More then a coloring book

 I came across this Fall leaves coloring book in the check out line at the grocery store the other day I was draw to it like a moth to a flame. Like any other good teacher trying to get the most for their money I of course made xerox copies of the pages for the kids to color on. I have used it for my after school program and recently as a pen and ink study and a collage mixed media material for the charter school I teach at.This is book would also be great for science lessons and for learning plant identification.

Mixed media collage

I have been teaching some lessons at a small charter school. Our lessons thus far have focused on shading and using light to dark colors with smooth transitions. These collages use construction paper and scrap vinyl sign adhesive.We used oil pastels and  focused on blending.

We also discussed organic shape, geometric shape and pattern. 

Pumpkin prints

With Halloween and Thanksgiving upon us I am getting inspired by all things pumpkin!
This is a simple paint printing project using the caps of a gallon or half gallon milk jug.

You will need:
 White or other light colored paper
Orange paint or red and yellow to mix
 A  tray or other surface to put the paint on
Markers or colored pencils in green, black, orange and brown.

Step 1 Dip the cap slightly into the orange paint and print an arrangement or circles on the paper.Let the printed circles dry.

Step 3 Go into the dry circles with marker of pencils and either draw Jack o lantern faces or pumpkin ribs.

                                                                   

Step 4 If you want to make the project more elborate cut the pumpkins out and make an scene with them on another sheet of paper.

Craft paper book

This was made from the leftover packaging paper from a box of speedy cut. I am drawing on each piece and will bind them into a book when I am done.

Gustav Klimt inspired "Tree of Life" mixed media

 I just recently finsihed a longterm substitute teaching position at an elementary school.
We looked at the " Tree of  Life" mosaic mural by gustav Klimt. I used a powerpoint and projected it via the computer on to a large flat screen television.
We looked at the orginal Tree of Life Mural.

Then we looked at several forms of reproductions of the image so that student could see how popular the image is.

We first learned about using brushes properly and I showed students how to drag the brush to make thicker lines and how to lift it up toward the tip to make smaller lines.

We then talked about blending and layering colors and using art stix for the background. The last step was adding on some sequins with glue

So many snowman so little time

 So I have not always been the biggest snow man fan. I know some people are all about the little guys but in the past  I was not as affected by the snowman craze. This year I have been bitten by a snowman bug it seems.

 I have been making a lot of snowman projects. I have created snowman earrings with polymer clay and  we be making many different snowman projects with the students in the after school program.

In the classroom while subbing I have also carried over this snowman craze of mine.

In the classroom student have been painting simple white outlines on blue construction paper to make snowman collages with.  They paint the snowman first then later glue on the button and precut construction paper hats and noses and foil paper scarfs.

We  have also been making snowman collages with students and using a template I found on Big Activities.Their is even a great step by step with visuals directions page you can print out.

The results vary and although the worksheets are identical students have unique perspectives on how their finished snow person will look.

So when you are teaching projects on snowmen you have to have some snowman earrings. These are easy to make but if you would like a pair to wear without the time it takes to make them you can order a custom made pair on my sculptresslink etsy shop.

I even made a snowman math activity for the after school program.
this is from an old curriculum guide I had. To do this first make copies of the snowmen,then cut them out color them in and write math problems on their bellies then glue sticks to them and write the answers on the bottom of the sticks. Then decorate a shallow box and put holes in the top to hold the sticks and the box will conceal the answers,

Winter scenes at night

This is a drawing project I did with my after school program students.  I gave them black construction paper and white colored pencils. I showed them how to draw the snow hill,a pine tree and a snowman what they did with that was up to them.  We added some color with crayons for snowman details and color and the trees.

watercolor sunsets

oil pastel and watercolor

 I did this project twice in one day with different materials available. I was substitute teaching and had oil pastels available and as the  step to a project to later be finished later with their teachers  students made oil pastels hills and used the wet on wet technique to create sunset landscapes.

crayon and watercolor

In my after school program we have only crayons available but tried the same project we also look at images from Tomie dePaola's "The Legend of Indian Paintbrush" for some inspiration. These books are illustrated with watercolor and are great examples of how to use the medium.

This is a kindergarten example

"Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons"

my example

 We read Pete The Cat and his four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin Created and illustrated by James Dean. The projects Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons based on this book was pretty simple just making button shirts to go with the book.I folded construction paper in half to make symmetrical t- shirt cuts and pre-cut the shirts and the buttons for the kids.

In the book the Cat has a shirt with four big bright buttons on it but one by one they pop off.
We focused on the buttons being on the shirt for the project but I also thought that we could have done this with pipe cleaners and some tape so the buttons actually popped off the paper shirt back ground.

Of course in this project as with any variation in the projects in pretty interesting. Some kids colored the shirts while other did not and some only wanted three buttons, some did not want the buttons in normal button placement.

 

More kids making artists trading cards

 

I  taught a day of art day school at the Memorial Art Gallery during February recess. We dedicated this day to a day of making Artists Trading cards. I love teaching this art lesson.. one of the many things that i love is that there is no wrong way to do it. As long as the card is 2.5 by 3.5 inches and you trade it-- It' s a trading card. I explained to students the difference between an ACEO which is a original 2.5 x 3.5 inch card that is for sale and not for trade.. We had a little "test" where I
held up several items and asked them if it was an artist trading card of not and how it could be one..

The other thing I really like about artists trading cards for kids is that it is a quick project it hold there attention span for just long enough and you can move on and make another.. I challenged students to make 11 cards within a 2 and 1/2 to 3 hour time. I presented a materiel and how to use it and then let kids loose to make their own.. This time we used Bristol board, watercolor paper, and some of the kids made fabric cards which I ironed a fusable interfacing onto white cotton blend fabric that I had. I also used a very old box or playing cards that I found in my parents basement. We sanded the protective coating off of them them colored with markers on the card.We also had some scratch art cards to make our own images on.

We got some plastic trading card sleeves for kids to keep their cars in and I gave them a template to make their own envelopes to keep cards in.

I first showed kids how to use colored pencils then how to use paper punches and aluminum foil. I showed them how to use watercolor along with sharpie and or crayons.

This students was really into Doctor Who can you tell?

Why do I write about art shows I have attended and what is my media

 I hate labeling people but I guess you could but a bunch  of labels on me if you wanted to. I like labels on my bins of art supplies however just fine. I consider myself and art teacher and an artist. Some people would say that I am a Substitute teacher and therefore not a "real teacher" I hear that one a lot an it hurts. I write my own lesson plans I conduct art lessons even though I currently do not have my own classroom within a school. I have heard people cal me a painter, a jewelry maker but I consoder myself an artist plain and simple. I do not want to pigeone hold myself in to a specifc media. I actually fimrly belief that anyone who wants to teach art for k-5 should not specialize in  specificmedia because the best way to reach your student is to let them sample them all. Id students learn to use several materials and you as a teacher feels comfortable with several of them I think this is the best way to reach students.

I also belief strongly that  art teachers should know what is going on in there local community especially within their arts community. It keeps you from not getting trapped in a bubble of teaching, grading an lesson prep. It gets you outisde you classroom.  It gives you relevent thingsto talk to students about that are happening right in their community that they tocan be involved with. It takes learning outside of the door and makes it relevant to students in the "real world"

 I also do beleif that besides being a teacher that I am an artist to my core. This is why  I am not certified to teach another subject althought I have considered it and have taught preschool before. I love to look at art and talk  to other artists it gives me inspiration it gives me a sounding board, it gives me ideas and it gives me hope..

Everyone knows that the arts are the least appreciated field in schools and often in our communities. I think that artists need to support one another and not treat each other like competition....  I think that Good Karma is a good way to go. I give shout out to artists whose work I have enjoyed in order to help continue to promote the arts to advocate for the arts and because I hope that some "good Karma exchange will be put out there.

Favorite childrens mixed media pieces

In the last few years I have taught at the museum. I find and collect low cost gadgets and gizmo's to use for projects with the kids. Reusing junk that would otherwise be discarded is one of my favorite things to do. I am a huge fan of the Dollar stores, Thrift Stores, garage sales , the Recycle shop .(http://www.childcarecouncil.com/childcarecouncil146.phpon) on Blossom is awesome if you have never checked that out you really need to. They will give you a whole bag of stuff for just 5.00. I love what the kids come up with when they use their imaginations and the stories they tell as they create stuff are too good to pass up.

I have had several small group classes of 6-8 year old for Saturday and summer morning classes and we created some fabulous mixed media projects.

We created dioramas, artists books, face sculptures, outer space pieces.

For the dioramas I combined some simple childhood materials and idea. Those traditional wooden clothespins do make great dolls. We used paint,lots of hot glue,construction paper, markers, toothpicks small wooden skewers, model magic clay fabric and pipe cleaner to create these.

Two girls who worked together decided to both create beach scenes and created a overhang to combine the two in class so they could have their clothespin people interact with each other.
One of the girls realized that if she used the smaller mini clothespins she could create "babies" for her "grownup" clothespins.

For this diorama the student created a cave scene. We made stalagtites from aluminium foil rocks from model magic and other materials. I wish i had pictures of the rock band one kid made. We created a stool from sticks and a twisting medicine bottle cap. We sawed off the "legs" of the clothespin and made the drummer spin on his stool. These were all great fun. It did help that it was a small group because they was a lot of hot gluing for me to do.


The face sculptures were another huge success.... we used cardboard, model magic,paint and paper mache, hot glue, Elmer's, construction paper, pipe cleaners, raffia and, marbles for the eyes. A friend of mine donated a lot of broken old eye glasses from the eye glass store she worked at too.


The artists books we created in two ways.

The first was as altered books. A found a package of children's boards books at the dollar store that the paper torn off of easily. we removed the images and text then used a different paint treatment on each page. We created print blocks using Styrofoam tray pieces, we used bingo markers, we dipped Lego's into paint and stamped with them. We cut cardboard that had been spray painted gold and glued that into sections. I gave students the option to drill holes into their pages and put different "Funky" yarns through them.















The second way was creating an accordion fold book then using various printing techniques and paint to create images to put into the pages of ours books.

Alex's print book

Past Jr. High Projects

I am preparing for a move. I have been going through my files of old artwork and weeding stuff out. Also photographing and editing old photographs of student work. Some of my favorite projects were the pop art sculpture project, the Mandala project,the Sign Language Drawing and the City scape project.


These are two examples of the Mandala project.
We discussed what a Mandala is and, what it is used for. We used discussed Buddhist mandala and how they use sand or other materials that are natural and not installed for long term purposes.We created ours on paper however. It was a mixed media project 9th grade students could use glue, glitter, pencils, yarn, paint, etc.

They were to use symbols that had meaning to them create a circular based then fill in or move out from a circular base shape.Then include images that had meaning to them.(Which they had a size requirement. of 8 " diameter) They created symbols and wrote about the meaning of the symbols after words.



Mandala by Lasha, 9th grade student, 2005
She was in the student Coast Guard cadet and they anchor was symbolic of that.















Mandala by Sequoyah
9th grade student
Created Fall 2005














Mandala sketches by Jasmine colored pencil 2005 9th grade

Above are examples of student practice sketches. Which were created before completing final on 18" by 24" paper.