Chinese New Year

Last month I picked up this adorable resource from Expressive Monkey:

Every day before leaving I placed this activity on top of my desk as a potential sub lesson. It is full of directed drawing options for creating a Chinese New Year Rat or Mouse and I felt confident that anyone would be able to step in and deliver this lesson.

Chinese New Year falls on January 25th this year and I am SO HAPPY that I wasn't absent in December, because now I get to do this lesson with my classes. As I began thinking through the steps I would take to use this activity with my students, I recalled a favorite lesson from a few year's ago.

The model magic mouse paint lesson was already a remix of a very old lesson. Was it time to remix once again? With 2020 being the year of the rat, it appears that it was! The focus of the old lesson was color mixing, using primary colors of model magic. Since I hadn't planned to do this lesson, I wasn't fully stocked to offer red model magic to every student.

Last year, one of my schools was without a kiln and I quickly leaned on model magic as my go-to sculptural medium. Painting white model magic with liquid watercolors yields beautiful color saturation, and I have plenty of red watercolor. Knowing I was covered in the materials department I set to work on a sample.

Just painting the rat red during the 2nd session wouldn't take very much time. I decided that in this remix, students would need to add designs or symbols. Once again I turned to the pages from Expressive Monkey's drawing activity. They are so helpful and student-friendly that I trust my students will be able to decorate their rat with black permanent marker.

I have this lesson targeted for my 1st grade classes. Both the design and painting steps are easily accomplished in one forty-minute class.





















If you want to give it a go and skip the lesson prep, this is now available in the shop. I highly recommend using Expressive Monkey's drawing activity (available on her site or TpT). There are pages and pages of design ideas for every teacher or homeschooler's comfort level. Please tag me on instagram if you decide to try this one out. I love seeing the unique results other students produce.

kindergARTIN

This week kindergarten made VERY COLORFUL caterpillars using model magic. Giving them three primaries, they had to mix the secondary colors using model magic. Since we had read "The Dot" by Peter H Reynolds last week, I did lots of overlap talking about a dot becoming a circle and a circle becoming a sphere. I gave each student a small chunk of red, yellow and blue. They divided each color in half. They divide each half in half to make one large and two small spheres. The big spheres became the primary colors. The smaller spheres were combined to make secondaries. We used a rhyme to help:



















Roll it, roll it, roll it,
Make it nice and round
Put the sphere onto the paper
and squash the circle down.



I have five sections of kindergarten this year split between two schools and I learned a lot each time I presented. This video read aloud, gave me six minutes to portion out the red, yellow and blue model magic for each table (note: play it first to skip the commercials). At one school I used modeling clay since we didn't have model magic.

Since this is the first year both of these schools have ever offered art to kindergarten, it's kind of a big deal. I created a small bulletin board just for kindergarten work in a hallway near them and wouldn't you know....you can't spell kindergarten without art.

Want the full plan and three worksheets? Check it out.

Coil Pots Reimagined

We are currently waiting on our new kiln to arrive. Many students will be using model magic this year to fulfill our sculpture requirements. So happy to have model magic as a fun alternative for these 1st grade vessels.

The coil pots were created in one 40-minute session and painted in another 40 minute session. This is the first time I had students use watercolor paint on model magic. We normally mix the color in with marker. I am loving how vibrant they are.



I normally do clay coil pots with 4th grade, but using model magic allowed me to bring this down to first grade. No slipping or scoring to worry about.

Turtles

After kindergarten and first grade completed the exploratory art centers for "Yertle the Turtle" they began a studio lesson. Kindergarten created a "Mack Stack" by illustrating a scene from the story, but placing Mack on top of the tower. They used sharpie to create a variety of shell patterns and then watercolor to paint the turtles.

First grade sculpted turtles from model magic, which took two sessions. In session one they learned how to change the color of model magic and create marbled effects. We looked at illustrations of turtle shells to closely observe the real colors.

Using a 1oz package per student, they created a pinch pot shell from one half of their material. The other half was used to make the head, tail, feet and belly. During their last session we looked at the radial designs on the shell and decided that repeating shapes, starting with the center was the best way to go. They drew on the dried model magic with sharpies.

I've updated the resource for this lesson plan to include the turtle sculptures. Available here.

Just say no to bad art requests

This month I had to just say no, politely, to a teacher request to do a "Rechenka's Egg Project" the day before spring break. As the class entered my room. I let the classroom teacher know that I generally am planning around several weeks in advance, we were in the middle of a perspective lesson and I just couldn't squeeze it in the same day. We've all been there, right?

Wax resist simply for the sake of it's oooh ahhh quality isn't something I had planned to use for the rest of the calendar year for that grade level. So I started thinking of what else we could do to connect to the story. Which led me to creating this adorable onion dome project using model magic. Because they DO need to get some architecture and culture in!




















Using about 1 oz of model magic per student, I have enough to accommodate this class and they will get an "Extra" art class during PSSA week as a break from all the testing.

And, I get rid of the container of wine corks in my closet that I keep holding onto. Lesson plan here.

Chihuly Update

The fourth grade at one of my schools has finished the Chihuly project. Last week they created the shells with model magic.

This week we layered tissue paper with gel medium onto the dried model magic shells.

Caterpillar Remix

Last year I did Eric Carle's very hungry caterpillar with kindergarten early in the year. They mixed the primary colors of model magic to build a caterpillar body. Original post here. After a very successful lesson last week with first grade painting coil pots with watercolor  I decided to remix the caterpillar lesson. So this year we are reading "Pattern Bugs" by Trudy Harris and creating patterns on the model magic bodies, then adding paint.

Can't wait to share these adorable creations. Lesson available here.

Clay Rose Sculptures

For the past six years I've been doing a model magic flower project with 2nd grade inspired by Georgia O'Keefe. This year I decided to switch it up to clay. I love how they turned out.

The original posts about this lesson done with model magic can be found here and here.

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)

Georgia Goes 3D

Was trying to think of something fun and different to do with Georgia O'Keefe. Something other than the pastel flowers that I've always done in the past. Decided to make it a 3D lesson using model magic. Here are the results. I especially love the Calla Lily and it is much easier to do than it looks. The more you pull on it...the more organic and creative it looks.

The lesson plan I just uploaded has dozens of step by step visuals for each of four different flowers:
A rose, a pansy, a petunia and a calla lily. There are also tips for changing the color of the model magic and adding stems.

A perfect Valentine's Day or Mother's Day lesson plan.
Update: The finished Products are so cute. Look!

Greek Vase Remix

My first grade students used model magic to make Greek inspired vases.

We discuss some of the everyday uses for the vases.

They could choose the shape and handles that made sense to them.

For this project I include a reading of the book "The Trouble With Wishes." This took my students two forty minute sessions. We created the vase during the first session. The drew with sharpie on the dried vase and painted over it with red watercolor during the second session.

This is a 3D remix of a lesson that we previously did with markers on red construction paper. As a Leader In Me school, we focused on everyday heroes and leaders. It was definitely easier for them to draw on the paper, but working on a 3D form gave them a new perspective on pottery. 

The "everyday hero" on this vase is a doctor. 

If you'd like to try the sculpture lesson, check out the two week plan and resources. Download it here.

Clear the lists part 2

Last summer social media was on fire with kind souls everywhere helping teachers clear their back to school shopping lists. This year, like many of you, I really am not sure what or when I should be ordering.

As the current situation has our schools and communities more closely connected how do we leverage our relationships and how do we work together to provide for our students?

I keep circling back to the idea that no one is eating in restaurants right now. In our town, almost every restaurant offers a 4-pack of crayons to kids while they wait for food. If ONE of those restaurants stepped up and donated the crayons that are sitting unused, that frees up my budget to send home more paper, or markers, or maybe even model magic.

And that's how the ripple starts. What else in your community isn't being used right now. How could that item have a positive impact on education?


So, given the current situation, what is on your wish list this year? Links to my previous versions of an art teacher  Wish List and donation request. I have a downloadable file of 30 variations here and a brand new 100% editable version here.

I'm thinking this year I would need:

• Extra masks (for when kids inevitably have an accident with their own)
• Ziplock bags for each child to hold personal supplies
• Disinfecting wipes
• Crayons to send home for kids who don't have them
• Document camera for teaching from home
• Hot Spots for families without internet access

Mini Taxidermy Projects

I've already submitted my Crayola Art Educator grant for the year, but I'm thinking this might be what I do next year. Model Magic Taxidermy heads. I think 5th grade / middle schoolers would love this.