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. 

Apple tree collage

This a quickie mixed media  collage project. You need brown construction paper, red construction paper, light use paper, pencil, green crayon or marker and, a glue stick.Trace your hand with the pencil into the brown paper. Then cut out brown paper"tree" glue down with a glue stick and draw the green leaves in. To cut several apples at once fold the red construction paper into fours and cut through the multiple layers at once. Making the apple shape is similar to cutting a heart shape and then cutting off the bottom.

Birch Trees in Winter

This idea came from The beginning pages of the book Snowballs by Louis Elhert. This is a simple collage using strips of white paper, black tempera paint and white paper that was hole punched.I did this as a project with the after school program kids.

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,

Pumpkin collages

This a quick one day project you can finish it in under a half hour.Prep time goes quick with use of a paper cutter. I cut orange construction paper into strips 1 to 2 inches wide and smaller strips of green paper. Students had a choice of stacking strips horizontally or vertically and rounding off the edges to create the shape of their pumpkin. some choose to let the black background paper show through and others did not. I let the students choose if their pumpkins would have a face or not.

"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.

 

Tissue paper cat collage

Based on the book "There are Cats In This Book" by Vivanne Schwartz. We used red and blue tissue paper to create a collage background. We used a mixture of glue and water and a paint brush to apply a layer of glue and water to the white paper background then brushed another layer on top. We created the collage tissue paper backgrounds and then drew cats from yellow construction paper to glue with a glue stick on top of the tissue paper background. You can add two or three cats if you like and in the children's drawings of the cats you will get great variation. Below is a you tube video clips of this awesome interactive pop up book.This book is great fun to read to a young child.This is also a great way to review primary colors.

Monkey see monkey do

 I was subbing for a elementary school which was working on a scrap box collage assignemnt. The assignment choose a scrap of construction paper and then glue it onto white paper. Then draw the picture around it. Students saw mine(first one and see what they came up with....

Collage day

We recently had a Open house at the art gallery I work at. It was a day off from our art classes and was a day of open activities that families could drop into and try.

I was in the collage room we set out cafeteria style lunch trays and loads of supplies for people for people to use. These supplies included glue sticks,Elmer's white glue, yarn, ribbon, magazines, construction paper,Easter grass, tissue paper, craft foam,pencils,markers and colored pencils.


I brought my own little bag of collage goodies that I have had for years and refuse to part with until used up for collage. In my baggie were iridescent shiny reflective Kleenex box pieces, misprinted scrap booking background sheets i had photo copied, felt,shiny metallic foil pieces, old home economics book pictures, interesting scraps from other projects and other bits of fun stuff.

Unity Dolls for Kwanzaa

 For the last few years I am fortunate enough to Work a Kwanzaa event as a teaching artist.I chose an activity and people can drop into a room in the art gallery during the event and spend time making a take home art project.

I choose an activity each year that I feel represents this holiday either in its principles, ideas or in create an image that  the holiday.
 Part of Kwanzaas principles are unity and cooperative economics. Since paper dolls all "hold hands" and work together I thought this project would be just right.

I usually use construction paper and do a  symmetrical folding and cutting activity.  I usually have fabric,beads and other mixed media supplies available for embellishment.This year we took the time honored tradition the paper doll chain and gave it a twist.

People really enjoyed the activity over a four hour time span  I never had an empty chair for more then a few minutes. It was great because it allowed families to work together and allowed for a lot of variations to the project. They had there choose of paper for the peoples bodies and fabric and vinyl adhesive for clothing.

One little boy wanted a "strong" man. Another boy wanted robots. The young girl often made little girls in long skirts. The clothing that people put on the dolls was impressive.  I think there may have been some future fashion designers in that room. Some of these dolls had better wardrobes then me. In fact I decided to go clothing shopping the next day.

There were several young children around age 2 or 3 that really just wanted to cut paper. I had several left over sheets of vinyl adhesive sticker scraps from my friend at Instant Sign Center. I cut these into small pieces and the two and three year old's could just have a blast and cut away. The parents with them would cut out the dolls and then the kids could just peel and stick the stickers they had cut onto the paper dolls they had cut.

If people had any extra dolls they made  that they left behind I  hung them on the wall with all their hands connected .

Shown here are some examples of what participants made.

 

2009- 2010 scrapbooks

Summer Teaching

Marco's collage


I just finished a very successful week of teaching summer camp.

I had come up with an idea mid year. To have kids make their own paint brushes. I had sen it in several in book I had got from the library.
I had to try it out myself. The paint brushes we made are reusable and our very in expensive materials wise.

They brushes use popsicle sticks, the large tongue depressor size and for the brush materials we used rubber bands, pom poms, gift ribbon and yarn.you sand which the brush materials between two tongue depressors and hot glue them together then use some duct tape to help reinforce the brush handle. A later and spur of the moment idea was to use the old yogurt cups we collect and the old sign making vinyl and let them decorate their own water cups to store their brushes in. Max's brush set.
The student created several 8" x10"abstract paintings on colored copy paper. I showed them several alternative techniques to appyling paint including cookie cutters, sticks, floor tile samples, using toothbrushes (whihc I bought at a dollar store just for this purpose) and, plastic several ware.We used the kids plastic silverware that has animals and tree handles etc. the raised surfaces on these make great printing tools.













Student example of painting done with floor tile sample.



Student example of painting done with plastic silverware. A fork was dragged through areas of color.

















After students created a good stack of some abstract painting we cut them to make collages and spent a lot of time looking at Eric Carle books and his online interviews.http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html

Their are some wonderful resources that he has put out. NPR has a interview with him showing slides of his work and his own webpage shares a lot of info.

We then created or own collages by cutting some of our paintings.


Sara's collage