2nd Grade: Keith Haring

the kids started their Keith Haring pieces, but i didn't get to stay long enough to see them finished! but here is the project...
 first, we discussed some of Haring's works and talked about what his figures were doing (dancing, yelling, running, jumping). Then i asked them why we knew they were doing that and we eventually got to the action lines that Haring uses (first answers: "How do we know they are moving? "Because they're dancing! Because they are doing like this! *insert body movement*'")

after we talked about how the lines show movement and emotion, i showed them some of Haring's works that use complementary colors. we talked about what those were and everyone got it pretty quickly.

next, i gave each table a movable figure (remember that i made a ton of those?). the kids totally flipped their stuff over these. they had a lot of fun moving them and talking about what their people were doing and what they were thinking. 

after that, we practiced making some Haring figures in our sketchbooks. every table had a simple "how to draw Haring figures" handout that i made up.they are told to start with a stick man, then add circles to hands and feet, then add meat to the skeleton, and erase the lines. their biggest problem was making their figures thick enough. most of the kids were afraid of making them too fat, but i told them to compare them to the size of the movable models i gave them.

3rd Grade: Foreground, Middle Ground and Background.....

....which will be known as FMB so i don't have to type it a thousand times.
in 3rd grade, we started by talking about animals. this lesson integrates 3rd grade science for learning about animals and habitats.

first i talked about Henri Rousseau and his paintings, focusing on the fact that he painted a lot of animals in their natural habitats. then i introduced FMB. i had 3 students of varying heights to demonstrate the first way to show FMB. the tallest was in front, shortest in back and middle in the middle. so the first way to tell was from size. i showed them a Rousseau image of monkeys that demonstrated this.

the next way was from overlapping. i showed a Rousseau painting of a tiger in the jungle and had them identify FMB and discuss overlapping. the last way was aerial perspective, which we just called fading. things fade or get lighter in the background.i showed Sleeping Gypsy for that one and talked about the mountains near Knoxville and Gatlinburg.

after we talked about the art stuff, we talked about animals! i labeled each table with a habitat (arctic, jungle, ocean, forest, desert, pond, grasslands). first we discussed where the different animals lived then i gave every student a card with the name of a plant or animal. they moved to the appropriate table. the kids really liked getting up and moving and it also got them to read a little, even if it was just a couple of words!
 for the project, we are making pop-up cards of animals in their natural habitats. so on the first day, we got to make the pop-up form and put our names on them.

the second day, the students practiced drawing animals with "How-to-draw Animals" handouts. they had a blast with this, it's not often that the kids just get to sit and learn to draw. also, i was very impressed at how nice some of them turned out!

the next day, we colored in out cards with the appropriate environment for the animal they picked. then they drew their animals onto card stock, cut them out and pasted them onto the pop-up hinge, which would be the middle ground.

again, i didn't get to see this one finished! but when i left, their environments looked excellent!

Art on the Street

i have finished  my new student teaching placement! i am not writing any of my own lesson plans (sad) but i am very excited about what we are doing. our art classes (grades 6-8) always work together with their music class. they have done rhythm lessons together, commercial lessons (writing jingles and making the product) and now they are studying hip hop movements in music and art. for music, the students are learning DJ skills. in art class, we are making street art based in graffiti.

i really like that all grades are doing the same project because it really allows the teacher to fully use the room as a teaching tool. the tables are numbered and labeled with city names from New York, there are graffiti boards set up, information about different street artists and examples up.

for their first project, the students are making a mini masterpiece, which is a form of graffiti art. we talked about the different kinds (tagging, masterpiece, throw up etc.) and also talked about the English artist Banksy. here are some examples of the students' works. they had to include a word that meant something to them, make it 3D, use fading techniques with paint, use a personal symbol (yay standards), and include graffiti marks (stars, halos, drips, arrows etc.) we were also able to discuss color schemes, unity and variety with these. these art works are made on cardboard (yay recycled) with paint pens, sharpies, gel pens and metallic markers.

also, here is a video combining 6th grade's artworks and the songs they made in their DJ class. i was pretty impressed.

these are a few more examples of the first and second projects, I didn't get as many pictures as i wanted! also, i will be posting more videos later! 

again, thanks so much to my wonderful host teachers and the entire exploratory staff at SMS! can't wait to get started on my own! 

Line Scapes

my kindergarten classes have been working on "Line Scapes", which are landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes made from our 8 kinds of lines: swirly, bumpy, zig-zag, wavey, loopy, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. so we learned the 8 lines and what to call them. the kids got to make the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines with their bodies.we also talked about how to use them, "If i wanted to make a mountain, what line could i use?". i also showed them paintings of a landscape, seascape and cityscape and we learned the names of those. you get a lot of "mountainscapes" and "buildingscapes" at first, but eventually they get it.

so the first day, we learn the names and make them out of pipe cleaners *note to self. never underestimate the need for the phrase "careful, it may poke you in the eye"* did not think that was an issue with pipe cleaners until a girl stabbed herself in the eye on the first day. nothing serious. 

the kids really liked being able to play with something and get a real "feel" for the lines. also, "don't put that in your mouth" is something i had to say more than i would like.

on the second day, we draw all 3 Line Scapes together, on line at a time. they didn't color anything in, because the next week, we were going to use paint to make a resist over the crayons.

here are some finished works:

 

 

 

 

 

 

even if they didnt all stay in the lines, they got some nice resists and beautiful color use! i love these!

Joshua Allen Harris: 5th Grade

on fridays at our school, 2nd-5th grade come on a rotation, so we can't really do a steady project with them. we usually do one day things or play art games. this week, i decided that i wanted to do a short fun project with 5th grade. we watched a video on the artist Joshua Allen Harris (which is a great video, btw). then i talked to them about alternative art materials and gave each table a "trash kit" with paper and plastic bags, tp rolls, newspaper etc. then they got prompt words like "alien, monster, animal, food" etc.

they had a lot of fun and came up with some interesting things! no idea what to do with them now....

a person

bunny and flowers

2 girls making a dog

and a cheeseburger loving robot....

4th Grade: Sonia Delaunay

this lesson is based on French non-objective artist Sonia Delaunay and focuses on the difference between non-objective and abstract art and brings in math using a ruler and compass.

First, we sketch it all out in pencil together. then they use colored pencils and watercolors to fill in their shapes.

i have a few who are almost done! here are some more in progress works...

 

 

pre-k is shaping up

last week, my pre-k class started learning about shapes. they mostly already knew what shapes were and could identify my 6: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, oval and free-form.  

the first week, we painted the shapes on paper and outlined them in a different color (this was an extension, the lesson was shorter than i anticipated!).

 

this week, we practiced making things (houses, cars, rockets, etc) from shapes. first, i demonstrated with my big shapes on the board. then i gave them some wooden blocks to work with. this made the rest of the lesson super easy! these kids already know how to build from blocks because...that's what kids do! so they just connected what they've been doing with shapes. after that, i gave them a black sheet of construction paper and some cut-out shapes. because they just built things with blocks, i didn't need to tell them how to make things using the paper. they caught on immediately! yay connections!

and here is a fun shape video.

warning: this song will stick in your head too.

in progress...

next week is the last week for 4th grade to work on their Sonia Delaunay non-objective pieces. these have been great so far, hope they turn out just as nice!

coming up: keith haring

first of all, a rant about how no one in the world has made a good/appropriate video animating keith haring's art for me to show i my class. if you don't mind blinking nipples, this is the best one i've found, and it's super short! i would want 1:50-2:00 minutes, and that would be great.

 but coming up next week: second grade is moving from its Japanese Culture study to a study of movement, expression and complementary colors!


also, i spent a bunch of time making these!

 movable Haring figures to talk about movement! whoo! if i had a tripod, you would have a video of me making them. next on the to-get list.....

Color Wheel Clocks

and starting next week...color wheel clocks in 1st grade! i wanted to do a basic color theory project but make it more than just "make a color wheel". so i looked at their yearly scope and sequence and found that later they will start learning time! and it seemed perfect that they both had 12 sections.

the first week, we will make the clocks on paper plates with card stock hands and a brad to hold it together. we will also fill in the primary colors, red, blue and yellow.

the 2nd week, we will cover the secondary colors and what the 12,3,6,and 9 mean.

week 3, we will fill in the last tertiary colors and talk about the other numbers and counting by 5s. 

i don't expect every student to be able to tell time perfectly by the end of this, but at least they will have a good head start for when they start later. and they can take these to use in their math class! more interaction, less work for those poor overworked classroom teachers. also, here's a fun video i found to practice with. 

warning: song will get stuck in your head.

Displays

finally got some things hung up! everything that is finished is displayed! just waiting on 4th and 5th grade to finish, but i'm super excited to show off 4th grade's (non-objective projects based on Sonia Delaunay). they look great so far, just hope the don't kill it with the paint next week! but anyway, tonight is our fall festival so i'm excited that the parents get to see what their kids are doing!

for the Sunflowers project, i made 2 big vases out of construction paper and placed the flowers above it with some other pictures of van Gogh's Sunflowers. the kids made 2 flowers each so i can have one for the display and one for their finished projects. however, a ton of kids did not follow directions about writing their names on the back of their flowers, so next week when i pass them out to put on the backgrounds we've made, they are going to learn a bit about "community art", because no one is going to get back the actual flower they made. oh well.

the 2nd grader's koi fish were all hung together. apparently, it's a fire hazard to hang things from the ceiling, so the mobile idea was a no-go. by the way, fun fact, did you know that you're only allowed to have 20% of your walls covered in posters etc? it's a fire law thing, who knew? so anyway, the fish are just hung on a board, not as exciting, but they're still nice.

the 3rd grade's Matisse works are hung on a couple of cork boards, i picked my 12 favorites to hang up. ( i was informed today by one boy that i had hung his upside-down. i totally should have know that, right?)

i hung the kindergarten and pre-k's cave paintings together. i strung them together with some hemp and ran them down the hall. again, couldn't hang them all (about 100+), so i went with 20.

every display has a description of the project with the history/elements/interdisciplinary stuff that goes into it.