Dot Day Mural

Our first project this year was a collaborative mural using coffee filters and washable markers for Dot Day. We viewed The Dot on YouTube, which is a story by Peter H. Reynolds. 

Then we learned about analogous colors. Students colored a coffee filter using analogous washable markers. After we colored the coffee filters, we sprayed them with water. 

We watched this video about diffusion and discussed how our colors demonstrated diffusion. Not crazy about the stereotype at the end of the video, but it does a good job explaining diffusion and it's art-related, so you pick your battles, right? -_-

Students loved using the stage in our room to become the teacher as they reviewed each other on our vocabulary words: analogous and diffusion. 

Then all the dots were hung together as one huge artwork! This week we are using that mural as the first picture we upload to our Artsonia portfolios. So many amazing things happening in the art room this year, we are off to a great start! 

Check out the how-to video below if you want to try this on your own! ^_^

Spring Break Coding Camp!

Not art related, but those who know me know that my other passion is science. I am happy to announce that Camp STEM will once again be working with VolState Community College in Gallatin. We will be having a Coding Camp this spring break, March 28th-April 1st. I am excited to be teaching this camp and I would love to see a lot of Gallatin kids there! This camp is for students in 3rd-8th grade and registration is $125 for the week. Check out the registration page for more information and I hope to see you there!

Camp STEM Mosaic Stepping Stones

On the first day of Camp STEM, we made our mosaic stepping stones. These were made with concrete and broken ceramic pieces donated by the people of Murfreesboro. Next Saturday, they go into the Murfreesboro Community Garden to be a permanent installation! If you're in the area, come by and meet the artists!

We first practiced with paper to better understand translating an image into small squares.

So many colorful pieces! It literally took forever to cut all this scrap paper!

We also discussed how much glass and ceramics are in the landfills and how we can keep some of it out,

A great practice of a flower.

Butterfly

Butterfly

Love the confidence!

Beautiful works! See the PowerPoint I use here!

Camp STEM Recycled Art Show at Linebaugh Library

How awesome did these signs turn out?!

The show is up at Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro until Saturday, June 20th! Thanks so much to everyone at the library for letting us use your space and thanks to all of the families who came out to the reception! So proud of all of the work these kids have done!

See the post about Recycled Paper Weaving here.

See the post about these Eco-Collages here.

See the post about Cardboard Collagraphs here.

Camp STEM Recycled Paper Weaving

This is the same project from one of the days at last year's Frist Camp which you can read more about here.

The difference is in the materials. We painted one sheet of paper in any way they want. I love the abstract patterns and designs they create with this freedom!

Then we weaved the weft with recycled papers like magazines, newspapers, notebook paper, music paper, and even cardboard. 

Not a ton of action shots with this one, but you can see more of these in the Recycled Art Show post.

Here is the PowerPoint I used for this project.

Camp STEM Eco-Collage

This project was inspired by (totally copied from) Art is What I Teach and it was perfect for our camp's needs. Thank you.

A simple process. We started by painting a background, either non-objective patterns or a scenery. 

Then we used magazines, newspapers, and cardboard to cut basic shapes for our collages. Before our art project, we visited the wetlands in town at the Discovery Center. We built on what we learned there in choosing our subject. We made collages of things that lived in the wetlands like bugs, snakes, alligators, or plants.

Breaking things into simple shapes was a week-long theme as we had students from k-6th grade in a single class.

Siann's beautiful work!

Nora's colorful dragonfly! ^_^

Great minds thinking alike at this table. ;)

You can see more completed works in the Recycled Art Show post!