Batiks

5th Grade Batiks

I absolutely love batiks and even have one hanging in my classroom that my sister had brought me back from Tanzania.  So when I learned that you could make batik-esque artwork using gel glue instead of hot wax, I couldn't wait (seriously, I made it my very lesson plan) to put it to the test with my fifth graders!

I started by asking students if they knew what batiks were.  None of them did, but they did a great job of using context clues by taking guesses based on the photo I had up as the cover slide in my PowerPoint.  I explained a little bit about them and how, traditionally, they are made and where they are most commonly made in the world.  I then explained how we would be doing our own variation of batiks and they could choose whatever subject matter they wanted (whether they made a scene, a pattern/design or just a fun little picture).

We started by drawing our designs out on paper with pencil.  Once students liked their drawing, they traced it in marker (we used permanent marker which I will not use in the future, just because it isn't necessary.  I will just use washable markers next time).  The purpose of the marker is so that we can lay fabric (we used muslin) over our drawing and still be able to see the drawing.  We then used Gel Glue (from what I read, it must be gel glue, not regular white school glue) to trace the drawing onto the fabric.  Then set them on the drying rack.  I made the mistake of leaving the fabric on the paper and when the glue dried, the paper glued to the back of our fabrics...so lesson learned, be sure to lay the fabric on the drying rack by its lonesome!

Once the glue was dry, each student was able to paint their batik (well, first, we had to peel off the paper that glued itself to the fabric).  We used watered down acrylics and I reminded them to paint the entire piece of fabric (even over the top of the glue) and that later we would wash away the glue, and those lines/designs/drawings would be white.  We discussed how they did not need to "color inside the lines" with the paint, that the colors could mix and spread however they wanted them to.  The students painted their batiks to their liking and once again, they were on the drying rack.

Once the paintings were dry, I placed them in some tubs of warm water to let them soak (this helps with the removal of glue).  I tried washing the glue off directly under the sink at first; it worked but took much longer than the ones I soaked.  Personally, I let them soak overnight and in the morning, I washed each batik under the sink to remove the glue (at this point it was more like slime) and whatever paper crumbles had clung onto the backs of our fabrics.  I placed them on the drying rack (yet again) and let them dry for the last time!  They dry a little crinkled, which doesn't bother me, but I'm sure they could be ironed too.  The paint faded just a bit in the washing process, but all in all, I am in love with the results!  The kids were so excited to see their work in the hallway, almost as excited as I am!  This is a lesson I cannot wait to repeat (in fact, I introduced it to my middle school art club)

Star Design

Pattern and Design

Weeping Willow Tree

Turtle

Line Design

May the Force Be With You

Star Wars Art

While neither of these things in this post are assignments, they were worthy of sharing.  My cousin had posted a link to some Star Wars themed snowflake templates (it is a cached copy for some reason) and I couldn't help but print a few out in case my 6th graders finished their assignment early and were as nerdy as I am.  So I gave them the options of Yoda, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Chewbacca and a Storm Trooper (Storm Trooper not all pictured below).  They were tricky templates but I was impressed with how well the kids did with them.

One of my fourth graders finished early and also took this as an opportunity to make some Star Wars art from paper.  He made his own origami Star Wars characters!  I couldn't believe how well and how quickly he whipped these things up!  So fun!

Christmas Ornament Drawing

Tis the Season!

As an art teacher, it's hard to get away with not doing some holiday themed art projects.  My struggle is to keep them from being too crafty where they all look the same while still keeping the kids excited and wanting to share their holiday artwork with their friends and family.  In my free time while perusing the internet, I came across this art lesson from another blog--Art Projects for Kids--and decided to adapt it just a tiny bit for my fourth graders.

I started the lesson by having my students make a list on our white board of words that describe the real meaning of Christmas (I discouraged "presents" and "Santa" on this list but that didn't stop from kids saying them).  We ended up with a fantastically lengthy list from each of my 4th grade classes.  I let the kids know that we were going to be keeping those words in mind in our art project but we were also going to incorporate something else; variety.  I introduced them to "variety" and we discussed how you can have variety among lines (through type or thin/thickness) as well as shapes and colors.  This is when I showed them what we were making.  

I allowed students to trace stencils if they'd like (I created stencils of four shapes of ornaments, trees and crosses) or free hand their images.  I asked that they fit at least three items on their paper and start but drawing/tracing with "whisper lines" so we could erase them later.  We then filled each shape (regardless of what it was) with at least one word that describes the real meaning of Christmas in an interesting font and the rest of the shape should be filled with lines and shapes while demonstrating "variety."   In the end, we erased our "whisper lines" and the goal was that you could still tell what the original shape was without it being outlined or entirely colored in.  A few kids still colored their shapes in or outlined them, but for the most part, I think this gave the kids a chance to remember what this season is about and practice using some basic art elements.  The drawings came out beautifully and the kids were eager to take them home!

One Point Perspective

I introduced fourth grade to the concept of one point perspective.  I started by letting them take some guesses as to what it meant and they were pretty close with their guesses.  Most of them based their definitions off of the word "perspective" and their knowledge that it had to do with how you see something.

Once we had the definition down, we put our knowledge to work.  This lesson was also a good opportunity for me to show students how to hold and use a ruler as a straight edge.  I think it is an important skill to have, especially in art, and without this demonstration, a lot of them get tangled up in their own arms!  I had them make an eight sided shape somewhere on the top half of their paper and draw a small dot (or "point") anywhere on the bottom half of their paper.  We discussed how to match up the corners from the shape down to the point and how to know which ones to draw and which ones would be behind the three-dimensional version of the shape if it were real.

 We also took this as an opportunity to play with lines and shapes within patterns and designs.  In each section created from matching corners to the point, they were to draw a different design or pattern.

The kids did a great job and were eager to show off their one point perspective skills during their finished early time too!  Many of them played around with drawing more shapes and even letters in one point perspective!  It's fun to see them take a lesson and run with it by exploring other options.  I wish I had taken some pictures of their free time perspective drawings, they were pretty impressive!

Fall of 2014 Variation and Examples:

I taught the same great lesson to my 4th graders this year but I switched it up a little.  This time, I offered them a challenge.  If they did not want to do the 8-sided shape, they could do their name (or a word) in block letters...in One Point Perspective!  A lot of the kids were excited about that option and accepted the challenge.  Here are some of my (well, actually my students') results:

Some students finished their One Point Perspective early, I gave them an easy way to draw in Two Point Perspective:

Group Grid Drawing

Break it down...

I teach each middle school grade level for one trimester and as my time with 7th grade was winding down, I realized I hadn't taught "value" yet and I hadn't done any realistic drawing.  But as I mentioned, my time with them was coming to a close so I had to act fast.  I had originally planned on having each student complete a grid drawing assignment so I decided to adapt that lesson to fit my last two days of class with this group of kids.

Student-made Value Scale

I started by teaching the meaning of "value" in art and clarified that it had nothing to do with the price of artwork.  After a short discussion each student made a small value scale showing 9 variations of grey in their sketchbook.  I then introduced them to the concept of using a grid to replicate an image (whether it is on the same scale or larger...or even smaller).  We focused on figuring out and matching spacial relationships, placement and value.  We went from images gridded into 1" squares to drawing them onto 4" squares.  Earlier in the week, I took a photo of our school principle and vice principle and did the 1" grid for the kids, I also cut up the photos and numbered the backs of each square.  Each student completed at least 2 squares and found  where their drawing was to go on my large grid.  They didn't know who or what they were drawing but they loved trying to guess the entire time (and I refused to tell them if they were right or wrong).  As the pieces were getting glued onto the larger grid, they had it figured out!  But a lot of them were being hard on themselves since the results weren't realistic.  I reminded them that 75 different people were trying their best to replicate small squares onto large ones, and they weren't going to come out perfect.  And the fact that they knew who the images were, showed how well they actually did.  Even though, they aren't the most realistic portraits, I am very pleased with how hard they worked on matching spaces with simple shapes, line and value!

A few of the squares "went missing" at the end of the last day, so Mrs. Raes is left slightly unfinished

The False Mirror

Rene Magritte is Very Neat

image found on wikipaintings.org

Our Day of the Dead skull printmaking took us two class periods to get through in order for everyone to make their two prints, so similarly to the Mona Lisa activity, I introduced my students to Rene Magritte's The False Mirror.  I then proposed that each student work on drawing an eye and draw an imaginary scene or something that they often think about, in place of the iris.  I left each table with a few guides to help them with drawing the eyes and remind them of their task. I think this helped the students maintain their independence from me while waiting to print.

Each student made an Rene Magritte inspired drawing while waiting to print; if they had already printed, then they had the whole class period to work!  I gave them oil pastels for this lesson and encouraged them to color boldly and/or to layer colors for different effects.  I love seeing their imaginations at work!

Modern Day Mona Lisa

Multitasking and Mona

Mona Lisa image found and used from Wikipedia

While I did printmaking with my fourth graders, I also had them working on a drawing with the Mona Lisa.  I had set up one table for printmaking which I manned the entire time, so I wanted the other students to have an activity that was 1)worthwhile 2)something they could do independently and 3)something they would enjoy.  This Mona Lisa lesson was perfect!  

The original paper, my pencil example and my colored in example

I started the class off by telling them that only four people could be printing their Day of the Dead skulls at a time with me and that everyone else would need to be at their tables working until it was their turn to print and after printing, you would return to this activity.  I then presented them with a little art history (via PowerPoint) about the Mona Lisa and her maker, Leonardo Da Vinci.  I focused on fun facts about her theft, Picasso's wrongful arrest, and the many attempts at her destruction (acid, rocks and tea cups?!).  We also talked about Leonardo Da Vinci as an artist and an inventor with many great ideas (the kids loved seeing his flying machine sketches).  Then I asked the students, "Since Mona Lisa has lead such an adventurous life, what kind of day would you treat her to if she was alive?"  The kids had all kinds of ideas as to what they would do with the Mona Lisa!  I showed them my examples and gave them a photo copy that had a coloring page version of the Mona Lisa printed on it and set them to work to draw their day with the Mona Lisa.  They had such great ideas!  And it was the perfect independent activity to keep them busy while I helped kids with printmaking!

A few AMAZING results
top row: making art, playing soccer, doing gymnastics
bottom row: karate, offering of tea joke, playing piano

Day of the Dead Dioramas

I started introducing the lesson showing a slideshow of various Day of the Dead dioramas and we talked about what we saw.  We discussed what an assemblage piece can look like but I stressed that the possibilities were endless.  I explained what our process would be and left it very open ended.  Students were allowed to partner up into groups or work alone.  Each student (regardless if they worked alone or in a group) needed to create at least one skeleton from clay, everyone needed a theme and to include various details (requirements varied based on how many students worked on each diorama) keeping in with the Day of the Dead theme.  All words were supposed to be in Spanish and there were to be various three-dimensional elements from mixed media.

We started making our skeletons out of air dry clay (I would use model magic in the future) so they would have time to dry before we painted them and we could work on our boxes while we had to wait that out.  The 7th graders are a bit big to gather around one small table for a demonstration, so I've started making these demo videos to play for them...it's so much easier for them to see this on the projector.  This video is simply about forming a skeleton shape from clay and how to give them facial expressions

Last but not least, as I promised in my previous post here, these are a few of the photos from our 7th Grade Day of the Dead Dioramas.    The photos don't do them justice!  The students did a great job transforming their boxes into dioramas!

Percy Jackson Scene

View of the skeletons in the Percy Jackson scene

Wedding

Love Beach

The Proposal (with fountain that actually holds water and drips down from each tier)

Mariachi Band

'Mi Taco Es Su Taco' Taco Truck

The Civil War with Abraham Lincoln

Evel Knievel

Dancers

Cardinals Game

Zoo

Leisurely Reading with Owl in the Tree