Scarecrows

When fall really starts to settle in, I realize how much I miss teaching elementary school. I don't think I ever even imagined myself teaching the little ones, let alone enjoying it! But there is something about experiencing their pure joy and uncensored imagination in the art room that is so rewarding. I hope to inspire my middle school kids to continue to enjoy art and use their imaginations. It can be a really turbulent time as a teenager, but art can be a great outlet.

Anyhow this fall lesson, again unearthed from my file transfer, is inspired by Not so scarey Scarecrows from Deep Space Sparkle. I did this my third year teaching, but had found Patty's website about a year before.

---side-note---
I am so thankful for the art teacher community created in the blogosphere! I did my student teaching at the high school level and there were five teachers in the building! It was also in a school that had been built within the last five years, had an amazing department head and equally awesome budget. Going from that to the only art teacher at a parochial school with not budget (that I knew of) two years later, was an adjustment to say the least! Finding people like Patty, Phyl and Mr. E. made me feel like I wasn't alone and encouraged me to provide the best art education I could. (And with the encouragement of Ms. Wilkinson (my college roommate), now at The Tale of a Traveling Teacher, I started my own blog during my third year)
------

This Scarecrow lesson was the first time I felt like I had taken an idea that I found online and really made it my own. And even more rewarding was how much fun these fourth graders had, class after class completing their assignment.

But now, two years later, I can't remember. What did we start with!?
I think we did a guided drawing the first week.
Yup, that's what we did.
We drew the face of the scarecrow, the arms/ shirt and legs however they would fit on the page. I drew different ideas on the board and had handouts at each table. I kept it simple, building on the letter 'U' and using horizontal and vertical lines. Students used black crayon.
Next we started with a plate of primary colors. We painted yellow things, then red then whatever was orange by mixing yellow and red. We followed the same idea with blue, green and brown. See More.

The next class, we used a bunch of the construction paper that had been sitting in the coat closet for years! It was faded and yellowed in spots but perfect for designing our "crops."

We again started with the primary colors and reviewed different types of line... zig- zag, curvy, diagonal etc etc. Students painted 3 (?) sheets. The next class, we tore the paper and "donated" half to the scrape bin, keeping the other half for the background.

Finally, we cut out our original scarecrows, glued them to the crop background and added some rafia for texture. I'm sure this lesson isn't original, even with the collage aspect I added. But it sure felt awesome for all of us to make something so fun! 

I think I took these photos pre rafia. Super cute none the less!

Wow! America Landscape Painting

The timing of this lesson was incredible!

Reviewing some of the MA frameworks, I realized I wanted to do one more lesson this year reviewing the concept of a horizon line and introduce new words like background, foreground, and middle ground. But, I needed some inspiration: I have always LOVED the graphic and dynamic paintings I saw on Deep Space Sparkle about the Grand Canyon and the Space Shuttle. Those two lessons have the same book in common, Wow! America by Robert Neubecker, so I went to the local library, took out the book, and fell in love with the illustrations. I couldn't wait to share with with my students.

The day of the lesson, we quickly went over the vocabulary. Most kids had a general idea of background, and foreground and middle ground make sense when you put it together. We sat on the rug and I shared the book, stopping after some pages to see if they could spot foreground, middle ground and background. After I finished reading, one girl could not wait to tell me that in Social Studies they were recently assigned a "state project"! I could not believe how nicely this fit into our art room plans!

The kids went back to their seats and we more formally reviewed the vocabulary, writing the definitions on our sketch paper. The three other rectangles of their quarter folded paper were to be quick sketches of possible landscape paintings about a state, using foreground, middle ground and background. It could be any state, but knowing that they are experts about one already, it may make sense to think about their state. Some students really liked the illustrations of the book and decided to recreate one of the illustrations, more like the Deep Space Sparkle lessons.

After sketching, we drew immediately with crayon. This particular class has had many opportunities to mix their own paint, so we did so one last time for the year. When the paintings were dry, we re-traced the black crayon lines to clean them up a bit.

This lesson felt rushed as it was at the end of the year and there were many gaps between classes. It is however one that I would do again, especially now knowing that there is a state project in Social Studies. It is also one that I could tweak to fit any age group.

Picasso Part 2

Up early on a Sunday morning... thanks to my teacher schedule. however, the likelihood of seeing at student at the local super market is less than usual at this hour in the morning. I will be headed out soon! but not before a post. oh how I missed blogging the last few weeks!

Rose and Blue Period 4th Grade Portraits

Another lesson I totally stole from Phyl! check it out
I introduced Picasso to the 4th grade by reading Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists- Picasso. We talked about Picasso's different "styles" and how he "invented" Cubism. We focused mainly on the Rose and Blue period though. It fit in really well because we had been doing a lot of portraits in 4th grade. So much so that I think I need to switch it up next year. This one focused more on color and expression than others though. The kids actually had fun having to pick from a bowl which period they would be painting and I think they had even more fun once we started painting because they got to switch up their seats!

2nd Grade was also introduced to Picasso this year. This lesson was essentially my own. I did find some guidance at the Incredible Art Department, but had to do some tweaking to get into the 2nd grade mind set. I also had 2 classes and experimented with the process just between the two. Its one that I will revisit and continue to work on. It wasn't a total flop, but I would like a higher success rate. anyway...

2nd Grade 3 Musicians 
I blew up a copy of Picasso's 3 Musicians and we sat on my rug to make some observations.

What is this a picture of? How many people do you see? What instruments can you see? What simple shapes do you see? What colors? What patterns?
We talked a little bit about Cubism and I tried to stress how Picasso made pictures out of shapes.

We went back to our seats and drew... this is where I need to start revising.
I asked students to draw 3 instruments using simple shapes. They got that part... but they somehow missed when I asked for them to be big. We had teeny tiny guitars and drum sets!

this one, not so much. this student is an outstanding 2nd grade artist

After drawing the instruments, we added the "shape people." This was another area of struggle. Some kids totally grasped the idea of block heads and triangle legs, others couldn't get over it. Understandable. Then, some kids struggled with how the instrument they just drew connected to the person they needed to add. I know my instruction for this could be better. It was also an opportunity for the students to really use their imagination and creativity and I didn't want to push them in any one direction (wow do I sound like the crazy art teacher! but its true!)

I go back and forth about starting with black crayon. I had one class draw with pencil, trace with crayon then use watercolor. The other drew with pencil, painted, then used Sharpie. (I don't like the younger ones using Sharpie and I told them how special of an occasion it was!)

Overall, I am happy with this lesson. It needs some revision and I know that not every lesson I do is going to be a home run, or even a double!
These are 2 of my favorites from this activity:

before paint

after paint

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

despite tornado warnings for the area, yes tornado, our first ever Art Show was a huge hit!

I live in an area where a tornado actually touching down is a rare occasion. the one that touched down a few hours west of here made national news the night of our show. I of course had no idea what was going on, as I spent over 10 hours in the same auditorium trying to put everything up before the 6pm show time. needless to say, we were skeptical about attendance, especially after seeing the devastation in Joplin. but by the end of the night, all the juice, cookies, and coffee were gone and I am continuing to hear positive feedback from students, parents, families and friends.

before

after

Those are shots of just the classes I teach. There are six more that I currently do not, but they were also included in the show. In the future, I would like to teach K and 1st, but starting at 2nd this year was a good transition from 4-8 last year, and 6-8 the year before. We'll see what the budget has in store for next year!

I also learned a TON from putting up the show, and the lessons, classroom set up and management this year. I still have a few weeks left, thanks snow days! But soon I will post some of the lessons we have been working on, now that I have some "down" time.



oh yea, and if the work seems squished... its because it was.
I did not find out until 10am that day that I would NOT have additional space to hang art, unless I wanted to use the walls... talk about last minute. out of my control. But, there is always next year!

For Baby

one thing I love about blogging is checking my "stats" at least once a week. I suppose its a sign of the times, maybe even my generation, the instant gratification and the knowledge that someone out there on the world wide web actually cares, even for a few seconds, about my little life. that being said, if you have read my blog more than once, follow me!
since January, my blog had been viewed over 500 times! but I only have 8 followers... click it on the right (Mom)

__________________________________________________________________

the day came when I had a chance to show off my fourth and fifth grade work during the spring concert. I was actually nervous! mostly because I was not comfortable setting up the projector with my laptop by myself in the church where the concert was held. but, I did it. I think the best compliment I received was that the combination of the images and the kids singing made the fourth grade teacher cry!

So, what we did:

• First we listened to John Denver's "For Baby" (aka "For Bobbie").
  Then we listened to the song and looked at the book illustrated by Janeen Mason.
• Finally, we discussed what an illustrator does, talked about what the theme could be and brainstormed what our illustrations could include.
• Meanwhile, students practiced singing the song in music class.
  

I am a teacher who enjoys the process of art making. So as much as I know it annoyed some kids, I required students to come up with three ideas. We quickly sketched them in rectangles on an 81/2 x 11. And by quick, I mean that it took some of us a class and a half. We looked at old calendar pages filled with landscapes and animals for inspiration. Prior to starting this lesson, I did a quick lesson about drawing people and faces too. I attempted to conference with each student about which idea they would like to use for the final before starting.

• The background was lightly sketched on white 12x18, traced with black sharpie, and painted with liquid watercolor.
• Students were then given a 9x12 white paper and were instructed to draw their people or animals as large as possible. I would give out more paper as needed.
• The people or animals were colored in with color pencils and students could choose if they would like to trace their lines with sharpie or not.
• Finally, students cut and pasted their people or animals into the background.
• I also had a very simple rubric for students to read and grade themselves... I wanted to know their thoughts on their craftsmanship, thought process and in class behavior. 

Maybe I can put the show on you tube, but in the mean time, here is a selection of the almost 70 pieces in yesterdays show.