Don't Let the Pigeon Make a Print

I closed out the 2016-2017 school year with an ode to Mo Willems and his fabulous "Pigeon" series of books.  A favorite in our school, just about every child knew both the character and the author. Because of their popularity, I didn't have to work too hard to motivate the kids to make these adorable pigeon prints.

First we read a few of the stories. If I don't have time to scan the book and then edit it onto a PowerPoint for my Smartboard, I'll use my visualizer to read the story.  I just like the idea of having the images as large as possible for the kids to see.

After the reading, I did a quick demonstration on how to draw the pigeon, by June, the kids didn't need a guided drawing for this, just a demo was sufficient. After they drew their picture on paper I did a follow-up demo that showed them how to trace over their drawing with a pencil using hard pressure onto a Styrofoam printing "plate" and then had them re-trace the indentations on the plate in ballpoint blue pen, creating thick lines. 

Day 2 consisted of printing.  Always a whirlwind, I have a love/hate relationship with printing day.  Even the most even-tempered classes get a little bonkers during the cleanup part of the activity. Between putting prints in the drying rack, putting the brayers in the sink, disposing of the inked up magazine pages and newspaper AND hand-washing....and you know their hands are a MESS after making 2-3 prints, it's a whirlwind of organized chaos (I use organized loosely here). I have forty-minute periods and I truly don't know how an art teacher can do it in less than that. 

On day 3 the students colored their prints,  I had them use white ink on black paper with construction paper crayons on top, a technique I've used before on a Dr Seuss inspired printing project  Because the prints were only 6x9"  and didn't take very long to color. I had them add a decorative frame.  


The process of printmaking is just as impressive as the end results and so when hanging these I included the plate, the not-so-good print, and the finished artwork.  It's important for everyone to see just how much work goes into making a finished print! (If only they knew how much work goes into it for us too!)

The Koi Pond

 

At the end of every year my school hosts it's annual "Spring Walkthrough", where teachers line their classroom walls with the work their students have done throughout the year, turning the building into a giant museum. Since our elementary school has a little over 600 students you can imagine the chaos that ensues. This year, one of my favorite displays was my koi display. The first grade art teacher and I hung our work together and showed off her kids 2D koi and my fifth graders koi sculptures. Here are a few pics:

 

 The idea for the clay fish came from a video on youtube by fellow blogger "Adventures in Positive Space".  The title of the video is "Koi Fish Sculpture Tutorial"

 

 

 

Oaxacan Turtles

This project came out so adorable I had to blog about it! I didn't teach this one though, this came from my colleague who teaches with me at my school. She did it with her first graders. The whole project took about 3 to 4-40 minute art periods. The turtles themselves were created using white low fire Amaco clay and instead of using slip to attach the pieces, I shared a great tip that I got from Cassie Stephens blog using small cups of water and toothbrushes. My colleague tried using the toothbrushes and it worked really well. The first batch of turtles were glazed with Mayco Stroke &  Coat glazes, but the second batch were simply painted with tempera. Both the glaze and the Tempra work equally well on the turtles because of the designs that were painted over them. The finishing details were added using acrylic paint markers.

1st grade Paul Klee 2d and 3D Fish

I just finished a unit on Paul Klee with my first graders.  Both projects were based on the artwork The Golden Fish. 

The first project was a 2-dimensional one.  I had the kids begin with 12x12' white paper folding in half two times to create four rows.  The kids filled in each row with a different pattern in oil pastel and then painted watercolor over the top.  I was hoping the patterns would be a little more dynamic and a little less straightforward, but since I don't teach kindergarten, this was the first project I'd ever done with this group of children.and wasn't sure where they were at developmentally.

After that I used guided drawing at our class carpet to demonstrate how to draw a fish.  Each child got a whiteboard and dry erase marker and followed along with me.  When they felt comfortable enough, they returned to their seat and drew their fish on 9x12" white paper, and again, used oil pastel and then watercolor to fill it in.

The fish and patterned background alone didn't look like it was enough for me. You know when you look at the outcome of a project and it just doesn't look "done"?  That's what I was feeling, and so,  I used 18x18" construction paper, and created some fish stencils from oak tag using the dye cut machine we have on our main office.  The kids first traced the fish with a marker (no pencil), and could overlap or crop the fish as they saw fit. After that, they used chalk pastel to trace and then gently smudge the outline to give a decorative effect. Overall, the border really helped make the project look complete, and gave it some "oomph".

The second project were ceramic pinch pot fish.  I gave the kids large balls of clay and some how they wittled their fish down to the petite size you see below.  They still look adorable, but I kept saying to the kids, "it's o.k. you can use the whole piece of clay!" lol!

I used amaco"crystaltex glaze in Milky Way (the speckled dark blue) and Mayco ''Stroke & Coat" and 'Candy Apple Red, Dandelion, and Blue yonder.  I've also done a few other lessons on Klee:
4th grade Klee Heads

1st Grade Around the Fish

1st Grade Mixed Media Klee Trees

4th Grade Painted Klee Heads

3rd grade Sinbad the Sailor

1st Grade Symmetrical Bugs

Yup, the title pretty much says it all!

Sunflowers in 4 Mediums

 This lesson was taken from the blog "Kid's Artist's".  It was originally posted as a 5th grade lesson done in 5 mediums, but I adapted it for my first and second graders in 4 mediums.  The paper is 9x24" folded in half, and then in quarters.  I had the kiddies use crayon, marker, watercolor, and oil pastel.  This was a great end of year tie-in to the planting they had done in their classrooms for our brand new school greenhouse using sunflower seeds. We also learned a little bit about van Gogh and his sunflower still-life paintings.

1st Grade Robots

This lesson was taken from Deep Space Sparkle. Click HeRe to see her original project.
I LOVE this project.  I used 11x15" pieces of cardboard and when I ran out of that I used oak tag.  The cardboard works a little better as a backing but the oak tag is passable in a pinch.
On day 1 the kids did the background:  For it we used two primary colors and then cups dipped in white paint to create circular shaped stamps.
On day 2  For inspirationa and ideas for the children, I used painter and illustrator Eric Joyner, his robot and doughnut paintings are fabulous and really got the kids attention. After looking at a few of his paintings,  I put out up a bunch of boxes and cereal box pieces I had previously cut, and let the kids go to town.

On Day 3   I passed out Sax brand metallic paints in copper, silver, gold and brass and they painted their robots.  In some instances, the students were able to assemble, glue, and paint their robots in one period.

On the last day I gave out a bowl of tin foil pieces, buttons, google eyes, pipe cleaner pieces (from another lesson), foam shapes, and Sharpies and they added details to their robots.
Too cute!!