Face Pots, 5th Grade

My fifth graders have been working hard on their clay pots in the last few weeks.  To begin, I showed my students this History Detectives Video, by PBS, to introduce the history of face pots.  This video explains how face pots can be traced back to African Americans during the mid 1800's.    

 I then taught my students how to create a clay pot by making slabs.  Students added details to their face pot, and I taught them to score and slip all added pieces. 

These are looking great so far.  After these are out of the kiln, we will be glazing them.

Yarn Weaving, 3rd Grade

 My third graders have been working on weaving for the last two months.  We began by learning paper weaving.  Then students moved on to weaving with yarn.

I have seen paper plate weaving done many times with elementary students, so I have no idea who initially came up with this idea.  However, I found really well written directions for this on Cassie Stephens blog.

Silhouette Houses, 3rd Grade

 Every year, around this time, I do a Silhouette House lesson with my students.  This year, I did it with third graders.  Many of my students choose to make their silhouette house scary, but students have the option to make any type of house.

The background is created with liquid watercolors, and the foreground painted with black tempera paint.

2 Sided Portrait, 5th Grade

 I teach this lesson every year, and I always love the results.  For this lesson, students create a two sided portrait.  One side must be human with correct proportions, and the other side can be animal, monster, or alien.  These were painted with tempera paint. 

This year the results were wonderful.  I love their creativity!

Folk Art Landscapes, 2nd Grade

 This lesson was inspired from the artwork of Karla Gerard.  Her artwork is bright, colorful folk art, and really resonates with young students.  My students focused on drawing landscapes with patterns.  These were painted with tempera paint. 

 I think these turned out great!  My students are very proud of them. 

Paper Masks, 4th Grade

 I have taught this lesson many times, and my students always love it.  We begin by looking at masks from around the world.  Then students construct a paper mask using paper, scissors, and glue.  I generally allow my students to create anything (animal, monster, or person).  However, every mask must have, eyes, nose, mouth, and other details.

These turned out great this year!

Beginning of the Year Self Portraits

 It's the beginning of the school year, and my students have spent the last two art classes drawing self portraits.  For this assignment, I mostly wanted to gauge their abilities, so I gave student the freedom to draw their portrait either realistic or cartoonish.
 Considering that I gave the students little guidance on how to draw a person, I feel my students did an amazing job!  My plan is to do another self portrait at the end of the school year, so we can compare their growth.

 I think these turned out wonderful!

New School Year, New School

The school year starts tomorrow and I am at two new schools this year. I am so excited to meet my new students, and start the new year! Here is a photo of one of my schools.  I am on a cart at my other school.

I can't wait to post my students' wonderful artwork as the year progresses!

Reflections, 3rd Grade

I have done this lesson many times, and my students always LOVE it.  From an art standpoint this lesson can teach about landscapes, reflections, and basic printing.  From a math standpoint this lesson incorporates the concept of flips which is also referred to as reflections.  I love when art lessons cross into other subjects!  

This is very simple to complete.  All you need to do is have students draw and color a landscape on the top half of their paper with washable markers (You can also use liquid watercolor paint if you want).  Then just spray the bottom half of the paper with water, fold, and rub.   I think the results were wonderful! 

One Point Perspective, 4th and 5th Grade.

Believe it or not, after 10 years of teaching, this was my first time teaching one point perspective to my students.  Until I saw this simple lesson on the blog Elementary Art is Fun, I have always been intimidated to teach one point perspective to young children. This lesson breaks one point perspective into simple, easy to understand steps.

While students did struggle a little with understanding one point perspective, with a little guidance, they did a great job!

Styrofoam Prints, 3rd Grade

I love printmaking lessons, and this year I decided to try styrofoam printing with my 3rd graders. This year I managed to get a hold of four printing brayers and printing ink, which was exciting for us.  It has been a few years since I have been able to teach styrofoam printing. 

 To begin this lesson, we looked at Adrinka Cloths from Ghana.  Students used this as their inspiration for their designs.  Students then carved into Styrofoam to create their designs, and printed them four times.

These turned out great! and the students loved the printing process!

Notans, 4th and 5th Grade

My 4th and 5th graders created Notions.  Notan is a Japanese word for the interactions between dark and light.  Traditionally Notans use a black square piece of paper, which is then cut to create symmetrical images that play with the idea of positive and negative space.  It also ties perfectly into geometry, since Notans focus on reflections/flips.

Clay Faces, 5th Grade

In the last few weeks, I have been doing a variety of clay projects with my 3-5th graders.  My fifth graders finished their clay faces this week.

 Students created this in 2 (35 minute) art classes.  The first class, they created the clay face.  The second class, they painted it with tempera paint.  Unfortunately, I do not have enough glaze this year, but the tempera paint turned out nice anyway.

 I love the creativity in these!

Clay Cupcakes, 3rd Grade

 My students finally painted their clay cupcakes.  We didn't have enough glaze this year, so we used tempera paint. I think the tempera paint turned out nice.

 These turned out very well considering we only had two (30 minute) classes to create and paint these beauties.

3rd Grade, Clay Cupcakes

 It's my favorite time of the year, clay time!  My 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will be working on ceramic lessons for the next few weeks.  Here are clay cupcakes made by my 3rd graders.  This is what they look like right out of the kiln.  We will be painting this soon!  I do not have enough glaze this year, so we will be painting them and then adding a clear sealer on top.  I will post the final results, when they are finished.

 My students are so excited about these! I love them too!