Trying Tapigami

At the last conference I attended (a few weeks ago) I was introduced to tapigami.  Which is art made using only masking tape.  I showed my sixth graders a video from YouTube, gave them some tape and scissors and about 30 minutes:

These are by no means finished, we've just started.  And it's part of a bigger unit on environment, so we'll be working on them for a while.  When students are satisfied with their creations, they'll put a layer of Mod Podge on them to seal in the stickness. 
We're always looking for something new, right?  So go google tapigami and have some fun!

Wild Beast Landscapes

My fifth graders started the year learning about fauvism, and we've been working smaller than normal (9 x 12 vs 12 x 18).  Mostly because I know my Artome' show is in the spring and I want to be R.E.A.D.Y. this year (no desperate last minute gluing at 10 pm the night before it needs to be mailed, or at least LESS desperate last minute gluing).  I'm also taking an online course for graduate credit to update/better use Schoology, which our district uses for online things rather than Google Classroom.  It's really forced me to think about what students are doing, what leads to what, etc.  All that being said, this is our last paper fauvism project (I still have a digital one for them to complete in my online fauvism folder, but that's more a leading-to-cubism assignment).
Student used ONE COLOR of Mr. Sketch markers to draw a simple landscape, and then traced their marker with glue:

Ugggghhh, sorry it's sideways.  This is an example of
the appropriate amount of glue (and that line going through the
tree can/will be fixed later with paint).

This is an example of WAY TOO MUCH glue.

The biggest problem at this point was having a totally flat surface for drying (drying racks angle too much for some) and drying time (it's been super-duper rainy here).

Once they dried and their glue was all colorful (it pulls the marker out and changes the glue color) we used liquid tempera to paint them wild colors:

They're really beautiful, and even the ones that were a little muddied are pretty great:

Not everyone fully finished, so we might still add some oil pastel details.  Or not.  We'll see what this wild beast of an art teacher feels like doing this afternoon!

More Painting With Kindergarten

Ever have one of those years that a certain grade level is just rockin' the whole school thing?  Kindergarten is that grade level for me this year.  They're listening, they're learning, they're engaged. And we get oh-so-much-done because of it. Bonus: they're great little cleaners!  
Today we used cake tempera paint to paint a tree:

Hmmm, little paint drip in the grass,
we'll turn you into something later.

After painting we read Lois Ehlert's Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.  When they come back to art, we'll use regular tempera and our fingers to print fall leaves.  Maybe I'll even remember to come back and update this post.  Even though I didn't remember until just this second that I wanted to do these on 9 x 12 paper for our Artome' show in the spring.  SIGH, it's just a whirlwind some days!