Masks 3rd Grade

Every year, I teach a mask unit to the 3rd graders.  It's one of my faves.  There is a lot of buy in from the kids- they are so excited when I drop the word clay- and they'll do just about anything I ask, knowing that mask making is upon us.  In various years, I've presented a variety of themes; this year, my theme was... no theme.  Yep, I didn't make any requirements such as animal theme, or Day of the Dead Skulls- no requirement other than they had to choose a feeling, or a main idea, and their work would support their idea by shape, color, texture, etc.  A lot of choice.  We did practice sketches, talked about various ways they might approach this, and looked at a lot of masks, discussing the first reaction those masks gave us.  When it was time to paint, I again offered choice.  One side of the room was reserved for acrylic paint, the other for the oil pastel/black paint resist technique floating around pinterest lately.  And, finally, I had wire, pipe cleaners, feathers, beads and sparkles available. 


Thoughts?  I am fried.  This was a lot to manage.  It's not for the faint of heart. 
Did all students succeed?  Well- hmmm.  Not all of the masks were pretty, or well done.  Many students should have spent more time on their painting (but that's usually the case).  BUT- my kids are delighted. They love their creations.  They were so excited to take them home, and I didn't settle one argument about who did which mask.  They simply knew their work- they were attached.  And dying to see their masks at every stage.  There's a lot to be said for that. 
Will I do this level of choice all the time?  I'm not sure.  Will I increase the opportunities for choice?  You bet!

Olympic Athletes

I LOVE using the Olympics as a theme in the art room. There are so many connections, the most logical for me being the action- the kids love sports, and it's a great chance to work on those people.  The 3rd graders explored the Olympic Website with me, chose a sport, and filled out a think sheet about their choices.  Then, I taught them to make "pipe cleaner people".  These served as our armature.  We covered them in old tape, and put paper mache' on top of that.  It was a sticky mess, and some of our athletes needed to be propped up with wooden blocks.  But, despite the awkward phase, the paint day today really made them come alive.  I had the students attach their athlete sculptures to a wooden  block (I have an old bunch of wood building blocks in the art room that I've been itching to recycle) and this allowed all athletes to stand proud. We will transition to printmaking after this- using the students' chosen sport as the subject.

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. 

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. 

Latest Projects

It's been a few days since I've updated.  It's grading season, and we all know how that goes- I'm up to my ears in projects that need to be returned, or photographed, or graded, or FINISHED!  And, I'm kind of tired of the current projects- ready to turn over to a new 9 weeks.  Kind of the typical end of the grading period stuff.  I thought I'd share a few successes.

Working with the 2nd grade teachers on some "Wild West" work- crayon/watercolor cowboy scenes-YEEHAW

2nd grade cars for our Red Groom's city.  The girl with a bow cracks me up.

Lovin' these water bottle babies by the 3rd graders- check out her highlights!

Don't know why the belt buckle catches my eye- nice paint job on this guy.

Red Headed Fireball!  LOL

You'd think he was goofing around with the paint- but he really has green glasses- the hair was a creative touch.

4th Grade carousels- We looked at "Fox Trot Carousel" by Red Grooms.

The carousels were to have school imagery on them- love the pizza topper.

Water Bottle Babies...painted

Not sure if it's supposed to look like an old man- but that's what I'm getting!

Cannot wait to see her finish up the clothing- the eyes crack me up

A couple of posts ago, the 3rd graders and I wrapped water bottles with plaster strips- these are serving as our people shapes.  Today, I broke out the acrylics and we began the painting and decorating process.  My only directives other than basic paint procedures (and threatening the daylights out of the kiddos, cause it's ACRYLIC) were that they needed to consider the entire sculpture, not just the front, it was to look like a person when finished, and I didn't want to see plaster peeking through- there are some questionable ones in progress, but here are a couple of cuties!

Cupcakes

I saw these clay cupcake things on "Art for  1170" and fell in love with the idea.  There are only so many years one can teach the pinch pot without needing to switch it up.  In other years, I've taught the kids to add handles, feet, lids.  One year, I did kind of a Greek Art thing, and we stained the pinch pots rather than glazing or painting.  But, seeing the cupcakes, I just had to try it.  I bought the mini tart pans at Bed Bath and Beyond for about 79 cents each.  But, with the 20% off coupon, it wasn't so bad.  Plus, I knew that I would keep them for years to come.  I have to work on how to present this lesson- but basically, we put a slab of clay into the pie pans, and pinched it around.  Set it aside, and worked on Pinch Pots.  After making a successful pinch pot, students shaped it until it would cover the opening on the  pie pan.  Then, we crammed newspaper (which I had pre-cut to be more manageable) into the pinch pot.  I had students lay one piece of newspaper on top of the pie pan, then set their muffin top on top.  This was a hard concept, and so far, 2 cupcakes are forever sealed because the kiddos didn't understand, and I didn't figure that out in time to fix it.  Whatever clay was left over was used to roll icing, make sprinkles, chocolate chips, or the ever popular cherry on top.  This week, we painted our cupcakes.  I just used tempera cakes, with a layer of Acrylic Medium over the top.  And, they are cute.  Next time though, I'm going to have the students "dunk" the bottoms into a thinned down paint/water solution, and only use brushes to paint the top- hoping that way, the paint job is smoother.  When we do clay animals, we "dunk" first, then paint details, and it works really well.  I brought in my cake plate, and my librarian friend has loaned me her cupcake stand so we can display them.

Dragons and Castles

I love this time of year.  Grading is just about done, and I get to spend the last few days of the year enjoying the kiddos.  We finish up the work we didn't quite complete and we get to try out some projects that aren't for a grade, just for fun.  I taught the 2nd graders how to make clay dragons.  I'm moving out of my room, and don't want to pack up 1/2 used boxes of clay.  They loved it.  We "dunked" the finished dragons in a very watery green acrylic paint, then used tiny brushes to add little details.  Of course, some understood little details better than others.  We had also made castle drawings while waiting for the dragons to be fired, so I showed the kids how to put triangles on the back of their paper to prop it up, and we used it as a backdrop for the dragons. By dunking and painting small details, I have learned that clay will most likely be dry quickly, and in time for the dragons to be taken home same day.  If not, they just set them aside, and came back the next day to pick them up. It also puts color all over quickly, so you don't get that scratchy, brushed on look that can so easily happen when young students try to paint clay.