Clay Slab Owls 3rd grade

These owls were "easy peasy", as the kids said, to make.  From start to finish it took 3-45 minute periods. The first day was spent rolling out a slab circle, adding texture to the body using old marker caps, and then folding over the wings and head.  The second day I showed the students how to score and slip the clay to attach details like eyes, feathers, a beak, and anything else they wanted on their owl.  They could also use a wooden pin tool to draw on any other details.  Lastly, I had them put a hole in the top to string the owls for hanging and after bisque firing, we glazed them using a bunch of Amaco glazes. 

Just as a  side note, last year I used mostly Mayco Stroke and Coat and this year I tried a bunch of different Amaco glazes, overall I find them of pretty equal substance, but the Mayco is a smoother, easier to manage glaze. With the Amaco, although the colors were bright, some of the glazes clumped, settled, and didn't really maintain their consistency, making them hard to pour. 

My 3rd graders loved this project and were super excited to show their owls off to their parents at our May open house.  Next September I'm keeping them for a showcase to display for the start of the school year so I'll follow up with some pictures then!

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!!

Ndebele Symmetrical Houses Grade 2

This project is based on the painted houses of  the Ndebele tribe of South Africa.

The project  took about 3-4 40 minute periods. 
To  make the houses the kids used 16x18" white paper that they folded in half and then cut to become a symmetrical house (or house-looking shape). 

I then had them use pattern reference sheets and draw a design on half of the house.  To make the design symmetrical, students trace their pencil drawings in /Sharpie and then folded the paper backwards so the marker would show up through the back.  Carbon paper was put in between the halves and traced onto the other side in pencil.  They traced the newly drawn side with Sharpie and then colored the whole house with Crayola paint pens.

 Initially I had wanted the project to be done in paint, but I realized very quickly that the designs the kids were making were way to small and intricate to be painted in.  I had the paint pens lying around from last year and so I gave them a try.

 The children seemed to like using them but after 5 classes of 20 children, over the course of 3 periods, the soft brush-like tips were smashed into oblivion and many of the markers had almost completely died out.  The paint pens are fun, but they're certainly not the most durable supply to color with!

Romero Britto 5th grade

Here are a few images from my fifth graders newly completed Romero Britto inspired project.

The whole project took about 5 to 6 classes. We began by viewing and discussing some Britto artworks  and the artist's life using PowerPoint.    I then gave the kids a packet of Britto artworks to use as reference and gave them the option of using the same subject matter or choosing their own animal to use.  Students make a couple of practice sketches on printer paper, then chose their favorite one, transferring it to 16x20" paper in pencil. 

 I then gave each table a plate with 5 different colored paint cups on it, each paint color had it's own paintbrush so students would have to constantly wash and clean their brushes.  The painting took 2 1/2 (40 minute) class periods and each period I would give them some different colors.  I gave the kids the option of leaving some white spaces but most students didn't.

 After painting the colors, I had them outline all their shapes with thick black lines.  On the last day I gave out Mr. Sketch markers and had them add patterns to a few of their shapes.  Some students who were fast painters added painted patterns, but for finer designs the Mr. Sketch were much easier to use than paintbrushes.

 

Happy Easter!

Experiments in Sculpture-Monsters in 4th Grade

If you've read the past few entries I've posted you'll know that I've been complaining about my kiln being out of commission due to a burnt out touch pad (did I mention my kiln is 3 years old???).  Anyways, to say I'm a little frustrated by this is an understatement, but regardless I'm stuck waiting for my admin to get on with ordering the replacement part.  Feeling bad that half my kids may not get the chance to create in clay this year I decided to turn the clay monster project I had told them about into the paper mache clay monster project.  I had some reservations about this because making paper mache anything can be a laborious and difficult process.   What's been happening as a result of this,  is that I've been trying different approaches to the project with each of my five classes.  Here's what I've been trying so far.

I tried two types of armatures:
- Newspaper and brown paper bag armatures with masking tape, paper towel tubes and cereal boxes.
-Tin foil with a little bit of masking tape. 
NOTE: NEVER use "school smart" brand masking tape. It stinks!

To cover the armatures I tried two different materials:
Plaster gauze and paper mache pulp
NOTE: Don't try paper mache mulch to cover armatures! It stinks!

The final results? 
Tin foil armature with plaster gauze overlay.
The foil allowed the children to create more nuanced shapes and forms within their sculpture.  The paper bag/newspaper combo made for an o.k. armature but it wasn't very sturdy especially the arms and legs.  The plaster wraps worked WAY better than the mache pulp which made the monsters seem more like abominable snowman and filled in many of the subtle curves of the original armature making it bulky, heavy and blob-like.  I had never used the mache pulp before very quickly realized that it is really made much more for filling in molds than for covering armatures.

Here are a few of the tin foil monsters with plaster gauze wrap:

Here are a few of the paper bag/newspaper/mache pulp monsters (you'll be able to see the difference in surface texture alone)

I'll post a few pictures of the paper bags/newspaper/plaster wrap monsters when they are finished. 

Calder Stabiles in 1st Grade

I began this unit what feels like eons ago. Between February break and the 4 snow days and 1 delayed opening we've had this project seems endless.  Although still in-progress, I thought I'd share some examples of what my first graders have been doing.  The unit is breaking down like this:
Day 1- View a Calder stabile, discuss sculpture and balance in art and let the students "explore" the wood pieces to create balance in a sculpture. 
Day 2- View a Calder stabile and discuss, review balance and show the children how to use wood glue and brushes to glue their sculpture onto a 6x9" cardboard base.
Day 3- View a Calder stabile, discuss, and demo how to change colors when painting so as not to mix the primary colors.  Encourage the kids to paint the WHOLE sculpture and to be detectives so as not to forget/skip any unpainted wood spaces.
Day 4-View a Calder painting and compare it to a Calder sculpture. Demo how to draw from observation and give students a 14x16" piece of white paper and a pencil.  Show them how to draw their sculpture TO FILL THE PAPER and when done drawing, trace over with black paint
Day 5- Demo how to hold the brush, switch colors (review it) and have the kids paint their drawings from observing their sculptures.
Day 6- Unifinished/absent students finish up.  Read the book "Sandy's Circus"

So, as you can see from the pictures, we're not up to the painting portion of the unit just yet, as soon as we get there I'll post some more images.