Thursday, March 14, 2013

Art Show

4th Grade- Cat Paintings and Clay Facades

3rd Grade- Word Art

Kindergarten-Birds on a Wire

2nd Grade- Bird Houses

1st Grade- Heart Weaving

Sign in, Summer Art Program brochures, and Artsonia Updates.

Cookies and punch- I brought in my nice plate and punch bowl-if I'm throwing a party, I try to do it right.
The music teacher and I decided to take back Youth Art Month this year.  He did his 1st and 2nd grade program, and I did the school art show.  We planned the event as one big "Arts" night.  Mixed feelings- We had a good turn out, but many parents did not bring their older kids, because they did not have a child in the program.  I did get a chance to talk to a lot of parents, and get some updated emails for my Artsonia page.  I like the idea of the arts night, but will have to think about how to entice parents in all grade levels to come, and not just because they are killing time waiting for the program.  Good thing I have a year to puzzle this out.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Slang Terms/Robert Indiana

I showed my 3rd graders the famous "LOVE" print by Robert Indiana, as we were talking about lettering, and word art.  We then generated a list of popular "Slang" terms that we use today- which also got us into a talk about texting shorthand.  From there, I asked students to pick a word or term that was 4 letters or less.  ( I promised them they'd appreciate my limiting them later).  After learning about block lettering, each student created the letters they'd use to spell their term, and drew/colored patterns inside each one (side note- I learned that some students colored/designed the negative space of their block letters- not sure if this is a right brain vs left brain thing?)  Anyway, after the designing was done, we took a break, and made our backgrounds using the simple tissue paper/starch collage method.  An oldie, but a goodie.  While the papers dried, we cut out our letters.  Then, we arranged them and stuck them on the background.  Now, some students were very quick, and able get their letters on the paper while it was still wet.  We still needed glue, but I found that they glued flatter.  The next step was to trace the letters with black string, for contrast.  Finally the students wrote other words with the same meaning around the negative space left from their words.  This project was done in many steps- it took a full day for the block letters/designs, another for the background/finishing of the letters, and still another for the yarn and the sharpie words.  And, I did have them make a list of their words before putting them on the project, to reduce spelling issues. There was a moment in the middle of this that I wondered what we had gotten into, but in the end, the kids loved the graphic nature of the letters, and I loved the relevance to their everyday life.  We had a great conversation about words we use with our friends vs words we use with our teachers, bosses, etc.  I had hoped that they would divide the colors between the letters and the background with warm and cool colors- and we worked on it, but in the end, the marker temptation was too great, and they just could not limit their colors. I am hanging these for our upcoming Art Show on Thursday, and just love as the other grades walk by wondering why they never do cool projects like this.




Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Hate it when he's right!

Our first attempt (in my defense, not quite finished yet)

After his suggestion... ok, he's right.
The music teacher and I started out teaching together, and 16 years later, we are both still at the same school.  In that time, he and I have collaborated on many a music program.  When we first started out, neither one of us knew much, and he was always happy with any props/decorations the kids and I came up with.  This year, he suggested that the 1st graders and I make some sunflowers for the upcoming program, so I broke out the paper plates, and we got to work.  I had them rip the brown into pieces, to give the centers a textured, "seedy" kind of look.  He said he'd rather just have the brown circles in the middle.  Wasn't so sure I liked his opinion, but I gotta admit, they are much cartoonier and "finished" looking with the brown circles.