Aloha...from Aberdeen!

Today in art class, we worked with water colors and made our own lei!  Ms. Kalei incorporated her Hawaiian culture into our classroom today; we learned new vocabulary words and a lot of information about Lei Day in Hawaii.  We started off by practicing four different water color techniques and used them to paint whatever we wanted onto our watercolor paper.  When this was drying, we started to make our leis with yarn, construction paper flowers, and straws.  Once our watercolor design dried, I cut flowers out of that also.  The lei is then started with a paper flower, then a small chunk of straw, then I decided to put a watercolor flower.  I continued this process until it filled the entire piece of yarn.  I ended up having 24 flowers on my lei!  

An extension activity would be having students research an assigned country.  They would have to find information on a holiday within that country, and explain how they celebrate the holiday and how art is incorporated within their culture.  

  

CrAzY 4 cOiLz!

Crazy 4 Coilz!  

Bulletin Board! 

Coil Pot

I was the teacher today in art class along with Ms. Rozell.  We taught our fourth grade class how to make a coil pot out of air dry clay.  We connected the coil pot back to the Egyptian culture and the importance of pots to them.  We had each student start with a lump of clay about the size of their fist.  The first step with the clay was to knead out all of the air bubbles.  Once the kneading stage was completed, we checked all of the students' clay with the wire cutter to be sure all air bubbles were gone.  After that we had students tear off a piece of clay that was a bit larger than their thumbs.  This was used as the bottom or base of their coil pot.  We flattened it out into a circular flat shape.  After that we taught the students how to make a coil.  They started with a ball of clay and applied even pressure with their finger tips while rolling back and forth to create a snake like piece of clay that was slightly thicker than a pencil.  After that we combined the two pieces together.  We scored each piece; scoring is when you make small lines or indents into the clay to help it stick to the other piece of clay being attached.  Students then stacked coil on top of coil till they had their desired height of coil pot.  The students used water, clay tools, and their hands to smooth the inside of the pot out.  The pots then had to sit out overnight before they could be painted with acrylic paint.    

One requirement was to use a clay tool to make a design on the coil pot.  

I used a need tool to achieve these designs.  

After the coil pots were dry, students were required to paint them with acrylic paint.  They must include both a primary and secondary color.  Another requirement of this project was either incising or painting on a symbol that is important to their own personal culture.

The primary color I chose to use was red.  My secondary color choices included purple and green.  

The symbol I chose to use was a heart.  This heart represents my family.

An extension activity could be researching pottery from different countries.  Each student would be assigned a different country and be responsible to make an example of pottery from their specific country.  This could be linked to a social studies or geography class.     

     

3-D Design

Today in art class we were fourth graders learning about 3-D design.  We listened to the book Oh the Place You Will Go  by Dr. Seuss and then had to imitate the illustrations on the pages to make our own Town or Village.  My table was assigned to work with cool colors so I used blue, green, and purple.  We then had to curl, bend, and scrunch paper to form a 3-D design.  My village was name E-Ville.    

An extension activity would be having students pick out their own book.  They would have to read it then illustrate a blank piece of paper with similar illustrations that were in the book they chose.  The final project would have to be 3-D!   

   

Print Making

Today in art class we were taught print making.  We were each given a rectangle shaped piece of styrofoam and then etched a design into it.  We had to fill up 3/4 of our styrofoam piece with designs.  We could use shapes or words.  I then chose to use yellow ink on brown paper.  We used a roller to put a thin layer of paint on the styrofoam and then pressed it onto my brown paper.  I kept doing this process until I had three prints that I liked.  Finally, we cut out the three prints.  We had to turn these three prints into a train.  I put coal in my train cars and used crayons to color a South Dakota country background.

An extension activity could be having students do the same thing with the styrofoam piece (etching a design into it).  Instead of using the rectangular prints to make a train, let students use their imaginations and put them into any scene they want.  They must also right a short story that goes along with their finished project.  

  

Marbling

Today in the 7th grade art room, Karissa and Jamie taught us marbling.  We were each given a picture that we had to draw ourselves onto white drawing paper.  My picture was of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.  We started with pencil, then went over the pencil with permanent marker.  Next we cut out our drawing.  Over on a different table was the marbling station.  Here, we coated the bottom of  a tin pan with a thin layer of shaving cream.  We then chose three adjacent colors on the color wheel; I chose orange, green, and yellow.  I put a few dots of each color on top of the shaving cream, then used a fine point to swirl the colors around until I got the design I was happy with.  Finally, I laid the cutout face down on the shaving cream/color.  When I lifted it up, the marbling stuck to the paper.  I wiped off the extra shaving cream and mounted it on yellow paper. 

An extension activity off of this would be having the students use the marbling technique to make buildings or areas that are in Aberdeen.  They could then make a map on the bulletin board using the marbling pictures on it to represent important buildings in Aberdeen.  

 

Puzzle Piece

We made a giant class puzzle using hot and cold animals!  I was assigned to create a warm colored animal on my piece with geometric shapes in the background.  I chose to draw a fox!  Everyone in the third grade classroom was assigned a color scheme using hot or cold colors.  Then, we had to draw out of a bowl to see what our background would consist of.  Different backgrounds included: geometric shapes, organic shapes, lines and texture.  

An extension activity would be having each student create their own puzzle with a minimum of 10 different animals on the pieces.  They would still be required to use warm and cool color schemes! 

Macramé

This week in the 6th grade art classroom, we made our own keychain or bracelet!  Karli and Britlyn taught us the history of knotting hemp string.  We had to include a minimum of three beads in our keychain or bracelet, and it had to be at least as long as our middle fingers.  This was a fun lesson and I even got a bracelet out of the deal.    

An extension activity could be creating a bigger project using the hemp string.  In the powerpoint many ideas were given such as pot hangers, purses, and other types of jewelry! 

Blind Flowers

Another project we worked on in class was a blind flower drawing.  We were required to draw three flowers on a piece of drawing paper without looking, using a white crayon.  We then had to wet the paper down using water and a clean paintbrush.  After that we used warm and cool water colors to paint over the white crayon.  When we did this, the flowers appeared very clearly! 

An extension activity could be having students use it in math class.  They could set up problems using a peach crayon where the writing would be visible, but the answer would be in white crayon.  Once painted over, they would see if their answer matches the mystery answer! 

Bunny Art

Our most recent project in class was a first grade project dealing with complimentary colors.  My group was assigned red and green.  Red is considered a warm color and green a cool color.  We took a piece of white drawing paper and drew thick and thin horizontal lines using red and then drew vertical lines using green.  After the paper dried, we traced out pre-cut patterns onto our "plaid paper" that would soon be glued together to form a bunny! 

An extension activity would be writing a story about their favorite animal.  Once the story is finished, they could use the "plaid paper" idea and make the animal they wrote about in their story.   

Safari

The assignment this week dealt with warm and cool colors.  We first chose an animal that we might find on an African safari; I chose an elephant.  Using a sky blue colored pencil, which is a cool color, I sketched the elephant out, not too light, but dark enough where you would be able to see it when you put on your "special glasses".  Using warm colors such as red, red-violet, yellow, and orange, I drew layers of shapes and lines over the elephant.  When finished, I was not able to see the elephant by looking at the paper.  However, when I put on the glasses, I could see the elephant perfectly.  The warm colors acted as a camouflage for the elephant!  

 An extension activity could be giving students a different theme to work with.   The theme could be "What I Did Over Spring Break".  Students would follow the same steps as the safari activity, just have a different picture camouflaged.  This would be a good activity to do when students first get back from break as a way to share what they did during their time off! 

Eric Carle Project

This week in class we discussed the work of Eric Carle.  One of my all times favorite books of his is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  To create work similar to Carles, we first took big sheets of blank white paper, and swirled, mixed, and textured the paper with paint.  Then, we made a rough draft of what we wanted our storybook to look like.  Next, we cut shapes out of the colored paper to make our storybook scene.  My story was about a butterfly named Sandy who was trying to make her way to the beautiful enchanted forest.  This was a great project, and brought back many elementary memories of reading Eric Carle's books!

"Sandy was speechless when she finally made it to the beautiful enchanted forest!" 

An extension activity would be having students create an entire story book using Eric Carles technique.  As a teacher, you could assign a specific topic such as "A Moment That Changed My Life".  This would be a great way to learn interesting details about the students in your classroom.    
  

Inspired by: Van Gogh

This week in art methods we focused on Van Gogh's painting, Starry Night.  We did a kindergarten level project using finger paint, either following Van Gogh's Starry Night, or coming up with a similar painting creating movement in the sky, along with a background, middleground, and foreground.  We also did a third to fifth grade level project with tissue paper and sharpie marker or oil pastels.  It was the same concept to create movement in the background and then have a city scene in the front.

An extension activity off of this could be using an entire different medium to reenact Starry Night.  Students could use chalk, pastels, or colored pencils or something as different as magazine clippings.

Finger Paint 

Tissue Paper 

Elements & Principles

Color-paint samples

Organic shape-plant

Texture-shingles 

Geometric shape-sign

Contrast-sunset 

Footprint

Our first art project that we completed was tracing our foot/feet and using at least three elements of design, and decorating it with things that represent us.  On my foot I included my name, a purple bow representing the dance classes I took when I was younger, a Chinese symbol on felt that represented family, a flip-flop cut out of a magazine and blue tissue paper representing my love for the lake in the summer, a red barn representing where I grew up (out in the country on a farm), a volleyball sticker because I have been playing volleyball since third grade and am currently playing in college, a popsicle stick that represents a snowboard, and a globe that represents my love to travel.  Another activity that a teacher could do in their classroom to get to know their students would be true-true-false.  Each student gets a note card and writes two true facts about themselves, and one false fact in any order.  We then go around the room reading the three facts and the other students guess which is false.  This is a great activity to get to know students in the classroom and helps link a face/name to an interesting fact!