The Accidental Art Teacher

Fort Ross Drawings

2012-02-09T10:20:00.001-08:00

A big part of the 5th and 6th grade year is an overnight to Fort Ross, an historic Russian fort on the California coast founded in 1812. So to dovetail into that curriculum, I had the kids do a drawing of the fort.

Instead of otter pelt, I used paper bags. But I did have them use dip quill pens which add a nice feel to the project. To finish it off, they could use some white crayon to ad some highlights. For reference, they had a photograph and a vintage woodcut of the fort. This project involved a certain amount of perspective drawing.

Halloween pumpkins

2011-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

For the younger kids, I did a Halloween project that got great results a few years back: Positive / negative pumpkins with orange and black paper.

The key is having the kids learn that they can just draw half the jack-o-lantern on one piece and cut it out and then reverse it onto the other paper.

Quite a concept for the Kinders! But they had much more fun results than I imagined. Very cool stuff!

The Kindergarteners:

The 1st-4th graders

Kindergarten owls

2011-11-09T12:07:00.000-08:00

In a repeat of a fun project from the past, we did Owls in the Kindergarten class. They were a hoot!

I do a directed drawing with the kids and then have them tear and cut paper to decorate their owls. It always amazes me how much personality comes out in these simple projects.

Sunflowers in glue and pastel

2011-11-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

I've been doing quite a few multi-week projects the last month, so I have been remiss in posting. Sorry.

This project was done with all the kids in October, and took two sessions, so with my even/odd schedule it took a long time!

Since I've done Van Gogh sunflowers before, I wanted to do something different and involve more technique. The first step was to take some sunflowers in and have the kids "draw" with white glue! This is easy since I am using black paper. Once the glue dries it forms "lines" that the CHALK pastel does not stick. So basically the second week was a "fill in" project. The ones that turned out best use a lot of color and get good coverage.

Self portraits with paper

2011-09-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

The luxury of having a new batch of kindergarteners who have not taken art from me before, is that I get to revisit "ye olde arte projects of the past." Having taught for three years now, I have quite a few that I would repeat and this is one of them!

Here is a link to the project from 2 years ago!

No matter how simple or complex, it is amazing how distinctive and representative some simple cut and torn pieces of construction paper can be. Even Kinders can make their self portrait portray themselves.

I have the kids pick background color and then some skin and hair color. They cut the face as a circle (or close) and then they can tear bits for hair. Add some eyes, nice mouth etc...

Primary Color lesson

2011-09-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

In my efforts to give the older kids an expanded art vocabulary, I did an early lesson on color. Notably primary, secondary, complimentary, warm and cool. I put up a color wheel and asked them to name the 6 main colors and gave them an overview that complimentary colors are opposite each other.

For the actual project, I had gained inspiration from this art teacher blog. I made a sheet of paper with radiating circles and photocopied it for the kids. Then they traced their hand over this.

This was a brain teaser for many because there were several rules:

Warm colors (red, orange, yellow) for the hand
Cool colors (blue, purple, green) for the background
I wanted them to have a pattern to their color choice so that they did not repeat colors next to each other. This led to some confusion, but if they kept inside the lines it worked okay.
If a ring in the hand was orange, then the rest of the ring in the background needs to be the compliment: blue, etc.

This led to a certain amount of consternation and confusion, but after some minimal coaching it worked fine. I was really amazed at the level of sophistication that even the first and second graders showed! The results are truly cool!

Pet Art Supply peeve of the week

2011-09-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

I was working with the kids on last week's project (to be posted shortly) and realized that many had Crayola Markers (including my own child) that were NOT the standard bold/bright colors. They are called "Bold". When I bought them, I just thought that meant the thickness of the line....

Weird colors

Standard colors

The offending "Bold" 8-12 color marker set has some very nice colors, but they are mostly odd tints. I wanted standard primary and secondary colors but got either too bright or too dark. I don't mind having fun colors, but nowhere on the package did it indicate that they were oddball colors.

Second peeve, is that Crayola seems to think it is being hip and cool by making all the marker's plastic barrels BLACK and only the removable cap the actual color!! With young kids this is really bad since they often get the caps misplaced, and all the capless-markers look the same!! Ugh.

Please Crayola, for the love of us parents/teachers of young children, give us back the colored barrels and make the packaging easier to recognize what colors you are getting!

Week 2: Leaf rubbing

2011-09-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

Another Fall staple are leaves of course. In this project, I took a similar tact to my apple printing from last week. This time they were "printing" but using the leaves under the paper they really could explore texture and layering by rubbing with crayons. For 5-year-olds, I was impressed by their stamina and understanding of the concept.

Week 1: Apple Printing

2011-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

Its apple season and I'm getting the Kindergarteners into the swing of things. This week I used paint and cut apples to make some simple stamps. Pretty basic items, but the kids really got into it. One of the girls even went home and showed her Mom how to do it!

Good beginning ideas for an art teacher

2011-09-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is my fourth year teaching art, and I have expanded/grown every year. I started with just the K-2 room and concentrated on a lot of seasonal crafty things. Each year I added another classroom and now I teach all the grades K-6 in three rooms.

I still plan on doing seasonal crafty things for the kinders. My life is actually easier for that group since I can recycle the best of the last three years for them since they have the room all to themselves and they are all new to me! Yeah, the archive of work is now paying off!

For the 1-4th room and the 5-6th room, I plan on doing a much tighter curriculum of things. This first week and for the rest of the year I plan on emphasizing the main elements of art: Line, Shape, Form, Space, Texture, Color and Value. I then hope to keep doing historical artists and a lesson based on them, as well as lessons based on techniques, like watercolor, pastel, sculpture, printmaking, spriknled with a few seasonal or craft items.

Here is a great site by the Getty Center with some nice starter curriclum about the Main elements of art.
Elements of Art from Getty Museum

Here is a very good site for breaking down Art History
http://www.smarthistory.org

Getting ready for School

2011-08-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

It's begining to feel a bit Autumnal, and eventhough many public schools started a week or two ago, our little school starts Thurs. Sept. 1. That means that I'm getting my art ideas ready! Luckily, I can look back on this blog and remember what projects worked best and do some recycling of the "Best of..." projects.

This year I will be teaching the 10 kindergarteners in Mrs. Dillon's room every week for 30+ minutes. Then as a change, I will be alternating the two older rooms (10 first-fourth graders, and 15 fifth/sixth) every other week. But instead of 30 minutes each week, I'll do an hour, so they will get roughly the same amount of time, but I'll be able to go into more detail and they will have more time.

As it was last year, I avoided really messy projects, knowing I had such a short time and also had to move my show into the next room right after the first class.

Greek vases

2011-05-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

The 5th/6th grade was studying Greece, so I themed several art classes for them. This one involved the beautiful clay pots and vases (amphora) that the Greeks decorated with red and black graphic shapes and figures.

This allowed me to continue a theme of bold graphic elements in art as well as symmetry. I gave them a brief overview of the different shapes the Greeks used. The nitty gritty about the uses was not that important, but I did want them to get a feel for the diversity of shapes and hopefully inspire them to think creatively with their shapes.

Then I gave them orange paper and had them fold it in half so that when they cut it would be a complete vase shape.

Next I gave them a brief overview of the different athletes and gods that decorated these vessels. Of course most greek athletes are a a tiny bit underdressed, which let to the expected tittering amongst the crowd. Once the giggling settled down, I tried to get them to see that these ancient drawings were pretty basic. Almost all the different shpes were carrot-like. Legs, arms, fingers...all different elongated ovals.

Spring Butterflies

2011-05-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Always a crowd-pleaser, I did butterflies with the younger kids. This taught symetry, wax resist and watercolor.

I had the kids fold their paper in half and draw their butterfly on one half with oil pastel. Then they used a spoon to transfer the half-butterfly onto the other side. Some had to draw over their faint lines, but that is okay!

Then they used watercolor to fill in the blanks and the oil pastel showed through.

Celtic Crosses

2011-05-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

To mark St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to get away from shamrocks and leprechauns (I love those, but can only do so many art projects involving those items!)

Also, since we are a Christian school, making a cross would be really cool. What made this standout was the technique: aluminum foil embossed and then aged with paint. I had envisioned using this technique for another project, but ended up using it here.

The technique involved me folding some sheets of foil into long multi-layered strips. Each kid was given one and they cut it into two. Then they had to used blunt pencil to incise/emboss lines and decoration into the soft foil. Then with a slightly damp brush they put green paint onto the foil and wiped off the excess.

The final result was either stone-like or similar to aged bronze! Really cool.

Gustav Klimt people

2011-05-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

I use famous artists as a gateway into a weekly art lesson frequently. This week was Gustav Klimt, a turn of the century Austrian artist most famous for his highly decorative paintings/collage of people, especially using vibrant abstract patterns and backgrounds.
You may know his "The Kiss"

To translate this into soemthing that the kids could do in 30 minutes, I had them start with yellow paper, but this would be beautiful on gold paper or with gold paint.

I also had them choose a face or body from a fashion magazine as a starting point, since many of Klimt's paitings have a realistic looking head/torso and then he explodes witha riot of color and pattern. They glued this scrap on the paper.

Then they drew the body, or at least a suggestion of body/torso with flowing lines and lots of pattern. This was an interesting example of realism meets abstract art.

Making your own coat of arms

2011-05-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Inspired a bit by the 5th and 6th grade study of medieval history, I had the kids make their own coat of arms. Similar to project I did two years ago having the kids make their own flag, this requires them to think about their own identity and visualize it.

To inspire them I brought in a few completes coats of arms as well as some print out of the various elements thata re common and colors.

They first folded a piece of paper in half and drew half a shield and cut it out so the result would be symetrical.

Then they had to decide on their 1-3 favorite colors, shapes and insignia. I aked them if they had a favorite animal or toy or other item taht they could easily draw. Or they could draw an animal that represented their pesonality.

Many horses, lions and Star Wars figures resulted;-)

Chinese Scroll Painting

2011-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

As a knod to Chinese New Year, I brought in some long scroll paintings that I had purchased in China in the 1990s. I was inspired by the beautiful flower plum trees, so also brought in a vase of plum branches.

I folded long white contruction paper in half so the kids had the tall canvas. Trying to emphasize the distorted perspective that is common in these paintings, I had the kids use their watercolors to make mountains and a river that stretched down from the top. If they wanted they could add some trees and houses or boats, but the main objective was the tall skinny landscape.

Then in the foreground they were to draw a tree with their black marker (the paper was still wet, so this mad ea nice wet-on-wet technique too.) For flowers they got pink tissue paper and made little balls to
glue onto the branches.

A finishing touch was a red square with their initials to mimic the "signature" stamp.

Star Wars Collage

2011-05-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

For those Star Wars fans in my art classes. This is for you!

Jeremy Messersmith - Tatooine from Eric Power on Vimeo.

Week 17: Valentines

2011-05-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

The age-old question of what to do for Valentines Day? So many fun crafty things. This year I had the kids do "snowflake" Valentine compositions in paper. They choice a couple red, pink, white etc sheets and folded them like you would a snowflake and then cut out heart shapes. If they were lucky they would get some fun inticate shapes. If not, they would at least have 8 hearts on the table that they then could still use to make a collage. I tried to get them to layer larger pieces under and smaller on top.

4th Grade mission projects

2011-05-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

This may be an off-topic, but related post. While this did not happen in my art class, I did want to highlight the very nicely done California Mission Models that the kids built in the 3rd/4th grade room! Not all the kids did Missions, since several did history videos, maps or ship models.

I'm a huge Mission model fan, going all the way back to my 4th grade Mission Santa Barbara. My son Devon (and I) built Mission Carmel.

What Art teaches our kids

2011-03-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

In my weekly round of other art teacher blogs, I came across this nice list of things that art teaches students. It is a distilation of a speach by Elliot Eisner, an Art Professor at Stanford. It was on Hands-On Art, a blog I frequent for inspiration. These same lessons can be learned via music, sports and drama etc, but Art is inherently an easy way to achieve these goals without regard to resources or talent.

10 Lessons the Arts Teach (by Elliot Eisner)

1. The arts teach children GOOD JUDGEMENT about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES. One of tehir large lessons is that there are many ways to SEE AND INTERPRET the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. LEarning in the arts requires the ABILITY and WILLINGNESS to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make VIVID the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can KNOW. The limits of our language does not define the limits of our COGNITION.

6. The arts teach students that SMALL DIFFERENCES can have LARGE EFFECTS. The arts traffic the subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which IMAGES become REAL.

8. The arts help CHILDREN LEARN to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them FEEL, they must reach into their POETIC capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have EXPERIENCE we can have from no other source and through such experience to DISCOVER the range and variety of what we are capable of FEELING.

10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults BELIEVE is IMPORTANT.

Want more? For a longer version and to read more about the author, click here.

Here he is on YouTube about art. click here to watch.

Week 15-16: African Kente Cloth

2011-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

As a project for the school's annual International Luncheon, they study a region...this year was Africa. Parents prepare African food and they spent a month or more studying it.

For art, we did "kente cloth" placemats. Kente cloth is a Central African specialty and uses strips of intricately woven cloth in bright colors. It is a ceremonial cloth and well known outside of Africa. Each color has a meaning.

To do this with paper, I used a large brown paper that they folded and then cut slits so it resembled a comb. Use a ruler for spacing. Your goal is to ufold the paper and have it look like a venetain blind but stay in one piece. Then you take 2-3 other colors and cut strip with a ruler. Decorate this strips with a geometric pattern.

Alternating colors, weave the colored strips into the brown paper. When this all done, you can also decorate the brown parts as well. The finishing touch was "laminating" this with contact paper.

Week 14: Pointilism

2011-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Back to the late 19th Century we went with a lesson on Pointilism...Suerat and Signac namely. I showed the kids examples of this French Impressionist approach, emphasizing atmosphere, color mixing and lots and lots of little brush strokes!

I had the kids create their own with q-tips and watercolor. This minimized the inherent want to swipe the brush and gave them a fun new utensil to try. While it seemed a bit exhaustive for some, most really embraced the limitation and did a great job.

Week 13: Optical illusion 'Op' art

2011-02-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

The first art class of the New Year was a departure from the Christmas crafts! Black and white optical illusion Op Art. I told the kids about the late 20th century artists who created these very geometric, often monochromatic pieces.

We used a rule to find the center of a page of paper. Then I had them draw radiating line outward from that center. Connecting the lines with spider-web-like lines. The most visually interesting onces alternated curving lines so that it almost looks like rippling cloth.

Then they colored every other area black like a warped checkerboard. The kids seemed to enjoy the meditative challenge! Even the younger kids did a good job.

Week 12: Pop-up Christmas cards

2010-12-27T19:19:00.000-08:00

Our last Christmas project was a card for the kids to give to family. The cool twist is that these are pop-ups, which can be really cool, but challenging.

I had two designs (snowman and tree), that I printed onto card-stock to make it easier for the kids. I got the idea from a Christmas Crafts book. They just had to follow directions about cutting and then get some help folding. Then they could decorate and glue into some construction paper for final presentation.

Here is the template. Click for larger file to print.

Week 11: Plastic painted ornaments

2010-12-27T19:12:00.000-08:00

With the gracious help of another mother, Mary Maxwell, we did some special ornaments. She had a supplie of clamshell type clear palstic ornaments. They were balls and stars. We had the kids put a few quirts of acrylic paint into the inside of the clear ornaments. (the less, the better) Then they close the ornment snuggly! and shake it around. The result is a marbled look inside.

The only problem is that if the kids use too much paint, it puddles in the bottom and does not dry. Otherwise the kids had a blast. Thanks Mary!

Week 10: Music Note Angel ornaments

2010-12-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

For the 5-6 grade I did not do the simple snowmen I did with the younger kids. For the older students I did a project from two years ago, that remains one of my favorites. It is an ornament made out of sheet music formed into an angel.

I made a template with downloaded sheet music, but you can just photocopy some sheet music or download from the internet. I used "Angels We have Heard on High." Form your sheet music into cones about 3 inches tall with a small hole at the top.

Other items needed:

shiny pipe cleaners

little jingle bells

small flesh colored wood beads. Use Sharpie to put face on.

Small 2-3" shiny or white doilies

glitter

This is what you do:

1. After cones are built, twist a jingle bell on end of pipe cleaner

2. Insert pipe cleaner up from bottom of cone thru "neck hole"

3. Put bead "head" on pipe cleaner

4. Wrap pipe cleaner around finger and twist once or twice to make halo and keep bead on.

5. Use rest of pipe cleaner as hook.

6. Glue half-folded doiley to back of cone as wings

7. Add glitter to bottom of skirt and/or buttons etc.

Week 10: Paper plate snowmen

2010-12-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit late posting these, but December can be a real bear with spare time. We had three weeks of art during the Christmas season, and there are so many good holiday projects out there, but I usually try to do some ornaments and cards. This projects is not really either, but is a lot of fun and easy as pie...plate, that is.

I should probably write a book on art projects made from paper plates (or find the books that undoubtedly have already been written!)

This project uses three plain white paper plates. I used a large and two smaller ones. I attached them with the metal brads that look like thumbtacks with wings. Then it is up to the student to make a hat, scarf, boots, face and buttons out of whatever you have on hand: paper, twigs, pipe cleaners, sequins, puffballs, etc.

Each one turns out different and really cute.

F
For those who finished early, I showed them the classic paper plate dove from my childhood.

Week 9: Thanksgiving Pasta Collage

2010-12-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

What's Thanksgiving without food? I wanted to use that theme in a mosaic/collage way, so I brought out the trusty dried pasta and beans. I ended up buying a bunch of different bags of pasta and beans, so that the kids would have a variety of shapes and colors to work with.

To keep to the theme, I had a few samples of holiday images like turkeys, pilgrims and cornucopias for the kids to draw inspiration from. For the 1-2 graders, I predrew some pilgrims on their cardboard, so the whole time was not spent drawing. The fun part is gluing the pasta!

Once the kids got a a drawing on their cardboard, they could start gluing. The turkeys ended up looking great with the multicolored/shaped pasta like spirals and bow-ties. The Pilgrims really benefied from black beans and rice along with the lacey pastas and wagon-wheels.

Week 7: Henri Matisse collage

2010-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

PANEL WITH MASK

1947

In my continuing efforts to introduce famous artists every so slightly into the curriculum, I talked to the kids about French artist Henri Matisse. He is a very famous painter, but at the end of his life, in the 1940s, became well known for his collage cutouts that he said were "painting with a brush."

I have done a bunch of drawing projects and emphasized line this fall, but this project had the goal of emphasizing several other things:
1. Abstract, graphic art
2. Color, with an emphasis on bright primary and secondary colors
3. Shape, with an emphasis on variety
4. Heirarchy, from large bold shapes to inticate small shapes
5. Layering of imagery to create dynamic compositions

To accomplish this, the kids were to pick two pieces of paper (one primary and one secondary on the color wheel) One of these was the background, the other was to be the large background shapes (Matisse often had background blocks of color). I tried to emphasize to the kids to make the large shapes alrge and bold and not too intricate. After they had done these two colors, they could choose two more colors from the scrap bin to use as medium and small shapes (Matisse had many smaller intricate shapes). I wanted the students to experiment with different shapes and not try to be literal.

Week 6: Halloween Black Cats

2010-11-09T21:28:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Halloween without the pumpkins, ghosts and skeletons, I came across the idea to draw a black cat with bright glowing eyes. The kids had really enjoyed doing a directed drawing last year for the the Year of the Tiger, and this became a similar project.

I had them use black paper, white crayons and bright oil pastel. I wanted them to just color the eyes and amybe the background but leave the cat face black paper.

Week 5: Fall leaves watercolor

2010-11-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

We've been doing a lot of drawing and line work this Fall, but I wanted to add in some painting-this time watercolor.

For this assignment, I had the kids view various leaf shapes and try to understand their symetry and layout. Then we drew a leaf shape (it could be very realistic or more whymsical) on a piece of white watercolor paper with a light crayon. The idea of wax resist was also part of this lesson.

Next they use watercolor in various ways to get color. Blotches, stripes, wet-on-wet, and spatter were all used.

The kids did seem to really get ino the painting part!

Week 4: Stained glass names

2010-11-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

For the younger kids who don't write in cursive yet, I did not do the cursive insect names, but instead did some straight-line stuff. I had the first and second graders use rulers and pencil to make several boxes ona piece of paper that corresponded to the number of letters in their names. We have a short-named group, so that is nice:-)

In each box I instructed them to draw uppercase letters and use straight, bold lines in black marker. I wanted the end result to be a box with multiple "windows: with positive and negative shapes. The use of line, and positive/negative shapes is a big focus of these frist two months.

In each "cell" created I told the kids to color one color and the final result is very graphic!

Week 4: Cursive Insects

2010-10-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here was a fun project inspired by several of my favorite art teacher blogs. Its also another way to incorporate the kids' names into a project.

The first step was to have the student choose two different colors of paper, one for the background and one for the "insect." They fold the foreground page in half long-ways. With the fold down, they write their name large and in cursive with the fold as the baseline. Ignore descenders. Then they can make a bubble outline around their name or just eyeball it. Using scissors they cut ut their name, making sure to leave enough areas along the fold so as to not separate the two halves. (even if you do that fine, though). Then they unfold, glue down and decorate. Sometimes they end up looking like aliens or birds or frogs. It a lot of fun. Much like an inkblot test. Can you decode the names?

Week 3: Modigiliani Self Portraits

2010-10-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

I like to do several self portraits each year, usually in different media. It gives the kids a measuring stick as to their art improvement and makes a great piece to keep.

This week we did self portraits in the style of Modigliani, the Italian painter know for he exaggerated and elongated faces. The distortion inherant in this style is perfect for the imperfect manner in which most kids draw, so perfection is not the goal, but expression is. Often this lesson is harder to teach then straightforward art.

The class was pretty simple. I gave each kid a piece of black paper and oil pastels. The only other rules were to make the head and/or neck distorted.

Week 2: Apples in colored pencil

2010-09-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

For the older kids, I got the colored pencils out. It was Johnny Appleseed's birthday and I got each kid an apple for them to draw.

The main focus of this lesson was for them to really look at the apple and see that it is not just one color, but a real mix of colors, which suited colored pencil very well. The streaks and stripes and blemishes all work with the form of the pencil. Plus, the pencil allows for some nice layering of color.

Week 2: Paper plate apples

2010-09-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Since it is apple season, I wanted to do a project with apples. Sebastopol is apple country as well, so it really is a nice tie-in. For the younger kids I had them paint an apple on the back of a paper plate that was glued to a color paper.

The key to this project was getting the kids to really look at the apple and realize that it wasn't just "red" but that really it was yellow with red streaks and even some green spots.

Their favorite part was eating their model when done!

Week 1: K-2 Hand prints

2010-09-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

As a way to ease into the new art year, I had the kids in the K-2 class draw some handprint outlines on paper and color them in fall colors. The trick was to overlap the hands to create lots of little shapes, both positive and negative. This way it became a work of astract art as well as something that related to them.

Once they got 5-6 overlapping handprints done in black pen, (the kids did get a lot of pen on their hand!:-) I had them select 3-4 crayon colors, with an emphasis on fall colors like red, orange yellow and brown. I asked them to color in each shape with a different color. Little shapes and big shapes.

This ended up being a brain teaser to have the kids stop when they got to a line and choose a new color. But that was the whole point!

Back to School

2010-08-27T17:56:00.001-07:00

Only one more week until Pleasant Hill Christian School starts back up! Its a bit later than most public schools though. I am teaching art to all the kids in grades K-6 in three classrooms. To streamline things, they will all be taught on Monday. Hopefully this arrangement works out.

For all you parents reading, please feel free to suggest projects. This is my third year teaching art to these kids, but since they are in shared classrooms, I can't blindly repeat projects every year since the same kids would be getting duplicates. There are some projects like self-portraits that I do repeat, but I try to keep it 90% new each year. I will be able to start recycling this next year since the classrooms will have have "turned over" mostly.

Also, this fall, I may ask for some specific art supplies to be sent with your child later in the semester or in the winter. I'll get back to you.

Also, if anybody has craft supplies that they would like to donate, please let me know. Who knows what inspiring items I might get.

See you back at School!

Week 30: Father's Day

2010-08-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

Oops, I just found this post that didn't get posted in June. Hope you like it.

The end of school was in May and its been crazy since then, so I am just getting my brain back around blogging the art classes. And my other excuse was that I didn't want to "spoil" the Father's Day surprise by posting it in May;-)

I had the kids make Father's Day cards:

Week 29: Name Patterns and color

2010-05-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

The kids like to doodle and draw, and I thought I would have them do some pattern and color work as well. My goal was to have them use two complimentary colors (ie: blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow).

I had them use a marker to draw their name on a large paper. To that they added, like ripples of water, concentric rings that went outward from their name. The end result was kinda 1970's funky looking, but fun.

Then I had them use their watercolors, or crayons/markers, to fill in alternating stripes with their complimentary colors.

This was a very meditative process and the kids liked the result. I also gave them the choice to write the word MOM if they wanted, or their name was too long. Since Mother's day was coming up, they could give these little masterpieces to their mothers.

Week 28: Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

2010-05-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

Continuing to study famous artists, we turned to Georgia O'Keefe and her iconic flowers. Instead of painting these beauties, I had the kids use tissue paper and watered down glue, so that the result would be as bold and graphic as possible!

I started by showing the students several of O'Keefe's most famous flowers and pointing out that she made her images bold, colorful and really close-up. I wanted the kids to fill their paper as much as possible. The tissue paper allowed for some nice layering of color and bold forms.

Several kids made their art 3-D by crumpling or using paper that tuck out more. I even hd a few cupcake liners that make nice flower centers.

Week 27: Self Portrait in pencil

2010-04-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

This is one of those projects that can be repeated several times a year and be a window into your child's world at that moment. At the begining of the year I had the kids do a self portrait in torn colored paper.
September's self portrait lesson

Come Spring, its time to revisit, but with a different medium, and a different lesson. Kids naturally like to draw, but they also naturally do not have a good idea of how to draw an accurate face. So in this lesson I gave the kids a soft pencil, eraser, and mirror along with some nicer paper.

On the baord I drew a step-by-step face starting with a large circle, then a middle line and lines for eyes, nose, moith etc. Then a tutorial on the various parts of the face.

Here is a real nice You-Tube video of an artist doing just that:
How to draw a a face video

This is a not an easy concept, and kids, no mater how old, still want to draw circles for eyes that are way up on the top of the head and a hooked nose and exaggereated mouth, but if you do it step by step they get the hang of it. Plus doing it every year will help with the practice.

Where they can personlize the drawing is in the shading and air and other details. The soft pencil is great for smudging and adding realism to the drawing.

Week 26: Easter Egg animals

2010-04-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

This was the week before Easter Break, so I had the kids make animals out of eggs. I got the idea from Martha Stewart and other places that used real eggs that had been blown. But we had a bag full of the colorful plastic eggs, and no staff of 10 to blow and dye the 100 eggs I would need!

There are any number of animals you can make out of eggs. The more traditional ones are chicks/ducks from yellow eggs, lambs from pink/orange eggs (with cotton balls), pigs, doves, and bunnies from blue or purple eggs. Then you can make bees from yellow eggs, hippos from purple eggs, bears and puppies from brown eggs, and frogs from green eggs.

All you need is some scrap construction paper, cotton balls, felt, sequins, feathers, permanent markers, pom-poms and any other crafty scraps. We used white glue for some parts, but I would advise hot-glue or tacky-glue.

The kids seemed to really like the idea of this craft, but the younger kids had a bit of a hard time with the glue not sticking fast enough. Overall, a very fun project!

Week 24 & 25: Eric Carle Butterflies

2010-03-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

It feels like its been a while since I posted, and that's because we did a 2-week project that was inspired by Eric Carle, the famous children's book author/illustrator of many beooks including the "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

Week 1 involved making the paper to collage the next week. Carle used colored tissue paper to paint, but I had the kids work with large sheets of white construction paper. They were given just the primary colors and told to mix and play with it on the paper and not in their pallete. They also had toothbrushes for stippling and spatterings and forks for scraping. No rules, except that if they wanted more than one color to collage they needed to be mindful of making areas of distinct color combos and not overmixing to mud. They achieved some very rich layered looks!

Week 2, I gave each student their dried paper back and showed them samples of Carle's work again and then some simple digrams of how to make butterflies, bees and dragonflies from mostly just circles.

Some kids made big bold insects and many made flowers, while some made tiny little insects that seems to be swallowed by the page. Most had little trouble figuring out what to do.

This turned out to be one of the best projects of the year. The color play with paint during the first step was very abstract and sensual, while they had to do some planning for their collage in step two. During the collage faze, they had to work with abstract shapes to make specific objects and also plan color, shape and size. The end results are amazingly professional looking and really adhere to the spirit of Eric Carle. Good job kids!

Week 23: St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

Since the the older kids had a field trip I just had the K-2 class. It was St. Patrick's week, which is one of my favorite holidays, and green is my favorite color too;-)

An impromptu idea was to make shamrocks out of hearts, which the kids are pretty good at making. The great thing is that the fold in the heart is perfect for maing it look 3-D. I had the kids make a bunch of different green hearts as well as some real simple squares of green and brown for a "leprechaun" hat that the shamrocks would be sprouting from. All this got pasted down, with the idea that the three hearts pasted together made a shamrock and only half the heart was glued so that the other part stuck off the paper to give it a lively look.

The kids did a fine job on these and they were dead simple to get organized and make.

Week 22: Arbor Day tree blossoms

2010-03-07T21:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, its already 2/3 of the way through the year! My younger son had to make a 100th day collection of items, and our thoughts are already turning to Summer. But its still the blustery transition between Winter and Spring. One minute it's raining, the next its sunny. The trees are also noticing this change and beginning to burst into bloom.

I was thinking of doing this project later in April during Apple Blossom time, since this area is know for its apple blossoms. But the area around the school is awash in the gloriously delicates pink blossoms of the plum trees. The first week of March is also Arbor Day in California due the birthday of local plant scientist Luther Burbank on March 7. So I was able to wrap three lessons in one!

I had contemplated doing the classic blown ink tree trunk and branches, but we have so little time and limited cleanup ability, so I opted for a faster and cleaner black/brown marker trunk. I gave each child light blue paper and had them draw the trunk. For the younger kids, I advised that tracing their arm and hand make good trees.

After that was done, they used crumpled pink tissue paper to make the blossoms. Some used other colors or green paper for the ground. Many kids also remembered the technique where you wrap the tip of pencil with the tissue and then glue. That works well, but just crumpling the tiny pieces of tissue works just as well.

These turned out real nice and are very Springy!

Week 21: Year of the Tiger drawings

2010-02-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

As a nod to Chinese New Year and the Year of the Tiger 2010, I decided to do a directed drawing project. As for the actual Tiger subject and technique I was inspired by this artist blog and her really cute tiger:

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/07/rousseau-tiger-drawing.html

I have had luck with doing very targeted drawing exercises with the kids and this seemed like a good fit. Plus, I needed something simple to prepare since my home office where I plan and get projects figured out is in the final throws of being renovated and my files are being chased around the house.

The materials are simple: paper, crayons and/or oil pastels and markers. I talked briefly about the 12-animal cycle of the Chinese New Year and showed them some real photos of tigers. Then I showed them on the board each step: 1. draw a circle 2. draw eyes 3. draw the nose 4. draw the cheeks etc.

Most kids did a great job following directions and I encouraged them to fill the paper with color since many like to rush through things and get done. The best results came from careful drawing and making the lines dark enough so that after the color is applied the lines still show through.

These Cool Cats will make a "purrfect" addition to our walls for our open house next month! I was born in the year of the Tiger, so this is especially close to my heart.

Week 20: Mardi Gras Masks

2010-02-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

This project turned into a real crowd pleaser! The kids liked it and I think their results turned out great.

I try to do seasonal/historical things as much as possible and this ties into Mardi Gras season, as well as being related to the kids' study of "Island Nations." In this case it was a Caribbean theme, whereas the tiki masks I did the week before were more Polynesian. I ended up using these Mardi Gras masks as centerpieces for the International Lunch the kids had as a culmination of their Island Nation studies. The ironic thing is that this theme was picked before the horrific Haitian earthquake and ended up being a great tie-in to some fundraising for Haiti.

This project also fits into my increasingly common use of paper plates as artistic materials. This is at least the third use of plates this year. Maybe I should write a book!;-) I ended up using plates mainly as an economical alternative to the really costly masks you can buy in craft stores or really tim- consuming plaster method that I would do with older kids.

The prep involved getting small lunch plates and cutting them in half. Then I used a 1" circle punch for eyes and nose. A chopstick hot-glued on as a handle completed the work I did before class.

I find that the kids really like the assemblage projects that involve hot glue guns and "stuff." Since I use the glue gun, this does make for a more intensive class since they lineup have me put the hot glue on their masks.

I printed out several examples of the real masks and gave them a quick background on the signigance of Mardi Gras, Lent and Easter. This being a Christian school probably allows for more leeway in this respect. I also showed them that the official colors are purple, yellow and green.

For materials I gave the kids colored feathers, sequins, ribbon, pop-poms and markers. It is amazing how colorful and festive they ended up looking with just a few simple embelishments. The kids spent so much time making these, that we needed almost two classes to complete.

WEEK 19: Tiki masks

2010-02-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

Many of the kids had been to Hawaii so were familiar with the look. I had them fold their paper in half to help with the symmetry, and tried to get them to use bold distorted shapes for the facial features.

The school has an International Lunch every year and this year's theme is "Island Nations" like the South Pacific, Japan, Australia, the Carribean, etc. They like to decorate the room, and this project is catered to that. I printed out a bunch of Tiki images and Maori masks as examples for the kids.

To give them a bit of character, I had them use brown paper and a simplified color scheme of black marker and one or two crayons. Some kids used more colors but they turned out well. As final touch I had them delicately crumple and then re-flatten their work, so it looked like bark or rustic wood.

Week 18: Styrofoam pop art printing

2010-01-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

I really like to introduce new concepts, and printmaking is one of those really cool, but sometimes hard concept with youngsters—eventhough, little kids are always "making prints" in their daily lives. As a background in simple graphic forms and printmaking, I decided to talk a bit about Pop Art, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. I showed Haring's red heart series and Warhol's Marilyn Monroe painting. The Haring heart was a great example of simple, two colors and line work mixed with block color. The Warhol was good for the concept of multiple editions of one image.

The hard part is finding a suitable "plate" for having the kids "take away" material that will then print white. Wood, lino and other true printing supplies are expensive, and dangerous for the kids, so I figured I needed a material that was pliable that they could "carve" with apencil or brush handle, with no sharp items needed. I thought of foam core, but quickly decided on a bunch of square foam takeaway food contaniners, that I cut down to 6 inch squares. The kids could then just use a pencil to make lines and dots in the thin foam.

As for ink, you can use offical printmaking ink and brayers and inking trays etc, but who has time or energy for that with 12 kinders and 30 minutes? So I had to use what I had on hand: Crayola markers and poster paint. Don't laugh, but the markers do a decent job, especially if you get a good color that will bead up on the foam and if you really press the print to soak up the marker. I used the markers as a "warmup" while I finished getting the paint ready. Marker is also less messy while they experiment. But it tends to work better for smaller stamps and more graphic images.

Another lesson I learned was the fewer the colors the better. One color would be great, but with my background in newspaper design, I knew red and black are two great complimentary colors for printing. They also make nice Valentine-themed works. Since I did this with the 3-4th grade first, they tended to make more complicated images and wanted to use multiple colors, which often made them feel frustrated by the limitations of styrofoam printing. Ironically the K-2nd graders did not question my limited colors and were less judgemental of their work. In the end, I think they ended up happier with the results.

The best images tended to be the simplest, with some texture and freedom. I am really proud of the true fine art that these kids produced!!

KINDERGARTEN, FIRST, SECOND GRADERS:

Week 17: Weather mobiles

2010-01-13T16:51:00.000-08:00

With the K-2nd graders I did something related to weather. Coincidently, the weather this day was actually quite variable: one minute it was sunny, the next it was raining, foggy or cold, and then several rainbows popped up. Nice inspiration for the youngsters!

I had struggled with how exactly to rig the mobiles, with thoughts turning to wire coat hangers at first. But I turned to the old friend of the kinder-crafter...the paper plate;-) I initially thought of having the paper plate flat with the items hanging down from around the outside, but I was inspired by the rainbow to cut the plates in half and have the weather icons hang from the flat side.

This allowed me to have the rainbow take center stage and teach the kids the order of colors in a rainbow: Red at top, orange, yellow, green, blue (actually indigo) and then purple (officially violet). We discussed weather and the colors and that got the kids talking and thinking.

To speed things, I compiled a sheet of weather icons for the kids to color/decorate and then cut. I printed these on heavier card stock. They then had the choice or ribbon, yarn or pipe cleaners to hang these different items. Most chose a really blingy silver sparkle ribbon or pipe cleaners.

For this age group, this kind of color/cut/assemble project is amazingly effective, even if it is not incredibly creative. It is good for concentration and coordination.

Week 17: Warm, Cool, Foreground, Background

2010-01-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

This week with the 3rd and 4th graders I did a oil/chalk pastel project. My instructions included explaining a bit about warm and cool colors and having them use those shades to make a make-believe landscape, utilizing foreground in one color range and a background in the other.

My examples were a warm sunset sky with cool foreground hills, or a night sky with warm foreground. I had them use black paper for dramatic effect.

Many kids decided to be a bit more illustrative and draw other elements, but many ended up with some interesting abstract looking images.

Week 16: Picasso Musicians

2010-01-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

I try to introduce several famous artists to the kids and I have already used Van Gogh as an inspiration and will use Eric Carle (of kid's book fame) and George O'Keefe later this spring. This week I used Picasso as inspiration. Namely his "Three Musicians" painting which is a great Abstract but also fun theme for the kids.

Instead of paint I had the kids use scraps of colored paper, which we have a special box for in the art closet. No full sheets of construction paper were harmed in this lesson, which is great because sometimes the kids want one tiny piece of yellow and grab a whole sheet. Plus having the odd scraps made them think a bit more "out of the box." Ironically the more you think about trying to make a person out of the scraps, the harder it is. When doing the sample, I found it worked to just wing it for best results. Also, the younger kids had an easier time since they were less goal-oriented and perfectionists, compared to the older kids.

As a finishing touch, I has some leftover shiny wrapping paper and some very nice ribbon with music notes that helped add a festive whimsical note to the work.

Week 15: Christmas villages

2009-12-17T23:21:00.000-08:00

Being the last of the three December art classes, I wanted to continue the Christmas feel, but throw in something a bit new. We did cards, snowmen, snowflakes and some watercolor, but for this project I combined the ever popular "stained glass" theme with some architecture. Voila...Christmas houses and villages.

I wanted to these to stand up in a window, so I had the kids fold a piece or two of brown paper into thirds or fourths-whichever worked best. Accordian fold is the best. This resulted in vertical sections of paper that they could draw some whimsical buildings. I had them cut out the roof and window shapes. Then they could glue some colored tissue paper behind the holes for colorful windows.

I love the "scool" and the petstore. This was a Kindergartener, with maybe some help from an older writer?

I did try to emphasize the various types of roof shapes and show them photos of Amsterdam row houses and San Francisco vistorians.

These can really turn out well. For a more gingerbread look, you could have them do all the detail drawing with white paint, but the black markers look fine too. I used construction paper which is a bit thin and light. If I could get any supplies, I might try a stiffer paper stock, but not too thick for cutting purposes.

Funny thing, was that the younger kids had no trouble at all with this relatively complex concept of drawing and then cutting. They had wilder imaginations and I think fewer inhabitions. But they did have trouble with teh concept of gluing the tissue paper on the back of the houses ;-)

Merry Christmas to all and to all an artistic night!!

Week 14: Christmas Snowmen/tree assemblage

2009-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

One of the kids' favorite projects last year was an assemblage of cotton ball snowmen. I decided to revive that idea and also add in the idea of making some Christmas trees as well.

My samples

For the Snowmen, we used cotton balls, twigs, sequins, ribbon, pipe cleaner and other odds and ends. There is no limit to what you can use. White glue or hot glue is needed though so really delicate items or heavy things might not work. I had thought to use buttons, but I could not find my buttons.

For the Christmas trees, I had used fern for the older kids, but probbaly should have dried or pressed the fern first since the fresh fern was either too springy or curled as it dries. For the younger kids I ended up cutting some very nice flat cedar branches. Eiher way, these cards will not last forever, but they are cute.

The younger kids seemed to be more free with the project then the oler kids who had higher expectations. But all the results are super cute!!

Week 13: Watercolor with crayons and salt

2009-12-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas around here. To help ring in the season, I had the kids do some snowflakes with watercolor, white crayon and salt. This was an exercise in techniques as well as a final product kind of project. But we will make soem snowflake ornaments with the dried watercolors next week.

Putting salt on wet watercolor is one of my favorite techniques. The salt soaks up the color and leaves little "blossoms" of white that look like snowflakes. It great for winter sky texture.

I had the kids do some experimenting with wet color washes. Some used white grayons to make some wax resist lines, stars, snowlfakes etc.

Then I had the kids make some small circles that they drew white crayon snowflakes inside. We will cut out these and make ornaments.

Here are what the final ornaments looked like:

Week 12: Painting and Printing reflections

2009-12-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

As the Fall has progressed, I have wanted to do more techniques and concepts, especially with the 3rd and 4th graders. So this week I dabbled in our first painting project, with some printmaking concepts thrown in.

I had the kids fold their paper in half and paint a scene of trees or hills, or other things in the top half. As they worked I had them fold the paper down while the paint was wet and rub to achieve a monoprint that makes it look like a reflection. The wetter the paint the stronger the reflection is.

Most kids really got into this and got some relly nice landscapes. Several kids did some very nice abstracts as well. I was very impressed with the concentration and completion exhibited in this project.

Week 11: Cutout Turkeys

2009-11-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Being the last week of art lessons before Thanksgiving, I decided to "trot" out some good old fashioned paper turkeys. This was also an easy project to shoehorn in after getting some kids to finish their Thanksgiving quilt squares from last week. I did similar, but different, turkeys for the K-2nd grade room and the 3-4th grade room. I think the younger-kid-version is a cuter idea (my part of the project-not the kid's part), but the work that all the kids did ended up adorable and full of personality.

For the younger kids I cut red paper plates in half to use as a base, and then had them trace/cut handprints for the back feathers. Then many used a foot tracing for the neck. Some circles for head and eyes, triangle for beak, and some accordian folded legs round out this "feast" of cuteness.

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For the older kids, I had them use a black background and lots of different geometric shapes for the feathers and head etc. In hindsight I would have had them do handprints as well. I am always amazed at how personal and unique each child makes their projects!

Week 10: Thanksgiving "Quilts"

2009-11-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

ALL THE K-2ND GRADE SQUARES

I wanted to do something for Thanksgiving...partly becasue I feel guilty that I have not done many "seasonal" art or craft projects this year. I contemplated the usual pilgrims or indians made from oatmeal cans or paper and the turkey idea might pop up, but decided on a "what am I thankful for" quilt. I won't be making it out of cloth since this is a pretty quick art class session every week, but at least I can piece together these paper squares into an even more interesting composition.

The actual process was not that hard: Have 9 inch squares of white paper and pens/colored pencils. The only rules I applied were that it had to be pretty colorful and also have the kids name visible.

Some kids did multiple images and some did single images. Some stuck to Thanksgiving imagery, while many used God and other Christian symbols (this IS a Christian school). Some also included their families. What cracked me up is that many also drew pictures of Star Wars characters, airplanes, trees and sports, which is adorably honest.

I will probably end up doing this with all the kids and I will post more pictures next week.

Week 9: Vanishing point perspective

2009-11-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

With the 3rd and 4th graders, I did a lesson involving perspective and vanishing points. A few weeks ago I did a project with a simple still-life and using one color, and I noticed that most of the kids got frustrated with drawing a 3-d box. This lesson hopefully will give them a bit more insight into perspective.

The first step was to have them draw a flat horizon line on their paper and a dot vanishing point in the middle of that horizon line. Then they drew some simple 2-d shapes in the "foreground" like squares, circles, stars etc. With a ruler they then connected all the edges and corners with the vanishing point they drew earlier.

This resulted in a lot of "railroad track" or "laser beam" looking objects that go forever, so I showed them the trick of adding a back to their shape and erasing their vanishing lines.Many of the kids ran with this and made pictures that looked like train tracks or piers jutting into the ocean. I also showed them how to make their names in 3-d as well.

I was amazed with how much effort they put into these drawings and how quiet and concentrated they were.

Week 8: Pumpkin reflections

2009-10-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

This week our little school of 50 kids had 18+ kids out with the flu (swine or other white meat, not sure?) Our family of 5 had 4 of us down, but I was well enough to do art with the 3rd and 4th graders. My class of 21 had 12 in it. I had intended to do something Halloween-y with black paper and colored pastels or pencils, but the idea lacked punch so I borrowed this great idea from the Art Projects from Kids blog. Thanks!

Its a pretty simple but great idea. You take a half sheet of black paper and draw, then cutout, a half pumpkin. You then take the pieces you have made and flip/mirror them over. If you glue these onto a colored piece you get a great positive/negative lesson. To embellish it, I still had the kids use yellow or white or orange colored pencil to draw spider webs, cats, bats, moons etc.

For the most part, they really understood the concept, with just a bit of help. Some of the kids "altered" the idea and used more paper and made a black and white side to put on a colored sheet, and that looked cool as well. Great job and a real nice Halloween decoration. I even suggested to the kids that they might want to take this idea home and try it for a Christmas Tree or silly face. I could see the lightbulbs in some of the kid's heads! This started out to be a makeshift concept, but it turned out to be one of the best.

I often feel like the kids lift me up when I'm feeling a bit down or uninspired. Thanks kids!

Week 7: Hieroglyphics

2009-10-20T22:38:00.000-07:00

This week, I only had the 3rd and 4th graders, since we had a field trip during the younger kids' art time. So I took the opportunity to do something more challenging that I might not attempt with younger kids.

I had the kids translate their name into Egyptian hieroglyphics and then make a golden cartouche. There are many websites out there that have good alphabet charts. Here is one really good one:

http://johnmactaggart.com

I spent a lot of time talking about how this alphabet is really a phonic alphabet and that each child's name is really made up of sounds, that might not be the same as the letters. For example, my name "Dennis" is drawn with only one N symbol. I gave each child a handout that showed each sound and the pictogram. Some letters, like many vowels, have several different pictures based on if it is a long or short vowel. Also, letters like J and G share similar pictures.

I was very impressed with the ability of the kids to figure out how to translate their names.

The second step was to draw, in pencil, the pictograms onto a paper cartouche handout I gave them. They then transfered this to a piece of gold foil paper and colored it with multi-colored sharpie pens. All that was left was to cut it out, paste it onto some blue paper and then maybe add some glitter glue.

Week 6: 3D shapes and value

2009-10-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

For the third and fourth graders, I brought in a simple still life of a box, pumpkin and lava lamp (hey, it was the best tall vertical/conical shape I could find quickly). I wanted the kids to experiment with some elemental shapes.

It was a rainy day, so the kids had been inside all day, so were a tad bit squirrelly, but they did surprisingly well! I asked them to use one color of crayon or pencl so they could experiment with ligth and dark values and shadows.

The most intersting part was how how consistently hard it was for them to draw the cubic form correctly. I could have done a better job showing them the steps, but in the end most got it pretty good. Many used a practice sheet of paper and for some the process of trying the shapes was the best part of the lesson, even if they did not get a finished still life.

Owls

2009-10-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Inspired by several other art teacher bloggers, we did colored paper owls in the K-2nd classroom. The first thing the kids did was to draw the basic shapes on a large blue paper. Then they tore little "feathers" out of brown, gray and white paper. Eyes are circles and beak, ears and feet are triangles. They really got into this project.

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Week 4: Fall Leaves

2009-09-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't done anything seasonal yet, I decided to do something related to Autumn. (If you say "FALL" in Mrs. Dillon's room, all the kids fall to the floor;-) I had the kids cut out colored paper leaves that they perforated with pushpins to give them texture and to let light through when hung in a window. I hung them with rustic looking twine. I got this idea from Family Fun magazine.

I drew three different shaped leaves and photocopied them for each child. They then cut these out and used them as templates for the colored paper. Then with pushpins they made vein lines. Hung in a window they look nice.

Some of the kids even used the white templates and colored those with crayons. The older kids were very quiet and intent on their jobs during this project!

Week 3: Van Gogh sunflowers

2009-09-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

A common theme among art projects is Van Gogh's series of paintings of sunflowers. Being the end of summer, and contining the "basics" theme for September, I had the kids "paint" a still life of sunflowers. Instead of paint (which honestly is hard to do with 19 kids and 30 minutes and little prep/cleanup space) I had them use oil pastel. It was also school picture day, so I wanted to do something that was a tad bit less messy for all these beautifully dressed kids. If I had honestly remembered the school pictures when I made the schedule weeks ago, I might have chosen a completely mess-free project. But the kids did good, and I hope the parents did not scream when they saw them!

I tried to emphasize cool vs. warm colors, as well as getting the kids to use their eyes and draw what they saw, not what they think a vase of sunflowers look like. As in Van Gogh's painting, I had three different looking sunflowers in the vase. One had a dark center, one was all fluffy and the other was tight and all yellow.

The kids, for the most part, did a good job of actually looking at the flowers, and many did a great job of interpreting the vase and an imaginary background!

Here are some of the 3rd-4th graders work:

Here are some of the the Kindergarten-2nd graders. What was enlightening about this young group was the difference between a 5 year-old and a 7 year-old. The young ones really don't get the concept of a still life and drawing from life: they just draw pink flowers and some squiggly lines. The second graders really look and count the flowers and use the "right" colors. All that progression in just 2 years!

Kindergarteners:

First graders:

Second graders:

Week 2: Primary color & pattern names

2009-09-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

The first week was a representational self portrait. Week two was an abstract. My variation was to have the child write their name in black marker in a stylized fashion on the paper in big or small letters.

Then I had them add other black lines to form patterns and cells for coloring. I told them about the three primary colors and told them to fill the page with these three colors and pattern. I was amazed with the type of pattersn that they came up with. One child gripped all three colored pencils in one hand and scribled which added a very nice texture. Several took a long time making each pattern and cell very intricate, while others just went for it. Many did not finish in the 30 minutes that we have, but will finish over the week.

The fun thing was that the kids work ended up unintentionally looking like the work of Spanish painter Juan Miro. Here are some of his paintings:

Here is the work of a first grader!

Here is the work of a third grader!

Coming next week: Van Gogh Sunflower still life with an emphasis on warm and cool colors.

Week 1: Self Portraits in cut paper

2009-09-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start the year off with some basics, and a self portrait is a great tool to gauge a child's art skills and interest. Plus you can compare with older and future images. This was a pretty simple project. I just had them pick out paper, cut, rip and glue. Some drawing at the end. I was really amazed at the ability to capture likeness in many of these. They also did things I had not told them to do, like make their portrait in profile or use odd colors for skin etc. A lot of them tore the paper for the hair which turned out great. Another interesting thing was that the younger kids seemed faster and much more uninhibited than the older kids who were more perfectionists.

K-2 portraits:

3rd and 4th grade portraits:

Spring Art 2009

2009-09-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things we did in K-2 during the Spring of 2009.

This was our second Self Portrait. We did one earlier with paint, but I wanted to show them something g diferent. Pencil and Charcoal. They did a great job.

I saw the idea for making paper mache easter baskets with balloon forms in a book and thought that would be good. Let me tell you that paper mache is hard with just one child, but downright difficult with 18 kids under the age of 7. I was surprised at how mess-adverse most of them were. Ironically the girls liked the squishy stuff much more than the boys! I will put this kind of project alongside glitter and elmers glue in my "maybe once a year" file. After three weeks, these did end up looking cute, especially after some paint and spray varnish.

To get some art history in, I did several projects relating to famous artists. We did a Mondrian abstract with lines and color shapes as well as a Seurat pointilism lesson. This drawing was in that class.

A real kid favorite were the God's Eyes I did for Cinco de Mayo. I was very impressed with the patience that these young ones displayed with this craft. In their thank-you note to me at the end of school, most said that this was their favorite project.

African masks, Spring 2009

2009-09-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

To bring some international flair to our projects we did African masks with brown paper. I had brought in a bunch of printouts of African masks from the web, and showed the kids. What I didn't expect was that at this age, they felt compelled to copy individual masks, eventhough I said they could use their imagination! What resulted was fascinating, since many did a great job of doing a copy, and some integrated parts of the printouts.

The "primitive" nature of many of the original masks, really lent itself to the "clumsy" way that these young kids painted. The final masks had a lot of character!

Here was an actual physical mask that we brought in as an example.

This boy did a great job of duplicating this mask!

Winter projects 2008-9

2009-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

With this age group, many of my art projects ended up being very seasonal and holiday oriented. The fall holidays provided plenty of material.

This was an idea I got from a book called "Incredibly Awesome Crafts for Kids" by Better Homes and Gardens. It's an angel made from sheet music. I scanned and printed the sheet music and made the cones in advance. Then some pipe cleaner, beads and doileys were added by the kids. This was my first time doing glitter with Kindergarteners...suffice to say I will try to limit my exposure to glitter and elmer's glue with this age group in the future;-)

The classic "stained glass" made from wax paper, crayons and tissue paper, heated with an iron. The kids really liked this one and its amazing how good it can look in a window!

Snowmen made from cotton balls and found objects. Lots of fun.

Self Portraits 2008

2009-09-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

One of the best projects we did was to have the kids paint self portraits on brown paper. Then we cut them out and mounted them on bright background paper! It is amazing how a kindergartener can really get the "essence" of themselves, especially with flourescent yellow paint!

Love the lips Luke!

She really captured her hair.

Nice eyes Kent.

Sam's got really nice blonde hair.

Devon did a great job on his glasses.

Matt has bright blonde hair and that flourescent yellow matches perfectly!

Makayla likes pink.

Joe really worked on his nose and eyes-good job.

Nice full body portrait Macee. Love the shoes.

Tannin's got highlights and perfectly matching hair band!

Love the hair and lips.

2008 Fall projects

2009-09-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the projects I did last fall with the K-2nd graders:

This was our first project. I had the kids trace hands onto construction paper and then crumpled up butcher paper for the tree branch. It was simple but a good "get to know you" project.

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To tie in with harvest and natural themes: This was natural vegetable dyes from veggies and fruits that we blended and added water. It got kinda messy, but the kids thought it was cool. We did experimental painting on paper. The thrust of the project was the technique and not the final result.

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I had the kids bring in fall leaves, and other natural things and we made collages. A bit too much glue gun and elmers misshaps for the younger kids though;-)

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We used apples to print the frames and did a painting of an apple tree for the center. This was my sample. I guess I was too busy or had too much paint on my hands to snap the kid's work!

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A kid-favorite. Plain old wooden spoons from the craft store jazzed up with lots of odds and ends to make scare crows. This was pretty glue-gun intenzive, but fun.

School starts again! What's this blog all about?

2009-09-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. I was so impressed and inspired by several other blogs that art teachers have posted, that I thought this would be a good way to record and share my past experiences and document my upcoming school year, as a volunteer art teacher.

Here are my inspiration blogs:

http://oodlesofart.blogspot.com/

http://www.mrsbrownart.com/

http://elementaryart.wordpress.com/

My background is in both fine art and graphic art. My degree is in Architecture, with a minor in Art History, but I got into computers and got a "part-time" job at the University of Oregon newspaper as a graphic artist. I did maps, illustrations, infographics and page design. I loved it so much that I went into newspapers, without any true formal education. That was in the late 1990s: the last gasp for newspaper print journalism. I left newspapers in 2008 and have been freelancing. You can see my website:

http://www.dennisbolt.com/

So I guess you can say I was an Accidental Journalist before I became an Accidental Art Teacher!

I volunteered to help with art during my oldest son's kindergarten year in 2006, then we homeschooled for first grade, and then I lead the art class in his second grade year. He is entering third grade and my middle son is starting kindergarten. The school is so small, they have combined classes, so this year I am doing art for K-2, and then 3-4. The hard part is finding the right seasonal crafty items that the younger kids will like and enough conceptual and thematic items for the older kids. There are so many good ideas out there, that it is a matter of culling hte lists! I am in the midst of brainstorming the calendar for Fall and Winter classes. I will post a list of sites that have been helpful as I run across them!