ART for 1170

How cool are these? I love working with classroom teachers and Kristi brought this idea to me. Students painted in art then added craypas and cut letters in their class.

I just love her earphones! This is a great lesson on Picasso and making mistakes/ from Beautiful Oops. The third grade students are encouraged to explore and attempt different eye, nose, mouth and ear shapes before selecting the one(s) that they choose to use on their artwork.   I'm a huge fan of craypas, except when they end up on the floor.

Third graders used India ink in pipets to drop ink on two separate pieces of folded paper. The students had the option of developing one or both into an image that they could "see". I was fortunate to have Miss Swiderski as a student teacher so we were able to closely supervise the ink process.  The students were so excited to imagine their images and used color sticks to add bit of color.

The third grade studied different kinds of sealife. The completed sketches and then selected one to draw with a dull pencil into our donated foam. We covered the "plate" with printing ink and then laid the paper on top of the foam. It's great if you have old spoons to rub the back. Make sure they don't rub too long or the heat will make removing the paper difficult.

I can't find where I got this idea, checked my Pinterest boards and it wasn't there plus I saw it a long time ago so if you have a reference I'd like to give credit . I needed a clay project and this one just seemed perfect... Well, perfect NO.  The 3rd graders did this and I think when I count over 150 students and less than 10 fell apart those aren't really bad odds.   We practiced with modeling clay rolling into coils and placing in bowl molds. Then we went into the terra cotta.  Looking back I don't think it was the grade level but if you do this remember to tell them to roll each coil the size of a quarter AND the thickness of an Oreo.   The blending of the inside of the bowl is really important to so that the seams are sealed. They came out beautiful but REALLY, REALLY fragile.  Now I'm crossing my fingers they make it home.

Arts and Scraps strikes again. I bought these teardrop shaped rubber odd things a few years ago at Arts and Scraps.  I asked the students what they looked like and I got answers like, a teardrop, a balloon, a pear and mostly a head. So we decided to use them as a starting point for our Picasso dogs and other animals.  I find this starting point REALLY helps students draw larger and relieves the big white paper syndrome.  All of our students last year studied Picasso and three grade levels did portraits. It was exciting to see how they remembered so much of his style. This is only a sample from one school but I really love how they are turning out.

A third grade lesson that I just love. The students look at pictures of instruments (in the past I was able to get my hands on real instruments) then they sketch several in their sketchbooks. Then they pick their favorite 3-5 and draw them on a large piece of paper.  This year I used the Alpha cakes for painting and just used the glitter touch for spots of bling.

Just a small sample of finished Picasso inspired faces. Depending on the school, most were painted in tempera but also some additions of colored pencil and paper.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out. It was more time consuming project than I hoped it would be, but the results are incredible.

A terrific lesson I saw on DeepSpaceSparkle.com (a wonderful site with great lessons)  This lesson starts with a white piece of paper folded in half. The students draw HaLF a vase on the fold and cut it out. Then they paint the vase with blue tempera cakes. When the vases are dry, glue to the yellow paper and use liquid tempera to mix the paints and add the flowers.

I got this lesson from School Arts a few years back. Its called Hot and Cold Jazz. I start with using real instruments borrowed from the music teacher and lots of photo copies of different musical instruments. We sketch and plan three different plans using about four or more instruments. One of the instruments has to break the picture plane.  Most students choose a guitar or piano keys to do this. We aim to paint one side HOT (color theory lesson) and one side COOL although as you can see, I allow for experimentation. When they are finished the students apply a glitter paint to the entire surface.  Okay, I'll say it again...a favorite!

One of my favorite projects, and yes I'm known to say that about several but really these are beautiful.  The great story about these is that the foam was FREE! Yes, always ask parents what they do or where they work! This year I was given over $200 in foam that would have ended up in a landfill and now two grade levels at THREE schools are making some incredible prints.  These were made by Third graders at CE and PKE.  I have two schools of 4th grade right now that are working on sea animals in a larger pieces of foam.  In the past two weeks I was given some wonderful color paper, a large amount of mosaic tiles, paint chip samples and tablecloths.  Last summer I was given over 1,000 plain tiles.  Storage is often an issue but the money that is saved and of course I feel as though we are being good stewards to our planet! YES, huge fan of UPCYCLING!

Our PTA and Clarkston Foundation supported our school in a special Picasso assembly. To prepare the students we studied pictures of Picasso's work and then made our own Picasso insprired faces.  We had a lively discussion on his art, especially the Weeping Woman.  The students love to make observations on why she is crying and why her face is white/grey.  I did this lesson with first grade, second and third grade. Finished examples to come...