Pumpkin Perspective Pastels

Final pumpkin/fall project of the year!  Hooray!  This was an easy, fun, and successful project for Mrs. Dodds first grade class.  It would be suitable for all ages and easily adapted to the current season.  I copied the idea from www.oodlesofart.blogspot.com. 

 

I had a finished sample up on the board, and I also used the overhead and did a step by step with the kids.  To do it any other way would have been difficult. 

 

All of the supplies were in the workroom art mom cabinets and were easy to find.

 

As we progressed through the project I would take a few moments to explain simply the concepts of perspective, the use of chalk pastels, blending and shading, and then the leaf rubbings.
 

 

Everything cleaned up with a little soap and water, and Clorox wipes. 

 

 Pretty good for first graders, right? 

 

 

I would say it was a success, the students really enjoyed it!

Items used:

• white paper
• chalk pastels, orange, yellow, greens, brown
• sharpies
• leaves
• hairspray to set the chalk after final tap-off

The hairspray does make the paper curl but it was NBD. 

In 2 weeks I will be doing this art project from deepspacesparkle!  Wish me luck!

Art Education is Important!!!

Two important links from Americans for the Arts.

Getting Started...why art education is important, etc.

Facts and Figures

Wild Things!

We had a lesson about textures today. After a demonstration of actual vs implied texture, we looked at the great examples of how lines can imply texture in Maurice Sendak's book, Where The Wild Things Are.   Here are some of the exciting wild things that Andrus students created:

 

Reflections Contest

Our afternoon of “Reflection Fun” is scheduled for Tuesday November 5^th 3:50-4:50 pm in the Health Room across from the library. We have a PTA meeting scheduled at the same time so we are urging parents to come to the PTA meeting and have their kids do an entry for Reflections at the same time!

Art moms, please remind kids about the contest and if it works out with your art time, give them a chance in the classroom to submit an entry.  The kids are welcome to submit as many entries in as many categories as they want to!  

Gelatin Printing--how did it go?

Gelatin printing in the 4th grade was a great success! We did some explanation of printmaking terms, showed some examples of printmaking illustrations in children's literature, and had the kids cut out their own stencils. We watched these two videos by Linda Germain on youtube, and went over the process. I took lunchtime to lay everything out on the kids' desks: white construction paper and orange sulphite paper for printing, newsprint to absorb ink and moisture on the gelatin plate, gelatin plate, brayer, piece of glass for ink, paper towels, and an assortment of leaves from nature. The students were in pairs and took turns (and even helped each other). They were quite prolific and each made at least six prints. We got out more scraps of construction paper in different colors and sizes and they went to town! It was a great project. Everybody was successful. Students selected a couple of their favorite prints to keep in the art portfolio and got to take home the rest.

Gelatin Printing

I have made 16 gelatin plates for art (4th grade, 2 students sharing each plate) this Friday using Linda Germain's excellent instructions. Will post pictures when we're done, but just wanted to give all the art parents a heads-up that you are welcome to use them for art in the next couple of weeks, because they will stay good in the fridge for a while. To see more about gelatin printing, here are a few helpful videos. I like this project because I think every student will be successful and the results are varied and beautiful. We will be printing with found objects, items from nature, and stencils the students make out of paper (halloween scenes, maybe?). Should be a good time, would love to spread the wealth! The school has all the brayers, printing ink, paper, ink blocks (sheets of tempered glass), that you will need. I'm thinking this would be a great class for grades 3 and up. Maybe a savvy 2nd grade could pull it off. Email me for dibs on the gelatin plates.

Why are there "Art Parents" at Andrus?

David J. Skorton, president, Cornell University, gave a good answer to that question in an article he wrote titled The Arts Are Essential.

In that article, he states, "If science and technology help us to answer questions of "what" and "how," the arts and humanities give us ways to confront the intangible, to contemplate the "why," to imagine, to create."

Unfortunately, with budget cuts, increased focus on core curriculum, and standardized tests, there are few opportunities left for traditional classroom teachers to incorporate art education.  Luckily, at Andrus Elementary, the value of the arts is embraced and parents are allowed to supplement the required curriculum.




Another excellent description of why concerned parents are joining forces to help with art lessons comes from a speech given by author and creativity expert, Ken Robinson. Please take 20 minutes to view his talk from a TED conference in 2006.  He emphasizes the idea that all children are born with exceptional creativity, but that the current education system stifles that.

PTA Meeting 10/1/13--Funding Art

The PTA will be discussing funding art education tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7 PM in the Andrus Library. We would love your input!

Foam plate printing

A visiting artist, Emily Fox King, taught our class how to do styrofoam prints.

Valentine Weavings

Students wove a variety of materials (string, yarn, ribbon, fabric strips, paper strips from magazines) across a homemade loom to create a multi-dimensional piece.

Sunprints!

This was an easy, fun art activity. We watched a slideshow I put together with various examples of sun prints, then talked about the process. There are a lot of neat examples to show the students. I bought my sunprint paper on Amazon.

Goldsworthy-inspired Nature Sculpture

One of the first art lessons we did in 3rd grade was in September, before winter set in. We watched a slideshow I put together about Andy Goldsworthy, the British nature artist, then talked about the challenges of impermanence. Photography is essential to the work.

2013 Spring Art Show

The kids did a great job with our Elevate the Arts Spring Art Show.

Idaho History Art Projects

This link takes you to a 17 page PDF document with multiple Idaho History Art Projects written by Maralee Turner.

Van Gogh Collaborative Project

One of my favorite projects we did was a collaborative mural based on one of Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings. I used this post and this post for inspiration. I ordered an 18x24" poster from allposters.com, cut it into pieces, cut black construction into same size pieces, and gave each student a piece of the poster and a piece of paper. I had the students replicate as closely as possible their piece of the mural using oil pastels on the construction paper. I numbered the back of the poster pieces so I could put the mural back together easier. I had the students write the number on the back of their construction paper, too. We talked about how artists are influenced by other artists and how most upper level art curriculums include the practice of copying famous works of art. After the students finished, we sprayed the pastel artwork, let them dry for a few minutes. I asked questions like, "What was it like to copy someone else's art?" "What challenges did you have?" "What do you notice about the way we each see the same color? Was it hard to replicate the colors you saw?" We hung the mural by the door so the students could see their handiwork all year long.