Christmas time

I decided to just make a compilation of all of the different Christmas projects that went on during the month of December across multiple grades. 

To start, Kindergarten made these lovely trees! I read them a Christmas book, then asked them to think of a shape that looks like it would fit inside a tree. They came up with a triangle, so they drew a triangle on their red paper. Then I laid out a bunch of skinny strips of paper (about 1/2 inch). I asked them to cut them so that they gradually get larger to fill their triangle. After they were done, they got some gray paper to make into presents under the tree. 

The next week, we read a book about Santa's elves, so they made elf feet. I showed them how to draw the skirt and booties, but I ended up drawing most of the booties for them... I think they will be getting a template next year... It was so cute to see them connect the booties to the skirts with the legs in stockings. They all looked like noodle legs. They seemed confused why we would only draw the elves' bottom halves. I told them it was an artistic approach. 

First grade watched a digital version of the Dr Seuss book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." That took quite a while, so the next day, they watched the music video to "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." They seemed to like that even better! I let them go to town making Whoville with topsy-turvy architectural features. Afterwards, I walked through drawing the Grinch on green construction paper. They turned out really well! I told them to not worry if their grinch wasn't very pretty, because he is just an ugly dude.

Another week with first grade, we read a book about the reindeer, so we drew this cute reindeer/moose with ornaments adorning his antlers. They used markers for the contour and filled him in with various shades of brown crayons. 

I found the cutest book online and ordered it from the public library. It was called "The Snow Globe Family," and it was about a family that lived inside a snow globe. Realistic? No. But what a fun idea! So the kids drew their own snow globes and cut out a tree and a gingerbread house to go inside. The second day, they drizzled some white paint and topped it with glitter. Kids love glitter! They left looking like little fairies. Some classes had the time to use hole punches to add lights to the gingerbread houses and other scrap paper to make snowmen and stars on their trees, etc. 

Unfortunately, third and fourth grade were busy with nesting dolls and weaving, so they didn't have a Christmas project. Fifth grade, however, had a little extra time to make these candy canes. They used Crayola color sticks. This was a very simple drawing, but what made them look so great is their use of highlights and shadows. I showed them how to blend white into the center to make that highlight that runs down the middle. They also did some highlights on the light bulbs. Some had the time to work in shadows, as well. 

Panda Bears

Animals are always a safe bet for kids. They seem to love all animals are fascinated by them. I figure this is an easy way to incorporate science and non-fiction books. After reading this book five times, I knew so much about pandas- you would think I had an obsession! The kids retain this stuff at crazy rates, as well. 

I started the first few days with a step-by-step panda I found online. The kids were struggling, but got it with a lot of guidance. It just felt like it was out of their "zone," though, so I found an easier one. You would be amazed at how well some books break down animals. The book I finally settled on made it very simple and doable for them. 

Once they got the panda drawn, which took about 15 minutes, they cut him out. They are still perfecting their cutting skills in first grade, Going in between toes and such is still pretty hard for them. They glued him to a piece of construction paper. I kept this one pretty small. The green paper is only 9x12. It's hard enough to get them to draw things big enough to fill that, let alone a full piece of construction paper. 

I they had time, they added the bamboo in the background. I showed them some pictures of bamboo and pointed out the lines in between each section of the stalks. So, they just glued rectangles on top of each other with a sliver of space in between. 

I really love doing how-to drawings with them, because it gives them so much confidence for drawing in the future. Obviously observation drawing is more "Accurate," but you have to start somewhere! And they wont know where to start if they can't located simple shapes inside a complex object/animal. 

Frank Stella Collage

This was a pretty simple simple lesson, but cool nonetheless! I showed the first graders a bunch of Frank Stella's work and just asked them to tell me what they saw. They commented on his lines and colors and "puzzle-feel." So that's what we did! We made puzzles. 

I gave them just a white piece of paper and showed them how to make these concentric circles and shapes that overlapped. They thought it looked soooo cool! A lot of creative twists were taken, and I really didn't see any that didn't look great. 

After they finished those with marker, I told them to cut it into between eight and ten pieces. Part of the fun was putting these pieces back together on a piece of construction paper. I kept reminding them not to start gluing the puzzle back together until they were absolutely sure it was correct. Obviously some were unable to get it perfect, but the results didn't really take away from the project all that much. 

1st Grade Apple Baskets

Tis the season for apple picking in Missouri. Apparently Fugi apples aren't ready for picking until as late November. My first graders and I actually learned a lot about apple orchards from the book below. It had some cheesy pictures, but I learned all sorts of new facts! It's also good to switch between fiction and non-fiction with them. 

I gave the kids a grey piece of paper (9x12"), pencil, and a large coffee can lid to trace a big circle in the middle of their paper. I'm not usually into the whole tracing thing, but I'm always okay with teaching them how to use tools to get geometric shapes like a circle or a straight line. The large circle made up their apple basket. Around the edges of the basket, they drew rectangles to look like the wooden slats. 

Inside the basket, I showed them how to draw anywhere from 6-10 apples. Any more and I suspected their apples would be the size of quarters. overlapping was encouraged, as well. Inside each apple, I drew a "C" with the stem inside. Using letters of the alphabet as references seems to always help them out, because they have just recently gained a lot of confidence in writing their letters. 

I showed them how to blend oil pastels to make their apples look realistic. They have been talking about the color wheel a lot, so I told them it was okay to overlap colors next to each other to blend. So, we outlined the apple in red and worked our way in with orange and yellow. 

A little girl asked me if she could use blue oil pastel in the spaces between the apples to look water. I thought it looked really good and added a nice pop of color, so after that day, it was encouraged! 

For first grade, I was really impressed. I would have been impressed if third grade had done this well! It is hard to get them to stay neat and keep from smudging, but imperfections can make it look even more perfect sometimes. 

 I also showed them pictures of Cezanne's apples during the project to see how he used colors to shade his apples. 

Thiebaud Pies

One of the prints in our first grade curriculum is Wayne Thiebaud's "Lemon Merengue Pie." The kids were hooked from the second they walked in the room. I had the painting projected on the smart board, and they all "ooohed and ahhhhed" as they sat on the floor with me. I asked them a bunch of questions like "What do you see? Well, what kind of pie? Why would he paint a piece of pie?" They rambled on and on. I love it! After our discussion I shared a very special book with them, "A Daily Dose of Delicious." This is a book I wrote and illustrated in college. It's about a special garden that grows desserts. 

                             

I had so much fun sharing my work with them. I also have a secret dream of being a children's book author/illustrator someday, so this was a good way to get feedback! They were so complimentary it about made me melt. 

            

After reading the book, I had them head to their seats and we talked about how to go about drawing our own piece of pie. I asked them what shapes they saw in Thiebaud's pie that they knew how to draw already. The pointed out that the top looked like a triangle sitting on two rectangles. So that's what we drew! Then, I set them free to turn their pie into any kind they wanted. We had apple, cherry, chocolate, candy corn, rainbow, etc.

I have learned that you can control how long the lesson goes by the size of paper you give them. So, we kept the pies small and turned them into postcards. That way we got to talk about mail and letters a little bit. They drew stamps and addressed it to themselves at our school. Then i had them write "Wayne Thiebaud Pies" on the letter side so they could explain to someone why they drew a pie. 

          

Who doesn't like talking about something so yummy? I think they left the room on a pseudo sugar high. I've found that kids love to draw when they are drawing something relevant to them. And let's be honest, dessert is relevant to all of us. 

          

The Mixed Up Chameleon

I will probably end up reading all of Eric Carle's books by the time May rolls around. They are just perfect for an elementary art class. First grade got to listen to "The Mixed-Up Chameleon" last week. I loved how the pages were color-coded, so it was the perfect way to lead into the color wheel. They have been learning about primary and secondary colors, so we arranged them into the wheel this week. 

                             

After we read the story, we talked about why the colors are arranged in a certain order on the color wheel. Then, we drew the basic chameleon shape together. It definitely wasn't a realistic depiction, but they looked just like Eric Carle's, and it was simple to draw for them. 

         

I had them draw stripes on their chameleon to fill with the color wheel. Instead of using a 2-D medium, I had them crumple up tissue paper and glue it down with little dots. They had an absolute blast with all the tissue paper. It was kind of a mess, but they did a great job picking up after themselves. So, I was able to tolerate the mess for a brief period! 

                     

They were allowed to start with any color they wanted, as long as they went in order. If they had more than 6 stripes, I had them just start over and repeat the pattern. This little guy below belongs to a very gifted first grader. (She paints landscapes at home in her free time.) She very systematically glued each piece inside the stripe. 

                        

I think in the future, I would have them cut them out so they wouldn't be all on green paper. Nevertheless, I was so pleased with how this lesson turned out. It was perfect for a 50 minute class!

           

Broadway Boogie Woogie

First grade continues to be one of my biggest challenges each day. I'm surprised at how little we have covered so far because I have to be on top of them at all times. But, of any grade- they know their art and artists the best because their projects have been so thoroughly planned! I have been so blown away by their imagination and retention of information I throw at them!

I started off this unit by showing them a picture of Piet Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie." (It's basically just primary colors and squares.) I asked them things like "What do you guys think this is? What does it remind you of? Describe it to me." That conversation itself lasted at least 10 minutes!  They agreed with me that they saw streets and cars. Then I told them who painted it and the name of the painting. I asked them if that changed what they saw at all and what they thought of when they heard Broadway or Boogie Woogie. So, we got into a conversation of music and dancing. 

I had them brainstorm about what "inspiration" means in art, and we decided it means you like something enough to imitate it or do something that reminds you of it. I asked them what they thought Piet Mondrian was inspired by, and luckily someone in each class drew the conclusion that he was inspired by music. So I pulled in the last detail that it was jazz music. I read them the book "Lookin for Bird in the Big City" on the first day- it required me to sing things like "be-bop do-wa de-doo"- so that was a fun challenge! The second day when we were reviewing, I read them the book below. Both books did a great job tying in connections to the city.

                     

On the first day, I just had them lay out the yellow "streets" on their white square. I told them they needed two going up and down and two side to side. They got to choose where the other two went, and they were allowed to cut those, as well. 

                  

Once they got this part glued down, I went ahead and had them return to the floor with me and I went over primary colors with them since Mondrian only used red, yellow, and blue. I have a book called "A Book About Color" by Mark Gonyea. I would highly recommend it. It's broken up into chapters, so we just read the first chapter about primary colors and mixing them. 
                     

The next class period, they got to cut up red and blue strips to make the "cars" for their streets. I helped them pre-cut the layered "buildings" so they could stack them small, medium, large. To remind them how Piet Mondrian was inspired by jazz, I showed them how to draw music elements in the white spaces. The piano keys and music notes were very successful. others drew trumpets and complicated instruments. I thought of this step last minute, but I'm glad I went with it! It's always good to change up a piece of art so you don't just copy the original exactly! 

                   

Kandinsky Dots

Oh first grade! I must say, first grade might even be more challenging for me than kindergarten. However, kindergartners have a slight edge with their "I'm 5 and was very recently in preschool" innocence. First graders, however, are the real kindergartners. I'm hoping and praying that within a few months- we will have made some major progress! I just have to keep reminding myself to take it slow and ASSUME NOTHING. Can they appropriately use a paintbrush? Assume NO and explain it like they don't! Can they line up at the door without mass chaos? Assume NO and remind them how it will look before they go!

Much like kindergarten, we start our days together on the floor in a manageable space with some sort of story or mini-lesson from me. I began with a YouTube clip that read and animated the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. This is a cute little story about a young girl that finds confidence in art by making all sorts of masterpieces with simple dots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM&noredirect=1

After the video, I asked them what they thought of Vashti's artwork. I asked them if they thought it looked hard or easy and why people liked it so much. Then I showed them pictures of Wassily Kandinsky's "Concentric Circles." I asked them how it was similar to Vashti's work and why they thought this was so famous. To wrap up discussion we talked about whether or not we could make this kind of artwork even though it was so famous. I got a lot of cute shrugs saying "Well I guess we could Mrs. Byrd!"

So we went to our seats folded up a large piece of paper together until it had eight sections. In each of those eight sections, we drew crayon dots just like Vashti's. For the remainder of class I gave them coloring sheets that looked like "Concentric Circles."


The following classes, we used water colors to create the concentric circles around our dots. My first rotation of painting was an absolute disaster, so after day one, I completely reevaluated! A few tips I found... Forbid the use of the sink! It seems silly, but it reduces so much chaos. They go to the restroom after specials class anyway, so they don't need to wash their hands. Then, I found a big bucket for me to carry around and dump their dirty water in during clean up. Otherwise... you will have about 10 puddles on the floor from them trying to walk their water to the sink! Yikes!


I also found it helpful play music while they worked and told them "If you can't hear the music, you are too loud and not focused enough!" The more focused they were, the more they accomplished and the less chaos I had to stress over.

Also never hurts to remind them to...
"Treat your brush like a feather... NOT A MOP!!!"