lines and talked about pattern.  They were then encouraged to create patterns using line and repetition.  The last step was to add a shape or three with a fine sharpie as an overlay on their work.  Colored pencils were added to highlight the shape for an emphasis in their work.  This is the first completed project.  I will post more as they are finished.  This lesson was from 3rd grade and it seemed to be a perfect age.  They really jumped into this project with enthusiasm.  I think I may have started something, hopefully it won't interfere with their other classroom work.  These will definitely be frame-able!

Elmer the Elephant update

Here are a few of the final Elmer the Elephant projects.  Students created their own habitat for Elmer, the gray elephant who has rolled in the berries, and his patchwork friends.  They all had full creative license as they drew the habitats and the elephants were added where ever they wanted.  I had to quickly take photos and let these go home today.  All of the students were so proud of their finished work, they couldn't wait to take them home!

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!

Professional Day coming up, again

I'll be out for Kindergarten again so I headed back to the Lesson Builder to build my lesson plan.  This is a terrific site, check it out if you haven't yet used it.  This is not an original lesson idea, I built it from an image seen on pinterest.  I will leave "Elmer the Elephant" for the substitute to read.  I've used Elmer before in a similar lesson for my kinders but I really liked the use of graph paper for this lesson.  We will see how it goes!

Thanks to Krokotak.com for this great step by step illustration.

Here is the link to my lesson.

Sharing some Romero Britto Pyramids

I posted earlier about a series of projects for 4th grade that focused on shapes review for Math MCAS.  A few of the 4th graders have now finish the 2nd shape, a pyramid with a Romero Britto theme.  The focus was to make one large object on each side of the pyramid and then break the background up with a variety of patterns that would flow from one side of the pyramid to the next.  I think they are doing a great job with the assignment.
The next shape will be a cylinder in the style of Andy Warhol. Thinking soup can anyone?