5th grade artists are working on a collaborative project like Dale Chihuly! We learned about his life, his installations and some...
I first heard about Pinterest a couple months ago. Heard it was awesome, but didn't feel like I needed one more thing to be obsessed about on the computer. Then I came across an art blog where the blogger was talking about Pinterest. I decided to check it out and had a friend of mine "invite" me to join. Oh my gosh! This website is awesome!! It's a super easy way to bookmark ANYTHING on the internet into categories so you can remember it and come back to it. I've been addicted to it all week; found new recipes to try, new activities to do with the kids, AND new art projects! I came across THIS Dale Chihuly-inspired art project. I had a completely different project planned for the girls' art journal this week. But once I saw this and how easy it is to make it (shrinky dink paper, permanent markers, and a glue gun!) I scrapped the original project idea and we have spent the last three days working on this: The girls and I actually started this before I showed them images of Chihuly's work. When I finally got around to showing them images they LOVED his stuff! I got all of these images as screen grabs from Google Images. But you can find good information about Dale Chihuly on his website. The girls immediately picked this one (above) to see larger. Then I told them it was on the ceiling in a hotel in Las Vegas and they thought that was sooo cool!The one above was Ella's favorite. I could have have called that, it has her favorite colors of lime green and blue. And Lily really liked the spiky ball below. I could look at Chihuly's work all day long. It's so interesting and beautiful.So we set out to make a sculpture inspired by his work. We each made a larger shape that I planned to use as the base. And then we used the scraps and colored strips to make curlicues. I usually just let the girls do their own thing with my guidance for our projects. But I was sooo excited about this project I had to join in so my piece is below. :-) We cut around some of the shapes hoping they would have a more organic shape after we baked them. We figured out that it worked well to make thin stripes (coloring both sides of opaque white shrinky dink paper) and cut them up. Once baked, they made fun curly pieces. Above: Some random shapes and colors Lily decided to try. :-) To bake them, I used parchment paper on cookie sheets. I figured out quickly it was best to bake only one piece at a time so I could watch it and quickly remove it, mold it if I felt like it and put it aside to cool. The girls obviously didn't really participate in this part. But they loved watching through the oven window to see when the pieces started to curl. Last step--Gluing the sculpture together: Step one: a solid base using the larger pieces. Step 2: Adding the medium/thicker curlicues. Step 3: All the little curlicues left! I let the girls pick out which pieces I should glue next and give me their opinion on where they thought the pieces should go. The FINISHED product! Honestly, this project took forever! Hours! BUT, I LOVED it! The girls liked it a lot and we're all very proud of our masterpiece. They even had to bring it over to Gramma and Grandpa's house tonight to show them they were so proud.
It all started with a field trip to the local trash dump and recycling center. The kids saw so much trash and recyclables in the dumping area. The workers were letting us know that we needed to help by reducing, reusing and recycling. They let us know that we were the solution the our worlds trash problem! When we got back to school, we discussed how we could help here in our classroom. We recycle paper and decided we needed to be diligent in continuing that. They became very intrigued by the thought of reusing or repurposing "clean" trash such as boxes and bottles, etc. I asked them what they thought they could make out of trash. They thought art and instruments would be fun! That didn't surprise me as I have a large group that is very much into abstract art. We started out by using paper tubes to create individual art pieces. They created art by dipping the tubes in white paint and then coloring them in with pastels. I layed out a provocation of paper tubes, glue and scissors to see what art they could create collaboratively out of this trash! They built up fine motor muscles by cutting the thick cardboard! After they filled it up we spray painted it together. Of coarse, they asked if they could add glitter since glitter makes everything more beautiful! They truly did create beauty out of trash! What a beautiful piece of collaborative art! At one point, one of my little friends asked about an art piece created by a past class of mine that is hanging in our room. He asked if that was made out of trash. I told him it was made out of plastic cups and was inspired by an artist named Chihuly. I asked if he wanted to see a picture of the inspiration. Here it is. Of course, other kids started coming to look at it so I put it on the promethium board. They saw other pictures of his art on google images and soon one yelled out, "We could make those! Could we make those out of trash?" Absolutely we can...and our Chihuly Inquiry was born. That very first experience already started inspiring some of my little friends to create! First we had to learn about Chihuly and how he creates his art. To investigate and dig deeper, we watched some videos to learn more about Chihuly. They were so fascinated they would not let me fast forward through any parts! They learned that he melts sand into a thick liquid and picks it up with a metal pipe, blows into it and spins it to create beautiful glass sculptures. Some are individuals such these macchias, and some he connects together to create larger sculptures like these. We collected trash to create with since that was our initial focus. We needed water bottles since we couldn't safely blow glass (though they wanted to try) and something for the macchias. I had some filters that had water color spilled on part of them so they had a pink blob on the side. We had read a story earlier called "Beautiful Oops." We felt that instead of throwing them away we could use the blob as a "beautiful oops" and work around it to create something beautiful such as Chihuly inspired macchias! The kids were able to be creative as they created designs on the filters with water based crayola markers. We layed them over a cup and sprayed them with starch. These macchias turned out so beautiful! I don't know if I will ever be able to send them home! The kids were also painting water bottles with acrylic paint to create our large scale collaborative art project. We needed a lot of bottles so this took a lot of time and patience on all of our parts! I cut the spirals in the bottles for them and they wired the bottles to embroidery hoops. We used a very strong floral wire so they had a really good workout to help develop their fine motor muscles. After attaching the hoops together it started to grow... and grow... and grow! Here is our finished Chihuly inspired chandelier. This was inspired by his Fireworks Chandelier hanging at the Indianappolis Children's Museum. I recommend going to see it! It is his largest chandelier sculpture with over 3000 glass pieces. They also have a glass Macchia ceiling the kids (and you) would love to see! Some kids brought in some bottles that were too stiff to cut so I showed them this sculpture and asked it they wanted to create something similar. The balls are made out of crumpled up old scholastic order forms wrapped in masking tape to keep with our "Creating Beauty Out Of Trash" theme. The bowl was getting ready to go to Good Will but we thought it would work well for this sculpture. Can you see the similarities? Mrs. Garrabrant had a beautiful book all about Chihuly and his art. After reading it, we found out that after he injured his eye, he started painting! This was a whole new inspiration for them! His art was very abstract and process oriented. He threw and squirted paint, he experienced all mediums such as pencil, charcoal, oil pastel and then fell in love with liquid acrylics. The kids were fascinated and it made me realize they really have a love for abstract art! Here are some of Chihulies paintings. We couldn't throw paint or squirt it in our room like Chihuly so I gave them dish brushes and crumpled paper so that they had new ways to enjoy the process of creating and make some textured background for their paintings. I have some photos of their finished paintings hanging in our hallway below. Many of the kids also started creating coffee table books of Chihuly's Art after looking at the one Mrs. Garrabrant let us borrow. Here is an example of one book showing the cover and pictures on each page. The kids also wrote about Chiluly. The one below is showing Chihuly holding the blowing pipe with melted glass at the end of it. It looks like he is making a Macchia! I loved the pictures of Chihuly they drew with this writing assignment. They even brought Chihuly into their play! The kids used the computer to pick their favorite piece of art created by Chihuly. They wrote their opinion on why they felt the art piece they chose was the most beautiful piece he created. They were not allowed to just say "because it's pretty." They had to think deeper and use their critical thinking skills and write WHY they thought it was pretty. We displayed documentation of our inquiry, showing our journey and the projects we created. This was such a fun inquiry! I had never done such an in depth artist study with Kindergartners before! I loved listening to the vocabulary they developed and used as they discussed Chihuly and his art with each other! I loved listening as they grabbed kids from other classes as they walked by and showed them our cChihuly gallery and told them about it. I loved when one grabbed a teacher and showed her their opinion pieces and then asked her, "So what is your favorite Chihuly piece?" It's hard to believe all of this beauty, vocabulary, and creativity all began with a trip to the dump...
Have you ever observed glass? Artist Chihuly did, and the result is amazing art! Let's celebrate this artist with 10 Dale Chihuly Art Projects for Kids.
Chihuly Paper bowls Students were introduced to the glass bowls by Dale Chihuly. I found a great You tube video for kids where it shows...
I apologize for being so behind this year on my blog this year! I've had so many other things going on with an action research PDP, Studen...
Recycled Chihuly-inspired art using water bottles and markers
Here are several examples of some of my student's Chihuly inspired artworks... Most Macchia- today though Kindergarten learned about Ikebana! They first sketched their Ikebana's with sharpie, then watercolored them! They were so cute! Next the 1st and 2nd graders made Macchia using coffee filters, markers, and spray starch. I had them cut an organic shaped lip first, then colored them with markers, and finally folded them over a yogurt container and sprayed them; to give them a bowl shape once the starch dryed. They students loved this and they turned out pretty neat. I then hot glued them by classes onto matt board and hung them in the hallway. The coffee filter drapped over a yogurt container. First Graders! Second Graders, I made them keep warm and cool colors seperate. Hit an extra standard with these guys! Close up! Finally today 3rd and 4th graders created Macchia using the Dura Lar plastic from Dick Blick. I loved the way that Andrea from the Frist had done altered this process from the Blick lesson plan: rather than having the students manipulate the dura lar while handling it IN the hot water, I simply dipped it in the hot water and placed it over the yogurt cup/ form and the students (while wearing gloves) press their hands onto the dura lar over the form- creating again that bowl like form! We used sharpies and Sharpie paint pens- which worked really well because you can paint the dura lar BEFORE putting it in the water, making it much easier to paint while it is still flat!
Inman Primary has recently completed their version of a “Dale Chihuly Chandelier”. Washington Intermediate is well on their way to also making a chandelier, hoping to complete it before…
The beginning of a new school year is exciting but can also be a little bit nerve-racking for children and teachers alike! The first days need to fulfil several objectives including allowing everybody to settle in, to begin to re-connect/make new connections and to be filled with enthusiasm for the year ahead. Whole school or class projects are a great way to start the year with a bang, so here are 16 ideas to inspire and make everybody feel part of the team.
5th grade artists are working on a collaborative project like Dale Chihuly! We learned about his life, his installations and some of the work that he has displayed at our local Frederick Meijer Gardens! We watched a slide show about him and then began coloring water bottles with permanent markers in either warm or cold colors. Click Here for our Chihuly PowerPoint On Day 2 of this project, we did a partner read out of the Scholastic Art Magazine about Dale Chihuly and chose our 2 favorite new facts to write down on a slip of paper for a prize drawing. Learning Goals: I can work collaboratively. I can retell facts about Dale Chihuly's life and art. I can explain the difference between form and shape. I can distinguish between warm and cool colors.
To start the year off each grade level study the amazing artist, Dale Chihuly. Dale Chihuly is an amazing glass artist. He was born in Tacoma, Washington and attended college in Madison, Wisconsin. He is currently still working and creating art today. He creates beautiful glass sculptures that are breath taking. He creates his sculptures by heating the glass and uses various tools to sculpt and form the glass into organic shapes when it is hot. Many of his sculptures are a combination of smaller individual pieces put together to create one large piece. He is most famous for his chandeliers that hang from the ceilings. Many of his pieces are very colorful and he always pays close attention to the space his sculptures are in. His sculptures are very large in scale and are always the focal point of any room. Some of his art is in museums, but a lot of his art is in public places inside and out. There is actually a Chihuly chandelier right here in Green Bay hanging at the Weidner Center, so check it out if you are ever there! The 4th and 5th Grade classes were able to collaborate to create a Chihuly Tower. Each student was able to make an organic shape that was added to the tower. They did a fabulous job!
I have quickly discovered it does not take a lot of my energy to get students motivated to begin a Dale Chihuly inspired project, his work t...
We have such a great local museum for our students to view a real-life Dale Chihuly artwork and the Kindergarten students visited the museum during a recent field trip. The Kindergarten teachers have been so wonderful in allowing a little collaboration between what they're studying in the classroom and what we do in the art room. Each student was given a coffee filter and a piece of scrap newspaper (to protect the table). They then chose 3 colors of water-based markers and created some kind of pattern design on the coffee filter. Once colored, the students sprayed the coffee filter with water to let the colors start to blend together. We dabbed away excess water and then set the wet coffee filter on a cup to dry to create the macchia shape. Once dry, I glued the macchia shapes on poster board to create a collaborative kindergarten art project! Thanks to We Heart Art for this AMAZING project idea! They suggest using spray starch to help keep the macchia shape, but I found that plain water worked just as well!
Chihuly Paper bowls Students were introduced to the glass bowls by Dale Chihuly. I found a great You tube video for kids where it shows...
In this lesson the 4th graders each made an element of the sculpture. They made these by covering plastic water bottles with aluminum ...
You asked for it! Here is the step by step for creating the Chihuly bottle that are part of the "Chandelier" and the "Tower". I hope this helps!! And this is just how I did it..I'm sure there is a million other good ways of doing this! First tie a string around an empty bottle(this is good for hanging on to it..and for hanging it to dry later!). Have the students remove the label. Then give each student a large piece of plastic wrap. They need to ball it up and tape it onto the bottom of their bottle. This gives a little extra length &shape to the twist at the end. Have the students hold the bottle by the cap & scribble scrabble glue over the whole exterior(including the plastic wrap). They will then wrap it in the tissue paper...allowing for a long "tail" to twist. After the tail is twisted, student will paint a glaze mixture onto the piece. I used a mixture of Tempera Glaze, Pearl It & Glitter It(by Crayola). Then tie it by the string and allow it to dry!
I first heard about Pinterest a couple months ago. Heard it was awesome, but didn't feel like I needed one more thing to be obsessed about on the computer. Then I came across an art blog where the blogger was talking about Pinterest. I decided to check it out and had a friend of mine "invite" me to join. Oh my gosh! This website is awesome!! It's a super easy way to bookmark ANYTHING on the internet into categories so you can remember it and come back to it. I've been addicted to it all week; found new recipes to try, new activities to do with the kids, AND new art projects! I came across THIS Dale Chihuly-inspired art project. I had a completely different project planned for the girls' art journal this week. But once I saw this and how easy it is to make it (shrinky dink paper, permanent markers, and a glue gun!) I scrapped the original project idea and we have spent the last three days working on this: The girls and I actually started this before I showed them images of Chihuly's work. When I finally got around to showing them images they LOVED his stuff! I got all of these images as screen grabs from Google Images. But you can find good information about Dale Chihuly on his website. The girls immediately picked this one (above) to see larger. Then I told them it was on the ceiling in a hotel in Las Vegas and they thought that was sooo cool!The one above was Ella's favorite. I could have have called that, it has her favorite colors of lime green and blue. And Lily really liked the spiky ball below. I could look at Chihuly's work all day long. It's so interesting and beautiful.So we set out to make a sculpture inspired by his work. We each made a larger shape that I planned to use as the base. And then we used the scraps and colored strips to make curlicues. I usually just let the girls do their own thing with my guidance for our projects. But I was sooo excited about this project I had to join in so my piece is below. :-) We cut around some of the shapes hoping they would have a more organic shape after we baked them. We figured out that it worked well to make thin stripes (coloring both sides of opaque white shrinky dink paper) and cut them up. Once baked, they made fun curly pieces. Above: Some random shapes and colors Lily decided to try. :-) To bake them, I used parchment paper on cookie sheets. I figured out quickly it was best to bake only one piece at a time so I could watch it and quickly remove it, mold it if I felt like it and put it aside to cool. The girls obviously didn't really participate in this part. But they loved watching through the oven window to see when the pieces started to curl. Last step--Gluing the sculpture together: Step one: a solid base using the larger pieces. Step 2: Adding the medium/thicker curlicues. Step 3: All the little curlicues left! I let the girls pick out which pieces I should glue next and give me their opinion on where they thought the pieces should go. The FINISHED product! Honestly, this project took forever! Hours! BUT, I LOVED it! The girls liked it a lot and we're all very proud of our masterpiece. They even had to bring it over to Gramma and Grandpa's house tonight to show them they were so proud.
My wonderful little helper is the absolute BEST. This awesome 4th grader frequently comes in from the aftercare program and asks what she c...
5th grade artists are working on a collaborative project like Dale Chihuly! We learned about his life, his installations and some of the work that he has displayed at our local Frederick Meijer Gardens! We watched a slide show about him and then began coloring water bottles with permanent markers in either warm or cold colors. Click Here for our Chihuly PowerPoint On Day 2 of this project, we did a partner read out of the Scholastic Art Magazine about Dale Chihuly and chose our 2 favorite new facts to write down on a slip of paper for a prize drawing. Learning Goals: I can work collaboratively. I can retell facts about Dale Chihuly's life and art. I can explain the difference between form and shape. I can distinguish between warm and cool colors.
Plastic cup Dale Chihuly art project for kids - find out how to use Sharpies and plastic cups to make a melted Chihuly project
Welcome to Park Avenue's K-5 Chihuly inspired exhibition! Kindergarten's inspired Macchia vine. This project used coffee filters colored with marker, then spritzed with water then sprayed with starch. Students also create symmetrical leaves to add to the vine. First graders took a field trip to see Chihuly at Cheekwood and came back inspired to create a Chihuly inspired Chandeliers and Ikebanas. Both projects used plastic water bottles. Setting up Ikebana's.... The 2nd graders created two Chihuly inspired paper sculptures, The Moon and The Sun. The 3rd graders created drawings inspired by Chihuly's wall of drawings. Students rolled paint onto the background and squirted paint like Chihuly. All students loved experimenting with his drawing technique!!! The 4th graders created Macchia inspired drawings using pastels and watercolors. The 5th graders created a Chihuly inspired Seaforms using tissue paper cut into organic shapes and created a radial line design. Mrs. Guiffre & Mrs. Jahnig hope you enjoyed looking at our wonderful Chihuly displays!
The 5th graders learned about the art and installations of Dale Chihuly. Over the course of his career, Dal...
For ages toddler through teen, these art projects for kids foster a love & appreciation for creating. From finger painting to more advanced projects inspired by famous artists, we have a wide variety of creative activities to strengthen your young artist’s abilities and confidence.
It all started with a field trip to the local trash dump and recycling center. The kids saw so much trash and recyclables in the dumping ar...
I have had a few requests on further explaining how I made the pop bottle sculpture. I took some time to draw out a better detail. I would rather draw it considering I am a visual learner and explain things better when I have a diagram or objects in front of me. :P Here you are! Click on the picture to make it bigger. After I started gluing, I worked my way up the tube with the pop bottles using the longer cut tubes toward the bottom and the shorter tubes at the top. I think this made it look more full. More pictures are in a slideshow here on a previous post I did.
Last year's 4th graders started this grandiose project that was inspired by Dale Chihuly. They finished it this year with the help of some of the other grades making this truly a collaborative work! Chihuly is a famous glass sculpture artist whose work can even be seen at Frederick Meijer Gardens! We took water bottles (also known as junk!), colored them with permanent marker in either warm or cool colors and then cut them into spirals. After each was cut, kids strung like colors on a string and then tied and taped the strings, assembling them onto our large black pole. When the sunlight comes through the window, it is truly breathtaking!
The Joslyn in Omaha has an awesome Dale Chihuly sculpture that definitely made an impact on the kids. Today they were super excited to ...
I decided to do something new for my hanging art winter display - so we looked at Dale Chihuly's art and went from there. Many of the st...
(Playing around with composition) My Mini Modern Artists took a look at the work of Amercian glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly. His amazing installations can be seen around the world. Closest to our home is Fiori di Como in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Commissioned by Steve Wynn, it took over 100 architects, engineers, shippers, installers and glass blowers to create this 2,100 square foot installation with over 2000 pieces of glass. It's a spectacular piece that looks like a mass of dream-like flowers or sea creatures. Originally I had intended for each child to create their own design to take home. But I thought that collectively, they created a wonderful meandering composition more in the style of Chihuly. And as an added bonus, I get to keep it! Each child will get a mounted photo of their collaborative project. I bought 8x10 sheets of Shrinky Dink paper (can you believe most of these children had never heard of them?!) I had them create a design with permanent markers, encouraging them to keep it simple and repetetive. Each sheet was put in the oven where it contorted to a unique shape. I randomly glue gunned the pieces together (managing to burn myself only once!) and threaded a small hole in the piece with fishing line and then a simple wire hook and hung it from my ceiling. It looks beautiful spinning slowly with all the interplay of colors, forms and shapes. I plan to do this project again on a smaller scale so each child can have their own mini Chihuly inspired sculpture.
Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite glass artist. You see his work a lot here in the Northwest. He even had a piece on the Frasier TV show. But not all of us can do blown glass. I really like wh…
Here are several examples of some of my student's Chihuly inspired artworks... Most Macchia- today though Kindergarten learned about Ikebana! They first sketched their Ikebana's with sharpie, then watercolored them! They were so cute! Next the 1st and 2nd graders made Macchia using coffee filters, markers, and spray starch. I had them cut an organic shaped lip first, then colored them with markers, and finally folded them over a yogurt container and sprayed them; to give them a bowl shape once the starch dryed. They students loved this and they turned out pretty neat. I then hot glued them by classes onto matt board and hung them in the hallway. The coffee filter drapped over a yogurt container. First Graders! Second Graders, I made them keep warm and cool colors seperate. Hit an extra standard with these guys! Close up! Finally today 3rd and 4th graders created Macchia using the Dura Lar plastic from Dick Blick. I loved the way that Andrea from the Frist had done altered this process from the Blick lesson plan: rather than having the students manipulate the dura lar while handling it IN the hot water, I simply dipped it in the hot water and placed it over the yogurt cup/ form and the students (while wearing gloves) press their hands onto the dura lar over the form- creating again that bowl like form! We used sharpies and Sharpie paint pens- which worked really well because you can paint the dura lar BEFORE putting it in the water, making it much easier to paint while it is still flat!
How to Help Your Students Collaborate on Big Projects Engagement % %
Remember when I made string art with 100+ kids for a non profit event at Dell Children's Hospital and then a local Austin business actually paid $10,000 for it?! I know, crazy town! The Art of Giving raised $90,000 dollars with the help of local artists and kids making collaborative art projects and local businesses sponsoring each piece
I don't think I posted my pictures from Chihuly at Cheekwood this past year?!?! (I couldn't find them, so I'm guessing I forgot to post them?!?) This is the second time Chihuly has been at Cheekwood. I was worried it would pretty much be a repeat of the last time....but I was WRONG!! What a joy to walk around and see the amazing colors, textures, and how beautifully it integrated with the environment. (if you are looking for some lesson ideas involving Chihuly...here is the link to what we did the last time his work was in town!! http://mnpschihulyartlessons.blogspot.com
In Art class, 4th graders learned about the sculptor Dale Chihuly. He is from Washington and is still making art today! He makes huge glass sculptures of chandeliers and towers. We even have a Chihuly artwork here in Green Bay, at the Weidner Center! Students created art like Chihuly by making mini Macchias out of coffee fitlers, markers and starch! Students had to use warm or cool colors while making their Macchias. What’s a Maachia? Here is the story: Chihuly woke up one morning and said, “I’m going to use all 300 colors of glass that are made, in as many combinations as I can.” He called this new series of artworks Macchia (MAH-key-ah) which is Italian for “spotted”. For these pieces Chihuly mixed up all the colors in different ways, like a collage, to create all sorts of multicolored, spotted Macchia. With so many colors, some people thought his new creations were ugly at first, but Chihuly loved them and kept on making them. Today they are displayed in museums around the world!
