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!)

Hermit crabbin it up

And when I mentioned hermit crabbin in my post title, I wasn't referring to my long absence from the blog-o-sphere, although I could see how you could misconstrue...This lil' ditty of a project (and post title), got started like this: Today on probably what was the most humid of all humid days this summer, (and when I say humid, I'm talkin' Florida in July, wallpaper peeling, face meltin' humid!), I decided to go into my un-air conditioned room in my mostly un-air conditioned school and get a jump on my setup. The good news is that I was able to unpack all my supply boxes, hang my signs, label, sort, re-stock, decorate AND tackle one of the three bulletin boards I'm responsible for makin' all pretty-and-such. All that's left is 2 boards and a pesky showcase! 

                                                        "Hermit Crab Shell Change"

What your looking at on this board is an Eric Carle lesson I've seen around on a few pin boards amd such. It was the final kinder project of last year. It was two sessions of paper painting pandamonium followed by 3 more days of drawing, cutting and collage. I sprinkled in some cute clips of hermit crabs and read the book that inspired the project: "A House for Hermit Crab" (duh!).

 My fave part of the whole lesson wasn't the adorable smirking quirky crabs, which I do adore, but was actually watching the look on the kiddos faces when I showed them what hermit crabs look like in real life. Amongst the videos I showed em' after reading the story was of a real hermit crab changing it's shell. if you ever wanna see the most varied facial expressions and reactions form a 5 year olds, show em' this video! I got every look from disgust to fascination, but hey, it kept them alll hooked! And really, can you actually teach this project the right way without showing them the real life star of the story? I think not! 

Enjoy, and good luck in the "new" year!

The best new thing this week...well it's not new

The other day I was in A.C. Moore looking for a plastic bird for my front door wreath when I came across these great photo reference books for $ 5. 00 a piece.  They are loaded with images and come with a CD ROM of pictures as well.  Whenever I teach a lesson that requires drawing I try to give my students photo reference, it really helps the quality of their work when they have a reference image to use instead of trying to generate ideas from the few images I show them in a PowerPoint or from their head. 

Next year I'll be teaching a unit on Pre-columbian art to my 4th graders and Native American art to my 5th graders and picking up both these books was a HUGE help, now I don't have to fish through google or tons of library books for thematic photographs, I can just use the books!  I haven't checked out the CD's  yet, but I'm hoping I can just pull images off of it and put them into my digital files for presentations.  This is the best new thing I've found all week! :)

The importance of Poetry

Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I read a passionate article I really enjoyed in the summer issue of the AFT's 'American Educator' magazine. The article advocated the importance of having students memorize poetry for, well, poetry's sake. Without writing too much about the article, here is the link to the original source and an excerpt from it.

'Why I Force My Students to Memorize Poetry- Andy Waddell
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2011/Waddell.pdf

AFT Website

Excerpt from the article:
"But some nod must be given to a larger idea: that we live through our consciousness, that a thought is composed of words, that as English teachers we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to put words into our students' heads-crisp, delicious words, " words opalescent, cool and pearly," words to entertain and sustain them. Words they may never forget."

And yes, I'm posting about a poem set in the dead of winter by Frost, in the middle of a 100 degree heat wave :) :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Here's a video from the 'post secrets' project. If you've never heard of it, its a project where people from all over mail in a secret (anonymously) and its gets posted in books. I purchased a book a few years ago, and they're very powerful and completely individual to read through. Here's a Valentines video based on it.

(* Warning-this video is not all warm and fuzzy, but has some sweet and not so sweet interpretations of 'love')

Post Secret

Stories...online

I was revamping my sub-folder lessons and came across the site:

Storyline Online

It's a website that has well-known stories read by celebrities. It's a nice alternative to having the story read traditionally to students, plus they may get a kick out of the digital version (especially if it's a story they have already read or are very familiar with).
Some of the stories include:

Sophie's Masterpiece
Stellaluna
A Bad Case of the Stripes
When Pigasso Met Mootise

Enjoy!

'Look, Look, Look' is Great Great Great

The other day on my prep period, I was perusing the school library looking for a book to read to my k-2nd graders because the lesson I had planned (for the schools Square 1 art fundraiser) only took about 30 minutes of our 40 minute period and I wanted something to occupy the whole class for the remaining 10 minutes. As I was browsing our fantastic librarian recommended a book called Look, Look, Look by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. She recommended this book to me as an especially good followup to the book Mouse Paint, which I had previously read to my kindergartners. I brought it back to my room and read it through and absolutely loved it!

The premise of the book is simple, 3 mice find a postcard from 'art' that had been mailed to the people in the house who were away on vacation. On the postcard is a famous artwork and the mice finding it particularly interesting, take the card into their mouse 'house' and start analyzing it. As the book proceeds, the mice make frames to look at the artwork in, collages of the shapes that the artwork has in it, and color families that go with the artworks paint colors. The book easily teaches young students how to look at and analyze some qualities found in 2-dimensional works. I'm going to make 'frames' like the mice had in the book, have them laminated, so they have a clear see-through center, and then have my k-2 grades use them to view and analyze works of art. I think they'll love it. It's great to find a book that illustrates some art criticism, which I find particularly difficult to teach to my students, especially the younger grades.

Kindergarten Mouse Paint

Following a lesson on Piet Mondrian and primary colors, I introduced my kindergartners to the book 'Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This is a really well known book for young children, it could easily be used for a pre-k lesson as well. I've also seen this lesson done a couple of different ways, all with successful result. The way I did it, the lesson took about 5 sessions. Admittedly, I made the lesson slightly harder than it had to be, having the students draw all their mice first, but I think it was a good learning experience for them and the finished mice really show their personalities. Here's how I did the lesson;
Day 1: I used guided drawing to show the students how to make mice in 3 different poses using tear-drop shapes. At first they practiced on white boards, and then when I saw they all felt comfortable, I had them begin drawing their mice on white paper.
Day 2: The students finished drawing their mice and then traced them in sharpie, erasing all the pencil lines underneath.
Day 3: We reviewed the primary and secondary colors, after reading the book and then I put a pdf image i made showing the color formulas on my visualizer. The students had to begin by painting the 3 primary colors first in watercolor paint.
Day 4: They mixed the secondary colors and painted them. They cut out all their mice and began creating 3 primary or secondary colored 'jars' out of construction paper, to have as a background for their mice. Just like in the story.
DAy 5-6: The students finished their backgrounds and then I stapled a colored paper border around their work which they began decorating. I emphasized the creation of a pattern for their border design, but did not require them to adhere to one.








All in all they did a great job, but the lesson was a bit tedious, I've seen and read about it being done different ways. For instance, there is a fellow blogger who did a Mouse Paint lesson and had the students paint the circle first and then had them draw the mice around the circles, which is really much more practical and equally (if not more) effective than what I did. Here are a few other images I found when I was 'googling' ideas for how to use the book! If you have done a lesson on Mouse Paint leave me a comment and I'll edit in a link to your page, especially if one of the images I've put up here or mentioned is yours I'd like to include your name in the post.


Hampstead Academy Artsonia Page




Libraryarts.com



Person/teacher/site unknown





Person/teacher/site unknown



art-paper-scissors.blogspot.com




'One Crayola Short'

4th grade rose windows

In 4th grade at some point in the year students study the Medieval Ages. In accordance with that, I did a lesson on stained glass 'rose' windows. To begin with, we brainstormed as a class all the things we knew about the Medieval Ages, then I introduced the vocabulary that went along with the lesson including transparent, opaque, radial symmetry, symmetry. pattern, design, and the use of stained glass during medieval times. I gave each student a 14 x 14" square of white paper and a pre-made 'slice' to trace to create their circles. I would have used a compass, but the classes didn't have them. After their circle was made we discussed ideas for designs which they then drew on their slice and traced over it on both sides with a black marker. They then flipped and traced their designs till their circle was complete. Lastly we added watercolor paints and outlined the design with a mixture of tempera and glue (home-made puffy paint) to create the leaded outline effect of stained glass windows. The lesson was very challenging for the 4th grade but was worth it!