Showing posts with label collaborative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaborative. Show all posts

Monday, September 5, 2016

In the Art Room: Monochromatic Selfie Mural

Oh, y'all. Murals. Every time I have the kids create the pieces for one I think to myself: THIS HAS GOT TO END. The crawling on the floor, the hot glue burns, the accidental stapling of flesh (in my thigh? For real tho?). Then I hang it up and immediately forget the pain and suffering. I just stand back and absorb the awesomeness that is the work of my wee artists. 
Like awww, y'all. These selfies created by my first through fourth grade students (with about a dozen missing as they still have some finishing up to do) are just about the best thing ever. And it already has me plotting and planning our next collaborative project. Because I'm a glutton for punishment. 
In case you missed it, we started our school year with a monochromatic self-portrait project. You can see the finer details here. The above is the video that I shared with the kids. 
And here is a look-see as to my set up. The covered tables signify the colors available at that table. The kids could use any ONE color they wanted (which meant for that first day, they sat where they liked) but if a table was filled up, then move along, Little Doggie. On the tables there were two bins filled with markers and colored pencils of one color in a range of values. There were also mirrors on each table. 
At the end of the first week, I had a stockpile of these lovelies that I organized by color. Initially I was going to do something COMPLETELY different with these selfies. However, tried as I might to make the idea work (I was going to make a big ole peace sign), it just wasn't coming together. So I shelved the idea, allowed myself to let it go and I flipped my flop... 
And went with this idea instead: The Many Faces of J.E.S. 
Our students have a STONG sense of school pride. They are happy kids who truly love their school. Our school colors are yellow and blue. I think they are gonna totally dig this mural when they see it tomorrow!
But, like I said, the gluing, mounting, plotting and planning is what completely wears me out. I did this on a Sunday just so I could knock it out with plenty of uninterrupted time. And so no child could witness giant extension cords and hot glue guns on the ground. Is it any wonder why I am so accident prone? I set myself up for disaster. I truly am my own biggest enemy!
Next up: kindergarten still needs to create selfies. AND I had the posters that the kids created in this post laminated. I can't wait to hang them up alongside this mammoth masterpiece. 
I'm also stoked that this is up two whole weeks before Open House! Now I just gotta get three grade levels of Dot Day artwork up...whew. That outta be a good time. 
In the meantime, I'll just be hanging out with some colorful kids.
Who are so uniquely different. I love seeing the variety of creativity!
By the way...I may be a little spotty this week as I'm having a ROOT CANAL tomorrow. Be thinkin' of me y'all. And floss. A lot.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

In the Art Room: Mini-Monochromatic Self-Portraits

Well, hello there. This big toothy grin is brought to you by our mini-monochromatic self-portrait project! Our first project of the new school year is a collaborative one. Each of my four hundred-ish students will be making a 3" square selfie to contribute to a large mural. Y'all might have seen the rainbow portrait mural that was all the rage on Pinterest a couple years ago (in case you missed, it's the same process as what I'm sharing here. When complete, the portraits are hung in Roy G. Biv order which makes for a beautiful display). The last time I did a project like this (back in 2012), we hung the pieces to create a large world map. This go-round I have something different in mind which I hope to have ready to share with y'all real soon. In the meantime, let's chat monochromatic self-portraits!
 I have my older students, third and fourth grade, for an hour. After watching the start of the video below, I allowed the students the choice of either participating in the guided drawing in the video or working on their own. My classes were pretty evenly split between those who preferred guided vs. independent. Some kids would draw along for a while until they felt comfortable then migrate to their chosen table (more on that in a sec) while others would decide they'd like a little guidance and join the kids on the floor.
Creating this video was great in that I could add vocabulary pop-ups when needed. I also think that the intro would work great with a variety of self-portrait projects. Feel free to show it in your art room, that's why I'm sharing it here! You can find many more videos like this on my YouTube channel. I add more videos weekly so if you subscribe, you can stay tuned. 
My third graders (seen above) were able to bust these bad boys out in no time. I had only one rule when coloring: only use colored pencils on the face. I learned from experience that the dark markers will often cover too much of the face and the kids lose their beautiful details. 

So, who did they know which colors to use? 
I color coded the tables! I told the kids that the table cloth signified which color was available on the table. Inside those plastic bins were markers and colored pencils of only one color. I also had mirrors and "idea sheets" (with a variety of faces and facial features) drawn on them.
So on the first days of art, the kids sat where they liked, no assigned seats. This gave me a chance to see who would migrate together and who would not be able to sit with their buddy (more talkie than workie means new seatie for sweetie). 
 AH!! First grade! Their selfies made me smile! 
 For the wee ones, we did a guided drawing activity. We spent one day learning about self-portraits and drawing them together.
I love this activity because it's such a great assessment of student skill level at the start of the year. It also is gonna make a super sweet mural that I can pop up on the walls right away. And, who doesn't love a selfie? Especially when they are this cute. 

Love to hear what y'all are doing for these first weeks back to school! 

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Sunday, April 24, 2016

In the Art Room: Chalked Flower Ceiling Tiles

It all started last year, when we had a visiting artist who is a street painter (aka a sidewalk chalk artist). The kids were supposed to go outside and work on their own taped off portion of sidewalk. And then...rain. With my small brain frantically searching for ideas where the kids could still work on a sidewalk-esque surface but remain indoors, the Chalked Ceiling Tile project was born! 
My super awesome administration had been asking me for a while to do some artwork on ceiling tiles. I'd put the project off as I just didn't know how to go about it. But when rain was predicted the eve before our sidewalk chalk event, the idea to have students chalk tiles came to me. After toying around a bit, I found that the reverse side of the tiles actually worked much better than the front!
Last year, second graders create these butterfly ceiling tiles as it was apart of their curriculum. This year, it isn't. So I decided to have them create something that would look nice with the butterflies: flowers! 
This year, I decided to try something a little different. I've been showing demo videos on the regular in my art room and the kids have responded really well. Because I was going to be teaching an entire grade level of second graders in a loud multi-purpose room, I thought this would be the perfect time to use a filmed lesson. I've been adding videos regularly so feel free to subscribe to my channel if you wanna. Here's the video the kids watched:
You'll notice that the video is broken down into four sections: drawing out the flowers, coloring in the flowers, adding a background, outlining and autographing. I had the students work on these from roughly 9:30 to 11am. They are used to 30 minute art classes! So, I would show a small snippet of the video and allow them to work. They knew to gather back on the floor when they were finished. Of course, they all finish at different rates. When I had about a dozen or more students gathered on the floor, I would ring my chime (yes, that was a shameless plug for my husband's company) which would signal ALL students, finished or not, to gather on the floor to hear the next snippet. I do this in my art room when we have several steps, so the kids are kinda used to this routine.
Not gonna lie, this was no small undertaking but it is so totally worth it. If you wanna do a chalked ceiling tile project with your students, you'll need the following:

* Chalk. I love KOSS brand. It's not cheap but it is rich in color. I bought 20 boxes last year and we were able to use them again this year. I will probably only need to purchase 10 more boxes for next year's tiles. We've also used them for other projects throughout the year.  
* Bowls. I had a sweet high school student shadow me the other day and I put her on the task of making a bowl of warm color chalk and cool per every two students. 
* Ceiling Tiles. One per kiddo. Ask your friendly custodian for access to his/her stash.
* Foam Brush Thingies. Get them in the variety pack at your fave hardware store. These are perfect for blending chalk.
* Bulletin Board Paper. To cover the floors. We worked in the multi-purpose room which was great for a large group of kids. Once we were finished and the tiles were stacked on a dolly, we simply rolled up the paper and recycled it!
* Baby wipes. We only used these at the very end. I mean, your hands are just gonna get dirty again, right?! Don't clean 'em til you are finished. 
* Cheap Hairspray. Get the good stuff. You know, like AquaNet.
* Fabulous Parent Volunteers. These folks are the backbone to my art program. They hang the art show. They help with clay projects. They get things done. Y'all gotta get you some. And special thanks to mine, I love y'all!
To organize this event, I simply messaged second grade and special area teachers to give them some dates. Once we landed on one that worked, I asked if they'd kindly pop in the multi-purpose room in 30 minute shifts to help the kids if needed. During that hour and a half time slot, I usually have second grade classes and a planning...so none of my other kids missed their regularly scheduled art classes, which was great! 
Once floral designs were drawn, the kids moved on to the next phase which was adding color. 
For some, this took some time as they drew their flowers small. This was fine with me! However, I did notice some artist-fatigue...so having the kids stop, move and watch the next step via video was good. It meant they went back to their work spot with renewed energy.
I think I would like to do a different theme with the students each year. Because these tiles will remain in the ceiling for a long time, a different theme would mean they could easily find their tiles and remember their classes theme! I had thought of taking down last year's tiles and returning them to the current 3rd grade...but I quickly changed my mind when some of those children said, "you aren't taking down OUR tiles, are you?!" I might be fun to build on this idea and add more tiles each year. So that's the plan, for now.
About an hour in, and most kids were finishing their flowers and ready for the background. 
 Our last phase was outlining and signing our name with black. At this point, students were finishing at different speeds and getting a wee bit squirrelly. To remedy that, I had them baby wipe their hands and go to the floor where we watched an art education video. 
Once the majority of children were finished, a teacher took them outside for recess. This left me and parent volunteers to clean up and allowed those kids who were still working to continue creating. Those are usually my pokey-lil-perfectionists. I'm never gonna ask them to hurry up! 
Once these lovelies were complete, we busted out the Aqua Net and commenced spraying them like it was 1985.
Personal fave back in the day. Mostly because of the Mondrian design!
After cleaning up and cleaning the tiles outta the multi-purpose room, I loaded them onto a cart and wheeled them down to my room. Our fabulous custodian Mr. Scruggs will hang them next week...I'll be sure to share a pic! If you follow me here, you'll see it real soon! 
 Love the composition of this one!
Check out the knees of the kid on the right. Next year, we should just take them outside and hose them down!
 After the kids, before the clean up. So much colorful happiness!
 My buddy the music teachers suggested that each year, for our theme, we have the kids decorate tiles that correlate to the location in the hallway. For example, outside of the gym, the kids chalk sports equipment. And outside of the music room, music-themed designs. I love that idea!
 
Now that this massive undertaking is complete, I can focus on Art Show Land. 
Have y'all done ceiling tile projects? What did you do? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. xo!
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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

In the Art Room: A Crayon-tastic Collaborative

My fourth grade classes have been all over the place, y'all. With snow days, holidays and my jury duty-in', I've got some classes light years ahead of the rest. To try and get everyone back on the same page, I threw this lil Crayon-tastic Collaborative into the mix. The kids are currently creating papier mache crayons and pencils for an installation. I thought this little project would be a nice intro to composition, teamwork and value all while bringing everyone up to speed. 
This project took my students an hour and a half (that'd be one and a half art classes). We spent the first 30 minutes of the first day priming our papier mache creations and then jumping right in to the crayon composition portion of the project. To best explain it, I created a video that you can view and share with your students if you'd like. My apologies for the fact that my hairs kept swinging into the demo portion of the video. Note to self: invest in a hair-tie! 
Really, youtube? This is the photo you pick (well, they actually give you an option. Sadly, this was the best one).
I have about 20 kids per 4th grade class. To pick the groups, I randomly called on a student to pick a partner. Then I allowed that partner to pick the next and so on. My students are very sweet to each other so there wasn't any weirdness, thank goodness. I did step in when one group was assembled because I knew these particular kids would do more chatting than working. But other than that, the teams did great! Our first half of the day was spent plotting out the composition.
Which looked a lil like this. I gave the kids a stack of templates because I wanted their focus to be on composition, teamwork and learning to create value. I know some folks are anti-templates but not me. With limited amount of time and the lesson focus on other elements, I like to remove as many hurdles as possible. Because, let's face it, why make the struggle even more real when it already is. 
Once the team was in agreement about the composition, the tracing started. That was a pinch tricky as the kids had to think about overlapping.
From there it was the drawing of the paper. This was also tricky as the kids had to use curved lines to create the illusion that their crayon was three dimensional. 
Once the crayons were all drawn, the kids cleared the messy mats off the tables and picked a table on which to work. I was fairly certain my custodian friend would not have loved chalk pastel all over the floor. We watched this video before diving in (I love Scratch Garden's videos!)...

This helped us review monochromatic and value. The kids were to share the same pastels for one crayon. Meaning, if they agreed on a blue crayon, they had to use the same set of chalk. If they didn't, some of them ended up picking different tints and shades of blue resulting in slightly mismatched crayons. 
This group only wants blue crayons. So they are having to come up with a variety of blues. 
After the crayons are complete, the kids are to outline with white chalk. As y'all know, chalk is super messy so the final step was to clean up any smudges with a kneaded eraser. Side note: kids go BANANAZ when introduced to kneaded erasers. 
I was walking around the room once everyone had started to check on them. This was my chatty group that I looked in on last...my mistake. They'd forgotten to agree on crayon colors and got 'em all mixed up! After correcting MOST of them, they requested to leave one mixed up because, in their words, "we are kind of crazy." Can't argue with that!
Since it is Read Across America week, we have all been decorating our doors with our fave books! I decided upon The Day the Crayons Quit since it seemed to tie in with our fourth grade project! For this, I simply had my first thru third grade early finishers cut out a crayon and shade it in a similar (albeit more simplified!) manner as the fourth graders.
I loved having the kids help me (read: do most of the work) and that it tied in so well with what the older kids are creating! 

I hope y'all have a Crayon-tastic week! Until next time...

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