Leveling the Art Playing Field with Cubism

I always adore projects that stretch my "high performers" while provided opportunity for my struggling artists to feel some real achievement.  This is one of those lessons.  We've been talking about Pablo Picasso and Cubism, and warmed up with our fun Picasso Dogz lesson, so everyone really had a handle on the cubist style.  (We'd also watched this clip several times).  I started by giving each student a 6" x 9" piece of paper and had them draw a Cubist face with pencil.  Students had to show it to me and get approval before the next step (because we all know that sometimes they draw so very small).  After their drawings were approved, they flipped them over and covered the back with a layer of oil pastel:

Once the oil pastel was on nice and thick, I gave each student an 18" x 24" piece of white drawing paper with their name already written on a corner in Sharpie (because at one stage later many of them of them look alike) and had them place their Picasso face on the paper: pencil side up, oil pastel side down.  Now the magic happens! Students traced their drawing, leaving an exact copy on their paper in oil pastel.  Fifth graders LOVE THIS.

When they've traced their own, they look around the classroom at other faces they like and borrow from them (or me, but they can only use one of mine).  They end up with three faces total (like Picasso's "Three Musicians").

In process, but this one shows that sometimes, if a face
has been used multiple times another layer of oil pastel
must be added for the transfer to be successful.

When all three faces have been transferred, students use simple shapes to make bodies for their people and put them in a fun situation (the movies, shopping, sports . . . )

Finally, color is added with marker, crayon and/or colored pencil:

We've still got a tiny bit of touch up to do after Winter Break, but here's where we are now:

Eating tacos!

I think they're at the mall?
But I love the faces on this one.

Dabbing with a Santa hat.

This belongs to a student that I'd like to
slow down a bit, and work on coloring completely,
but she did break up her background in an
interesting way.

Love the soccer players!
She was gone the last art class,
or she would be done.

Can't wait to see this one finished!

It's been a great lesson for me for several years, and it really does level our art playing field!

Dear Good or Even Just Decent Sub

Dear Art Room Substitute,
Thank you for following the plans I left.  Thank you for not allowing children to be in charge and say things like "she always lets us get in the painting cabinet by ourselves" or "exploding markers are great! Watch what I can do with this marker--this part comes out and this part comes off. . . "
Even though art may not be your "thing," I see that you've done your best to keep decorum and follow basic classroom rules.  Thank you for keeping students on track and focused on the task at hand.
Thank you for making students be responsible for the messes they make and clean up after themselves.  As you understand, custodians are not personal maids, they have bigger jobs to do than clean up after each child individually.
Thank you for treating students respectfully and using a normal tone voice.
Thank you for understanding that the month of December is rough on teachers throughout the building as the excitement of Santa is too much for some children to bear.  Thank you for keeping the rules and procedures in place to keep things running smoothly.
You are worth your weight in gold, and art teachers everywhere thank you! I am so sorry I didn't express my gratitude earlier, I didn't truly understand your value until now.
Sincerely,
An art teacher who saw too much mayhem this morning

Eight More School Days Until Winter Break

And OH BOY, I hope I make it.  Kids are WILD this year.  Like, beyond anything I can remember.  If you've seen the video on facebook with teachers acting out a class during December, that's pretty much every class I have right now.  
We're trying to stay focused and busy (HA!) with work.  Sixth graders are finishing up their version of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (blog post and photos coming soon), and let me tell you, sixth grade as the last class of the day is not my idea of a good time, fifth graders are working on some super-awesome Picasso-style large "posters" (I'll post specifics when we're done), fourth graders are starting their Mexican crafts unit, third graders are doing some symmetrical name designs, second graders are making calendars with cut paper, first graders are insane with Santa fever right now, so we're being art factories making texture rubbings, and my kindergarteners are all over the place, so I decided to paint with them because insanity is catching.  I did look through my blog archives to link more lessons, and I didn't blog about many of them--maybe because I'm always so ready for a break this time of year that it's never a priority?! And I'm so over-caffeinated that I'm going a mile a minute just to keep up with Christmas-crazed kids!
Whew, I hope you're all hanging in there, and winter break can hurry on up! (and then slow way down while we're all home in our jammies).

Just Fun Little Picasso Dogz

Fifth graders are in the middle of a unit studying Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Jasper Johns.  They just finished their Klee Math and their were some straggler finishers, so we did a fun little filler project I learned at my state fall conference in October.  A lady named Joy Taylor led us through this lesson, and it's just SO successful for everyone.  Because I had students in various stages of done-ness, I wrote the directions on the white board:

It's in past tense because I was saying "students who finished did this"
For my next two classes I didn't use past tense.

I even showed several of my classes the clip about abstract thought from Inside Out so they could see art history in action.  Here is some student work in progress:

Joy spent time with her classes looking at parts of dogs (hence the Picasso Dogz title) but as I've mentioned in previous posts, I tend to start things and get lost along the way, so some of my students missed the whole dog/animal part.  Which still worked out.

They're hilarious and fun and an easy, successful exercise leading to our next (big) Picasso project.
On an unrelated note (I'm all over the place lately), a fourth grader who's new to me is making this AMAZING background for her Frida Kahlo-inspired self portrait:

You're doing great, art teacher friends! Making a difference every single day.  Especially on those days that it seems like you're not.

The Verdict Is (Kind Of) In

Back from some sunny California vacation time, and I've got to say, this is the longest three day week ever! (I can practically feel the eye rolling you're giving me right now).  
Last week I tried making my own clear scratch paper, and (I apologize for the blurriness of the following photographs) here's what happened when I tried scratching it:

Scratching with a wooden stylus

Super disappointing!  Another try:

With an unwound paper clip

Better, kind of.  Maybe I'm just tired.  Maybe I just wasn't feeling the most creative.  Maybe the overwhelming anxiety I feel over our new president-elect and his choices to fill his cabinet are clouding my creativity juices . . . 

It really did work, and with all the laundry soap I put in it smells all fresh.
I'll work on making some up for one of my grade levels and see how it goes.  And I'll also work on making some more art at home to help ease my anxiety.  I'm thinking of all of you, dear readers, and wishing you all the best in the next four years, no matter what it brings.

Yay for Art Teacher PD!!!!

Yesterday (election day, in case you forgot) was a professional development day in my school district, and our elementary department went to the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS.  Friends, it was totally wonderful and I wish we could've stayed there all day.  Their education staff did an amazing job, went above and beyond and I can't wait to go back.  We did a sort of scavenger hunt activity (I think they call it a "3-D Art Hunt") when we got there/until the museum staff arrived.  We were provided booklets for that portion of our morning, then split into two groups for a guided tour and finally went back to the studio classroom to do some artwork.  Here's items from my day:

See that black and shiny piece of artwork? CLEAR scratch art paper! We were supposed to put one color underneath, but I love me some collage, so I collaged mine and now I have about 1000 ideas for my classroom.

 I never knew I needed it until now, but now I must have some.  With my budget totally spent (including the entire mini-grant I was awarded from my PTA), I'm trying to make my own with black tempera, liquid laundry detergent and old clear overhead sheets:

I mixed the paint and detergent together and applied it with a sponge roller.  I'll let you know how it turns out (crossing my fingers for fabulous).
I'm also leaving for sunny California tomorrow after school to visit my super-wonderful brother for his 40-and-fantastic birthday.  I wish I could wander into some elementary schools while I'm there and see what's going on, but I'm afraid that's frowned upon.  Guess I'll go to the beach instead.  I'll send you all perfect day vibes while I'm there for your lessons to go smoothly, your students to be engaged and your budgets to be increased. (Hey, all of those things could happen!)

Just A Fun Day Painting With Kindergarten

Due to some weird scheduling things, I have one of my three kindergarten classes way ahead of my others.  I was grappling with what to do and decided just to let them have some free painting time.  We had just finished our primary color still lifes and so I wanted to reinforce the primary colors.  We started out reading Karen Beaumont's Ain't Gonna Paint No More and talked about how to be RESPONSIBLE painters.

After that, I pretty much just gave them papers, had them write their names with crayon, flip it over and get a paint shirt.  I gave tables primary colors of liquid tempera (I added both turquoise and regular blue, then after a bit added magenta and white). 

 Students were allowed to paint whatever they wanted, and were told to stop 'when it's the most beautiful painting you've ever made.' 

 Here are the results:

BIG, GIANT SIGH for the many many hours I've spent trying to rotate these photos to the correct way I photographed them.  If anyone has a solution that works, I'm listening because Google 100% is not helping.

Back to the actual lesson, I was worried about mixing-to-mud, but I only had two do that:

 I do love it when we have a free paint day that goes so well!

Sometimes It Takes A While To Get It Right

I've taught elementary art for seventeen consecutive years.  Seventeen, and there are still so many times when I don't get it right.  But sometimes, the universe smiles down and everything just 'clicks' together.  (I think sometimes I can even here the CLICK as it all comes together in students' heads).
My third graders go on an art history journey every year starting with the Lascaux caves.  We're up to Stonehenge now, and all along our journey we take notes in our sketchbooks using graphic organizers.  Here's what my white board looked like after third grade yesterday:

That circle with dotted lines running all through it is pizza.
You know, to drive the point of radial symmetry home.

It was such a good time.  We learned history, math, and made some scientific predictions.  It works better for students if I write what they need to write on my white board while I do a Smart Notebook presentation on the Smart board.  After 17 years, I think that I've almost got the correct/engaging amount going on in some of my Smart Notebook lessons (you can get the Stonehenge one I used yesterday here, scroll down until you see Stonehenge).
It was THE BEST with all three of my third grade classes this year--magical and wonderful and why we all became art teachers in the first place.  And I'll know the universe is REALLY SMILING on me when one of those magical lessons coincides with an administration observation.
Art teach on, friends, you're making differences in lives every day.

Spiders, Bourgeois and Technology, OH MY!

Ohhhh myyyyy, you know those ideas you get in the middle of the night? The ones that you can't wait to come to school and try out? And just MAYBE you (me) drank a bit too much coffee and tried too much too soon without thinking about it first????  The second half of this second grade lesson is one of those "ideas."
It started out so very well.  I was going through lessons I'd picked up at some conferences years ago and found one of Mary Franco's (the genius behind the Klee + Math lesson) about the French sculptor Louis Bourgeois.  The Kemper Museum has one of her spiders out front, and that's not too far away from our general geographic area, so it was so very perfect.  
Here's the disclaimer: I am NOT the best at reading and then following directions.  Much to my husband's dismay/annoyance, I'm VERY GOOD at reading directions, thinking 'okay, got it' and then winging it when I get distracted by butterflies or chocolate or something shiny (you don't want me to anchor any swing sets as my older children can attest to).  So, I'd LOOKED at her lesson plan, and made a Smart Notebook file that the students loved (you can get that file here, look for the Louise Bourgeois one), got 9" x 9" paper cut with a 3" x 9" scrap for making the spider and thought 'ummm, what now?'  Her lesson plan called for students making webs (spiders, it does make sense) but I gave the students a choice of circles or ovals to trace (five times) with pencil.  We then used oil pastel to add patterns and black watercolor for the negative space:

Next we used Prang glitter watercolors for our shapes (SHINY!!!!):

After our Smart Notebook file on Bourgeois and spiders, students drew spiders on the 3" x 9" paper with pencils, black and silver Sharpies and cut them out.  Cutting them out actually took LOTS of concentration and more than one art time.  They were attached popping out (which was hard).  

Now here's where it got really hard:  I decided to have students bring their chromebooks and record themselves on Vocaroo, make a QR code and upload it to Schoology (which works a lot like Google Classroom).  O. M. G., what a nightmare it was for that first class!  There was too much background noise, I wasn't 100% certain/couldn't remember how to get it to Schoology (our paintings were so shiny, I couldn't help but be distracted!)  Then I had to go and make a document with their QR code and add their name to match it to their artwork . . . I may have lost my mind for a bit, but many of them are done:

(Note that I didn't say all--some got frustrated and we ran out of time, I didn't even attempt the technology piece at my second school where they come from recess and I'm only there 90 minutes every three days. . . ) But about 70-80% of students in each class (at my home school) got a QR code on their artwork.  
They're hanging up in the hall with a sign that explains them, but I don't think ONE PERSON has scanned the QR codes, so was it worth all that work?  

Then I listen to this sweet little voice who really, truly 'got' the lesson and I have to say yes it was. (although spiders don't lay 2 million eggs at once.)