Simple Clay Rose Hearts

So, if you read my blog, it is no surprise that I am going to do a project with hearts for Valentine's Day. If you look on the labels on the right side of my blog you can find other "hearts
 blog posts! We also did a clay rose project for Mother's Day last year you check out under "roses" on the label bar to your right! It is definitely my favorite shape! I have been playing around with some ideas and today I figured out a very easy way to make a rose to adorn a heart shaped slab. I have posted clay roses before but this technique is much EASIER for making tiny roses. My daughter who just turned 4 made this today! 

Begin with a coil and pinch the top of the coil from one end to the next. When you pinch the top of the coil, let the clay squeeze out and form a little ripple at the top. 

Slip, score, and use a little extra slip to attach the rose since you cannot press the top or you'll squish it! We used a paintbrush to apply the slip

 You can use a letter stamp to write a sweet note in the middle or personalize it

My daughter was addicted to making roses, and ended up spending 2 1/2 hours making roses and clay hearts!

 She used some old jewelry to stamp the wings, and some stamps for texture in the middle. I added holes at the top for ribbon.
I can't wait to get out all my red and pink and white glazes for these!!

Valentine Chalk Board Art

For this project, students will choose a sweet Valentine quote and some cool fonts to create a faux black board artwork.

 First cut a large rectangle out of black foam board or poster board. Create a border with painters tape. Use gold acrylic to paint the frame. Peel away the tape when paint is dry.

I found a cute "bee Mine" image on this fabulous blog! fabulous blog click here

I have not done this project with the kids yet, but I can't wait to see how they turn out! The example turned out great!

 white paint pens to draw the design.

Here are a few fun ideas for students to get ideas for their own chalk board.

Still Life Roses 101

When teaching a still life my goal is to take them from drawing the "swirly" rose in Exibit A below



to the rose in Exibit B below....using their eyes!

Students must learn to use their EYES to draw.

When we draw the roses I tell them to pretend their pencil is an airplane, their paper is the runway, but they must use their eyes to fuel the plane so that it can take off across the runway!!
 Their brain tells them to draw the swirly curly center, but they must train their mind to DRAW WHAT THEY SEE!

So here is how I teach Still Life Roses

First, look at LOTS of Roses and talk about them! I had these LSU roses because a teacher got them for V-Day and they were SO cool!!

This turned out to be a great SCIENCE lesson about how they got the roses to be this color!

.
 1. Draw a contour line around the rose using your eyes.
 It is like tracing your hand; go all the way around with nothing in the middle.
I tell them over and over to keep their EYES on the rose and draw every point, bump, and hill.
Also remind them to draw big. I tell them the rose must be the size of their hand. They draw a very light oval around their hand and try to fit it inside. That also helps with placement on the page if they are drawing more than one.

2. Then they begin with the bottom petals because they are in the front.

3. Then they move around the rose, drawing the outer petals first, saving the center and top of the rose till the end. Keep reminding students to keep their EYES on the rose!

4. When they draw the center of the rose, I tell them to look at each petal as a shape, and see where that shape connects to the other shapes. NO SWIRL in the middle. Look where each petal starts and stops. 

5. When they draw the leaves/stem, they must look at each leaf as a shape. If it is sideways, it will be a long, thin shape, also notice when the leaves overlap the stem, they won't always be on either side of the stem. 

Keep your eyes on the ROSE! 

These are third grade drawings below...

Keep your EYES on the ROSE 

We used white roses because that was what I got for Valentine's Day, but do not use white if you have a choice. Dark red or multi colored roses are easier to see!!

When they finish drawing we outlined the roses with an extra fine-tip Sharpie. They could draw and decorate a creative flower vase if they wanted. 

Some of the fifth graders finished quickly and started painting today.

We talked about how to create value with watercolor. They looked for the highlights where they must paint very light, and the shadows which need to be darker.

The roses below are from fourth grade! I cannot wait to post the finished results next week! They are going to use liquid watercolors in all different colors!

Gustav Klimt Tree of Life

We have been studying Gustav Klimt

For this project we used Crayola Gold tempera paint, oil pastels, paper scraps

We have done it before, but I just did it a little differently this time. You can see my last post with directions here --->HERE 

Here is the original Tree of Life" by Gustav Klimt  that was our inspiration