Tessellations

M.C. Escher, Eat Your Heart Out

5th Grade's Tessellation Sensation!

If you've seen a handful of my blog posts, you already know that I love teaching cross curricular lessons and this one is no exception!  My 5th graders are learning about tessellations in math and naturally I jumped at the chance to teach them about M.C. Escher and his ability to make math visually beautiful!  I started by showing them this short video on YouTube:

We talked about what we saw and how many of the things we saw were familiar to us and where we saw them.  A few kids pointed out that I had shown some of M.C. Escher's work when we talked about Optical Illusions (I love when they retain that info!).  We talked about the complexity and simplicity of tessellations and I assured them that we would start off simple.  I made them a brief demo video of how we would create the tessellations (they're just getting too big to huddle around me and try to watch my live demos-so for something like this, I like to make videos).

This is the demonstration video

Once you've created your tessellating shape...transform it!

Trace and repeat to fill paper!  Color as you wish!

The kids got to work and made some amazing things.  So creative!

I didn't get a lot of "finished" photos from this lesson- I got busy (imagine that) but here is what I did capture:

Crazy Faces!

Businessman

Monsters

Horned Monsters

"Parachute Kitty"

Coffee Filter Imagination Transformation

Can You Imagine?

I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that I took this lesson from one of my favorite blogs SmARTclass and I just couldn't resist to teach this one myself.  After teaching a more structured lesson on Op Art, I gave my 5th graders and opportunity to let their imaginations run wild! We followed the basic steps of "dying" ordinary coffee filters into colorful circles using washable markers and a spray bottle full of water.

                                                                       

Once we had our beautifully colored circles, I asked the kids to transform one or both of their circles into an image.  I asked them to share ideas they had as a class and did quick drawings of them on the board to show them how it would work.  Then I let them get to their own art making. I just encouraged them to let their imaginations take over. And that, they did!

Soccer Ball Being Kicked

Hot Air Balloon

Teddy Bear

Ice Cream!

Baseball Being Hit by Bat and Field

Duck Dynasty Character

Boom Box

Frog on Lilypad

Owl

Monster Truck

Bee and Emotion Clouds

Soccer

Frog and Flies

Cat

Top Hat Turtle

Magic Crystal Ball

Sun Shining and Smiling on Playground

This Little Piggy...

Snowman

Cow/Bear

Fireworks

Positive Identity Art

Positive Identity Art

As my 8th graders were winding down with the trimester (the end of their art time with me), I wanted them to go out on a high note with good attitudes, so I came up with this short, easy and positive art lesson. 

I started simply by having them write their initials in bubble/block letters (first or last initial) lightly in pencil.  I warned them that the outline of the letter would be erased in the end, so they should write/draw lightly.  Then they filled the interior of letter with positive thinking about themselves.  I asked that they include the words "I am", "I can" and "I will" followed by positive attributes and/or goals they have for themselves.  I told them that anytime they hit the edge of their initial, they had to stop writing and continue that word/sentence on the next line or if it was just a gap in the letter, they continued it on the opposite side of the letter.  Then we erased the outline and they were left with the letter made up from their positive thoughts and intentions.  

Some students chose to make their "I am" "I can" and "I will" stand out for interest

Portraiture

8th Grade Portraits

Here is a link to a more detailed version of the lesson but here is a brief rundown of how I teach portraiture to my 8th graders.  We watch proportion videos taught by 9 year old Olivia (link to her YouTube videos on previous post) and map out our drawings lightly.  Now I'll jump in with the photo step by step version of my teaching of portraits:

 
    

      Discuss shadows and blending to give the illusion of a three dimensional face

Map out hair line  (we discussed how hair grows off of the skull and how our hairline should start just in front of our ears) and add a few strands of hair (draw lines as hair would grow)

Add some more strands to fill in basic hair growth

Blend hair strands lightly to fill in the empty spaces

Add a few dark details/shadows into the hair.  Especially focus at the part in the hair and the direction of growth and how the hair would lay

Blend the dark shadows in a bit and add a few more light strands on top

Add some highlights with the corner of a clean eraser

Blend the hair so that the eraser marks are less stark.  Add any necessary strands you want.  If you haven't already, add some fly-aways  and imperfections for believability

A Few Student Examples: