2nd Grade Clay Birds

I love doing clay, but at my school where I am finishing up 4 more days of class before I move, the kiln is at the high school.  So it is extremely inconvenient to do clay projects with my K-8 kids, but I try to put in the effort every now and then.

The art show theme for 2nd grade I chose was called "It's for the Birds!"

I started off with the pinch pot bowls that became a bird nest or bird bath.  I've seen several times on Pinterest how you can add in marbles, like those in flower vases, etc. in clay projects and they melt in the kiln.  After the students glazed them they chose from the various colored marbles I had and then we let magic work!  The students thought they were so fun!

I was running out of time before the art show, so students used air dry clay to create a small bird.  We stuffed them with feathers and painted them with watercolor paint.  Although they were "cute" they were rather unsuccessful in that the pieces kept falling apart.  I would have much rather used regular clay for the kiln but my alternative was to not have them in the show, so I chose the lesser of the evils so to speak.

Here are some photos (forgive the coloring from the flash, the colors seem to be a bit more harsh/vibrant than in real life):

My high school students helped to set up the art show and several students loved these too!  So much so that they inspired a fun clay project by my Freshman...photos to come after finals and the end of the school year!

Kinder "Gardens"

This year for my elementary art show, each grade had its own mini theme.  Kindergarten had a Garden theme.  We did a variety of projects that fall under the theme.  Here are a some examples:

Symmetrical Primary Butterflies & Beehives

Water Pond & Frog on Lily Pad

Flowers with CD centers & Sharpie designs

Monogram Letter Designs - Sub Plan

Back in February I took 2 "mental health days" to visit a friend I hadn't seen for a few years.  It was a great and fun trip! However, before I left I had to make sub plans.  I dread sub plans.

I came up with this for my high school students, but it could work with younger students as well.  My idea and directions were fairly simple.  Students drew a letter/monogram that had purpose, whether it was their first or last initial or that of a family member or friend.  I printed out and made photocopies of some of the zentangle inspired designs that are detailed and intricate.  I figured since each design had a step by step direction in a visual picture that my students could succeed.  After the monogram letter, they had to incorporate 5 of the various designs I had for them to choose from.  I believe I had between 12-15 of them to choose from.  After they had drawn these designs in, they could add marker or colored pencil.

This lesson worked our perfect for a sub, and lasted well into the next week when I returned which was good because on my trip home I got a bad head cold/sinus infection and was lacking energy throughout the week.  This project was great for the kids to work on because it required little to no direction or help and each student could make a lot of the creative decisions.

Here are some results:

JH Value & Color Schemes

I printed off a variety of pictures for my students to use as references for this project.  They drew numbers from a cup and then selected a photo in number order.

Students used a grid to draw these photos and left the grid boxes on the paper for this project.

The main goal for this project was to teach my students about value/shades as well as incorporating the use of a monochromatic color scheme through value.  We also used complementary color schemes.

This was a challenging assignment for my 7th and 8th graders, but the results turned out pretty well.  Some of them eliminated quite a few details while others kept them.  Each gives a different feel to the painting.

Here are some examples:

This piece received a medal at our JH league art competition last week! :)

New Things, Big Changes Coming

So I have definitely fallen behind on my blog, but I think I needed a break from it.

I have found a new teaching job for next school year and will be moving this summer!  It will definitely be a big change, but it is time for something different and I am excited for it!

I am moving from a small rural town where I teach K-12 Art to a much larger city where I will be 1 of 5 high school art teachers!  Talk about big changes!  I am looking forward to this new challenge that will be more focused on one age group.  Although I am nervous about these big changes, they are equally as exciting!

In the next 8 weeks I will be starting and finishing a 3 credit hour class for my Masters, finishing up this school year with my kids for the last time here, finding a new place to live, packing up and moving!  Craziness is in store!

The next few weeks finishing up the school year with my kids and teacher friends will be very bittersweet!  I am excited about this new opportunity and adventure but saying goodbye and leaving my first job that I have had for 3 years will be tough!

Despite my moving in just a couple months, I have tons of catching up to do on here and I will do my best!  Lots of posts with fun projects coming soon, I promise!

6th Grade Origami

My 6th graders spent the last 7 weeks creating 1000 origami paper cranes.  6th graders also spent the beginning of semester studying Asia in reading, math, social studies, music, PE, and art.  Working together, the teachers and I created a unit to go with a story they read in class.  I'm not even sure all what they learned that ties to Asia, but when I learned what they were going to do I wanted to jump in too!

I chose to study origami and how it ties into storytelling.  I showed students this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yof5Us9dG28

Kuniko Yamamoto is a Japanese woman who tells the legends/stories of Japan and origami.  This woman is so interesting and great at telling her stories.  I actually saw her in 2011 at our annual state art conference.  I started my origami unit by showing my 6th graders this video.  They were so excited after seeing this video...it was cool to see their reaction.

We discussed the legend of the 1000 Paper Cranes and how it brings good luck/wealth to the person who makes them.  After the video we went through the step by step to create an origami crane.  My lofty goal was to have each student make 25.  I have 39 6th graders times plus myself is 40.  25 X 40 = 1000!

After 7 weeks I was done...well ok I was over the cranes floating around my room way before then.  Thankfully because I knew it would take a long time for these to be made, the 6th grade teachers allowed me to leave them paper and the students made them during their free time in the regular classroom.  This helped tremendously because otherwise we would still be folding paper cranes.

After students completed their number of cranes, they hung them together with fishing line in strands of 3-6.  Students then created a mobile out of their cranes using wire.  Here are some fun images of the project!

HS Art Auction

I have been teaching here for 3 years and each year since I have been here during basketball season my students create art pieces for a silent art auction.  I have posted about them before, but have some great images to share again this year!

The theme for auction pieces has to do with our school or with Kansas.  This is probably the easiest fundraiser I have ever done.  The majority of the work is done in class by the students.  It just takes a little organization and advertisement by me to get the job done!  The support from parents, teachers, and community members is much appreciated.  I was a little disappointed in the turnout this year compared to years past, but we were successful in quickly making $457 for the art department!

I had 44 pieces total for sale this year, a variety of drawings, paintings, and a few clay pieces.  All of my students go into the assignment knowing that their piece will be sold.  Each student must make at least one piece.  No matter the skill level or end result, they all sell something in the auction.  I totally missed photographing the clay pieces before they were gone, but I got some not so great (in quality) photos of some of the best and my favorite pieces!

Here they are: