Let Me Give You a Hand With Some New Ideas

Ok, I'll admit, that's a really cheesy title to this post.  But it's a fun lesson!  These are simple henna tattoos that my sixth graders created as part of our unit on India. (You can download my Smart Notebook file by clicking here and looking for the one entitled "Art and Culture of India") Sixth grade artists began with tracing their hands on 12 x 18 paper, then shading them with colored pencil as realistically as they could.   Next, they used thin-line brown markers for the tattoos.  They needed a little something, so we finally cut them out and glued them to some decorative papers that I had.

  

As always, some turned out better than others, but this project was very successful for all of my students--inclusion students included!

Also this week, I hung up the third grader's sarcophaguses in preparation for this year's art show:

You can learn more about this project by reading my previous post. The last two years we've been coloring them with metallic playcolor, LOVE LOVE LOVE! (although, kind of expensive and we go through every bit of a class pack box for three classes)

Less than three weeks until the art show!  I'm sure I'll do a post about it (how can one be an art teacher blogger and not?), but until then, get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.  Unless it's dreary where you are (then, I guess, stay home and read a good book!)

The Good, The Bad and The AMAZING

We finished some more Wild Things in kindergarten:

Soooo good! So full of personality!

And I tried re-firing the Egyptian Paste that didn't work last time:

Bad, awful, terrible and now in the trash.

Are you ready for the AMAZING?!  It's really amazing!

And a close up just so you can see some of these amazing details.

A KINDERGARTENER drew this! It's her "I Am An Artist" drawing.  Phenomenal! I can't wait to see the progression as she gets older.  She's really going to be something!  This is the best, people, the BEST! Why would I want to do anything else? (except, maybe, win the lottery, but that's a post for another day)

Kindergarten Is Full of Wild Things!

Anyone else feel like they need a thousand new kindergarten lessons each and every year?  Even after 15 years of teaching, I still get to about February and think "I need more for kindergarten to do" or "there are not enough lessons in my kindergarten binder section to finish out the year" and the panic sets in.  The lesson I'm going to share with you today is not earth-shattering, it's an oldie-and-a-goodie with a little twist, pop ups:

The first day we read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and drew our own wild things on 9 x 12 paper with pencil.  We then traced them with Sharpie and colored them with the Crayola color sticks (I'm loving those lately).  The next time they came to art I had 12 x 18 paper all ready for them with their names written on the back for them to paint a background for their wild things with block tempera (we used the Biggie Cakes):

"Bonus" wild things and cave (we don't always follow the directions/rules,
but that's OK when you're working as an artist)

Tornado and boat on the water

Rainbows and trees--I adore kindergarten rainbows!

The third time they came to art, we cut out our wild things, leaving a little "halo" around them, and used our trash to add paper rings to the back so they'd pop up.  Love them!

Really, I know it looks like a cigarette or something,
but if you saw it close up you would see it's a silver tongue.

I love kindergarten projects like this, ones that turn out all kindergarten-ey, all different and colorful and amazing.

It's a Papel Amate Party!

This is one of my tried-and-true lessons that I got from . . . somewhere (but I can't for the life of me remember where). It's part of my Mexican Crafts unit that I do with fourth grade.  We talk about and view examples of Oaxaca, Molas, Papel Amate and Mexican tinwork.  Papel Amate are celebration paintings created on paper from the bark of the amate tree.  They're very colorful and are surrounded by painted borders.  I give each student 18" x 18" brown craft paper to make theirs on:

An "in process" birthday celebration papel amate.

We start out using rulers to lay out a double border, then add our drawings with pencil:

Birthday parties are a popular theme!

We then trace with Sharpie:

Disco!

A beach party.

And finally, paint with block tempera (we used the Biggie Cakes):

A food wedding.

A day at the amusement park.

We have much more painting to do to be finished, and it seems to be taking forever due to field trips, assemblies and the like.  But they'll be great when they're done!