Kindergarten Paper Playgrounds

It's always in the back of my mind how to validate to all the 'non-believers' how and why art is a valid subject and important skill to learn in school. This is something that so many art teachers deal with everyday. Every time we plan a lesson, give a presentation, or go on an interview the question of 'why art?' always seems to be on the tips of everyone's lips. This question is especially pressing because with so many budget cuts, policy reforms, and teacher layoffs we really are forced to not only explain but also demonstrate why we do what we do and how our children benefit. I work in a charter school that has, previous to this year, never had art. Thankfully I have a principal that supports the arts but my main focus is to use the arts to support what's being learned in the general education classroom. I'm sorry to say that the days of 'art for arts sake' are, for the most part, long gone. So, in my attempt to create engaging and meaningful lessons in both the general education domain, as well as the visual arts domain I've been developing lessons that integrate specific concepts or ideas I've seen being taught in my schools k-5 classrooms. Let me also give credit to some of the great art ed blogs out there, whose ideas other teachers have shared have really been an inspiration (and big help) in coming up with a lot of ideas.

I got this lesson from 'ArtSmarts' and I adapted the closing portion of the lesson ti include some ELA.

I started off by showing the kindergartners the online story 'Lizzy and Gordon Visit the Sculpture Park' found on www.nga.gov/kids (the national gallery of art) and I then showed them pictures in PowerPoint of the actual sculptures in the story. They particularly liked the thinking rabbit! We then discussed the difference between 2D and 3D, with 2D being 'flat like a pancake'. As a followup to the sculpture, I had them draw a 2D representation on white 8 1/2 x 11" paper and then hand the do a writing piece to accompany both.

The writing sample was based on a chart their classroom teacher had made of direction words, i.e. below, beneath, above, on top of, underneath, behind, etc. We brainstormed these words, then I wrote a sample description of my playground with them on the board. They basically had to write: 'My playground is ______________ (descriptive word). The blue swing is next to the yellow slide. The green pond is below the purple bridge...' The task required the use of 3 direction words and some sort of description. Overall the end results were really great! I'm glad to have found this lesson and satisfied with the idea that I can teach the kids something about art (for arts sake) while also reviewing things they learn in their classrooms!

Chinese New Year

Throughout all my experiences, one thing remains constant: kids love scratch art. It doesn't matter what the subject matter is, there's just something ultimately appealing about scratching away at a black surface to reveal the 'hidden' colors underneath. Now I don't have the budget to buy pre-made scratch art, so it's a good thing I'm a d DIY kind of gal and just had the kids color and paint their own. I will say though, in the realm of knowing when quality is a must, that in order to make successful scratch art you need to work off of heavyweight paper. I had medium grade white drawing paper and heavier weight watercolor paper (both of which I tried on) and the watercolor paper working exponentially better than the regular white paper. For the subject matter we examined the Chinese New Year and discussed the differences between American traditions and Chinese traditions. I spent 2 sessions using guided practice to show them how to draw a tiger, first we used white erase boards, then they practiced on their own using sloppy copy paper. When they felt ready I gave them a small square of scratch paper to practice on and then they went onto their large paper. To finish off the lesson I had the kids use a bunch of scrap white strips I had saved and glue them into a frame, then collage the frame with tissue paper. I finished it off by varnishing it, so all the tissue paper was secure and used packing tape to adhere the scratch art tiger behind the frame. We ended the lesson by completing a Venn diagram on the differences/similarities between U.S New Year traditions and Chinese New Year traditions. It was a really great lesson and I think the kids really enjoyed it!

The Rainbow Fish

As part of our overall school program each we have a character development program where each month every classroom teacher receives a book based on a theme that is encouraged throughout that month. Some of the books we've used this year are 'How Full is Your Bucket', 'The Principals New Clothes',and for the month of August the book was 'The Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pfister. The theme that correlates wit the book is humility and sharing. I try to incorporate literature into most of my art lessons and some books lend themselves more easily to this task. Although I will say, at the elementary level most books can be used for some sort of art activity. In his case I had the students follow the same steps for the Eric Carle book, creating an underwater background first followed by a watercolor wash resist over the crayon drawing. I then found a fish template and had the kindergartners color, cut, and glue their finish on adding glitter at the end to make some of the fish's gills sparkle. Lastly I put on a googly eye and viola very cute and colorful rainbow fish!

Eric Carle's Rainbow Fish-Kinder Style

Without realizing it, I had done 3 lessons in a row involving fish or underwater creatures of some sort. The first, this one, is based on Eric Carle's book 'Hello Mister Seahorse. Basically we brainstormed things you would find under the sea. I showed them how to draw seaweed and let them draw and color in a background for their scene using crayons. We then painted over the backgrounds with watered down tempera paint (creating a resist). After that I had them use various large sponge letter stamps one of the teachers gave me over the summer and each students stamped a piece of tissue paper wit the letters to give it texture. I cut out a bunch of 'fish parts' or cardboard shapes that could be interchanged with one another to create whole fish. I also made a seahorse stencil so the students could trace and cut the the tissue paper from it. They had a really good time with the stamping and most of them were able to trace and cut the tissue paper, which is a pretty challenging thing for their little fingers given how easily it rips. All in all they did a great job. One of my few gripes in retrospect was that I didn't have the foam texture rollers which would have worked better than the stamps for creating texture on the tissue paper and that my stencil shapes were a little too small for the paper size. Next year, I'm going to go bigger and instead of just using pastel colored tissue paper I'll use the bright colors. I think that way, the sea animals will really pop!

3rd Grade Van Gogh Inspired Still-Life

The original idea for this lesson was solely based on collage. I loved the way the outcomes looked and so I decided to try it with my 3rd graders. However, I was very skeptical because I had my suspicions that they really didn't have the attention span to collage all the surface area and sure enough, the tediousness of the task left almost all of them not wanting to do the project. They had a really hard time understanding the point of collaging at all and became very frustrated over trying to make the pieces of construction paper 'fit' into the areas they had drawn out. It seemed not matter how much I emphasized them not trying to make it all perfect they were too preoccupied with the image looking 'right' and became very discouraged (and we all know when a class becomes disengaged it equals management problems). So, instead of abandoning the lesson, which I hate doing, I improvised and decided to let them finish up any of the white spaces with oil pastels. To my surprise, they really enjoyed it, and the results came out beautiful. Phew, it was a learning experience for both me and my students!

A Seusstacular Event

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, which was March 6th, I had my kindergarten class create Dr. Seuss inspired fish after the book 'One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'. I got the idea for this lesson from a fellow blogger at
www.deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com which had loads of great ideas and loved the results. As a class we discussed what an author and illustrator is and how Dr. Seuss created his fish. My students had some good observations of his illustrative style noting that they fish often had hair, funny facial expressions, were usually the primary colors, and did 'silly' things like ride bikes, juggle, and sleep in beds. I led them in guided practice to draw the fish making sure to emphasize that they draw it as big as the paper (which was 12x18") and then we painted them. We painted the background with red stripes and for those students who needed extra support I drew lines in pencil for them to follow and paint over which helped them quite a bit. Once all was dry, we cut the fish out, added details and glue-sticked them onto the background. Quite adorable I think!

*Note about the details-At the beginning of the year I spend a day and teach a lesson on 'details' in art. The lesson focuses on making meaningful marks instead of 'scribble-scrabble' as my kids call it. I make a poster of everything we discuss and hang it periodically throughout the year for lessons that I want to make sure my students add details to.

2nd Grade Solar Systems

This was a really fun lesson for my second-graders. I'm really short on 3D materials, so for the rockets I just used cardboard. I was initially going to prime it white so the metallic paint would show up better but I didn't have the time (or the white paint) to cover 50 students worth of cardboard. They got really creative with their ships and made some look like futuristic star wars-esque fighter planes! As far as the composition goes, I had them make at least 5 planets using at least 3 colors in each. We added black for shadow, emphasizing scale and overlapping. As a finishing touch I had them apply some glitter glue with Q-tips to add a little extra 'umph' to the work. FYI my new favorite way to use glitter is to use glitter glue as an overlay or laminate instead of glitter paint. It's a million times better, has a thicker consistency and looks great over oil pastels without changing the color. The only thing you have to worry about is that you can't use it like paint because its too thick and if you were to try to spread it with a paint brush, because of its sticky texture, it wouldn't spread evenly. But if all you want to do is use it as an accent its really great.

Whitney Biennial 2010

On Saturday I went to one of my favorite bi-yearly events, the Whitney Biennial. This year I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of pomp and banter the show possessed. After 2008's lackluster show of 'recession-style' art I was relieved to experience art that was earnest, frank, and despite its undercurrent of tension and poignancy, pretty darn hopeful. Don't mistake what I'm saying for happy, feel-good art. On the contrary, much of the hopefulness I felt after viewing the show wasn't because the works were sunny, but simply because they showed thought, determination, care, effort, and really tried to portray, quite successfully in most cases, the state of human emotion in the current climate of American culture today. As an added bonus, the work was very well organized, with the curators giving each work ample and appropriate space to be viewed and, hurray for feminism, for the first time ever, more work was displayed by women than men!

Some of my show favorites included (tear inducing) photography of the self immolation of Afghani women by Stephanie Sinclair and Nina Bermans photo's of a marine sergeant after his injuries sustained during a suicide bombing in Iraq.


As far as skill go, the absolutely mesmerizing tapestries of Pae White to the exquisite faux fabric paintings of Tauba Auerbach really spoke to the high level of professionalism and quality artists can produce. Even the whimsical 'hippie' looking flower paintings of Charles Ray beg to ask the question. What's so wrong with art for art's sake?


Even the 5th floor of the show, which housed the Whitney's permanent collection of past biennial favorites didn't disappoint. I never tire of seeing Robert Gober or Mike Kelley.


All in all the show was a pleasure to attend and for the 15 dollar price of admission its well worth it! Here are some links to the museum and to reviews of the show.

New York Magazine: 'Change We Can Believe In' by Jerry Saltz
http://nymag.com/arts/art/reviews/64271/

Whitney Museum:
http://www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial

NY Times 'At a Biennial on a Budget, Tweaking and Provoking' by Holland Cotter
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/arts/design/26biennial.html

Time Out NY 'The Whitney Finally Figures Out How to Put on a Biennial' by Harold Halle
http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/art/83237/2010-whitney-biennial-at-whitney-museum-of-american-art

Something cute from pencilmation.com

I love this one.

The kids like these too!

In the Spirit of Black History Month

Here's a great article from the NY Times on how a part of the neighborhood of Harlem NY cultivated the arts in its African American residents. There's a portion of the article dedicated to Faith Ringgold, who I love love love. Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/nyregion/23sugarhill.html?scp=1&sq=faith%20ringgold&st=cse
and just in case the link doesn't work, if you search the NY Times the title of the article is: 'In Sugar Hill, a Street Nurtured Black Talent When the World Wouldn't'

Also at ACA Gallery there is an exhibit currently running till March 20th entitled '2 Black Women' (Faith Ringgld and Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson). On the site they have a 36 image slide show of the artists works. There are some really great images worth checking out! Here's the link:

www.acagalleries.com

4th Grade Peter Max Inspired Statue of Liberty Heads

Originally adapted from the incredible art department website, (of course) this lesson ties into part of the fourth grade social studies curriculum. I also was able to tie this into the NYS ELA standards, using the book 'Liberty Rising' by Pegi Deitz Shea. This book has a lot of good factual information coupled with great illustrations. My classes and I started by making a KWL chart (things we knew, wanted to know, and then finally, learned) and reviewing as a class what we knew about the Statue of Liberty. I then explained the steps in the lesson for them. The lesson ended up breaking down like this:
Day 1- KWL chart, lesson introduction, demonstration of how to draw out a 2" border around their paper (I used a 13"x16 white paper for the project).
Day 2-Demonstration how to paint a Peter Max style background on the inside of their measured out 'frame'
Day 3-Introduction to Pop art and Peter Max (used a video from his website and a PowerPoint presentation. Also began reading the book Liberty Rising and we added to our chart.
Day 4-5-Demonstration of how to create a 'stars and stripes' themed border design on frame.
Day 6- Finished reading Liberty Rising, added to chart, and begin showing the kids using guided practice how to draw Liberty's face.
Day 7- Drawing the face, finishing up work, adding details.
Day 8-Class critique and finishing of KWL chart.

It was a long lesson, but I absolutely loved the results!!

A Way to Help in Haiti

In light of the recent and devastating effects on Haiti I'm posting a link to a site for an idea on how to help.
The site is called Haiti Houses The idea originated from two art teachers who live in Coconut Creek Florida and it's an art lesson on how to construct mini houses which you can sell in your school/district to raise money for organization that will send food, water, and aid to the Haitian people. My prayers go out to all those who have suffered from this horrendous tragedy.

Here's the site again:

haitihouses.org

2nd grade pattern rainforests

I adapted this lesson from 'Ms. Brown's-art website' who adapted it from Mr. G's art website. Yes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. :) In 2nd grade we studied patterns in nature and created our own designs. We discussed foreground and background and how things in the distance are smaller than things that are up close. We drew wavy trees complete with bushy tops (I compared them to clouds for my students) and added details like branches, birds, flowers, rocks, etc. The trees were where we put our patterns in marker and the background was where we painted with watercolor. I had them fold a 9x12 piece of newsprint to create four boxes where they practiced making designs using only closed shapes (many of them had a hard time understanding that an open shape is just a line and can't be colored in). Overall the lesson went well, however in hindsight, I would have had the students do a watercolor wash before even coloring the trees in, this will keep the compositions neater and make the little lesson a little less time consuming. Overall though, it was fun, and the students seemed to really like it!

Escher inspired Tessellations- 5th grade

I'm always trying to push my 5th graders above and beyond what's typically expected of them. Normally I've seen tessellations done in middle school but I wanted to try and do something with this grade because this is when the are introduced to tessellations in math. In addition to that, I'm the type of person who has to have a 'purpose' for something, even in collage I would say to myself "what do I need this for?" Or, "what am I going to do with this?" It's so important to provide contexts for learning things and to give students opportunities to understand that most of the things they learn have multiple applications other than just the one context their learning it in. So, I ask my 5th graders,why learn about tessellations? I give them this alternative to the normal math curriculum; they can be a great tool/technique, even style of art! I think they were surprised at this manifestation of math in art, especially because its so rare that they see an art/math connection. Here is the outcome. I had them work on 9x12 graph paper to help keep their tessellating shape even when tracing it. And yes, they made their own tessellating shapes, I didn't provide any for them.

The book above is a link to amazon.com. Its an over-sized book with a lot of great images of Escher's work.

Picasso Faces-5th Grade

Just finished this project with one of my 5th grade classes. They really loved it. We studied Picasso, cubism, showing two sides of the same object simultaneously-in this case a profile and front view of the face, organic and geometric shapes, and open and closed shapes. I found it to be a great way to teach some of the E's & P's of art. These are watercolor on 12x18" white paper and outlined with sharpie at the end. Enjoy!

Credit to Visual Arts Mississauga in Ontario. I found the lesson idea there. Here's a link to the site:
Visual Arts Mississauga

and here's a link to the gallery page:
Gallery Page

Last post of 2009

Here's a link to the Springville Museum of Art in Utah. I came across the site while searching for some lesson plan ideas. They have a huge selection of downloadable lessons in pdf format on everything from the elements and principles to feminist art. It's definitely worth taking the time to check out. They don't mail the lesson packets out, so your stuck with what they offer in digital form, but its still a pretty good amount of resources.
The link from the homepage in under 'education' then 'lesson packets'

Spring Cleaning in December

I spent a ton of time cleaning up all my watercolor palettes from school. Most of them weren't so bad which I was happy about, espeically because I drill my students about treating the supplies with respect. While cleaning, my paper towels ended up looking like tie-dyed handkerchiefs so I decided to save them. I'm not sure for what exactly, but I figure at the very least I can use them as extra materials for collage projects. We art teachers are so thrifty! :)

3rd grade fall landscapes

Sometimes I feel like not matter how early I start the lesson I always end up being late. I began these landscapes about 8 weeks ago and between class cancellations, which I feel like happen way too frequently
, I just finished the lesson on Wednesday, the last day before break! I suppose my fall landscapes are going to be hung for winter, but oh well, I suppose better late than never, and besides their way too good to not get hung.

1st Grade Faith Ringgold 'Tar Beach' Quilts

I love love love the book 'Tar Beach' by Faith Ringgold, it's such a good story with serious and important messages woven very effectively into the story. My first graders absolutely loved it. We discussed imagination and dreams, we also discussed segregation and prejudice. For the art project I bought a book of patterned scrapbook papers and cut a few of them into 3x3" squares. I then used light blue paper off the jumbo roll I had for the background. Students worked in groups of 4-5 and were each responsible for creating a building and a person (themselves) that they would cut and paste onto the background. I reminded them that whatever building they were going to draw had to be something they wanted, similar to the way in the story that the character Cassie Louise Lightfoot would fly over and the buildings she wanted to own. They then worked as a team to draw a bridge which I then helped each group individually glitter. The lesson went really well, the only difficulties I had were the students not being able to effectively communicate with one another in their group and as a result some bickering and complaining ensued. I tried to model how to share and cooperatively use the materials as well as how to discuss who would do what parts of the image, but they have such a small amount of experience really working collaboratively that it was a real challenge. Also, I spent an entire period modeling, discussing, and brainstorming ideas with them on how to add 'detail' to their work so that the buildings would have sidewalks, grass, flowers, trees, etc. but I still didn't really get as much detail as I would have liked from them. It was funny because the day before I finished the project with them I was talking about drawing with one of our kindergarten teachers and she was saying how she really tries to push the students to include details and characteristics of the objects they are drawing, and that developmentally at those ages, its hard for them to do so. So by pushing for details in their artwork, your really trying to get them to improve and surpass their normal ability range, which is always a good thing. So next time, details, details, details!