And we're back! Right before winter break, the 2nd graders started their value unit. They used value to create 3d solids and 3d space in a drawing inspired the topiaries of Pearl Fryar. They tried to
And we're back! Right before winter break, the 2nd graders started their value unit. They used value to create 3d solids and 3d space i...
Okay, this is a boring way to begin blogging again, but I have had more than one friend point out that I need to list where and when I am teaching on my website and on my blog. So here we go. This …
Zamorano Fine Arts Academy student work and real-world collaborations. Art projects created by K-5 students in San Diego.
Zamorano Fine Arts Academy student work and real-world collaborations. Art projects created by K-5 students in San Diego.
No. Oil bars? Yes. The second graders were able to get messy again. When I last met with them, we did an oil stick project based on the work of George Anderson. While the project came out cool, the oil sticks were DONE after 10 classes got to use them. This time they got to use your standard student grade oil pastels to create an image inspired by American ex-pat Gordon Hopkins. Gordon creates abstract images that are heavy on oil bar, natural shapes, intense coloring, and pattern usage. I like the boldness of his palette and the roughness of many of the shapes in his work. These painting/drawings have a great energy to them. The students and I looked at a couple of works from Gordon's website and identified different things in them- lines, bright colors, plants, and patterns. I asked them what parts of his paintings look closer to us and why they appear that way. I pointed out that even though Gordon's paintings and George's harbor paintings look different, both artists are applying similar ways of creating 3d space. Most of the classes recognized the use of scale and overlapping to create depth in the images we viewed. This was much more of an independent drawing exercise than their harbor drawings, so there was a wide variety of approaches to it across the different classes. I emphasized that I would model each step, but they could approach each step with something that I had not shown them how to do. The large plant for came first followed by a line pattern that had to be overlapped by that plant shape. They then added a shape pattern in an open space and another line pattern to fill another space. Depending on ow much empty space they had left, students could break up the design more with line and/or pattern. They could use any colors they wanted as long as they pressed hard to make the colors intense and that shapes next to one another were not filled with the same color.
I recently found out about Peter Opheim's work. Very cool stuff. His process is interesting. He creates small clay sculptures that very few people get to see, and then he makes large scale realistic paintings of these sculptures. The sculptures are pretty funky. Some resemble kids plush toys while others are more abstract play-doh looking things. I was originally thinking that the 5th graders could make drawings like Peter does. However, they would not create a sculpture beforehand. Then I remembered the peanuts in my classroom. Water soluble packing peanuts, to be more precise. I got a shipment of colored styrofoam peanuts at the beginning of the year. The commercial, crafty name for these are Stikits. The students could use these to create small scale sculptures first and then do an observational drawing of them. The stikits are great because it is a medium with very little mess. Just dampen the parts you want to stick together and press them together. The pieces can be cut, torn, or compressed into smaller pieces too. Peter's work was very well received by the classes on Thursday. It had just enough silly in it, while having enough craft and skill present that the kids were hooked with the look and impressed with the skill. We talked about how some of his creatures looked abstract, but he painted them in a way that was realistic. We identified his use of light and shadow to make the creatures so believable. Students could make something that looked like an actual thing, or they could design a sculpture that was more abstract. I gave them about 25 minutes to build and 25 minutes to draw. Our drawings were not large in scale, they were more equivalent in size to the actual sculptures. The classes had a blast building. There was a lot of variety in the types of things students made. When they drew their sculptures I emphasized that they should look either straight down at them or straight ahead at them, so the perspective of the shapes would not be so troublesome. They used colored pencils to add light and shadows to their drawings. Well done 5th graders! Note to teachers- it's kinda hard to have all the kids keep straight faces while you're up there talking about peanuts:)
NAEA is off and running... for me, anyway:) I had the pleasure of hosting 4 wonderful art teachers from the Kamehameha schools in Hawaii for a morning tour of our campus and art instruction at Zamo. It was great to share practices and to celebrate what we do here on site. It was also nice to take a small group around because tomorrow it will be a group of 25 as art teachers come over for a pre-conference tour. Before and after the Hawaiian foursome tour, I did a couple more muppet mix ups. A 3rd grade class took on Beaker, while a kinder class did the project with Kermit:)
Nothing like getting your classroom nice and clean and then starting off the year with a collage project! Genius, I say;) Below are a few pics of the classroom before the kids came through. Quote on the left- "To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong." Love it. I'm color coding the tables this year and releasing students whose tables are clean and quiet by simply showing them a card with the table's color on it. One of the ways I'm aiming to manage with non verbal cues. Some "new" posters. I really like the Grant Wood one at the top. Hand signals for a few common classroom issues. Students rotate to me during the school year for two weeks and then they are off to another instructor for the next two weeks. Kathi, the other art instructor, does not meet with classes the first week of school, so I do mini lessons with as many classes as I can that/this first week. This year I will see all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes for 30 minutes each. This is a great opportunity to go over the classroom rules and to get the kids back in the swing of things. It's difficult to do a project in 20 minutes, so I have them work on a large collaborative project. Last year I did a project inspired by a few pieces by the artist Lee Gainer (which has brought a bunch of traffic to the blog:). I decided to do another collage this year, as it allows me to use a bunch of leftover paper from the past year. I found a quilt done by Carol at the blog mamacjt and loved the bold colors, the repetition of round shapes, and how the composition was jam packed. I also thought it was cool that her quilt had so many round shapes, since most of the quilts I have shared with the students use mostly squares, rectangles, and triangles. Her quilt was, in turn, inspired by a painting done by Georgia Gray. the quilt. the painting. So, the kids are building a collage inspired by a quilt inspired by a painting. It's a pretty simple activity. Students start our with 3 sheets of paper- big, medium, and small. They fold each once or twice and then cut out round shapes from those sheets. Once their shapes are cut out, they glue them together, and then onto the big (24x36") sheet at their table. I emphasize, especially for the classes that came after the first one, that they should think about the best places for their shapes. I ask them to respond to the composition as it fills up. Once the sheets are pretty full (about 3 classes) I ask the next group to draw round shapes around their cut paper "targets". Students then fill in the spaces that are left in between the white ringed targets. It took 5 classes to complete the collages in the images below. I figure to have at least 12 more by the end of class on Friday. I will hang them in the back of our auditorium when they are finished to serve as a beginning of the year temporary public art project. The kids are having a bunch of fun with it. Not a lot of stress in the project since they are adding onto something already started and others are wrapping it up behind them. I think the overall effect will be pretty darn interesting too:)
The 2nd graders checked out a fish painting by Sandra Silberzweig last week. We used her painting to learn about pattern, contour lines, and warm and cool colors. The first thing I had students recognize were the main characters and setting. I pointed out how each part of Sandra's image had a black outline or contour line around it. These lines make it easier to see parts after color is added. After that we talked about what made some of the characters different from others- size, direction, color, and pattern. I then talked to them about warm and cool colors. I explained that because Sandra used mostly cools on her fish and warms in her background, the fish stood out from the setting. Before students started drawing their fish I demonstrated basic body shapes for them. Once their fish were drawn, students added details to their underwater setting. Contour lines were traced after that. When students were ready to begin coloring, I modeled making color patterns with either warm or cool colors on their fish, but not both. I also had them notice how I pressed hard to make the colors bold. Students used the opposite set of colors in the background, pressing hard on parts and softly on others to make parts lighter. During the activity I kept color charts posted at the front of the room, so students could keep their warms and cools straight.
No. Oil bars? Yes. The second graders were able to get messy again. When I last met with them, we did an oil stick project based on the ...
The 3rd graders are starting their color and chalk pastel unit by looking at the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat for inspiration. This activity...
Wrapping up with my first 2 week rotation with our 1st & 4th graders and we have been experimenting with line while looking at the work of Nate Williams, Brita Lynn, Cadu Mendonca, and Seize Happywalker for inspiration. Let’s dive in. 1sts looked at an illustration by Nate Williams and created profile portraits than included things of interest/ importance to them. They talked about things they liked, drew a few of them as practice, and then included them in the head of a portrait. They drew a picture of them thinking about what they like. They came back this week and we looked at a couple animals at the SD zoo and compared them to a couple paintings by Cadu Mendonca. They picked up on the difference between seeing a face in profile and seeing one from the front- one eye and half a mouth… except for peppa pig! We drew one of his animals together and then kids were to experiment with patterns within the animal. Color was added to specific parts to make certain parts stand out. 4ths looked to a drawing by Brita Lynn Thompson (zenspiredesigns) for a landscape and pattern exercise. They noticed how line was used to make the different landscape elements and how she also used it to fill every area with patterns. They looked at a collection of Sd landmarks and tried out combining different elements from different images. We talked about large v small scale and overlapping to create space, to boot. Students scaled up in pencil, added colored, traced contour lines, and added patterns. Most kids needed extra time for this activity, so they had a full 80 minute session and then 15 minutes of the next to complete it. After that, they took a look at some work by Seize Happywallmaker (how awesome is that name?). They picked up on how he uses lines to create different shapes and how he overlaps to still make some depth in an abstract image. They noticed how symmetry was present in some of his pieces and not in others. I shared a short video of Home working and the kids loved it. It’s always cool to share this type of thing with our kids. I think it’s so important to see, videos or first hand, artists working through the various steps of the design process. I modeled how they could create a design like Seize by starting with a couple simple shapes, giving them borders, adding another border that branches off, and then supporting shapes. We jumped right in to this. It was more much more spontaneous than the landscape drawing. Students drew, traced their lines, and added color. When coloring, I encouraged them to experiment with hard/soft, color patterns, and leaving some background shapes open, so there were places for us to rest. To wrap up, the 4ths completed an exit slip that had them comparing and contrasting the focus works and telling me which experience they enjoyed more and why. The 1sts and 4ths are off to a great start! Can’t wait to see them again when we play with shape!
No color left behind this season
I've been working with our littlest artists the past couple weeks and they are experimenting with chalk pastels, too. We have been mixing colors and using letters and words in our drawings. For this activity, we are looking at the work of Ethiopian artist Wosene Worke Kosrof. He uses characters from his native language, Amharic, as the basis of his compositions. We start the activity by looking at Wosene's website, so the kids can see him and a couple of his pieces. When looking at his paintings, we notice how some of the characters different sizes- big, medium, and small. We also notice how some of the characters resemble English letters and some look right side up, others look flipped upside down, and others look they are on their side. Now, before getting to the letters part, we prepare to do some color mixing. The kinders have already done a collage that focused on primary colors, so we review them and then break our paper up into rectangles and squares by drawing horizontal and vertical lines. I model using the point of the chalk for this. When we start to fill shapes in, we use the side of the chalk and we try to keep our elbows up, so that our drawings and arms stay as clean as possible. (The kids also can choose to wear art aprons for this- I only have one size, so it's always a little comical watching them put the aprons on and having them come down to their shins;) After laying the primaries in to all our shapes, we experiment with mixing by adding one primary on top of another to make our secondary colors. We also add white to a couple colors, so we can see how colors get lighter and not darker when we do. The final step requires a switch to our greasy crayon- the black oil pastel. (I pull the black chalk pastel from all my boxes because, when they get used, drawings get out of control.) I model using a letter per shape to spell a name. As I go, I turn the paper in different directions to change the orientation of some of the letters. Once we have letters in each shape, we go back and make a few of them bold by pressing harder and making the lines thicker. This activity has brought out a lot of joy in the kids. They're excited to see the new colors that they create and they have been digging the play of letters in their drawings.
Alma Thomas was a remarkable woman. She was the first student to ever graduate from Howard University with a degree in art. She taught art ...
I recently wrapped up my first 2 week rotation with our first graders. They explored line direction, pattern, and color value while being inspired by the work of Monty Montgomery and Minhau. Students discovered that an artist can use similar types of lines to make works of art that look a lot different than each other. I shared the work of Monty the first week. (Monty was kind enough to visit with some students while this was going on... I'll share more on that wonderful experience later:) He paints intensely colored, hard edged abstract pieces and I used his work to introduce students to horizontal, vertical, and diagonal straight lines. After making the lines with our bodies, we looked at a few of his pieces to see how he used those lines in his paintings. We also discovered that he creates patterns with lines and colors. We then made a couple practice sketches that were inspired by his abstract compositions. We did the first one together and then I asked the kids to try a second one and encouraged them to place their lines in different places than their first sketch. They picked one they liked more and shared their reasoning with a buddy. "I chose my first drawing because..." We then drew the composition on a larger sheet and I reminded them that their drawing could change a bit- they could revise it and they could add more detail if they felt like their drawing needed it. Before adding color, we practiced pressing hard and soft, so they could use that technique to create patterns in their work. When done, we wrote a sentence about the process. I encouraged them to use line vocab in their sentence. The next week we looked at the work of Brazilian artist Minhau. We discovered that she has a thing for cats and these cats use the same kinds of lines Monty uses. Plus, she uses curved lines. Minhau also plays with thick and thin lines to emphasize certain parts of her painted subjects. After sharing a couple of her paintings, we practiced in the same way we did for our Monty inspired drawings. Students chose, reasoned their choice, revised and refined it on larger paper. To emphasize thick and thin, we used chisel tip markers and tried to make our big shapes have thick outlines and the detailed parts have thin lines. When we colored, I encouraged pattern making with hard and soft, as well as multiple colors. Kids were very engaged with both lessons and are taking to the preliminary sketch part without much of a hitch.
I don't do a whole lot of the same projects from one year to the next, but this week I'm going back to the fantastic abstract Sesame Street well of Thom Pastrano's imagination and graphic work. The kinders and I had so much fun with these the first time and the new Muppet Movie just came out, so I thought it would be a fun intro to abstract art. I did this lesson with 2 kinder classes today and I will do it with a third later this week. (FYI- Hope Knight did a wonderful project with more creative choices for upper grades.) We talked about how artists don't have to make things real all the time. We can mix things up and still make interesting pictures. I showed the class a photo of the character and then Thom's version of the charcater and/or my visual sample. Kids identified the parts of the characters that were used in the mixed up versions and then they tried it out for themselves. With each step I showed them how they could make choices so that their design would be a little different than each other's. I did the below take on Big Bird before, but can you guess who the other character is??? I'm going to do a couple other characters later in the week:)
Just because an artwork is abstract in style, doesn't mean it has to look flat. One of the 5th grade art standards is identifying different styles in art. At the beginning of this lesson we reviewed how students made 3d space and 3d shapes in their Northern Lights drawing last week. I posed 2 questions, had students pair share, and then students volunteered answers (perspective & tinting and shading). Then we worked through what makes abstract art abstract- the artist changes things from reality, it could be through any of the art elements. We identified examples of both realism and abstraction in posters around my room. I then shared a few images from Filipino artist Hernando Ocampo, who passed away in 1978. With the inclusion of this fact, some students expressed disappointment because we wouldn't get to hear back from him:) In the abstract paintings I shared, I pointed out how he still made parts look 3d by using light and dark colors. I also pointed out how Hernando made certain parts stand out by using more intense coloring in those areas. I asked students to create an abstract design that repeated a shape at least 7 times- varying the size and direction of the shape. They then used crayola color sticks to make the shapes have 3d volume by using tints and shades. Before doing their final design, students made at least 2 rough draft compositions on the back of their paper. When they finished these sketches, they were to share in pairs, tris, or quads and explain why they were picking one design over the others. I then had a couple students from each class share their reasoning with the class. I love the variety in visual responses to the creative problem I set forth for them. When they finished their drawing, students completed an exit slip that asked 2 questions- How this abstract drawing was similar to the more realistic one from last week? What was the most successful part of their project and why? (5W10)
For the 2nd graders' second project in their shape unit, we focused on identifying and using natural shapes in a drawing. We also took some time to talk about and identify positive and negative shapes in our work, too. This project was pretty easy to execute and the results are pretty terrific. I found the project on pinterest. No info except for four student examples in a photo. The drawing took us about 40 minutes to do, which left 10 minutes for our exit slips and 10 minutes for choice centers at the end. The moon shape was made by laying down a circle template and pushing out away from it with the side of our color sticks. I pointed out that the shape was NOT outlined, but showed up because of the difference in light and dark along that edge. This was their first experience with creating implied instead of contour lines. We then drew out our tree trunks, trying to make them go from thick to thin to make the scene look more 3d. We filled them in with the wide side of the large chisel tip sharpie markers. We then added 10 big branches, then 3 smaller branches, and then one small branch to the drawing. We could also add a few animals (natural shapes) to the scene, as long as they were completely filled in to be consistent with the rest of the drawing. Since the skull painting project went long last week, the first exit slip questions was to tell me which of these projects showed symmetry and how did they know that was the case. Their second question was to identify the types of shapes they used in their tree drawing. One of the second graders made a moving monster over at the monster block center at the end of their class! Very cool:) If you are active online, checking out projects by art ed bloggers around the country, you are probably familiar with the work of Cassie Stephens. She does some amazing work with her kiddos and she makes a whole lot of awesome outfits in her spare (ha!) time. Anywho, she does this "What the Art teacher Wore" series and I thought I might spend a minute here or there sharing what a lazy, yet somewhat creative and silly art teacher wears out here in San Diego. Starting things off is this fab ensemble;) shorts- Old Navy, glasses- Nike, shirt- Target, gray hair- Mother Nature
That's one of my favorite lines from the Lorax and I loved getting all into it with my kids at home when reading the book to them. It also suits this first week back to school project pretty well too:) School started this week here at Zamo and we are getting back in the creative mindset. For the past 4 years I have done a collaborative art mini lesson with the upper grade students to give them a low stress opportunity to create and to go over my art room rules and expectations. I LOVE doing these at the beginning of the year. (well, actually any time I get the chance- see my Gee's Bend and Eleanor McCain projects too:) These collaboratives really click with my love of textile design and pattern. My own work tends to swing back and forth from representational landscapes and interiors to more abstract pattern heavy colored works. I realized on my drive home yesterday that all of these projects have had one shape in common- the circle. I also realized that they also have another cool thing in common- they have all been inspired by women artists (Lee Gainer, Georgia Gray, Lea Anderson, and now, Maritza Soto). I came across Maritza's very cool modern take on the drunkards path quilt pattern on pinterest and immediately thought it would be a good fit for my opening week project. I decided to add a little more visual variety by quickly sharing Mexican talavera designs and talking about the repetition of line, shape, and color in them... and the presence of symmetry to boot. Maritza Soto's modern drunken path pattern traditional Mexican talavera pattern I always focus on unity and variety with this opening project, both visual and as it relates to our student population. Each of our students have similarities with one another, but each of them brings something different and unique to the table too:) After a quick rundown of my rules and expectations, I talk about the inspiration of the project, and then we are ready to dive into the hands on. At this point we have about 20 minutes to work! Students fold their square paper 2 times to quarter it. I emphasize having the one fold on the left and the 2 folds on the bottom. Students then take their quarter circle stencil and trace the curve onto the folded paper. One cut on the curve later and they have a whole circle... or 2 halves, or 4 quarters, depending on whether they got the fold locations correct. Even if they end up with 2 or 4 pieces, it's okay because they will end up cutting the circles apart in the end anyway. Students have about 10 minutes to draw a design on their circle, trying to create something that shows symmetry. They then cut their circles into quarters, reassemble them on a white square and glue them down. The final piece is to have students put glue on the back of their white square, decide the direction they want it to go, and glue it onto an even larger white sheet. The final collaborative could end up any size depending on how many kids are involved and how big the original circle shapes are. I did this with all of our 4th and 5th grade classes, as well as a couple 3rd grade. Probably about 400-450 kids. I plan on assembling them in our auditorium as our stage backdrop as soon as I can. Visually, projects like this are fun because of the look from far away and the detail of the designs when you get up close. after one day. After 2 days. 22' x 4.5'
I originally had a different project planned with my first graders this week, but I decided, last minute that glue string bowls with my firsts would not be as successful as I had envisioned. Another time, another grade level:) So, I switched to a shrinky dink project with them instead. It still fit into their texture unit because we were working with smooth and rough sides of the plastic.The inspiration for the project came from Phyl over at There's A Dragon in my Art Room and her post on a recent pd she did that used the work of Nicholas Krushenick as the focus. I was unfamiliar with his work and it's right up my alley! Brightly colored, pattern heavy abstractions with a strong sense of play in his shapes and compositions. I knew I'd use his work at some point after reading Phyl's post, just not this soon;) So, the classes and I quickly reviewed the texture rubbings we did the week before and when I introduced Nicholas' work, I talked about how he, like Clare, was more interested in creating images with interesting arrangements of shapes and not about making a picture of a person, flower, etc. We looked at a number of his pieces and then did some practice drawings that were inspired by, and not copies of his work. We borrowed compositional elements and his use of patterning, but I emphasized that everyone's was going to be different based on choices they made. When their sketches were done, I had students put a check next to the one they wanted to make and turn to their neighbor and explain why they wanted to use that one. I then gave students their shrink plastic and they got to check out the surface qualities of each side- rough and smooth. They traced the rectangle of plastic on the back of their sketch and drew out their chosen design on a larger scale. Students then traced over their pencil lines with thick and thin black sharpies to capture Nicholas' use of bold outlines. They used crayola color sticks to create color patterns and fields in their design. Then we were ready to bake! I set my toaster oven temp to 325 and was able to fit 2 5x7" plastics in there at once. Kids LOVED watching their designs curl, twist, shrink, and finally flattened in the oven. Before putting each piece in the oven I used my 2 hole punch to add to holes at the top, so that it could get strung later to make a necklace, rearview mirror ornament, etc. I think the kids really responded well to this project- they always do when shrinky dinks are involved, and I really dig the range of patterns and compositions come up with. I get to play, I mean model too:)
Alma Thomas was a remarkable woman. She was the first student to ever graduate from Howard University with a degree in art. She taught art ...
One of my favorite contemporary painters is Wolf Kahn. Through his landscapes he walks, or I guess paints, the line between abstraction and representation. His color is a major inspiration to me.
Just because an artwork is abstract in style, doesn't mean it has to look flat. One of the 5th grade art standards is identifying different styles in art. At the beginning of this lesson we reviewed how students made 3d space and 3d shapes in their Northern Lights drawing last week. I posed 2 questions, had students pair share, and then students volunteered answers (perspective & tinting and shading). Then we worked through what makes abstract art abstract- the artist changes things from reality, it could be through any of the art elements. We identified examples of both realism and abstraction in posters around my room. I then shared a few images from Filipino artist Hernando Ocampo, who passed away in 1978. With the inclusion of this fact, some students expressed disappointment because we wouldn't get to hear back from him:) In the abstract paintings I shared, I pointed out how he still made parts look 3d by using light and dark colors. I also pointed out how Hernando made certain parts stand out by using more intense coloring in those areas. I asked students to create an abstract design that repeated a shape at least 7 times- varying the size and direction of the shape. They then used crayola color sticks to make the shapes have 3d volume by using tints and shades. Before doing their final design, students made at least 2 rough draft compositions on the back of their paper. When they finished these sketches, they were to share in pairs, tris, or quads and explain why they were picking one design over the others. I then had a couple students from each class share their reasoning with the class. I love the variety in visual responses to the creative problem I set forth for them. When they finished their drawing, students completed an exit slip that asked 2 questions- How this abstract drawing was similar to the more realistic one from last week? What was the most successful part of their project and why? (5W10)
Just what the Dr. ordered: Blow dryer-friendly Flexalite™ bristles for pain-free detangling.
I took this a while ago, but decided to post it to some new groups today since it's one of my more popular photos. Here is my entire Lite Brite Set . Simple Star software purchased the rights to this shot for to be used in their PhotoShow photo editing, organizing and album making software. They saw it here on Flickr and contacted me about using it. First photo I've ever sold, yay! My Latest , Best, Most Interesting and Random Sets. Kirpernicus
During this rotation, my 5ths are exploring paint, color value, and symmetry. We have been looking at the work of Australian artist Brad Eastman for inspiration for this experience. Brad is a very prolific artist who draws much inspiration from the patterns that are found within the natural world. I really love his play of geometric and natural shapes, his use of contour line, and his wonderful sense of composition as he pulls everything together in works that range in scale from intimately small digital works to immense wall murals. I start the activity by sharing two murals that Brad has done that are similar in subject, symmetry, and use of color value gradations. We spend a few minutes identifying these elements and talking about what these works remind us of- what the students see in them. To start the hands on activity, the students and I create a small sketch inspired by these two paintings. I want them to see how they can break up the picture plane to create a design that emphasizes symmetry and repetition. We start with the eye form and then add matching lines to the top, bottom, left, and right of the eye. The point of this is for them to see how they can start with simple large shapes to set up the compositional framework. Then, I encourage them to add more lines to give their sketch more detail. Once that sketch is complete, students create a second sketch that starts with a shape of their choosing. They break up the picture plane in a similar fashion to the first one. With both sketches done, students choose one and enlarge it softly onto a large (12x15") sheet of watercolor paper. They hold off putting their name on the paper until the drawing is complete. They do this, so that they can use the back of the paper to restart their drawing if the need arises. To create the bold contour lines, students may trace their pencil lines with a crayon, chisel tip sharpie, or fine tip sharpie- or a combo a couple/all of them, depending on the detail present in their drawing. When students move on to the painting step, I demo creating light and dark values by adjusting the amount of water used with the tempera cakes that we are using. Each student gets a scrap of watercolor paper to test out colors while they are working. Students choose a brush to start with- large, medium, or small. If they need to change brush size, they are responsible for cleaning the brush in the sink, putting it back if the right bin, and getting a different size brush. They are also responsible for changing the water in the cups that they are sharing with their paint tray team. Most students have needed about 2 hours to complete this activity. Some more, some less. I meet with my 5ths for 90 minutes, so this activity has been completed over 2 sessions. When they complete their painting, students reflect on their process by answering 3 questions on an exit slip. I am really emphasizing question 2- What was the hardest part of this activity? How did you deal with it. I want them to really think about that. How did they solve that problem? I really have been digging the variety in approaches to this activity. The students have been thoroughly engaged during the painting experience.
Since the 4th graders worked collaboratively to create digital luchadors that showed symmetry and movement last week, I thought it would be interesting for them to continue, but with a partner process that was a lot different than those, yet shared certain commonalities. We started by reviewing our process from last week and then I shared a video of Heather Hansen at work. She uses her whole body to create gorgeous large scale drawings that show symmetry. While viewing it, we looked at how her hands/arms create the same types of marks on both sides of her body as she works. We looked at the physical nature of her work and how it was both a physical and visual dance on her drawing support. We then looked at part of a short video about students at the Shekou International School in China, who have created works inspired by Heather's process. (their amazing teacher, Miss Morgan is on instagram- @morganstudentart) I wanted my kids to see how other kids their age of worked within Heather's framework and I wanted them to hear Heather speak about her work. Finally, I shared a video of my son and I doing what they would be doing in class. Breaking down the work one more time, so they could see it done by one of their peers and a teacher. I emphasized that this process is an experiment with symmetry and centering their body and mind. The communication between partners should be as nonverbal as possible. (This was a big shift from their previous collab process, where I encouraged them to talk and discuss through the making of their luchadors as they navigated a couple apps for the first time.) This was an experiment in close looking (reading) and responding or mirroring the actions of your partner. Partners would take turns leading each other- if they noticed their partner was confused with a movement, they could repeat it in the drawing to reinforce it. On the opposite side, if they were the one not understanding, they should take the time to think and visualize their partner's movement. They do not need to feel rushed. When all the teams got in place, were kneeling across from each other, and the music came on, they could begin. As they drew, I emphasized drawing with both hands at the same time. (I think that was the most common deviation from the activity and it is totally understandable. How many times do we encourage kids or adults for that matter, to use both limbs simultaneously?) After about 5 minutes, I gave the groups a second color, followed by a 3rd after another 5 minutes. The final drawing step was to use a finger from each hand and make marks by smearing chalk that had already been applied. When the drawings are done, we wash up, and come back together to reflect on the processes of the past 2 projects. They answer 4 questions for me, and then we take a few minutes to share out.
