smART Class

Banksy

2012-02-10T16:38:00.001-08:00

Here is my Banksy inspired poster for Jump Rope for Heart (Shout out to Mr. E)

By the way I LOVE working with spray paint! The rest of the wall was done with chalk pastel.

the stencil was made with an exacto knife on butcher paper

Valentine’s Day

2012-02-09T12:50:00.001-08:00

We have been going a bit crazy with Valentine’s this year. Some years I don’t do anything and others seem to be full of glitter and hearts every day for weeks. This lesson evolved this morning from the other flying hearts lesson and turned out cute!.

Each student had a partner and traced each other’s hands

Then cut, and glue onto a heart with a tiny heart inside

Some kids colored the wings and added glitter.

At the end of class I took a few artoworks into the kiln room with the vent on and sprayed a heart doily with silver for a nice accent! It looked so cool!

One day project “Happy Hearts”

2012-02-08T07:48:00.001-08:00

Kids LOVE making wings! Any time I add wings to an art project, the kids gasp in delight! I thought I would teach them a simple way to make some wings.

I think they represent freedom, creativity,

magical childhood wonder, life, and love!!

Inspire!

These are the steps for the little ones. They can trace their fingers if they want. Even when we do this together, they all turn out uniquely different!! We made three rows of feathers.

some groups made little hearts for necklaces

Pet Rock Cities!

2012-02-02T15:33:00.001-08:00

I didn’t know exactly what to title this post. It started yesterday with my girls. They wanted to go on a “rock walk” where we walk around and collect rocks.

They filled up their buckets and had fun splashing in the puddles!

We rolled out some paper and began painting with lots of different colors… that mostly ended up getting mixed together into a dark purplish brownish hue!

After about ten minutes of painting rocks, the girls decided that painting the paper was more fun!

As they painted the paper I glued some eyes to their rocks. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had begun painting (without prompting) streets, rivers, and houses for the rocks!!

They started requesting certain specific things for their pet rocks that I helped them with….

like a heart house,

heart cookies,

and even heart balloons!!

So of course this got my wheels turning for how I could use this in the classroom! I was thinking that the kids would love to make pet rocks and design CITIES for them!

Kindergarten drew their city on large pieces of butcher paper with markers and crayons

We looked at pictures of cities first and I was happy to see buildings that were other shapes besides just giant rectangles! There were lakes, parks, schools, streets, cars, and much more. They had SO much fun!

Fifth grade is going to make a giant 3D pet rock city! They drew their “blueprints” today on blue paper. They have so many great ideas for parks, neighborhoods, banks, schools, parks, etc. They are going to bring in small boxes to build their city!! I cannot wait..they even had the idea to put holes in the back and put Christmas lights in their buildings to light them up!

First grade used texture rollers to make the sky for the fifth grader’s city backdrop. They are learning about clouds in science, and will add cotton ball clouds tomorrow!

Second grade made buildings today for the backdrop. We read books about city skylines and the 3d forms of different buildings!

These rocks are ready for their 3D city!! I will be sure to post pictures as the city progresses!!

Drawing Steps for One Point Perspective

2012-02-01T13:18:00.001-08:00

I have had several emails about how to do the One point perspective paintings from this post, http://www.elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20Point%20Perspective

so I have written the steps for this drawing.

I would suggest, the bigger paper, the better.

Before you begin, be sure to show students many images to get them excited and print a variety of photos to inspire creativity!

1. Begin with the horizon line in the middle (please excuse my very crooked lines!!! pencil did not photograph well, so I had to redraw some lines with my computer mouse)

2. Draw a dot in the middle (vanishing point) and make an “X” from corner to corner (or close enough) passing through the dot

3.draw the sidewalks first from the vanishing point

4. Draw the trees starting on the bottom on the “X” all the way to the vanishing point, descending towards the middle. Tell them to draw organic shaped trees, not round Que-tip lollypop trees! Make sure the trees are straight and parallel to the side of the paper. Watch students for this before they spend 20 minutes drawing 8 beautiful but very leaning trees and have to erase all of them!

5. This is the lingo I use to teach the buildings, We all say, “One, straight out, two diagonal down, three, straight down to the ground, four straight down again, and five, bring it in along the side!”

6. When I show them the windows we start with the side with the door facing the street.

The lines on the tops and bottoms of the windows ABOVE the horizon line are parallel to the top part of the “X”…….below that, when you PASS the Horizon line, the lines on the tops and bottoms of the windows are parallel to the BOTTOM part of the “X” which is now the sidewalk. The top of the door is also parallel to the sidewalk.

below: RED parallel to RED and BLUE parallel to BLUE

The windows on the OTHER side of the house are normal right angle squares or rectangles.

7. Now erase the “X” and the parts of the horizon line that overlap the trees and buildings

8. finish windows and add details. Some students made it into a river instead of a road. Now that the basic foundation is drawn, the possibilities for creativity are ENDLESS!!

Cars, trucks, planes, restaurants, people, bridges, parades, parks, pedestrians, lights, etc, etc

Finished Lion Dancers

2012-02-01T08:18:00.001-08:00

This video is amazing!!

These are the First grade finished lion dancers

I made a stamp of the chinese symbol for “wealth” used in many chinese New Year designs

Heart Works

2012-01-27T15:21:00.001-08:00

I usually never do a lesson two years in a row. I just love this lesson though. I never get tired of it because the kids love it and their artwork is just so expressive. We did it again this year with third fourth and fifth, and I could just wallpaper my whole house with all the different and beautiful heartworks. I love them so much!

Third grade did it a bit differently. I showed them videos about zentangles and they made that as their background. They could only color the heart and we learned about the art principal of Emphasis. I tell the kids to break up the space with 5-10 lines from heart to edge of paper. Then fill each section with designs.

Chinese New Year Lion Dancers

2012-01-24T15:34:00.001-08:00

Today has been a very fun day! I am so humbled to find out that I won “Teacher of The Year” for our School!!! What an honor!! I am very blessed to be in such an amazing school with such talented artists and incredible teachers! I LOVE MY JOB! I created this lesson for First Grade and Second Grade to Learn about the Chinese New Year and see some of the brilliant designs in the Lion Dancer costumes.

First we watched this Fabulous video

chinese lion dance from mounin on Vimeo.

Then we did a Draw Along. I do not do this very often, but the younger kids get a real boost of self esteem after a draw along. Within the steps there are loose parameters to allow self expression and individuality. They all end up looking different in the end! They feel good about themselves, and learn a few new techniques along the way!

I do this first step for kindergarteners to get them started, but the others can do it themselves.

Pupil, iris, reflection of light ( momma circle, daddy circle and baby circle for the younger ones)

I call that a roundy triangle that is not pointy

Two “C’s” that start on the outside of the eyeball for the cheeks, then a “rainbow line” connecting them

I tell them to draw “smiley lines” for the tongue and under the teeth

a roundy triangle horn and some zig zag line beard fur

a “wiggle waggaly” line above the roundy triangle

When we finish the Lion, we made the fireworks with dots and “follow the leader” lines, and embellished with oil pastels

We used liquid watercolors to paint

gold tempera for accents

Then did a watercolor resist for the sky

I started with 1st grade today and it was very successful! They enjoyed the lesson and could not wait to come back and finish!!

Mixing Colors with MLK!

2012-01-17T17:34:00.001-08:00

If you read my last post, you will see the trial version of this lesson that I did with my girls…

Today I tried the color mixing project with first grade…

I can’t say that they didn’t have fun!!

…but my carpet will tell you that its good to put down a tarp before you paint a mural!!!

I let them come up with things for me to write about Martin Luther King Jr.

I was amazed at how much they remembered from our discussion.

They were intrigued by the subject.

I thought the cake comment was funny. I think it had to do with it being his birthday!!

Kindergarten and second grade did a draw along for them to take home and remember our lesson.

These are the kindergarten MLK’s

And this is second grade!!

They had to write three things they learned on the back.

Martin Luther King Jr. Rainbow

2012-01-16T12:39:00.001-08:00

I thought of this lesson for our kindergarteners since we will be doing color mixing soon. I did it with my girls today on Martin Luther King’s birthday…what a perfect day to learn about “COLOR”

First we read the book, Martin by his sister Christine King Ferris

I asked my three year old…

“ What would Martin Luther King tell your class if he came to visit??”

“He would tell them no fighting, and no NO being mean because that makes us cry!!”

“He would tell us to share, and to love our sisters,

like how I love mine,

and to share.”

She also told me that Martin’s favorite color was pink, and that he probably loved to make art with his friends!!

I have a dream that one day… one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we mixed colors by holding hands…

We started by making red and yellow hand prints, then they held hands…

and mixed it up…….WOW ORANGE!!

Then blue and yellow…

They couldn’t believe when they made GREEN!!

Then red (I added a bit of pink) and blue….

PURPLE!!!!!

It was SO AMAZING they just kept staring at their hands!!

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King Jr.!!

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Guess what! This blog was recently nominated by some of its followers for The Art of Education’s Award for Top Art Blogs of the Year! If you enjoy the blog, you can go to this LINK TO VOTE for Smart Class!! Make sure you check out the other links to other FABULOUS art blogs!!!

Jim Dine (repost)

2012-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

I wanted to repost my Jim Dine lesson if you missed it last year. I have had a bunch of e-mails lately about this lesson because they remembered it and couldn't find it. I forgot to label it for the side bar (oops). So here is Jim Dine with oil pastels. This lesson was very successful with grades 2-5th. We had SO MANY beautiful works of heart with such individual styles. If you did this with your kiddos last year, I would love to hear about it!

Oil Pastels!!!

I LOVE this project. Fourth and Fifth grade were shown artwork by Jim Dine. They had to create a composition with oil pastels of a heart/s! Everyone’s art had to be original and express the feelings of their heart.

Native American Indians

2012-01-08T15:17:00.001-08:00

Every Year my school creates artwork for the annual Rodeo Art Exibition. This year we learned about Native American Indians.

Ok here’s a side note….Have you tried www.symbaloo.com yet???? If you are an educator this is an awesome resource! You can make your own page of links for yourself or for your kids to use to go directly to a certain link by just clicking on a button that you design. You can also use a symbaloo someone else made on the subject you are teaching. My class recently got a set of IPad 2’s so I plan to use this with them for enrichment. I plan to make a symbaloo after this Indian project for the kids to learn a little more about the subject! Here is an example with lots of AWESOME ART LINKS!!! Check it out!!

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/artlinksforkids?searched=true

We followed our portrait guidelines for the proportions of the face. The kids used lots of books and images for ideas on hair, clothing, and accessories. Of course if you know me I make a big deal about the eyes!! Black pupil, colored iris (shaded on top, light on the bottom) and reflection of light.

I told them to think about if they wanted to make a child, an adult or an older person. I showed them certain details to make them look old. This one looked like he was a warrior!!

They had the choice to draw with pencil or marker. And then we colored them with chalk pastels. We used black tempera paint for the hair.

And I’ll close with another random REDICULOUSLY adorable newborn (having nothing to do with Native American Indians) from my photoshoot yesterday…Enjoy!!

Butterfly Tree

2012-01-02T16:44:00.001-08:00

Last week I took my girls to the Houston Butterfly Museum. They loved it and had butterflies flying all around them!

Here’s one of my daughter blowing on the “frutterfries”

And of course the magic of the whole experience got my creative wheels turning. I was totally inspired for our next mommy daughter project!

We got online and studied all different butterflies and chose which ones we wanted to draw

She drew some and I drew some and we had fun coloring them on shrinky dink plastic with paint pens

Baked them..

and magic! A handful of butterflies!!

We got some sticks from the backyard and picked most of the leaves off.

I tied them together with yarn at the bottom and hot glued it to a little Tupperware box.

The girls painted the “grass” at the bottom

I took some of the pictures from the museum and backed them with cardboard from a Lucky Charms box

We glued the old marker caps at the bottom to stick flowers in, in the Spring. My daughter loves gardens and wanted the tree to have a garden. We will put a little water in the caps for the flowers. We also glued tiny pink plastic flowers to the branches. We made a tiny chrysalis out of a pipe cleaner and a tiny caterpillar out of Skulpey.

We glued the butterflies to the flowers

It makes me so excited when she comes up with her own ideas for our projects like the garden. Tonight she told me that she needed a swing on the tree!

I thought it was the cutest idea and had the yarn and cardboard out in two seconds making a swing. She has been swinging her little photo and climbing the caterpillar all over the tree for the past two hours!

I’m sure we will be adding things to the tree for the next few weeks!

I Love Christmas

2011-12-22T15:11:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone is having an awesome holiday break! Here are some photos of what we’ve been up to lately!!

we made these paper plate angels and spray painted them gold, added photos, and decorated them to hang on my kitchen lights! I LOVE photo ornaments, we make them every year

Here’s a few from last year’S batch!

hOT ChOCoLaTe IS GOOD!! anY TiMe Of DaY Or NiGhT!!!

I just really love Christmas!

my second completed painting during a church service…here’s the video if you would like to watch..

http://www.wilcrestbaptist.org/sermons/

here is a link to the last one we did…

http://www.natandjimmy.blogspot.com/2011/07/teach-them.html

Hilarious Video for teachers! Happy Holidays Everyone!

2011-12-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

Christmas Ornament Drawings

2011-12-14T15:43:00.001-08:00

Christmas baby!

2011-12-10T19:47:00.001-08:00

one of my favorite shots from today’s photo shoot! Who doesn’t love a ten day old baby in an ice cream bucket! 7 pounds of delicious sweetness!

I just had to share!

Eat your heart out Santa!

Winter Cardinals

2011-12-05T13:14:00.001-08:00

We are doing a one day painting of a winter cardinal right now. The kids did an AWESOME job today!

There is a certain cardinal that you might have heard of…I ‘m sure…that the kids know very well, and were very excited to talk about. They made the connection very quickly. I did not even bring it up!

We started with a simple line drawing with black permanent marker. I modeled it with them, and they watched a video on youtube. We looked at lots of images of cardinal paintings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvacOMSis0&feature=related

They had to make the sky light blue by using lots of water, and dotted the snow at the very end

I did this with EVERY grade level…and they all did great! Here are some kindergarten examples below!

Neon Animals

2011-12-02T18:59:00.001-08:00

The kids finally finished their neon animals, along with all the other 700 kids who were painting this week. Reminder..don’t paint with every grade level at the same time. My drying rack was a conveyer belt, my clothes a paint magnet, my back hadn’t felt like that since pregnancy, and the constant water bucket/brush rinsing made my hands feel like they could crack like a piece of porcelain! I do love my job though! Now for some winter/Christmas art!!

I LOVE DeCeMbER!!!

the winter approach

2011-11-30T18:03:00.001-08:00

Some kids in first grade thought the headphones were ear muffs. We just went with that. I love how a project can change just like that. Bring on the hot cocoa, scarf, and glitter snowflakes!!

From our family to yours!

2011-11-26T12:01:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give Thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:17-19

Jam’n Giraffe’s and Rock’n Neon Tigers

2011-11-22T14:31:00.001-08:00

First and second grade have been making the cutest neon giraffe’s. Here are a few finished ones. Some of them used sparkly felt and some neon paper for the headphones. The ipod is paper and we used yarn for the cord. The students learned about color mixing and blending. We studied the color wheel to see which colors we could blend next to each other. They did a fabulous job!

For some reason neon colors don’t translate in photos. They are much much brighter in person!

I had my first class finish the tigers today and they look so awesome.We did the drawing and outlining last week. The photos don’t do them justice! I LOVE neon paint! It’s pretty popular with the kids too!!

One Point Perspective! and zebra progress!

2011-11-19T10:16:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, we finished these one point perspective watercolor paintings. The kids did an awesome job. We started with a simple horizon line with an “X” from corner to corner passing through the vanishing point. We looked at different architecture and examined the structure of a tree and the pattern of its branches. Some are cities, some are rural, and all are so very different, I wish I could post them all!

Some kids made a river instead of a street and we looked at pictures of Venice!

We have been busy doing our color wheel zebras and the kids LOVE it! They love mixing the colors and finding new color combinations. We talked about the relationships, analogous, complementary,primary, and secondary colors.

Zebra’s, Tigers, and Giraffes OH My!!

2011-11-04T12:56:00.001-07:00

We have started a number of new projects this week! They are coming along well and I cannot WAIT to post results! These are the fifth grade color wheel zebras. We are studying the analogous “friend” colors!

We are drawing with pencil, and then…

painting with liquid watercolors!

Third and fourth are making Hip Hop animals with neon paint and splatter paint! They have chosen different animals to draw and paint a think black outline, that they will fill in with neon paint and add details like sunglasses, necklaces, tiaras, etc.

I just thought the inverse looked soo cool!!

2nd grade is making giraffes with headphones and they will add song lyrics around the background! This is my original sketch…their drawings look soooooo cute so far!!

Kinder pumpkins, spider webs, and the lil’est punkin!

2011-10-23T14:09:00.001-07:00

Ok for some reason, I have never made jack-o-lanterns with my art classes. Don’t get me wrong, we make LOTS of pumpkins, but never painted them with faces because of the whole Halloween deal, but we did it this year. They were big, beautiful, sparkly, shiny, and probably their favorite project all year! If you’ve noticed from the past few posts, I am sort of going through a phase with the tempera varnish. It just makes the artwork shine! I LOVE it!

can you find my example? The kids drew the pumpkin with a black crayon, and painted the first day. Then outlined with black oil pastels, added leaves, cut out, and glued on the purple paper the next class… AND of COURSE, the varnish which only took five minutes with BIG brushes. They dried quickly and were able to take them home after the second class period.

Don’t you just love that kid that does it completely different, doesn’t follow directions, but it still looks fabulous and is one of your favorites because of it’s out of the box design…that is my little friend who made the pumpkin below…it looks like a wrinkly, glitter covered,version of the nightmare before christmas dude! LOVE it!

second and third grade made crayon resist spider webs with tiny yarn puff spiders! So much fun!

Friday was our Fall Festival, in which every year I get the privilege to paint like 400 faces for three hours straight, don’t even think about a water break because the 50 people in line who have been waiting for over an hour will break into panic filled fits of rage…it’s intense!

Anyways, I got to sneak a few pictures in my classroom of one of my student’s little ten day old punkin brother, Juan Pablo, before the festival! The cutest lil punkin around!! I just love all my students and their families!

could you just eat him or what!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

Vincent Van Gogh Report

2011-10-21T06:53:00.001-07:00

If anyone knows me, they know I have a special love and fascination with Vincent Van Gogh. He had an incredibly sad life battling mental illness and the loneliness associated with his inability to fit in. His passion for painting and brilliantly individual style make him one the greatest painters of all time.

starry starry night cupcakes anyone?

The other night I saw an interesting 60 Minutes report on Vincent Van Gogh. I absolutely love this painter and cry every time I listen to the song, Starry, starry night by Don Mclean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM

Please take the time to watch this Amazing report that brings a totally NEW LIGHT into everything you once thought you knew about Vincent Van Gogh.

Just click the link below to watch!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7384904n&tag=fdEmbedTooEarly

Thank you!

2011-10-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

I was so excited to get an email from a reader, Karla, who was inspired by the photo of my daughters and all their cousins with their pumpkins. She made this painting the very day after I posted the photo!! I just love it!

Thank you, Karla!

Thank you also to all of my followers for all of your sweet comments, it lets me know that there are people out there reading and enjoying the blog!!

Pumpkin Carving…

2011-10-15T20:06:00.001-07:00

If you’ve never carved a pumpkin, I highly recommend it!

cut out lid, empty seeds, draw a design, cut, and then light up with candles for pure awe and wonderment! Do this EVERY year! This was our annual cousins pumpkin Party!

An Art teacher’s paintbrush…

2011-10-14T22:44:00.001-07:00

…never dries out!

I LOVE my job!!

Pumpkin Batik and Leaf prints

2011-10-13T18:58:00.001-07:00

I LOVE Fall! I get really giddy when it comes to Fall art! Last year we left a pumpkin on the front porch until it was no bueno and we had to dispose of it. The pumpkin left behind a friend in the crack of the stairs on the front porch that grew into a massive pumpkin plant this summer! We loved our pumpkin plant and even named her! (Raspucia) We tended to her with such care through the drought in hopes of a pumpkin patch by Halloween! Sadly a pumpkin grub recently got inside the vine and completely hollowed it out. I got a text from my neighbor the day we cut her down…everyone was quite fond of her.

I even used my beautiful “Raspushia” as a backdrop for a newborn photo-shoot looking all like the Great Pumpkin in her Fall Harvest Glory!

Every Year I paint pumpkins with at least a few grades and this year we are making a Pumpkin crayon batik! I played around with different ideas for the background. I modified this lesson from a Paul Klee Fish Batik I got from my friend Haley Ann, an art teacher in my district!

First, draw a pumpkin and color very hard with crayons

Then crumble it up

Paint with India Ink

Rinse in the sink

And Voila!

I managed to save some of Raspucia’s leaves for my Fall projects!!

LEAF PRINTS!!! One of my favorite Fall activities! Fun for ALL ages! Last year we made leaf print turkeys! http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/leaf%20print%20turkeys

My daughters made these leaf prints with their friends a few weeks ago!

For the Batik background we used construction paper and magazine squares to create an interesting pattern background

Outline with black chalk

And paint Tempera Varnish on top

We glued pieces of cardboard under the pumpkin and leaves to create a 3d effect

I cannot wait to post more of our Fall Fun projects!

TeacherMonuments (continued)

2011-10-13T04:17:00.001-07:00

These are the finished product of our Teacher Monuments from a previous post..http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search/label/Monuments

Students worked in groups and wrote a note on the back of why they chose each teacher.

Here is my lovely Monument to me!! SO SWEET!!

The note reads, “We respect Mrs. Wagenspack because she is nice and fun and she help us do art and she is very smart at doing art. Thank you Mrs. Waggenspack. She help us make a moon and fuyer fruys (Fire flies) I Love Mrs. Waggenspack

Below are our principals! Snazzy!

Happy Columbus Day

2011-10-10T19:54:00.001-07:00

Kinder and First Grade Very Hungry Caterpillars

2011-10-05T10:36:00.001-07:00

I found this idea on pinterest from this great blog http://iheartcraftythings.blogspot.com/2011/07/story-time-very-hungry-caterpillar-with.html

We used colored paper used colored paper to make the food for their caterpillars. They used hole punchers to make the holes he’s nibbled out. The kinder used crayons to draw his food!

I LOVE glitter!! I covered these guys in sparkles!!

Animals, and a Cutting Lesson

2011-10-04T19:51:00.001-07:00

I try to keep my lessons child led to keep a sense of wonder, interest, and inspiration in the classroom. Last week when this class came in, I asked them what THEY wanted to paint. I got such a mix of puppies, dragons, bunnies, etc. So I decided to do ALL of them. I let the kids work in groups to pick an image off google and trace it on aLARGE piece of butcher paper. They painted their huge pictures the first day.

The next week I covered their tables with feathers, pipe cleaners, gold wire, oil pastels, lots of colored paper scraps, glitter,glue, scissors, hole punchers, fabric scraps, and yarn. They went to town and had SO MUCH FUN! I love how the Chihuahua has a purse with lipstick, a feather boa, and a cell phone!

Disclamer: (insert controversial art teacher topic here) if you freaked out when I said the word trace, you heard it correctly. I let them trace the image from my LCD projector. If you think kids cannot be creative with tracing here is your proof. Doing projects like this allows for PLENTY of creativity, and gives the child a sense of pride in their work. We very rarely if ever trace in my class, but once in a while a project like this gets the kids excited! It allows them to use a variety of different materials, and learn to collaborate and work together as a team to create a group masterpeice!

Easy Kinder Cutting Lesson

My 3 yr old likes to CUT CUT CUT all day long! I gave a her a laminated piece of paper and let her cut for about thirty minutes.

She told me she wanted to make a giraffe, so I took some of the pieces and made them into a girraffe…so simple!

She gave him button eyes and drew a mouth

She was so proud of the giraffe that she even slept with him that night!!

Last week, we made a monster. She wanted the left over pieces she cut to be placed in a “purse" (ziplock bag) for “Monsterina” to keep!

Rain!!

2011-09-30T12:12:00.001-07:00

Well it FINALLY RAINED in Houston!!! I freaked out when I saw these crazy awesome clouds yesterday! It has inspired lots of rain projects for the next few weeks. Fourth and Fifth are working on some amazing paintings right now that I can’t wait to post next week. So I am thinking of ideas for our next project! Here is my example using a picture of yours truly! I am really enjoying the photo/paintings and the kids are LOVING it!

Take photo and print. Use liquid watercolors and a straw

Turn the paper every time you want the drips to change direction. The tiny straws work better for this

Lines, Lines, and Fish Bowls Oh My!!

2011-09-21T12:43:00.001-07:00

We are studying LINES right now and we started this project today. They are not done yet, but I just couldn’t wait! I will post some finished ones next week! We have done the crazy Hair Day project in the past but I thought this would be fun and the kids LOVED it!

They had a HUGE VARIETY of materials, paint, markers, colored pencils, stamps, crayons, and, oil pastels

Students had to make the lines OVERLAP by stopping and continuing on the other side when it crossed over.

I can’t WAIT for them to finish! Their line ideas were AWESOME!

Kinder and first grade are making fish bowls

I got this idea on pinterest from this blog http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog/?p=821

Of course we put our own twist to it. It was a good way to get kinder painting and learning our procedures with paint and clean up! One kid suggested our fish have a castle, so some drew it with pastels and I cut some out to glue on.

1. glue bowl to paper

2. paint water LIGHT blue using the paint, dip in water THEN go to paper technique

3.paint rocks, and a plant

4. hand print sideways

5. decorate with oil pastels and paper scraps

I got these really cool goobly eyes at Michaels in the Halloween craft section! They were purple, orange, and green

Figure Drawing with Army men

2011-09-19T09:06:00.001-07:00

Since we have been working on drawing the face for our self portrait rainbow mural, I thought I would teach them how to make the body. I wanted them to observe how the arms and legs bend because of knees and elbows. I did this with first,second, and third grade.

This was the little guide we used. I told them to look at all the details of their little man.

They outlined it with green Crayola markers and painted with water

The older kids had to draw two figures in the foreground and background and overlap them.

They could draw camouflage or an American flag in the background with chalk pastels

Van Gogh’s Room

2011-09-15T11:07:00.001-07:00

We have been talking about Vincent Van Gogh, and this week the students made these little rooms. We looked at his painting of his room and I told them that I had been there and it was really nice. I wanted them to imagine an artwork where they would like to visit; a fun personally designed room of their dreams that reflected the colors and things that they liked.

The artist’s Room!

Tiny closet with tiny clothes on tiny hangers!

The beach going sports enthusiast's room!

Tiny flat screen TV…or laptop?

The museum curator's Room!

Shrinky Dinks

2011-09-14T18:47:00.001-07:00

June LOVES Shrinky Dinks! This was a fun project we did making a dress up doll and fun outfits to play with.

First you find an image and trace it onto the shrinky dink paper. It is transparent and perfect for tracing. You can use markers, pencils, or paint pens. We used all of them.

Then color the outfits

Then preheat oven to 325 and place shrinky dinks on a paper bag. It only takes about a minute to shrink.

Here is the BEFORE…

And AFTER!!

I then applied tiny pieces of velcro to the back of each outfit and the front of Junie!

Then dress her up!!

So tiny and cute!

June had so much fun PLAYING with her artwork!!

Bobcats with Chalk Pastels

2011-09-14T11:01:00.001-07:00

We are talking about predators and drew these bobcats this week. We talk about all the parts of the face and how he has spots AND stripes. We looked at the white around his eyes, the football shaped pupils, and the fur on the tips of his ears. We watched the videos below to see real bobcats.

We looked at bobcat art!

In the first video you can see the bobcat is surrounded by feathers. We talked about how bobcats are a nuisance to farmers, killing their chickens, but that the farmer was going to set him free somewhere far away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRsHYEL1mrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnCfE6j9rss

Each student could draw the bobcat however they wanted. Then we used the chalk pastels to color them. We talked about value and blending.

I just love how this student drew his hiding in the grass!

Love the big eyes!

I made this as an example after the student above drew his in the grass. I wanted kids to see that they could draw him from different perspectives and that their drawings don’t always have to fit on the page or be in the middle! If you would like a copy of the lesson plan, just shoot me an email Natty241@hotmail.com

Next…..Gnomes!!

Princess Crowns!

2011-09-12T15:23:00.001-07:00

You would think after teaching 6 classes a day with 30-35 kids, I would be sick of art by the weekend!!

Laminated construction paper+ old broken jewelry+ hot glue gun= two happy princesses!!

Rain Puddle Prints!!

2011-09-09T10:59:00.001-07:00

We are having a serious drought in Houston right now! Yesterday my room smelled like a BBQ pit all day from the smoke from brush fires north of the city burning tens of thousands of acres of land, houses, and everything in its path. There is a strict water ban rule that we can only water our lawns on certain days. The heat has caused lots of pipes to burst due to the dry ground and water is wasting out on the streets and making huge puddles. This is where this idea came into my head!

I played Milli Vanilli “Blame it on the Rain” while they worked!!! LOL

First cut the paper in half and cut one side into a large puddle!

On the other half, draw a city or neighborhood using lots of colors with crayola or watercolor markers filling the entire page (no white paper showing! )

Spray the puddle with water

Place the city on top lining up the straight part of the puddle with the BOTTOM OF THE BUILDINGS

This is the fold for the box…hot dog style first, then fold in “two doors" then lift the middle and glue the side flaps underneath to make the box

Take photos of students holding umbrella. One of my classes got creative and looked up to the sky and held their hand up like they were catching raindrops, and jumped and pretended to splash. I printed each student in black and white, and then they cut them self out with a tab on the bottom to fold back and glue onto their artwork.

students traced over the original drawing to make it clear again when it dried. Then they added sidewalks, ripples around the feet, street lights, and colored the umbrella when finished!

I will post more results when finished!

Fun with Photoshop!!

2011-09-04T13:53:00.001-07:00

Fun with Photoshop…

It hasn’t rained here all summer in Houston Texas,

so we made a photo to show our faith that it is going to RAIN soon!!

Step one…take photo painting sky

Step two- convert to black and white, and adjust contrast, light levels, and sharpen

Step three- Paint sky and photograph

4. Now go back to your black and white image, click layer/duplicate layer/okay

5. go to the sky painting image and click select/all ……. then click edit/copy

6. now return to the blk and wht photo of your artist and click edit paste….this will paste the painted sky onto your black and white photo.

7.Use the move tool to stretch it and move it to where you want it.

8. Adjust the opacity to taste, to make it see through enough to know where you want to erase

9. then just use the eraser tool to erase around your artist and any other part you don’t want the painting to show, flatten image, and VOILA!!

Email me your creative results or questions and I will post everyone’s photos on my next blog!! Natty241@hotmail.com

Monuments

2011-08-31T18:40:00.001-07:00

The third graders talked about character traits and monuments today. We talked about how people are inspired by other people and why. We looked at pictures of monuments, particularly in our community like these awesome president heads!

I asked the kids who inspired them and they started naming teachers in our school!!!…so they drew them on poster board Somehow our principal ended up with one ear and no nose…that will be corrected

Next week they will mix torn toilet paper with glue to make a sticky goop to create a 3d relief for the monuments

One group started today with the PE teacher’s head. I told them to close their eyes and feel their face. What parts stick out? Those are the parts they added the paste to.

I LOVE the texture! Please give me your opinions..should we paint them with colors or with white and gray for shading to teach value?? I am going to glue a dowel to the back and stick it in a white box to stand them when they are finished! Can’t wait to post the finished product!

Ok I just had to share this! My husband found this mushroom in the yard…ummm is it just me or do you see a heart shaped mushroom with a peace sign in the middle?? My husband just kept it because he thought it looked “weird”

Marbleized Peacock

2011-08-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

Begin with some shaving cream in a tray or directly on your tables

These liquid watercolors are one of my most favorite thing in the art room!

Choose your color scheme and drip onto shaving cream.

Use the end of the brush upright, touching the bottom of the tray, and swirl around!

Lay the paper down on the shaving cream, rub it gently, and peel off

use a piece of cardborad or styraphone to scrape off the shaving cream and reveal the beautiful print. This is when students OOOOOOOOHH and AHHHHHH!!

Then I usually let the students play in the shaving cream at their table. You can continue to make prints, they just won’t have quite the contrast as the first one. They will leave your room smelling fresh and clean!

I then cut out circles from different warm color prints.

I painted black circles at the bottom and made the eye with oil pastels. I thought the picture needed something in th bottom corners…

So I mixed up some green and yellow and placed the corners on it, to fill in those empty white spaces and glued everything together for the finished product!

Back to school!!

2011-08-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

Her face was the perfect visual description of how I felt about starting school.This was the day of “Meet the Teacher”

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job, but I LoOoOoVE being with my babies. The end of summer is a hard transition! But its also exciting and NEW and FUN!!

Is it any coincidence that they were the first kids to find the art station??

Needless to say, they were in much brighter spirits at 6:00am the next morning for the first day of school! They both love their teachers!

Here is my classroom! Finally decorated! I used the circle paintings as wallpaper for more color! We are doing the rainbow self-portrait mural for the first week project. I haven't done it in a few years and thought I would bring it back. The mural will be a vibrant colorful display to get the kids excited about art!

Here are a few different hairstyles we went over for the self portraits

My theme for the year is BE INSPIRED!!!

I was inspired by this Vermeer painting to create this wall display. We are the BCE “BISON.” It made for some good conversation about where people get their ideas for art and how I want to base my curriculum around the things that inspire them! The little ones loved fining “whats the same/different about the two artworks!

This box is my new “Good Behavior” positive incentive for Art. Kids get a ticket for following our class agreements and put it in the box for a chance to win the drawing. I will draw one kid from each grade (every two weeks or so..) to get their picture on the wall as a “Featured Artist” and have their favorite piece of art displayed in the “BCE Smartest Artists Gallery” on the wall outside my door! So far so good!!

After nine years of teaching I have tried so many different incentives and the best ones end up being the ones that are the lowest maintenance for me. This doesn’t exactly fall into that category, but I think it will be fun!!

We can’t hang anything from the ceiling, so I laminated the table color signs and just taped them to each table

I hope everyone has a blessed first week back! I love reading all of your blogs with new ideas and seeing into your classrooms for ideas and inspiration!!! ~Natalie~

Organization is not my bag!

2011-08-23T12:48:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share with you an awesome thing I found out about this year. If you are an artist, chances are, you are organizationally challenged like myself. We are right brained people. Organizing takes left brained people. Unless you are ambidextrous, like my friend Hailey-Ann who gave me this perfect little tip.

These supply caddy’s and containers come in sets of the spectrum. Yes!! Every set has six of each in the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple!! I have 6 tables set up in the color wheel order, so it works perfectly!!

These caddy’s above have a perfect spot for three glue to fit and scissors and markers.

Heres the link:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/teaching-supplies/teacher-resources/storage-a1-501514-3-1.fltr

these fit crayons

and these for pencils!

This way, I can have my table helpers get whatever they need for that day off the counter and they know which one is theirs.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful first week of school!!

This is how I felt after kindergarten today with 32 little munchkins and just me….can you feel me?

Back to School Ideas!

2011-08-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hello blogging world art teacher friends!!! For some of you, the summer is coming to the close and the fresh smell of empty rooms and blank planners is near!!! I am in need of some great beginning of school activities. I have posted below my all time favorite first week of school activity for you!!! It was easy to set up, mess free, and made a BEAUTIFUL display (great way to start out the year) I would LOVE now, for you to post YOUR beginning of the year activities for inspiration!!! I love reading all of your blogs and use so many of your fabulous ideas!!!

If your blog is not on my blog roll PLEASE comment or e-mail it to me so I can add you!! Ok, the lesson below is the one i was talking about. It didn’t publish earlier so here it is. I posted this last year but here it is again!

This was my first day of school project this year. It was a great way to learn their names and talk about how special and different everyone is! I did this with grades kinder through fifth and they ALL loved it! Since the students are learning the color wheel I thought it would introduce color relationships in a fun way. Each table had a different color . One color. Red table had red, blue tables had blue, yellow had yellow, and so on. Since they had markers, pencils, and crayons, it allowed for various shades and hues of the same color. The 4th and fifth graders could use 2 colors; one color and one analogus color to make the intermediate color transitions in the mural from one color to the next. For the border I put butcher paper on each table and let kinder and first draw and paint different kinds of lines with their lines and color lesson, then cut it into strips to use for border. I glued all the index cardstogether on a looooooong piece of butcher paper in color order to create the mural.

We talked first about drawing your face. Oval head, then ears in the middle, then hairline from one ear to the next, line for the part of the hair if its a girl, eyes where the ears are in the middle, then nose half way b/w eyes and chin, and lips half way b/w nose and chin. We looked at many different hairstyles and how to draw them from the hair line.

Father’s Day Trophies!!

2011-06-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

Coral Reef

2011-06-13T14:09:00.001-07:00

Ok I LOVE summer with my girls. These moments are magical! Today I asked June what she wanted to make and without hesitation in her three year old imagination she quickly responded…”Fish mommy…I want to make fish please”

So we google imaged “tropical coral reef”

She loved looking at all the fish and talking about all the different colors and designs.

She drew some fish and I held her little hand and helped draw some more. She had a list of everything she wanted: blowfish, star fish, catfish, flounder,speckled trout, shark, jelly fish, and SquidWard (my husband is a fisherman and she is obsessed with fish)

I cut them out and we counted them and sorted them a few times.

Then time to paint!!

“Look at the water change colors mommy”

I told her to paint yellow on her blue starfish and see what color it made

“Wow GREEN!!”

We used all different things to paint a variety of lines,dots, and designs;

Forks

chopsticks

Q-tips

and Fingers of course!

The highlight of my day was when my almost three yr old turned to me and said, “This makes me happy,mommy”

She finally added some buttons and sequins with Elmer’s glue

I used my hot glue gun to glue the pieces together. June picked out some shells for the bottom and we were thrilled with the finished coral reef!!

A Snowball Fight in June??

2011-06-09T08:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the girls and I had a snowball fight! Do you wonder how we played with snow for over an hour and it didn’t even melt in the Houston heat???

Magic snow!!

Would you believe me if I told you that we emptied the cotton substance of two diapers into a bucket, added water, and VOILA, SNOW!!

LET the fun begin!!

And its easy clean up, just run the hose over it and it dissolves!

Cheap and simple summer fun!

Princess’s Birthday Party

2011-06-06T21:21:00.001-07:00

We are out for summer and I am so looking forward to doing some art with my babies! I will be documenting our creative adventures.

So a few weeks ago we got a new pet. Her name is “Pwincess” and my three year old LOVES her. Naturally she is obsessed with Birthday parties, cake, and the like. Today she had the idea to plan and create a birthday party for Pwincess.

First I made the table and chairs with some cardboard and a gluegun! Then June chose to paint it pink!

Then she picked out some jewels from this scrap jewelry bin to decorate the chairs, and painted a tiny canvas for a Birthday sign!

We picked the tiny flower plates with ladybugs on them, set the table, and sang Happy Birthday about 20 times!!

She loved her cake…if you were wondering!