Week of 2/13/22 - Alma Thomas and Gee's Bend - 2nd and 3rds

 2nd graders looked at the works of Alma Thomas and engaged in a class discussion about what they notice and wonder.

We talked about her painting technique, choice of bold colors, her inspiration, and her quote in an interview with the New York Times - “One of the things we couldn’t do was go into museums, let alone think of hanging our pictures there. My, times have changed. Just look at me now.”

Each student picked a simple shape like a heart, square, circle etc. or if they wished to challenge themselves, they picked a landscape or rainbow. I demonstrated how to dip the paintbrush in tempera paint to create rectangular marks to fill in their drawing while lifting their paintbrush before making the next mark.

 We ended the lesson by having a class discussion about what questions students would ask Alma Thomas now that they had a chance to paint in her style. Here are some responses!

3rd grade students created a quilt inspired by the quilts from Gee's Bend. We looked at several examples and talked about the significance of these quilts, the contrasting colors, different layers sewn together, the community aspect of creating these quilts and the shapes present. 

 

 Each 3rd grade class received a paper in a specific color combination that they cut and arranged on 4 rectangle pieces and them glued them to create their own quilt. We also had a written piece to explain something new each student learned in this lesson.

 

 

Week of 2/6/2023 - Printmaking and clay with 2nd and 3rd grade

 2nd graders worked on collagraph printmaking!

We looked at the prints of artist Faviana Rodriguez and had a discussion of how the artist could make multiple works that look exactly the same! Students came up with ideas on how this could be achieved - the artist used a copy machine, she was so good at art that she could create the same art over and over!

Each student cut foam pieces, arranged and glued them on a piece of cardboard. They then used a brayer to roll printmaking ink over the pieces and pressed a piece of printed paper to create a print. Students looked at their first print, discussed what worked/ didn't work for them and created a second print.

 

3rd grade created a clay cupcake using a combination of pinching for the lining and coiling for the frosting! There was high engagement with this lesson and I can't wait to fire these for students to paint on.

Week of 1/30/2022 - Color mixing UTK, Kinders printing and 1st grade clay

 This was my 2nd week with UTK, kinders and 1st grade.

UTK worked on color mixing - I love the book "Mouse paint" to read to students which explains the concept of mixing 2 primary colors to get a secondary in a simple, fun way!

Each student created 12 boxes on paper, numbered them and then painted each primary color in 2 boxes of their choice. We then started mixing primary colors to get secondary colors and painted them in 2 boxes to fill all 12 boxes. There was so much joy when colors mixed together and changed!!

 Kinders learned printmaking!! Each student cut foam, arranged and glued their shapes on cardboard. They then used brayers to roll ink and pressed it on paper to create 6 prints. Using brayers was a unique experience for kids and we talked about how we are using repetition in the printmaking process. We also read the book "Matisse's garden" where the artist cut, arranged pieces and used up paper that he cut instead of throwing it away. It was nice to see the similarities in his process and what we did with the foam pieces in this lesson! It was great to see the prints the 5 year olds made!! Some arranged pieces to resemble an object and other took a more abstract approach.

 

1st grade worked with clay -  tiles with initials with 2 classes, mugs with 2 and cactus with the remaining 2 classes. Students used scoring and slipping in each of the projects and the additive and subtractive techniques to create their works. They have already started asking if I have fired the pieces and when they can paint them!

 

Week of 1/23/23 - UTK, K and 1st grade

The younger grades returned this week - I don't know what it is about the holidays but all the kids look taller!!

Since Valentines day is around the corner, I decided to have heart themed lessons with different techniques for each grade.

UTK created hearts with a white crayon and used a resist technique  with watercolors. We took our time practicing heart drawing on watercolor paper, flipped the paper over and used the crayon resist technique.

Kinders created mosaic hearts! Students used ribbons to sew/ lace through holes around their black card stock and then cut paper to glue inside a large heart. We used gold/ silver paint sticks (have I mentioned how much I love this paint sticks?). It was SO much work prepping materials - punching 20-25 holes on every card stock numb but this is easily one of my favorite lessons and I plan on repeating it next year too!!

1st grade students created hearts using the element of art "value". We compared and contrasted the hearts created by artists Romero Britto, Chris Uphues, Jime Dine and James Goldcrown. We received a generous donation of canvases from the VAPA Foundation which I was happy to use for this lesson. Each student received an 8x10 canvas, and drew a large heart on it. They used rulers to divide the heart into different shapes and 1 tempera paint color to use. They painted 2 shapes inside the heart after which I gave them white paint. They mixed it to create a tint - I loved hearing their squeals as the color changed. There was a rich conversation among students after which they painted their 1st tint and then more paint to create and paint tint 2 and 3. Line patterns with paint sticks in the background to complete their work.

Week of 1/16/23 - 4th and 5ths - Clay and Digital art

 4ths returned this week and painted their Batik projects from last week. We used watered down acrylic paint - I demonstrated how to paint over the glue lines and cover the entire fabric with color. Each 4th grade class had 3 colors. We will wash the fabric next rotation to reveal the bug in white!!

4th grade students also created public art digital explorations! After looking at examples of public art from around the world and having a class discussion about what we noticed and wondered, students created Kusama-style mushrooms on Sketchpad, varied and repeated sizes. They superimposed them on photographs of places in our school's neighborhood - parks, libraries, and a coffee shop! It was neat to see what images students picked and why it was important to them.

 

5th graders worked on CLAY! They created spoons incorporating coil and pinch technique as well as additive and subtractive processes. They also used scoring and slipping to add decorations. There is so much learning in one lesson and I love seeing how unique each piece is!!

I gave each student a chunk of clay that they wedged and changed into a sphere. Next we sprayed our fabric with water and rolled out the clay into a cylinder the length of a plastic fork. We used a pinch technique to start creating the curved part of the spoon on one end of the cylinder and pinched the handle to make it long. Students had the option to make the handle curved, spiral or leave it as is. They then used score and slip method to add decorations or use the carving tool, pencil tool and/or  fork to remove clay using a subtractive technique.

 I plan on having students glaze pieces this year!

Week of 1/09/23 - 4th and 5ths

4ths started their rotation to create glue bug batiks! I am so glad I get to see them not only for an hour 20 minutes in the new year but also for an additional 45 minutes each week in the rotation!!

We looked at the below photo I used as  "Hook" - students shared what they thought was happening in the photo. I introduced Batik as a technique to decorate fabrics. I was able to share my experiences creating batik when I studied textile design while pursuing my Masters degree in India. We watched a 2 minute video on the process to get the students to see how this beautiful art form is practiced to this day.

We looked at drawings of several bugs, drew the first together and students created 3 more of ones they liked. They picked one out of the four to use in their final artwork. Each student drew their favorite bug large size, on a piece of copy paper and outlined it with a black Sharpie marker. They then taped their drawing to a 12"x18" sheet of construction paper. They taped a piece of wax paper onto the drawing paper and finally taped a piece of white fabric to the wax paper. We used wax paper so the glue wouldn't stick to the copy paper and would protect the drawing. Each student could see their drawing through the fabric and wax paper and used glue to squeeze on to their drawing. We let the glue dry to continue next class.

  5ths worked in pairs on Tinkercad to create a 3d design for a chessboard piece to use with the 3D printer I received via the VAPA Enhancement Program grant. I gave students the prompt - if you could change any piece on a traditional chessboard, and how would it look, what would you name it and how would it move on the chessboard? I showed students a real chessboard with pieces, we had a discussion about how many squares there are, how many different pieces and how they move. It was interesting to see what designs students came up! Next step - printing on the 3D printer!

 

Week of 1/03/23 - 2nd and 3rd grade in the New Year

 We returned to school after 2 weeks of winter break!

 2nd graders returned to create bats inspired by artist Leonid Afremov.  We looked at his artwork and noticed how he uses patches of paint, creates reflections of the boast on water and uses a palette knife instead of a paint brush. Students were impressed and commented on how realistic his boats look!

Each 2nd grade class drew a different set of boats - sail boats, steam boats, sail ships and tankers. Each student created a horizon line with pencil, drew a line for trees/ mountains in the background and then the boats.

Once done, we used oil pastels to add clouds in our seascapes which I told students they would be able to see when we added the watercolors. I had each student pick two colors for each boat and showed them how to blend them together. We added the reflection of the boats in the water after discussing that it looks darkest close to the boat and fades as it moves away. Adding watercolors was the final step in creating a resist technique - blue and purple for the sky and water which revealed the white oil pastels for the clouds! So many "wow, that's so cool" comments from the students!

Here are examples of student works.

 

3rd grade students looked at the works of artist Nicole Dyer and noticed that the objects in her works are inanimate. We discussed how artists set up these objects together in interesting works and create still life artworks. We compared and contrasted the works of Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso and discussed how one looks realistic while the other abstract.

I set up a set of different objects for each 3rd grade class. We first drew the table line after I explained it refers to where the objects set up on the table ends. I started by asking students what geometric shape each object resembled and how we can add elements to each to make it look three dimensional. We changed a rectangle to a cylinder, by adding an oval for the opening and a curved line for the base. We drew coffee mugs, fruits, bowls, spoons and a metal coffee maker I brought from India that I use at home. 

Once done, we added oil pastels, blended colors together, left the paper white for highlights, created shadows and added watercolors for the background.