Art and the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program)

Wow!  How has it been almost a month since I posted last?!  Time flies when you are having fun!

The last few weeks have been packed with craziness - I was sick for a bit, field trips, National Testing for the upper grade levels - it's honestly been kind of a mess.

I halted all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade projects for the last two cycles due to MEAP tests.  I realized that their brains were complete toast by the time they got to me and we needed to do some relaxing, other side of the brain thinking in art.  My goal was to not only rest the one side of their brain, but to re-energize and almost reset their day.

My fourth graders were finishing up their collages from their visiting artist and while this is a 'simple' enough task - it wasn't the kind of way I wanted them to use their brains.  Instead we worked on a value project where they needed to mix colors and paint - much more therapeutic. 

We started out by BRIEFLY looking at pictures of the moon at night.  (*Normally I would make the observation part longer, but it is not what the kids needed this week.  Also, the kids are observing the moon in science!  Who knew!).  We talked about what they saw - the colors, the sky... etc.  Next, I showed them how to use a safety compass.  (Honestly, best compasses EVER!).  They drew concentric circles.

At this point some classes were done for the day because I only saw them for 20 minutes - other classes got a chance to get to the paint.  I set out trays with white, black, blue, and purple.  The students painted their moon white, the first ring was their sky color with white, then after that they added a little bit of black for each circle till it got darker and darker and darker.

Students went from loud and squirrel-y to mellow and focused.  I asked the group how their brains felt - many replied with a sigh and a 'much better'.

This lead me to realize that I could help out the grade level teachers as well as the kids.  I sent out an e-mail to the teachers suggesting that they do a little bit of art after their testing.  It wouldn't need to be much 10-20 minutes and it could be as easy as coloring a geometric coloring page.  The rhythm of coloring/painting helps to calm and refocus the brain.  I know that in college during finals I would put out a stack of coloring books and all my crayons in the common area.  Almost everyday I would find the majority of my suit mates bent over coloring books after long bouts of studying or tests.  They would exclaim how much better and more relaxed they felt.

After I sent out my e-mail offering to print some coloring pages - one of the 4th grade teachers e-mailed me back.  She said that their writing assignment that day had to do with some characterization and instead of jumping right into the writing she had them spend some time drawing their character - she said the lesson went smoothly and the students produced a lot of information about their characters!

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My third graders have been hard at work exploring landscapes (horizon lines, foreground, middle ground, back ground... etc).  So, again, I decided that wasn't quite the way I wanted to exercise their brains after a morning of MEAP testing.  So, we took a break and did chalk leaf piles.  I have done this lesson for quite a few years now - and they always turn out beautiful.  The students fold a piece of card stock in half, draw half a leaf, cut out the leaf in one long cut!  They should have two stencils - a positive and a negative.  (Sometimes it takes kids a few tries to get it.)  Next they charge their stencil with leaf colored chalk, place the stencil on their paper, smear the chalk from the stencil to their paper.  The students repeat this process with both stencils and then with each others stencils until their paper is filled - overlapped leaves and leaves that go off the edge.



Again, students start out loud and a little over the top - by the time they start using chalk the energy and noise level evens out.





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5th grade was a little bit different.  They were finishing some 2-point perspective words and then starting their t-shirt designs for 5th grade production.  So, while I didn't restructure their lessons like the other two grades - their assignments already focused on using their brain more creatively.

5th Grade - Sphere Sculptures (Decorative Paper)

Pinterest strikes again!  I saw these:

http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/2009/04/cereal-box-globes-for-earth-day.html

I wasn't exactly sure how these were going to get woven into my curriculum this year - but I was sure they would fit somewhere.  I decided these would fit with 3D, values, hues, personal choices, recycling/upcycling - and so much more!

So, the students haven't actually made these yet - today I had them decorate cardboard that has about the same thickness as cereal boxes.  The wonderful ladies in the lunch room collect the cardboard for me from boxes of fruit!  I have HUGE stacks of the stuff and I always get excited when I have a way to use large quantities of it.  I love that it is easy to cut, but yet holds up pretty well to copious amounts of tempra paint.

Today, I had students decorate the cardboard in an Eric Carle type style.  They started with a base color, chose another color to add a design, then add another color and yet another design - then students could leave it or use a decorative comb to add designs by scraping paint around in a pattern.  I told students that I would pick the colors for their tables - but not to worry they will get to pick papers from ALL the tables when it comes time to make their spheres.  I explained that I pick their colors because it gives us more usable colors - if I just let them go, we would get a BUNCH of brown and blue.  I generally give each table their table color in paint - so blue table got blue paint, red table got red paint (keeps down the arguing and whining).  Each table got a variety of tints/shades of their color to make these stand out, for example green table got:  green, bright green (green + yellow), mixed green (yellow + blue), and a thing of white (ends up being light green).

At first students were being very careful and clean about this process - which I some what appreciated, but we needed papers that were free, open, full of motion and color - students needed to be a little more - organized chaos.  I told many of them they were being too nice and needed to give a little more 'umpf' to it.  Soon it was a controlled whirl wind!  Paint, cardboard, brushes, students were everywhere - in a good way.  I was busy filling paint as it ran out while keeping the cardboard stack well supplied.  It was awesome.

I had MANY students today exclaim, "This is the best day of art EVER!"  There is something beautiful, freeing even of letting loose - not 'making' anything in particular.  We weren't making dogs, cats, perspective drawings -- students got to just create.  It was BEAUTIFUL.

It is going to take me some time to cut all these papers for students to make their spheres - but they will be amazing - I am SUPER excited.

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.

4th Grade Value Portraits

This project has been modified from a lesson I saw in a magazine where a high school teacher had her students make stencils from a picture and then spray paint it.  I was really drawn to the idea of using positive/negative space in a way in which a portrait is recognizable.

I originally planned to do this project with paint, but after attempting it for my example I switched to colored pencils.

While the the students were finishing up their previous project I took their picture.  I set up an old overhead and had them stand at about a 1/4 turn away from the light - giving me the optimal light vs dark on their faces.  They could smile, be serious, or even do a silly face!  I downloaded those into my computer, changed them to black and white, and then altered the exposure, highlights, and shadows till I got white, one level of grey and black.  These were then printed out on 8.5/11 pieces of paper.

The next class we taped drawing paper on top - took a pencil to the window and traced only what we saw.  I had the students trace their faces upside down.  Many students laughed and asked why and I explained that our brain recognizes faces much too easily and we needed to trick it so that it will see shapes.  The students traced only what they saw - lights, mediums, darks.  If they could not see their eye they did not trace it!

After tracing their faces many students exclaimed both how awesome and strange it looked!

My Example.

For the next two classes the students spent coloring in the correct values determined by their photograph.  The students picked one color for their head, another for their shirt and the complementary color of their head was for the background.  I did a demonstration on how to figure out what color when where - focus on one little shape, hold to the light, observe, put on the table and color.  Pressing hard with a colored pencil creates a dark color, pressing medium produces the same color or lighter, and then barely touching the paper with the colored pencil creates the lightest value needed.

These are breathtaking - the students worked very hard and are impressed to find that it actually looks like themselves!

(I have permission to use these pictures, but in order to protect my students I have cropped them to make them less recognizable.)

4th Grade Value Projects

Students were struggling with the idea of value.  They had trouble remembering the difference between contrast and value, so we did a mini project to help concrete value.

Students Learned/Practiced:
- Composition
- Color choice
- Value
- compass and ruler usage

I cut long strips of paper and gave students compasses and rulers.  They were to draw circles that did not overlap and filled the space.  Next, they used rulers to further break up the space.  The students needed to be careful to not let their lines cross.

Next, I showed them how each section, between the straight lines, was a 'color'.  Then within that section each shape was a different version of that color.

A few students struggled with finding the sections and the shapes inside - but after some one on one instruction they were on their way!