This post was inspired by a pin on Pinterest created by: Natalie Brite Recently I came across a post with very interesting ideas on ways to learn from and correct the unwanted negative emotions we …
Daenerys Targaryen quotes would initially seem like an odd fit for Rainbow Brite, but we love how they work together.
Thinking outside the box pays off!
The 4th graders did a project based on the work of Canadian artist Ted Harrison last week. I found out about his work on one of the blogs I follow, the Artist Woman. Ted is primarily a landscape painter who uses a strong palette of color in his work. These colors often fill closed shapes and do not blend into each other. His landscapes are of the Yukon territory in Canada. In one of these paintings he included an inukshuk. An inukshuk is a stone sculpture in the form of an abstract person created by the Inuit people that inhabit North America and the Arctic Circle. These sculptures are not made to be decorative, but are used to communicate messages. I told the students to think of them as "traffic signs" in the wilderness. The arms could point in the direction of a safe passage. They may also be made to honor an ancestor. While discussing the art of Ted and the Inuit people, we discussed warm and cool colors and identified them in the above painting. We also talked about positive and negative shapes and how their relationship with one another is very important to the success of an image. These shapes should interact in an interesting way and have enough variety to keep a viewer engaged in the artwork. We followed the plan that the Artist Woman laid out in her blog post- laying out the composition in pencil, tracing contour lines with crayon, applying watercolor to the paper, and cutting black paper to create our own inukshuks. When doing the painting I demonstrated adding more water to the paint to make lighter tints of colors. I applied this technique to a stream shape in my painting by starting out dark in the back and adding more and more water to it as the shape continued down to the bottom of the page. By doing this it made the shape look more 3d and added more depth to the painting. Students were encouraged to use creative thinking to create an image that used warm and cool colors effectively and had an interesting relationship between the positive and negative shapes.
This week I got to work with a few kinders again. 3rd week in a row with these kiddos due to our parent conference schedule. We continued working with shapes- both natural and geometric, but I put away the scissors and glue for this one:) I shared a print by Japanese artist Keiko Minami with them. Keiko lived until she was well into her 90s and during her lifetime she made some wonderfully minimal scenes of nature. Very light. Very delicate. We talked about how this one is an example of a landscape in art and we took a few minutes to identify the geometric shapes and patterns she used to create the scene. The project was done in 3 basic steps- we drew the basic elements in pencil, used marker to define the shapes and to add patterns, and then we used crayons to add the bushes up front and to add color variety to the castle. With this last step, we focuses on learning how to press hard and soft to make the crayon colors look light and dark. I had time with a couple classes to create sentences together at the end. We built most of the sentence together, sounding out the words and making finger spaces between them. We then came up with a list of things that we made our drawing with, I wrote these on the board, and students picked one of the words to complete their sentence.
The first week of school was abbreviated due to the Labor Day holiday at one end and the SoCal blackout on the other, but the kids still produced something pretty darn cool. I had bookmarked an image created by artist Lee Gainer over a year ago, and I finally got the chance to use it as the inspiration for a project. This artwork is a prime example of the importance of both unity and variety in an artwork. Most successful images find a working balance between these two principles. If an artwork is too unified it could be visually boring and if there is too much variety then the image could be too chaotic to take in. I shared the image with the students and we identified how she created unity- repetition of shapes, and variety- different heights, widths, and colors. I also shared that the materials used in the image were all recycled or leftover from other projects. After giving the students the lowdown on Lee's artwork I told the students that they would be doing something similar. However, they would be working together and the final artwork would be very large. Students started off by making cylinders of different heights and widths. Once these were complete I gave teams a couple plates with elmers glue and they dipped the bottom end of the cylinders in it and then placed it on a larger sheet of paper. Students could place smaller ones inside bigger ones and vice versa. When a sheet would become full, I would replace it with another sheet and the construction process would start anew. This was a simple way of getting kids into my room to review rules and procedures and make something to beautify the school as well. Each class visited me for 30 minutes the 1st week, so students in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th had a chance to participate in the project. In a cliche way, I see our school in the project. Each of the cylinders is like a student, so are all unified in their desire to succeed and be a positive part of our school community. Each of those cylinders is different than the others in height, width, and color, just like each of our students is special and unique. This project was also great for my classroom physical space because we were able to use up A LOT of paper that was leftover from projects done over the past couple of years. There is a lot less clutter in my cabinets!
Explore Nymphlings' 234 photos on Flickr!
I'm excited about Baby Agbai coming, but what I really anticipate is getting to play with toys all over again! I was totally obsessed with my toys as a child, and I took such good care of them. My friends used to say coming over to play at my house was like going to Toys 'R Us! My dad painted a mural on the wall of my original nursery, and when I grew out of the room it became my playroom. Here's a pic: You'll notice the My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake toys. They along with Care Bares were my favorite icons of the 80s. I still have my Strawberry Shortcake thermos! I don't know what it was about the 80s, but I think there was something special about the toys back then compared to now. Now everything seems to be electronic, loud and/or light up like video games. When the rest of my friends were getting Nintendo a neighbor gave me an outdated Atari when I was 8 or 9 that I had little interest in. I was more content to make crafts, play with Legos or my absolute favorite . . . the Play-Doh extruder: Now this was one of those toys that I knew, even as a child, my mother loathed. I would would get the Play-Doh in the carpet and could never quite clean all the Play-Doh out of the extruder so it would get clogged causing me to get frustrated and my mom having to help me dig it out. Play-Doh crumbs would be everywhere. I remember being threatened many times that each play session with the extruder would be the last and I would ever get to use it again, but miraculously there was always another play session! I also have to admit that I once fell under Play-Doh's spell with it's soft, squishy texture and intoxicating smell and ended up eating some. It was very salty and unpleasant. In college I went through a phase to re-claim my 80s toys and started finding some on Ebay. I ordered a Strawberry Shortcake lamp but it arrived broken (good thing I got insurance on it), Bambi's Fragrant Forest scratch and sniff book (although my siblings tore that book apart and scratched all the sniff out of it, my Ebay treasure is sealed away for Baby Agbai and currently sells for $34 as a collectible), and a Strawberry Shortcake board game. Here are a few of my other favorite toys you might recognize: Now I have to pause and pay homage to play food. I'm a big foodie now, and I think it's due to my play food and kiddie kitchen I had as a child. Ahhhhh - I can still smell the particle board and plastic fumes! I would spend hours pretending to cook eggs, grill hot dogs and brew tea. It was fabulous! I went searching for play food to get for Baby Agbai someday, and nowadays it's much more advanced and realistic. Check out this bounty: If I had received this plethora of groceries as a child I would have wet my pants! This is GORGEOUS! I want Baby Agbai to come out of my womb RIGHT NOW fully formed at 2 years of age so we can play with it together. Seriously, she just did a flip flop in my belly cause she can feel my excitement. I'm not lying! Now there is one modern "toy" that I'm intent on getting for Baby Agbai and that's a Skuut: I first saw this in Central Park last fall and have seeing them ever since. I did a little research and it turns out that kids learn better to balance on a Skuut and can forgo training wheels. How awesome is that?! I'm definitely getting one. Check out these kids riding their Skuuts in pure bliss:
As everyone now knows, the rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon caused by the reflection of light in the water droplets from the Earth-s
Zamorano Fine Arts Academy student work and real-world collaborations. Art projects created by K-5 students in San Diego.
Clockwise from top left: Red Butler, Lala Orange, Canary Yellow, Patty O'Green, Buddy Blue, Indigo, Shy Violet, Tickled Pink, Rainbow Brite, Stormy, Moonglow.
20 Time: Research Project Developing a solution to a World Issue **Includes an EDITABLE PowerPoint version This product includes: Expectations, guided notes, topic sheet, project requirements, peer evaluation sheet, and rubric Independent work 20% of the time, teacher driven instruction 80% of the time Students will research and develop a solution to a world issue that exists Students will be required to think outside to box and creatively Based on higher level thinking from Bloom’s Taxonomy Designed to help students think independently and strengthen their research and writing skills Grades 7-12 Check out what other teachers, just like you, are saying about this resource: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "My kids really enjoyed being able to have a choice in their learning! It was perfect for me because I have several students in the same class that have different needs as far as graduation requirements, so this was a great resource to provide differentiated instruction." -Ashley W. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "This was an awesome opportunity for students to process through their 20 Time projects and provide information about their progress. They also really enjoyed the blogging aspect generally!" -Karla K. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "This is by far my most favorite purchase I made on TPT. I used this with my 7th and 8th graders and they absolutely loved it! It gave them the opportunity to research world issues that they were passionate about! We didn't have time for the final booklet, but it would have been great to have, so that students could take it home and share it with their family and friends!" -Brianna K. Enjoy! Connect with Me SuperHERO Teacher Blog Find me on Facebook Find me on Instagram Find me on Pinterest Find me on Snapchat: Superheroteach
For the 2nd graders 3rd lesson this year I wanted them to continue focusing on line, but to explore color and shape differently. Rob Dunlavey's illustrations of crystal cities were perfect for this new direction. Rob is an illustrator living outside Boston and he is quite prolific. He has done work for children's books, educational texts, newspapers and magazines. A lot of his work has a strong geometric style, although he has been producing some wonderful drawings of animals and landscapes that are much more naturalistic. His series of crystal castle drawings offered students a chance to explore line to make geometric shapes and patterns and to create a drawing that was much flatter than the previous two that we have done this year. In this project students relied on their imagination to create their own castle drawing while only using geometric shapes. The kids have loved viewing Rob's work and making their own castles. There has been a lot of variety in the student work, which is always great to see. Different students have excelled at this lesson. Some have really gotten into the pattern making and repetition of it. While Rob uses many different color combinations in his drawings, the students have been using warm and cool colors only. Using one set for the castles and the other for the background. I also brought the concept of symmetry to the students' attention. It's a bit early in the year to bring it up, but it is one of their visual arts standards, so I wanted to plant the seed so they can start to recognize it in art and nature. 1. introduce students to Rob's work and the elements of contour line, pattern, geometric shapes, and warm and cool colors 2. make the largest shapes of the castles 3. add smaller areas of geometric shapes and patterns to the castles 4. add background patterns using the opposite of the warm or cool colors used on the castles I will be using Rob's sculptural castles as inspiration for a project with the 5th graders this year as well. I'm very excited to see what they do after viewing his work. Stay tuned...
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.
Zamorano Fine Arts Academy student work and real-world collaborations. Art projects created by K-5 students in San Diego.
