Angry Birds Finale

The Showcase- The video game background was a group activity as people finished.

Blue Bird on the left is NOT of the Angry Bird variety- she was very clear, it's just a bird.

Those with time and left over clay made "piggies". But, I told them they were responsible for marking their pigs, I was not putting names on all those PLUS the birds.

Today was finally the big day- the day my 1st graders got to paint their "Angry Birds".  They have been not so patiently waiting for this day.  And, hoping for a good paint day.  I have been doing my clay painting in the following manner; I don't know when I started this,  but it works well.  I dip.  Yep, just like Easter eggs, I mix up a few buckets of "base" colors.  Water+Acrylic paint.  Then, the kids line up in front of the color they want with their clay sculpture and a paper towel to put it on, and they dip, drip, and put on the towel to dry.  They carry it back to their seat, and wash their hands.  10 minutes, all done.  Now, with K, that's about all I do, but with 1st, after we cleared the buckets and everyone was back in their seats, I gave them tiny paintbrushes and small tubs of acrylic.  We discussed painting the parts rather than painting the "whole'. And, in one day, we have adorable sculptures, with good paint jobs.  It works very well for clay animals as well.  As the kids get older, we dip less and paint more, but this method gives everyone a small level of success, along with the ability to personalize with details. 

Still Life

Done by one of my more advanced students- my challenge was the bowl of shells.

Drawing by the same student for comparison.

Ahh, the dreaded still life. It's not that I don't see the value, but it is hard to jazz it up for the elementary crowd.  We started with just a basic drawing.  The 2nd graders just blew through it, without much concern for my oh so careful directions/instruction on scale/proportion and size.  So, I considered that a warm up, and we did the same still life again, only using a very simple view finder.  I introduced it as a tool, and asked that the students try it- even if they never used one again, just to have the experience.  Since the drawings were much bigger, and much clearer the 2nd time around, I broke out the tempera cakes, and let the students paint.  We then compared/contrasted our two finished works with a simple questionnaire, where I asked questions like which was easier, which was more challenging, which was more fun, etc.  I think they got the idea of a still life, and we are all ready to move on to the next thing.  On a side note, I have been working on challenging the more advanced students, so when I set my still life up, I included some harder items, which were strategically in the view of the students in need of a challenge.  I also know that I need to put things in place for the ones that struggle.  An example of this was that I put blue tinted water in the bottles, to make them easier to define.

Self Portraits with Expression

I am in the middle of a unit on Facial Expression/Emotion with my 1st graders.  We modeled and drew facial expressions, we made "Angry Bird" pinch pots, and we just finished up our Self Portraits.  I gave them a full paper (12x18) and instructed them on a head and shoulders portrait.  It was of course to look like them, since it was a self-portrait, and they had to use their facial expression to show one of the feelings we'd been talking about.  I let them paint with tempera cakes, and we outlined with marker after, which gave them a clearer, more finished look. 

American Symbols

The Kindergarten students have been looking at American Symbols- this is a classroom standard that I agreed to work into my plans over the next few weeks.  So, we drew one of 4 symbols (Flag, Eagle, Statue of Liberty or Liberty Bell).  I provided both color and outline images for students to see, to help in this process. We traced our drawings with sharpies-I think tracing the lines helps cement them in the students' heads, as lines to stay inside/around. I have no proof, but have just noticed that when the littles trace, they tend to paint a bit more carefully. After painting those using appropriate color schemes, we drew a mini-self portrait, which was cut out and attached into the picture.  I taught them how to draw stars, and after some practice, they used silver sharpies to draw stars around their painting, as a picture frame.  Our focus artist was Romare Bearden, and his work "Roots".  While we did not delve into the deeper issues within his work, we did discuss Freedom, and symbols which stand for it.  I think it was a great attempt by my students to paint in a more realistic way. 

Angry Pinch Pots

Such Personality

Those finished, with spare time and clay made some little piggies.  Cannot WAIT to display this.

OK- maybe a little commercial, but sometimes, we gotta use what the kids are interested in, and I confess that even I like a good game of Angry Birds to unwind at the end of a long day.  After talking about facial expression, and how the look on your face conveys a feeling, we began our anual pinch pot project in 1st grade.  We are required to teach pinch pots, but how we approach it is our choice.  Last year, I made cupcakes.  This year, I taught the students how to turn their pinch pot into an Angry Bird (Thank you Pinterest).  (I did not force this- if I had students who did not want to use Angry Birds as their theme, they could make any bird, and they are learning about birds in their classroom).  Often, young artists work better when given a concrete goal, and I am pretty happy with our results so far. 

Back at it Tomorrow!

Got my word "wall" all straightened back out

I section off my whiteboard to make room for Grade Level "Objectives" and vocabulary.

Gonna try to work with the Kindergarten Students on American Symbols-it pairs with the classroom objectives- I'll let you know how this shakes out.  I'm excited about the possibility, but realistic about how Kindergarten can go.

Tomorrow, I go back to school after a restful Winter Break.  This year, our school system did our calendar a little differently.  In years past, teachers went back a day before the students, and had a teacher work day.  This year, we got our work day the day after the kids left for Winter Break.  On the surface, not such a big deal, we still got our day, but it was a change in thinking.  I had a hard time stepping out of the current semester, and trying to prepare for the new one while I was still cleaning up my room after the previous.  I managed to get cleaned up, and as the day progressed, I got organized, and tried to prepare.  It was nice to get organized again, and I'm looking forward to another great semester.  We'll be preparing for the Spring Art Show, and I'll be up to my eyeballs in creating the yearbook,  so it'll be busy.