More Pollock, More Thiebaud and Some Tinwork Too

My other fifth grade class finished their Jackson Pollock paintings and their Wayne Thiebaud cupcakes this week:

I did this class on black paper to make it easier to return them to the right classroom.  Here's a display shot (they're across from each other):

Students and staff alike have commented on how much they like them.  
Here's some of this second group's cupcakes, too:

So sculptural!

A moustache AND a sticking out tongue?!
LOVE!!!!

I don't really know what the artist was thinking,
but I'm lovin' the floating ring-type things.

The white dripping down is supposed to
remind the viewer of wax.

She's every bit the perfectionist she would appear to be
from the making of this cupcake.

And a few shots of them in the [now crowded] display case:

Fourth grade is working on a Mexican Crafts unit, so we took some notes:

And then made some tinwork frames out of 5" x 5" 38 gauge metal (used for tooling).  A couple of years ago I figured out it was much easier to press in the designs with a piece of folded felt underneath.  

We "X" where our photograph is going to go.

Sorry about the glare, they're IMPOSSIBLE to
photograph glare-free.

Stunning!

The color is just permanent marker.  After all our coloring is done, we use a paper clip (open) to rip through our X and fold back:

Front view after it's been folded back.

Back view

This is my completed example, complete with adorable picture of my stepson when he was in first grade (he's a HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR NOW, HOW did that happen so fast?!):

Not the greatest photo,
but you get the idea.

I love to do this Mexican crafts unit right before Christmas so they can give them as gifts if they want, because they're so darn cute.

First Grade is Going to the Birds

I didn't really realize how many birds lessons I do until this year.  First grade started out making Strange Birds, and we finished our owls a few weeks ago, and now we're finishing primary and secondary-painted parrots.

We started out with a Smart Notebook lesson, a really basic one.  To get the parrots smart notebook file, click here.  The same day we did our Smart Notebook activity, we painted our primary colored parrots.  

I led them through this, painting on the board while they painted at their tables.  We all started by painting a black dot (to be the eye) and then painted the beak (also with black).  Students then chose a primary color (we were using regular tempera for this)to paint their head and neck (we made a circle around our eye, and filled it in, leaving white around the eye).

They then chose a different primary color to put near the eye and on the chest.  The final primary color was the body and tail feathers. I really worked with them on CLEANING THEIR BRUSHES between colors.  I've been working with the younger grades on this a LOT in the last several years.  Mostly just for my own sanity, and so that maybe someday I won't hear "All the colors are mixed!" or "He's mixing all the colors!" while someone is gleefully mixing everything to yucky brown.

After the parrots were done, they left the last color on their brush (not rinsing) and painted the tips of their non-dominant hand.  Then rinsed their brushes, blotted them dry and painted another bit of their fingers (but not their thumb) another primary color.  Another rinse and blot of the paint brush, and they painted the rest of their fingers (where it meets the palm of their hand) and their hand the final primary color. [Although I'm looking at the above photographs and they didn't do the greatest job painting the palms of their hands.]  The painting of the hands had to be done quickly so they could print their hand twice before the paint dried.  
The next time they came to art, we painted parrots again (step-by-step) using secondary colors:

When they returned to art the third time, we looked at the final page of the Smart Notebook file, to really look at some jungles.  And we talked about them--how we saw so much green, how many trees and vines and leaves there are.  i should've probably used the word lush with them.  It's such a great word.
I showed them how to accordian fold paper to make trees, and then they worked on their own, making jungles for their parrots to live in:

Trees without leaves or vines yet.

Love the vines on this one!

At the end of that class period, we began cutting out and gluing on our parrots.  We cut out our handprint wings separately and then glued them so they were flappy.  The final time they came, we finished up any cutting and gluing we needed to do and added a When-I-did-this-project-I-learned strip.  We brainstormed a list and wrote them on the Smartboard.  Students could write their own or copy one from the list. My first class of first graders finished, and this is what they look like hanging in the hall:

I also always post an explanation/learning targets/student objectives by the work, so people know the What What:

I really like these in the hall, it's a little bit of the tropics for us here in the midwest in November.
And later on this year, we'll even make Peacocks, so the bird theme will continue!

Hallways, OH, those HALLWAYS

It's always from this time of year on that I feel so much PRESSURE about the hallway displays.  See this picture?  Those paper people (lesson can be found here) will stay up all year (I take them down the last week of school and return them).  The statues of liberties look great, but I'm putting up new fifth grade stuff, so they kind of need to come down. And at the far end are our first grade owls that are so adorable that I really don't want to take them down yet, although they've been up so very long. This shot is from right out my classroom turning right.
Coming from the main office down the ramp to my room looks like this right now:

Fourth grade mural STILL UP.  Embarrassing, really, how long they've been up and a lot of students drew Halloween things (their own choosing), so REALLY, ENOUGH ALREADY.

 

 And the other side of the hall, some of the new American Gothics going up slowly as third grade half persons, half animals slowly come down.  Several years ago I stopped taking stuff down until I could simultaneously put new stuff up because the blank walls are just SO BORING.  Down at the end are some Japanese Sumi-e scroll paintings that we did in sixth grade that I never found time to blog about.  It's just so much.  Like, all the time, while I'm still trying to be the best art teacher I can be.



I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because I know all teachers have stressors.  Believe me, I wouldn't want to be a classroom teacher, I think I may be allergic to all the testing they're doing.  And I really don't think that's what best for kids. And principals are under so much stress for all the new stuff they're supposed to be learning and implementing.   The past few weeks, I've had kits from our local art museum, where third grade worked like archeologists and sixth grade's been exploring the China kit so I invited administrators (we have three), health room clerks and counselors NINE TIMES and NO ONE CAME.  I was complaining to my husband about it because it's the first time in 14 years that NO ONE came and that's when I realized it's all just too much for everybody.  Is this really good for students?  To have all the adults in the school this overwhelmed? Or is this just a growing pains phase that we'll get past?  For my students' sake, I hope they're growing pains and we'll get past this.  I hope and pray this is not the new normal.  I really sincerely try to keep students' best interest at the forefront of my mind in everything I do in my class, but it's so very hard with all the district and state pressures.
Maybe the hallway displays aren't the worst problem to have after all.

Pollock, Thiebaud, Johns and Steeeelllllllaaaaaaaa!

I know I say this a lot, but I LOVE the projects my fifth graders are working on now.  (I also promise that if you met me in real life, you'd find I'm not a gushy/lovey/sappy person generally, I just really enjoy what I do).  

So I gave them a little overview of Jackson Pollock, Wayne Thiebaud, Jasper Johns and Frank Stella.  They took notes in their sketchbooks as I "lectured" (ie, told fascinating stories about each artist, including the very embarrassing time I met Wayne Thiebaud and found out he wasn't nearly as excited to meet me as I was to meet him).  

As we took notes on each artist, I'd show them a little one page slide about them just so they could see a photograph of the man and some of his work.  It's really not an exciting SmartNotebook file, but if you want it, you can get it here, just find the one entitled Pollock Thiebaud Johns Stella.  That was the whole first day, just background info on all four artists.  The next time they came to art, we opened the Pollock Thiebaud Johns Stella file again and watched the video of Jackson Pollock painting (it's video-pure'd linked to his slide).  The first group I did this with is WILD.  Like, crazy-behaviors-half-of-them-are-on-behavior-plans-with-their-teacher-who's-great-and-taught-20-years kind of wild.  I had them CLOSELY WATCH the video clip and watch how he poured and dripped paint rather than flung it.  Then I gave them paper with their names already on it and cups of paint with craft sticks.  We did have to water the paint down a bit. 

 I was so IMPRESSED with how well they did!  Really, they did SO GREAT! I also love how they're all so different, even though it seems so simple and like they'd all look alike.  But they really don't, and I can really see some of each student's personality in their painting.  Is that weird? 





The next time they came to art, we started Wayne Thiebaud Cloud Clay/Model Magic cupcakes.  The first day we got bottoms of cups (leftover from a third grade papier mache vase project) and used 2-3 crumpled paper towels and tape to make a sort of armature to build on top of:

.

The next time they came to art, we added our cupcake tops.  I'd told them to really think about and look at cupcakes before they came back, and I was so happy with the results:

And a few individual shots, so you can really see how amazing they are:

One final shot of cupcakes in the display case:

I just put them up this morning and I've already got several compliments on them (ok, OK, so I may have led people to them and sort of forced the compliments, but I'm accepting of compliments however they come).

Next art class, we'll start some Jasper Johns numbers paintings and then a really cool Frank Stella minimalist/circle/moving painting.  Can't wait!!!!