What a couple of months or so!

I have realized that I have not updated my blog in a while! It has been a wild and crazy couple of months. I am in grad school, and this is my first semester. Getting back in the swing of things has been fun and stressful. I have also been battling some sort of upper respiratory infection for a month now, and I think that I am getting over it finally. I will be adding some more lesson plans soon though. If there is anything that you need help on before then, please feel free to let me know.

Since I have mentioned grad school though, I might as well talk about it. I live in the Nashville area, where there are a lot of art teachers, but there are not any local colleges who are offering a masters in art education. So the art gang (a group of art teacher friends) did some investigating online and found out about a MAT program at the University of Idaho. This is an online program, and as far as we can tell, very affordable. We started this semester, and here are some pictures of artwork that I created for one of my classes.

I created these pictures by gluing seed beads one by one to a canvas, and then painting around them to finish the background. What do you think? Check out the rest of my artwork at www.flickr.com/photos/malonejanet

Very Hungry Caterpillars

This is a lesson that I like to do with my Kindergartners. I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. After reading the book, the students are given pieces of tissue paper that are cut into ovals, and a piece of 12x18 paper. I have the student use a crayon to write their name and draw a slightly wavy line in the middle of their paper. Then they use liquid starch to collage their tissue paper ovals on the line, making sure that they overlap the ovals. After the papers dry, the students use crayons to add features to the caterpillar (including feet) and a grass line to the ground. These look great going up and down the halls!

Tissue paper sun catchers

My second graders are getting ready to start this new project. It is a sun catcher that is created with tissue paper collage, and a black construction paper silhouette. We start by taking blue and purple tissue paper and ripping it up into small pieces. The tissue paper is glued onto a transparency sheet using liquid starch that I added Crayola Glitter It! to (it gives it a little sparkle that the kids love!) While the tissue paper dries, the students take a piece of black construction paper that is the same size as the transparency and draw a one inch border on it, then draw a tree without leaves that touches all four sides of the border, and then cut it out. Finally, the students glue the trees to their tissue paper. These are a great display on the windows in our school lobby. We also made them last year and displayed them at the local mall.

Where are the Wild Things???? They are in the art room!

The fourth graders in my school are finishing up a collage, based on the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I read them the story, and then the students picked out 2 pieces of 12x18 construction paper in the colors of their choice. One of the papers was cut down to 10x16, and the students glue the papers together so that there is a "frame" around the edge. Next, the students got to pick out a piece of animal print paper that is used to create the body. Next, the students used scrap paper to create the head, arms, legs,etc. of their wild thing, and then glued down wiggle eyes. Finally, the students glued down foam shapes in the border. This is a lesson that I found in the Sax catalogue, and have done it for years. The students are always excited to do this lesson.

Color Family Paintings

My second graders are reviewing their color families, which include primary, secondary, warm, cool, tints and shades (as well as neutral, which is not included in this painting, but we review it anyways.) After reviewing the color families, the students began the project by drawing large overlapping leaves that cover the paper. After drawing the leaves, the students outlined the leaves with sharpies and then drew a 6x6 inch grid across their 12x18 paper, which gave them 6 squares. In the first square, the students paint with primary colors, the second with secondary colors, third with cool, the fourth with warm, the fifth with tints, and the sixth with shades. The students love this lesson, and it is a great way to review the color families

Kindergarten Calico Cats

This is one of my favorite lessons to do with my kindergartners. It is a tissue paper collage with a painted outline. I give each student a 9x12 and a 12x18 piece of paper. Using crayons, I show the students how to draw a body using a large oval, and then add legs and a tail onto it. Then I show them to draw a cat's hear by drawing a circle and adding triangle ears, football shaped eyes, triangle nose and whiskers. Next, the students use black tempera paint to over their crayon lines, and then we let them dry. The next time the students come to art, they are given liquid starch and tissue paper squares. They brush the liquid starch onto the cat, and place the tissue paper onto the starch. Then they brush more starch onto the tissue paper to seal it. I talk to the students about overlapping the tissue paper, and give them time to work. After the cats dry, we cut them out and glue the heads onto the bodies. For a little bit of sparkle, try adding Crayola Glitter It! mixing medium into the starch. The students love this because then their cats are glittery.

Getting buggy in the art room

My second graders finished their required curriculum early, so we decided that we wanted to paint. I decided to have them create a oil pastel resist. We started out by drawing with pencil a large bug of their choice (it could be imaginary) sitting on a flower. Then we outlined with black oil pastels. Next they added some other details with white oil pastel. Finally they painted with watercolors. Some of the classes used Prang watercolors, others used liquid watercolors (I like how bright the colors can be with the liquid watercolors, since they are concentrated)