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Monday, November 26, 2012

Elementary Scope and Sequence

This summer I created a scope and sequence document in excel. I used color coding to separate the grade levels and add the project name so that I can see at a glance what I still need to get to.  The other page features a marking period at a glance chart, also coded by grade level. It's available for free download over on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Sneak Peek:














Original post here.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Valued Pumpkin Patches

The students have finished the lesson on creating value with oil pastels. I decided to use this lesson with second grade students. First we read the book "Spookley the Square Pumpkin" as our inspiration and then we really looked at pumpkins. The beginning question about what shape and color are pumpkins quickly changed from "round and orange" to "they can be any shape or color." This is a sample of the items on display throughout the lesson.

The next thing to do was practice using values with our oil pastels.














That was about all we had time for in our first lesson. During the second session, we looked carefully at pumpkin shapes. They aren't round at all! I showed the students how to make a pumpkin with 5 ovals (four of them are hiding behind the first guy.)












Then we shade in the darkest areas with our black, careful not to cover the tops. Some of the students noticed the highlights, so that helped us remember to save the tops for white.













The next step was very difficult for the students. They had to blend the color into the black. Many wanted to color across the pumpkin instead of going with the contour. I had them make little tiny circles all over the black to soften the hard lines.



Then we wiped the edge of the pastel clean and colored in the remainder of the pumpkin.














The final step is highlights. We did a dot on each section and then blended over it with color.



Here are the amazing results!





Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Marbled Laurel Burch

I've been enjoying the many Laurel Burch lessons over on pinterest and have been working on a few ideas for my 1st and 2nd graders. Today I was experimenting with marbling paper and thought this might put a new spin on the idea. Could have students create warm and cool themed papers and mix together. Doesn't everyone know that cats run hot/cold?

Here's a still wet sample. Would probably have the students do some marker drawing on top.


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Teachers Pay Teachers

Last week the east coast ground to a halt in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Huddled on the floor of my husband's camera store, I uploaded a few lesson plans to the Teachers Pay Teachers website that I had found a few days earlier. Tonight I was notified that one of my lesson plans sold.  It was a unit plan of nine lessons that coordinates with the step by step pictures I posted to this site earlier this week.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Word Up

This is probably one of my favorite lessons for my level one high school art classes.  I taught this two or three times. Going to think on some revisions to bring it down (safely) to my fourth grade students. These are the step by step instructions. The students always did a great job and really got into the lesson.
























Sample Finished Work:




















To start the project I have the students listen to three songs (for homework) and write down as many uses of "slang" as they can. Then they sketched ideas for three of their words. We did a mini history of logo design and they typeset their words on the computer in three fonts to select their favorite. 

















Scrap matboard and cardboard was used for the armature.










 Paper mache to solidify the sculpture.
Students could choose celluclay or decoupage as a surface texture along with paint. The finished words had to stand, so there was a structural balance component.

*update* the unit plans for this lesson are for sale on Teacher pay Teachers.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Model Magic

What do you do with the small remnants of model magic?










It pains me to waste the stuff. One day I was just playing with the extra bits and kept worrying it between my fingers trying to think of something to do with it before it dried. It became a cube. Lately I've been seeing lots of ideas on pinterest for art dice. My daughter got a game called doodle dice last year for Christmas - and it seems like the perfect thing for an art center.

Here's how to make the dice.











Scrape out whatever you can from package (or have the kids "pick up" what they can by taking a small bit and lifting the bits off the desks. Doesn't matter what color the dice are (you can draw on dice with a metallic sharpie). Marble dice are fun.











Roll into a ball.














Pinch, rotate and tap it into a cube.

 





Decorate the dice with types of lines or shapes. Make several and have the students do a drawing where you add on with the next line or shape. Can be used in groups or alone.

 Other uses for dice in the art room:
1. Random selection of helper table
2. Assigning jobs when meeting for group work
3. Used in art center to select the activity of the day (puzzle, how to book, free draw, blocks)
4. Review games
5. Critiques and token response activities (Find a work with good craftsmanship, good ideas, etc)