Gestural Sculpture

I love creating sculptures with my kiddos!  It is always fun and exciting for them as well as it is for me.  They come up with such great ideas and I love seeing them try out a new medium.  For my fourth graders, working with plaster is new and exciting.  We make gestural sculptures that imply movement and they all come out so fantastically unique.  For a detailed description of the lesson itself, check out my post from 2014 here

Otherwise, just enjoy these fabulous creations from this year:

An eclectic dance party--someone dabbing alongside a hula dancer!

We had our fair share of dabbing sculptures this year

Breakdancing, dabbing, handstands, hockey players...we've got it all!

Mario!!!!  We also have a dancer doing the splits with troll hair behind him!  These kids are so creative!

Clay Extravaganza!

Clay Clay Clay!

I've posted about my various art lessons in more detail in the past, so I'll just repost the links to those and share the photos of the great things my kiddos made this year

4th Grade-Pinch Pot Monsters

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/2014/02/pinch-pot-monsters.html

I had to get a close up so you could see this guy's tail!  Love the details these kids come up with!

Same group, just closer so you could see their details from a different angle

The green guy reminds me of a modern Gizmo!

The turquoise monster is holding fire in each hand...such a creative idea!

5th Grade- Clay Pinch Pot Characters

In 5th Grade, I allow for a lot more freedom with their clay creations, but I still want them working with pinch pots to get that basic clay technique down.  I love the range of ideas the kids have!

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/2014/03/pinch-pot-characters.html

6th Grade- Clay Terra Cotta Warrior Sculptures

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/2013/03/terra-cotta-warriors.html I actually have multiple links to this lesson for various examples and years that have made these, but this is the link that shares the bulk of the lesson

7th Grade- Hollow Form from Pinch Pots

Similar to the 5th grade lesson, I let the kids decide what they are going to make almost entirely.  I just ask that it be made from two pinch pots that create a hollow form and that they add attachments so that they can practice the slip and score methods for strong attachments and an awesome chance to show off their creativity and interests

8th Grade- Clay Boxes (slabs and cylinders)

http://missartypants.blogspot.com/2014/05/themed-clay-boxes.html

This year we still made slab boxes but they had to be cylindrical.  I originally said they had to use cylinders because it was a faster process than cutting a bunch of square/rectangular slabs, but I might stick with the cylinders in the future just because I really enjoyed seeing the kids work this way.

Animal Prints

Let's Get Wild!

Panda Bears

My fourth graders tried their hand at printmaking and I love the results!  We started off by drawing from observation.  I borrowed a crazy amount of wildlife and animal books from our school library to give the kids plenty of options and I encouraged them to focus on drawing what they see instead of our usual, draw what we think something looks like or want something to look like.  This was tricky for some kids who have developed a fondness for cartoon drawings and simplified images, but they all tackled the challenge and had great drawings!

We had made the drawings on 5"x7" paper (that I had pre-cut) and then used pencils to transfer them onto identically sized foam.  I made sure that they first traced their drawing with the foam underneath their drawing before removing the paper portion and really pressing into the foam with their pencil.  I really remind the kids to press into the foam and tell them not to worry if it rips (since the foam we were using was pretty thin) but to try to keep it all in one piece.  

Once they were finished with making their "stamp" for printmaking, I let them choose their colored paper.  I asked that they choose three different colors of paper (that I had also cut to 5"x7") and put their name on the backs so we could find them easily on the drying rack.  Now it's time to print!

I demonstrated how to roll ink with a brayer (the kids love the brayers!) and to get the right amount of ink on the brayer by lifting it each roll so that the ink covers the whole thing, not just one small section.  I ask that they roll the ink out with the brayer until it looks like snake skin so they don't get too much or too little on their stamp.  I demonstrate how to roll the ink onto the foam and let them know that it's okay if they need to get more ink to cover their whole stamp.  I encourage them to work fairly quickly so that the ink doesn't dry onto their stamp, just in case they rolled on a thin coat.  I showed them how to flip their stamp onto their colored paper and to rub/press the entire back of the stamp to get a good transfer.  Then all they have to do is repeat the process three times to get our prints!  We put the prints on the drying rack and during our next class period, we started the day off by choosing at least two of our prints to glue to a black sheet of construction paper.  

Let's talk troubleshooting:  A lot of the kids still don't press hard enough into the foam to get a good print.  So if they are unhappy with the outcome, I let them wash the foam off and go press their drawing into the foam deeper.  Then they get to try printing again.  I also let them know that it's okay if a print or two doesn't come out well.  They can always try again, that's the beauty of printmaking, is that it can be done over and over again and you can make adjustments accordingly until you're happy!

Now for the examples!

Wolf Prints

Woodpecker Series

Snakes Attack!

Hanging Monkey

All the Pretty Horses

Bear in the Woods

Cartoon Cat

Elephant Mama and Baby

Puffin!

Line and Shape Design Ornaments

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Art Lesson!

A lot of times I avoid doing holiday themed artwork with the kids, I feel like they do enough of that on their own and even a little in their classrooms.  But I really enjoy teaching this lesson and the kids really love it too, so this one usually makes the cut in my classroom.  

I start the lesson by asking my fourth graders what they think of when they think about Christmas.  I teach at a Catholic school, so I feel 100% comfortable asking this question to my kiddos.  After we've shared a pretty good list of associations, I show them a finished example of what we are going to make.  I ask them to tell me what they think we are going to do based on our introduction and the example they are seeing.  After a few (usually pretty accurate) guesses, I explain what our focus of the lesson is going to be.  Most of them have noticed the theme of patterns and designs and most of them have pointed out that there is a word within each ornament.  I address variety as well as positive and negative space with them because few students have noticed that none of my ornaments have outlines nor are they entirely colored in, yet we still can see the clear shape of each ornament.  

To keep it simple and since the focus for me on this project is line and shape designs as well as the use of negative space, I give them stencils to use that I have made myself from poster board.  Some of them are ornaments, some are in the shapes of trees, and some are crosses.  I also give them the option to free draw their own outlines.  I just encourage them to use "whisper lines" for their outline so that we can erase it at the end.  I ask the kids to choose one word (though I don't stop them if they use multiple) in each of their ornaments and to FILL the rest of their space with patterns and designs.  This lesson usually takes the kids 2 class periods (I have them for 55 minutes each class period), so for the first class period, I have them plan out their designs in pencil.  In the middle of the first class period or at the beginning of the 2nd class period, I share my "pattern and design cheat sheets" with them (these are just printed examples).  I still encourage them to make each pattern/design their own unique creation if they are using my cheat sheets for inspiration, but I still get a few copy cats.  They finish their designs off with skinny marks and erase their original outlines.  Some of the kids really struggle with the whole "no outline" and "not entirely colored in" concept, but I encourage them all to avoid these things.  If they want them to look like lights or ornaments, I show them how to free draw strings for them to hang from, otherwise they can be free floating shapes.  Okay, enough talking about the lesson, let's get to the good stuff!  More photos:

Salvador Dali Portraits

The 'Stache is Back

I've blogged about my Salvador Dali's mustache lesson before (details here) but I have a few more photos to add to the amazingness that is this art project.  They make me smile so much!  As has been the theme this year, I didn't get many photos, but I still want to share what I did manage to snap.  So here we go:

Day of the Dead Calaveras

Day of the Dead Calaveras

It's no secret that I LOVE Day of the Dead and all of the amazing artwork and stylings that come with it!  So I'm always playing around with new lessons to give the kids a variety of materials while still honoring the traditions of Day of the Dead.  

This year, I did some foil calaveras with my fourth graders.  After talking with the kids about the traditions and history of DoD (this is mostly recap for the kiddos at this point) we started off with a sheet of paper and drew out our plans for a highly decorated calavera (aka skull).  After they showed me that they had come up with a plan for their calavera that used space well and honored the DoD styles, I gave them a sheet of tooling foil and a magazine.  They taped their drawing to the sheet of foil and placed it on a magazine (for some give).  We have wood tools for this, but I just had the 4th graders use their pencils to trace their design on their paper again, which pressed it into the foil as it rested on the magazine.  Once they had transfered the design onto the foil, they removed the paper and drew/pressed directly into the tooling foil for a more defined look.  I let them decide if they liked the raised side or recessed side and added some color using permanent markers.  I'm always a little worried about the fragility of the foil and its sharp edges with the kids, so this time around, I precut some large construction paper squares and had the kids create a border for their calavera.  After they were done with that, I hot glued their foil right onto the paper for them.  They all came out so unique and colorful, I was in love!!!!  I just wish I had taken more photos (I could have swore I took more, but these were all I could find on my iPad--maybe if I blogged more regularly, I would still have the artwork to rephotograph.  Whoops)!  And the photos I did take, don't do them justice.  They were very bright and festive!