2nd Grade: Wild Things

For years I have been doing a project based on "Where the Wild Things Are".  We talk about texture - real and applied.  Some years I have the kids use chalk, other times colored pencils and while I always repeated the project, I was never really happy with it.  I always felt that it was more flat than I wanted.

Well, problem solved.  I am not sure how or when the idea came to me, but BAM there it was.  The students would make their "wild things" on  aluminum and create their habitat on a background paper with bright colors and ideas!

So here we go - first off we watched this fabulous and slightly corny video I found through Pinterest  -- careful it's catchy and will get stuck in your head for the ENTIRE day:




Next, we read "Where the Wild Things Are", the beloved classic.  After we read the book we went back and took a long hard look at the Wild Things.  We discussed their implied textures and how it looked like it felt a certain way.  There is always ONE kid in every class that shares how each wild thing is made up of different animals which is a great segway into the project.

"It's a cat and a fish - get it? It's a catfish" - Aiden

As I send students back to their seats I ask them to think of an animal and raise their hand.  Next, students help me build an original wild thing using four or more animals.  The kids tend to get real excited and a bit rowdy at this point - who can blame them when there is a tiger, turtle, wolf, snail, dragon on the board!?!?

Next, the kids draw their own wild things using their own idea on a piece of paper.  They need to make sure to draw their implied textures!  When they are done I tape their papers onto a piece of aluminum, hand them a magazine and tell them to trace their wild thing really hard on top of the magazine.  I don't tell them why, I want them to discover it themselves.  Sure enough, about two seconds into tracing they figure it out - one by one and its a beautiful sight.  The students realize that as they are tracing their pictures, it is transferring to the metal and you can ACTUALLY feel it - their implied texture is now actual texture. 

After their wild things are traced I show them how to tool their metal by pushing parts with either their pencil or a capped marker.  We discuss how you have to visualize what you want and then think it through - for example: "If I want my tiger stripes to pop out on the front I need to push them in from the back" or "If I want my scales to sink into my animal, I need to push them in from the front".  There is some serious visualized and planning during this step.  You can almost see the gears in their brain moving as they increase their spacial thinking.

After they are tooled to the students liking they color accordingly with permanent markers, which is a treat within itself.  Then, once they are colored, students cut them out - CAREFULLY.  I told them to cut off extra if it got in their way and to be careful because the metal can be sharp.

LASTLY, students created an original habitat for their wild thing to live.  Their habitat could be based on a real place: forest, jungle, volcano - or could be made up: candy land, new planet, an island made of cookies.  The goal for their habitat was to use their drawing and coloring skills to communicate to the audience what/where the habitat was.  So, if they did make candy land, then they would need to figure out what kind of shapes and colors they would use to communicate that to a viewer.

After they drew their habitats with a black oil pastel, they colored it in with chalk pastel.  I ask the students to channel "Goldilocks" from the three bears when they color.  This comment gets a variety of gut reactions from the kids that range from giggles to pure confusion.  Quickly I ask them about the porridge - too hot, too cold and just right.  The beds - too hard, too soft, just right.  I explain that they need to color not too hard, not too light, but just right.  Then they understand.

In their final class students blend their habitats starting at the lightest color to the darkest.  Students bring me their habitat and wild things and show me where to hot glue their wild thing.

I absolutely LOVE this project.  Students get to be as original as possible while also learning some great technique and skills.  For most of my classes this whole thing from start to end took about three 50 minute sessions. (Day one: intro and transferring wild thing to metal.  Day two: start habitat. Day three: finish habitat, finish wild thing)

Forgive the pictures - the pictures no where near capture the awesomeness of this project - metal is really hard to photograph!

If You're Not Prepared to be Wrong....

A very eloquent and wise man, Sir Kenneth Robinson, once said, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original".

Not only do I feel this statement is very much true - but it happened in my classes the other day.  I was working with my 2nd and 3rd graders on their piece of artwork for Young Masters.  I always do projects that are high success, but also highly original - I decided that 2nd and 3rd graders would be doing zentangles this year.  I know all my students can create with lines and shapes, but this would be one of the first times I would not be allowing pencil first - but straight to Sharpie.

To get my students creativity warmed up for this project I showed them part of a zentangle video on youtube.  I asked them questions like, "What are they drawing?" -- I would get a laundry list of answers like: scales, hills, bumps..... I then would ask the question again.  The students seemed confused.  I would wait a few seconds and there was always one kid that would see through the design and realize they are actually drawing curved lines which then remind us of things like hills, scales, bumps... 

So we go on with the video and notice they use squares, circles, dots, straight lines, coloring in spaces and leaving other spaces open.  We discuss pattern and rhythm in each section.  I then asked the students if they know how to draw straight lines, curved lines, squares, circles -- etc.  They agree they know how and are starting to get real excited.

I then explain that they will be doing a warm up zentangle on a post-it.  They will be doing it with a Sharpie and any 'mistakes' they make will need to be problem solved and pulled into their design.  

This is where it got interesting.  

At one of my school the kids were excited and ready for the challenge.  In fact I had to wait multiple times for them to stop talking so I could finish my instructions - they were so excited they couldn't wait to share their ideas!  They were jumping at the bit to skip pencil and use sharpie straight away!

So then at the end of the week I went to my other school and these kids panicked.  Full out, panicked.  They were almost arguing with me to use pencils or to get an extra paper incase they messed up.  I spent far more time with these kids building up their confidence and convincing them they would be fine.  The post it note was just practice and it was okay if they didn't like it in the end.

Whats the difference between the schools?  Socioeconomic? Atmosphere? Personal relationships?

There are many small differences between the schools - but they are mostly the same.  My kids at the school that panicked are often better at following rules and expectations, but their socioeconomic status is similar to the other school, and most of the kids, at both schools, I have had 2 or 3 years -- so our relationship is pretty strong.  I personally believe that the reason I had students in one school panic and the others not is due to the fact that non-panic school is a school of the arts.

My school that is a school of the arts is NOT a fine arts school.  We are not a school that trains kids in the arts - we have no band or dance troupe.  Instead we infuse arts into the whole educational system.  Students transfer and connect ideas between classes - they learn about texture and patterns - they are asked to compare relationships, look for symbols...etc across disciplines.  These students also have dance and drama in addition to their 'normal' special schedule.  

Kids that come to the school for the arts are continuously asked to take chances, take risks, throw out an idea, perform in a small skit, join in conversation, think about something from a different point of view, problem solve and critically think about questions.  Students at this school are prepared to be wrong, to make mistakes.  Students at this school are encouraged to take a chance, and are supported through their thinking/exploration.  While music and art provide this -- dance and drama really help to drive these concepts and ideas home.  Asking kindergarteners to act out simple fairy tales, teaching 3rd graders to do improv -- it not only enforces their reading/writing skills -- but teaches them to 'prepare to be wrong'.  In dance they are asked to come up with movements that inspire or represent a concept/word/idea.  Students at this school are asked to explore answers instead of giving the correct one.

Now, lets take a moment and realize that my other elementary school is VERY supportive of their students.  Students feel safe and get a an amazing education there.  Students are very thoughtful and take learning risks there as well -- but in a different fashion.  

I truly believe that both my schools offer an exceptional education to students and the point of this post is not to give more props to one over the other, but to try and understand why two similar groups of kids would respond so differently to the same project.

Back to the project.  As the students were doing their warm up post-its.  I had them work silently for 5 minutes.  I wanted the to really concentrate on their visual thinking and felt talking would be too distracting.

After the 5 minutes was up - I let them share their ideas from their tables, then bring them to me.  I put them on the board and we quickly discussed that when they were working on their 'final' paper that if they needed some inspiration that they could come look at their class's thinking for ideas.  

It is important to note that after the warm up both schools were ready and raring to go, and that their warm up thinking/solutions were very comparable.  The warm up provided my traditional elementary school students with the chance to be wrong and when they worked through those mistakes without an eraser or a new paper - they had the confidence to be original, just like my school of the arts kids.

So in the end both sets of students had the same outcome - but that initial jump into a project was so very different.  As much as working at two buildings can be frustrating - moments like these, I find fascinating.  

First Project

This student went to Germany and Austria!

I have tried multiple types of 'first projects' over the year - names, portraits, just jumping into projects and others.....

I *think* I may have found a solution - a project I really love for the first day of art class.

This is the 3rd year at these two schools and I really do love all my kids - so much that it bothers me I can't talk with each and everyone about how awesome their summers were.  Which inspired this years first art project - well that and pinterest.

This student went to a water park (I love how he started off the page)

I found this awesome project on pinterest, and while the page is in German - the pictures explain enough.  Each student gets a square piece of paper with a quarter circle on it, they then decorate it and when assembled together the quarter circles form a large circle.

I used the pinterest idea and made my squares with a quarter circle on them.  Then in class I spent 5-10 minutes calling on kids and having them tell me something about their summers.  I wrote it down on a LARGE word web on the board.  It was fun to see what states they went to, what water/amusement parks and all sorts of other cool things.

I then explained that I was going to give them a square with a quarter circle.  I asked them to rotate their paper till the arch would work with their assignment.  Their goals were 1) FILL the space  2) Use pictures that represent their summer  3) use colors that make sense.  The catch is that they needed to USE the arch in their picture and not just draw over it.  They also only had that one first class to finish it - which turned out to be anywhere from 10-20 minutes.  I encouraged them to either pick one totally awesome thing to draw or combine as many things as they wanted!!!

The braces this student got over the summer is the sun!

This project was totally awesome!  Not only did I hear highlights from my kiddo's summers, then get to hear even more while I walked around - but ALL kids succeeded in their very first art project.  There was no, 'I can't do this' 'this is stupid' blah blah blah.  All the kids were excited to draw about their summer.  It also provided me with a quick glimpse on abilities of my new students, how attitudes have changed over the summer, and the work habits of the students.

At the end of class I made sure to have students write their name and teacher on the back - then I put them on a bulletin board.  I love that there is already artwork up in the halls, and MANY teachers stopped to look and express their happiness of having artwork up as well!!!

Top Left: A baseball game  Top Right: One of those scary funnel water rides and camping.  Bottom Left: Plane rides and amusement parks.  Bottom Right: The Zoo and Mackinaw Bridge.

1-5th Grades -- Stop Motion Animation (Week 1)

I have always wanted to do a stop motion animation project with students but was overwhelmed the the amount of equipment I would need -- cameras, tripods, computers, computer software, a computer lab.... times however many groups I would have.

Then came iPads and iPad apps.  Sometime during the summer or fall I found an app called 'Stop Motion'.  It's a .99 cent app that is super user friendly that creates stop motion animation -- you can do all sorts of things directly in this app to have a full video of awesomeness.

Now that I found the app I just needed enough iPads - which was almost as overwhelming as needing ALL the extra equipment.  Lucky for me our building purchased a few iPads for teacher/student use.  I claimed the iPads for two weeks in May to try out stop motion animation!

I waited.  I planned.

May came and suddenly it was time to load up the iPads with Stop Motion and pray to the art teaching gods that my lesson plan would work.

The week before I drew out some backgrounds on some old file folders and asked students to color them when they were finished with work.

I also took some GIANT white paper, an iPad, and a ruler to grid out the sight lines of the camera.  I had students color this grey.  

The day came to put all my planning to the test - about 20 minutes before my first class walked in I tried to download the .99 app only to find no way to purchase the app and download it on each iPad.  (rightfully so, the school ipads did not come with a credit card on file).  I started to panic.  Would I really need to buy 10.00 gift cards for each one for a 99 cent app?!!?  Then I got smart.  I gifted Stop Motion to myself 4 times and redeemed them on each ipad.  WHEW.  That was close.




How I set it up:
3-5 kids in a group depending on how many students are in class (I had 6 stations)
1 Large white paper with grey trapizoid
1 background
1 iPad loaded with Stop Motion
Pattern blocks
1 ruler to angle iPad

I explained how the app worked, their job, how to rotate through being the director, and stressed as much as I could to NOT MOVE THE IPAD OR THE BACKGROUND.


One student is the Director at a time.  The director's job is to make sure all body parts are out of the shot- take the picture - then tell group to move pieces.  I set a timer for 2 or 3 minutes (depending on group size).  When the timer goes off directors change.  The director doesn't get to boss around what the movers do - their only job is to clear the picture of body parts and take the picture.  The group works together to make ONE long video - the video DOES NOT change when the director does.

The lesson worked even better than I expected.  The kids used the app with little help or instruction.  I did find that the older students did a better job being patient and moving pieces a little at a time - the younger kids seemed to get excited and make larger movements between pictures.

Towards the end of class I have groups clean up their stations while I collect their iPads and turn on the projector.  When everyone is cleaned up we watch their movies on the digital projector.  (All you need is an adapter that goes from your iPad to VGA cable for the projector).

Overall the lesson was a complete success - I have parents e-mailing asking what app it is, students are begging to do it again next time (which I already have planned!)

2nd Grade -- Jasper John meets Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Back, way back in the year right around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day I had 2nd graders combine the positive ideas of Dr. King with the amazing paintings of the Jasper Johns.

We started of by watching part of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech.


Next, we brainstormed words that were positive.

Students then picked a word and wrote it in thick bubble letters on a piece of paper.  The thicker the bubble letters the better, if the letters are too skinny it will be hard to read.

The next class we looked at paintings by Jasper John and I asked them, "How can we see his numbers even though his paintings are messy and he doesn't outline?"  It took kids a while to figure out how to explain what they were seeing.  Once students voiced the idea that he used different colors on the edges - so the inside edge might be yellow but the outside is blue.

Jasper Johns

I passed out primary colors with white and showed students how to freely paint by double or triple dipping their paint brush.  I tried to stress that they needed to make the background different than their letter so we could read them.

Honestly, this lesson didn't turn out exactly how I had planned - but students LOVED it.  They really got into making different colors and painting making it hard to read many of their words.  Even though the end product wasn't exactly what I had envisioned, the project taught more than I expected.

2nd Grade -- Fall Collage Scenes

Rain Rain Go Away

I don't know about your area of the world, but mine has been filled with grey skies and rain for the last WEEK!  It has rained almost nonstop since Monday.  I am feeling drained and slow moving.

Since spring has decided to take the longest drink of water, I decided to try and jump start it with some Van Gogh inspired flower pots.

This lesson is not new, but is a GREAT one day project to fill the hallways with spring.

We started by learning a little bit about Van Gogh - looked at his paintings, discovered his small brush strokes and use of multiple tints/shades of a color in one area.

I had the kids make a flower - any flower, could be real, made up, or even from Super Mario brothers as long as it looked flower-like.  Many of my boys took advantage of this and drew man eating plants, or ice flowers.  All my girls were excited to draw roses and lilies.  Ha!


I showed them how to draw a simple sunflower (circle and then triangles around the edge, add a stem!)  Then we talked about using short strokes and multiple colors for each spot.

While students were working I drew and painted a pot sitting on a table.  When students were done cutting out their flowers I would arrange them in the vases.

I have received MANY compliments on how much people love them.  I think everyone needs a little sunshine.

2nd-5th Grade Mad-Lib Style Pictures!

Hahahaha!

Okay so the project born out of a few necessities. First, this idea came to me years ago when I was in a 3rd grade room and the teacher had a box with three different compartments. Each section had sticks with words on them - one had things, one locations, and the other an action. This box was for students that had trouble coming up with writing ideas. I took this idea to the art room for kids that struggle with what to draw when they free draw.

T-Rex playing cards in Canada

So, normally this activity is in my "done" activity center - but I needed a silly/fun project while students wait for their clay to be fired.

I started by making a list of things, actions, and places - I tried to make sure my places were generic enough for all students to be able to draw. For one class I had the class make the list - but that took up most of the class period - whoops.

Ice skate drawing at MSU

After I had my lists I cut them and put them in buckets. Students take one slip from each, create a silly sentence and draw that picture.

I have found that this is a great exercise in creative problem solving. If a sentence says "A broom running in the grocery store" - Students have to figure out how to make a broom run!

These are HILARIOUS- students have as much fun drawing them as they do comparing sentences. If you don't repeat words on your lists - every sentence, and every picture will be different.

Eagle baking cupcakes in Atlantis. 

The first day they were only allowed to draw with pencil because I wanted them to focus on the details. I didn't want them to do a quick drawing - but really think about the location, how to show the action, and make their picture make as much "sense" as possible.

Bahahahahaha. I laugh whenever I look at them!!!!

2nd Grade - Assemblage Sculptures

Louise Nevelson - Assemblage Sculptor

So, I had BOXES, I mean BOXES of just stuff -- milk bottle caps, empty thread spools, wooden spools, cedar chunks, other wood chunks, styrofoam balls, and all sorts of other things.  I was sick of having them stacked in a closet in my room.  I decided it was time to come up with a project I could use it all for.  Then I remembered seeing a picture of this cool sculpture at some point in my life - where there was a lot of rhythm and texture but no color -- everything was one color.

So, aimed with the knowledge of sculptures that were busy and all one color, I searched and searched till I found it, or rather - her.  Louise Nevelson.  Louise is known for her assemblage sculptures full of texture, rhythms, objects, and always painted a solid color.

I had prepared a slide show with some of Louise's work.  I asked the students to look at them and raise their hand when they could tell me something they noticed.  I then had the students pair share what they noticed.  After a few minutes of further discovery we talked as a class.  We talked about what we thought they were made of, what individual pieces they saw, the rhythms and NOT patterns, layering, shadows, lights - we even discussed why they thought she painted her work all one color.

Next I handed each kid a piece of mat board and let them start their own assemblage sculpture.  I did put a few rules on the project -- layers and no taller than their own hand.  Students tend to want to build towers with these, and I wanted them to layer - so thus the height rule.

Kids used wood glue and hot glue to assemble their projects.  (Yes, 2nd grade used hot glue. We talked about safety and how hot glue is HOT -etc.)  It took us a good two classes to get everything glued they way they wanted.  Then the third class, students got to pick what color they wanted to paint their projects.  I reminded them that they needed to be ALL one color.  When kids were  'done' we got down at eye level and turned their project all the way around to make sure they really got it all painted!

I then took their projects and hung them on the bulletin board by color so that they kind of mimic Louise Nevelson and her rhythm of rectangle boxes.

2nd Grade - Mock Batik

This is the project I did at the very beginning of the school year, with second grade.  As I have posted before I like to do name projects as our first projects, because it refreshes my memory and they can all write their own names - thus everyone succeeds!! Hooray!

First day we practice bubble letters - both normal bubble letters then FUNKY bubble letters.  Funky bubble letters are the same as normal bubble letters, only you use fun lines like zig-zag, castle top, curly, etc.

The next class students got a final paper in which they wrote their name - normal, funky, or a combination.  Then they traced their name with a black oil pastel and added 5 lines that started on one edge and went off a different edge.  (A few students needed to add a few more lines to break up the space).

Next, I explained what a batik was (I tried to find a good video, but found nothing - if you have one let me know!).  I told them that other countries mainly used batik to decorate fabric.  The artist/worker would take hot wax and draw pictures onto a piece of fabric, then dye the fabric a color -- wherever there was the wax no dye would stain.  This process would continue till everything was dyed as desired.  In the end the wax was washed off with hot water and a beautiful piece of fabric was ready to be used.  I showed students some batik cloth.

I explained that we wouldn't be adding hot wax to fabric, but instead we would use colored wax to color our pictures.  I asked students if they knew what crayons were made out of - WAX!  I instructed them to color their pictures by pressing SUPER HARD and coloring each section a different color.  (They could repeat colors, just not next to each other.)

After their WHOLE pictured was colored, and I was pretty picky about having very little white space.  I had students crumple their papers into really SMALL balls 3 times - flattening it out each time.

Next, students took their wrinkled, but flattened paper to the sink where there was a cup with watered down temp paint (I did some classes with black - some with blue).  Students painted over their whole papers with the paint - then rinsed off the paint with a gentle stream of water.

What was left was nothing short of magic - their papers had beautiful colored wax, and the paint stuck to all the creases they made when they crumpled it.

Students oooo-ed and ahhhh-ed and showed their friends!

 I even had a student bring in a batik stamp from a trip they went on!

Textured Wild Things - 2nd Grade

I have been doing this project with 2nd graders for a few years now.  We did these a few months ago, but I am just now getting around to putting them on the blog - seems odd that I waited to post these, and now Mr. Sendak is no longer with us.

Day 1:
We start out this project by reading the wonderful book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.  I tell the kids that their mission is to pay close attention to the Wild Things.  When the book is over we discuss what they noticed about the Wild Things.  Most of the time students catch on quickly to the idea that the Wild Things are made up of different animals.  Slowly through guided questions, we discover that the Wild Things are made up of all sorts of visual texture.  We know that the feet are bird feet because of the shape AND the texture.  I ask the students what different textures we see should feel like: bumpy, sharp, soft, coarse.  I then feel the paper and tell them that the paper feels smooth - so how is it that we see a texture we can't feel.  This takes a few moments for them to think, to find words to describe what they know.  

After a few students explain their thoughts I put words to their explanations - visual texture: texture we can only see.  

While the students are transitioning back to their seats I ask them to think of one animal and raise their hand.  When most people have their hands in the air I start calling on students to tell me animals.  One animal at a time I build a class Wild Thing.  The kids start rolling with laughter when we have a giraffe head, with bat wings, octopus legs, dinosaur tail, and a shark body.  I do one in portrait and a different one in landscape - showing how different animals fit better in either picture.  I then proceed to make sure I draw on some visual texture for fur, scales, etc.  


Next, the students get to start.  
The expectations:
- 5 or more animals to make Wild Thing
- Visual Texture
- Habitat


Day 2: On day two students finish up from day one, outlining with Sharpie and getting ready to color.  I do a quick demonstration with some tips on how to color the texture so it looks even more bumpy or sharp.  Instead of coloring OVER the texture, I show how to color the edges or ends one color and then change to a lighter or darker for the rest.  I got lots of 'ooo's' and 'ahhh's' from the kids when they saw the difference.  I explained that it wasn't about adding stripes to your work, but layering colors together.  (Some students really got this and others really struggled with the idea of layering vs. stripes)  For some of the more difficult textures I let students rummage the texture plate drawer to find textures for their Wild Thing and background.  I really loved seeing what they came up with.

Students colored their wild things with crayons and colored pencils - which ever gave them the best color choices at the moment.  I then had them watercolor large background areas if they wanted/needed.


Day 3: Finishing up visual textures and habitats.

Jim Dine -- All Grades

It happened - Jim Dine invaded the art room!  Hearts are everywhere!

Due to my district's schedule and a snow day - my Monday kids are a WHOLE unit behind everyone else, so I am filling my Friday schedule with some quality one day art lessons.  I hadn't really planned on using Jim Dine, but he kept popping up on art blogs and pinterest that I couldn't ignore his amazing hearts any longer!

So, off I went to google to find and save images of Jim Dine's many marvelous hearts to make a slide show.  I talked a little bit about the Pop Artist before the slide show, and explained to the students that their job during the slideshow was to find something about his work and raise their hand.  They could raise their hand when they knew a color, a texture, what the subject was, something all the pictures had in common, something the pictures didn't have in common or anything they observed.  I made sure to wait till ALL hands had something to share.  I called on students until anyone that wanted to share got to share at least once.

Next, I explained their job was to create their own version of a Jim Dine heart.  I broke down and wrote on the board what choices they needed to make:
1) How many hearts? (We talked about any number they were willing to color: 1,3,7,59)
2) What colors? (random, hot/cold, favorite, sport team colors, school colors)

Then we discussed what they needed to have no matter the number of hearts or colors:
1) Whole paper filled with color.
2) Coloring with purpose and not scribbling in whole thing.
3) Using the TIP of the oil pastel and NOT the side (sides don't have as much color and the coloring goes far too fast)

I passed out paper and oil pastels and let them to it.  I let students get pencils if needed, but I encouraged them to jump in with oil pastels.

These turned out great!  I had some students struggle with the freedom of this project, but most of them loved doing it and asked to do more than one.

Now, in classes that had more time to work I offered another step to students that wanted it.  I let them "batik" their papers.  Now, this isn't a true batik as we didn't use wax resist and plan out our colors lightest to darkest.  Instead it is more of a inspired look from batiking.  Those that wanted to crumpled their paper into a ball, then smoothed it back out - they did this 3 times.  On the their crumple students kept it in a ball, dunked it in watered down black paint, rinsed it in the sink, blotted it dry.

I let students pick if they wanted to do the last step because the idea of crumpling your work is too much for some students to handle - though MOST of my students were excited about being a little rebellious.

This Week in Organized Chaos

The break was wonderful, and it's nice to be back.  This weeks was a week full of new beginnings in the art room - lots of painting, drawing, brainstorming, and critical thinking!

Kindergarten students were introduced to "printmaking" this week.  We broke the word down into "print" and "make".  The students agreed they know how to "make" things without a problem.  I then asked them about "print".  Students told me that they print things off the computer and they print with stamps.  We talked a little bit more about how both those things are used to create the same image over and over again!  I explained that is exactly what printmaking is - making the same print or picture over and over!

I did a quick demonstration on how to load the brayer with paint, roll it on pre-cut pieces of bubble warp, and 'print' the bubble wrap on their paper.  You would think I was performing magic the way they responded to the print!  I then explained a few more things including procedures for clean up and sent them off to their seats!

These turned out beautiful!  I have no idea what we are going to do with them, if anything.  I had originally thought to use them in a collage next class, but I am also thinking of leaving them the way they are.  I will have this all figured out by next class.

1st Graders learned about "profile portraits".  We started out by looking a short slideshow filled with examples of profile portraits.  I asked the students to raise their hand when they could tell me something ALL the pictures had in common.  The students then told me that all the people were facing off to the side.  So, next I asked how they knew they were facing sideways.  You could almost hear the gears turning in their heads with quizzical looks on their faces trying to figure out both how they knew that and how to explain it.  Sure enough, they needed a little help.  I asked them to show me on their fingers how many eyes they SEE.  I told them to count the eyes they SEE.  Most kids had one little finger up, a couple of two.  We then counted the eye together - sure enough there was one!  I asked them if the person was real and they turned to face the class how many eyes would they see? -- TWO!  an Ah-ha moment for sure.

We talked a little longer about profiles - I traced one of the faces on the board to show that the nose points off the face in the direction it is facing, along with only seeing half the mouth.  I had the students do some guided practice by drawing a series of pictures on the board and the students showed me on their fingers which one picture,out of three, had a correct profile.

There was a lot of excitement when the students learned their profile portrait was going on a tooth fairy!  I will post the whole lesson after the pictures are done!

2nd Graders are working on using visual texture in their artwork.

We started out by reading the book "Where the Wild Things Are".  I told the students that their job during the story was to pay close attention to the wild things!  At the end of the book I had the students share what they noticed - quickly they share that each wild thing is made up of different types of animals!  We then discussed how the scaly body looked bumpy, but the page didn't feel bumpy.  Ah-hah - visual texture!

This book was the inspiration for their own "Wild Thing" - more to come.

3rd Graders did some serious critical thinking this week.  As soon as they walked in I told them I was going to write a question on the board and I wanted them to think about it - not talk, but think.  They needed to decide yes or no as their current answer.

I wrote on the board, "Can people who are blind understand color?"

I asked them to think about if they had never, ever seen any type of color - could they understand that an orange was orange, or that the sky was blue, or their favorite color was green?

I let them mull it over, had them put down their heads and we took a quick poll.  In most of my classes it was overwhelming "No".  Students that wanted to share their reasons were allowed (well at least for a while - we only get 50 minutes!).  Next, I asked them if someone was deaf could they understand music?!  Students jumped all over using other sense to understand music - reading it, watching it, feeling it.  Slowly they started to connect that maybe if a deaf person could use other senses to understand music - maybe, just maybe someone who was blind could use other senses to understand colors.

Next, my favorite part, we conducted a little experiment.  I told students I would need a volunteer that would be willing to be blindfolded, then handed an object that they needed to report the color on.  It always amazes me how many kids want to try this infront of the class!  I do my best to pick equal numbers of boys and girls, though not everyone gets a chance.

The first students come up, I blindfold them. I ask them to make sure they can't see - it won't work if they can see!  Then I tell the class that the only way it will work is if the WHOLE class can stay quiet!  If someone blurts something out or makes a comment it might ruin the experiment.  Next, I hand my blindfolded student an orange.  Almost immediately they can tell me that it is an orange and it is the color orange.  I asked who they figured it out so quick -- they generally said the shape, texture, and the smell!  We continued this for a few rounds making the materials harder and harder to guess!

We then read an awesome story called "The Black Book of Colors" in which a child who is blind, Thomas, describes colors to us using his senses.  All the pictures are on black paper and have no color - but instead can by felt by the finger tips.  The story is also written in brail across the top of each page.

After the book I told students we were making our own "Black book of Colors".

The next steps proved to stretch the thinking of the third graders as they were asked to describes colors through - taste, smell, sound, and touch.

I will post more when we are further in the project!

4th Graders decorated paper for collages we will be starting!

This summer I was walking the streets at Royal Oak's "Arts Beats Eats" and found an artist that I was fascinated with.  I came home and found her website knowing I wanted to do a project inspired by her work.

Students used pre-picked color groups to make their papers.  I asked them to layer their paint and experiment with paint brushes, texture boards, toothbrushes, combs, and q-tips.  The results are BEAUTIFUL!

5th Graders are pumped out their project!  We first looked at a slideshow of Logos.  I had the students tally on their hands how many of the logos they knew - of course they knew them all!

I had a slide with a few different companies and how their logo has changed over the years - more simple and more unique at the same time thanks to computer graphics!

Next, I explained they were going to make their own logos, personal logos made out of their initials.  The 5th graders were PUMPED!  I originally did this lesson with 8th grade students, and these 5th graders blew my socks off with their ideas.

I passed out a brainstorming sheet that helped them create different forms of their letters, thus helping them create something completely original and personal.