Sunday, December 22, 2013

Happy holidays!


You may not see posts from me on here for a while, but if you were wondering....we had another BOY! 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Recycled Mixed Media Owls

You may remember this project from last year but I definitely had to do it again because it was so successful with my previous fourth graders. A few years ago I was given some outdated children's dictionaries and I saved them until I developed this project. I was inspired by artist, Susanne Buckner's owl paintings and so then process began.  
 
-The students started by using recycled dictionary pages from old children's dictionaries. 
 -Using watered down Elmer's glue and brushes, the students created a collage with the torn book pages. 
- Next the students painted some sort of perch (branch, rock, fence, etc) for the owl to set on, on top of the book pages. We learned about tints ( a color plus white) and shades (a color plus black)
-The sky was colored with the edge of a pealed crayon so that the pattern of the words would show some. 
-The owls were drawn and colored using oil pastels on a separate piece of paper. 
- For the final step, the students cut out the owls and then I hot glued a packing peanut in between the owl and the background so that the owls were three-dimensional. 






Third grade foil embossed leaves

Our third grade students are finishing up some beautiful foil work! The students started this project by collecting Fall leaves, studying the texture and shape and then drawing them to create an interesting composition. The students learned about possitive vs. negative space as well as texture. We discussed transforming our malleable foil from a 2d form to a 3d form by embossing them from the back of our foil. Finally the foil drawings were painted with black ink and once they dried, the students took a some of the ink off using a dish scrubbing pad to create this aged look. The leaves have been mounted on black and also one colored piece of construction paper and each student added a finished pattern around the edge. They really don't get enough justice in the photo! Each one is unique and successful, we just love them! 









Friday, October 25, 2013

Alternative to glazing ceramic tiles


Unfortunately, we have been experiencing many issues with our very OLD kiln. I had a few classes left that did not get a chance to use the ceramic glaze and I didn't want to use the kiln anymore than I already had to.  I decided to try painting them with a watercolor resist method. The students LOVE Crayola construction paper crayons because they are really bright like chalk (without the mess) so I had them color their tiles first and paint watercolor paint on top! They look fabulous!  Parents: I told the students it would be a nice touch  to spray them at home with a protective glossy varnish spray to bring out the color and give it a layer of protection! 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Ceramic tile art for our garden project


We have started our ceramic tile project for our garden this week... The students are making relief tiles inspired by our garden. These will be fired and glazed with vivid colors and displayed inside the fence for all to enjoy in they garden. Check our our clay beginnings! 



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Inspired by Hundertwasser


Our fourth graders learned about Austrian painter and architect, Friedrichsen Hundertwasser. The students were inspired by his connection with nature and architectural designs. Hundertwasser wasn't a fan of straight lines, however spiral patterns can be found in many of his paintings. Check out our mixed media project inspired by this awesome artist! 
Here are a few finished cityscape projects inspires by architect and artist, Friedrichsen Hundertwasser .

        
     
    
     








Thursday, September 5, 2013

Art class in the garden inspires by Georgia O'keefe

Our third graders are learning about artist Georgia O'keefe. She was one of the great America artists who paved the way for female artists with her up close and personal views of the world. She was known for her taking a closer look at things in nature and painting them so large and from a perspective so close that her artwork sometimes seemed abstract and difficult to recognize.
 I took our third graders to the Harris garden to draw from O'keefe's perspective. They are doing an excellent job! 
We saw some interesting creatures along the way! 


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Zentangle Name Mural



Finished Zentangle Mural! Tangled Names of Harris! 



To start the year we are creating a school wide zentangle mural. Each student (and some teachers!) are creating a piece of the mural using their names and some zentangle designs. Here's a sneak preview.

Monday, May 20, 2013

MONSTER ORIGAMI BOOKMARKS! 
To celebrate the start of summer reading, we created these fun monster mouth bookmarks! 


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Itty Bitty City Prints




 Itty Bitty City Prints 


I may have posted about this project in the past, but I just love they way that they turn out, so I took a few pictures of the process to share with you. Our 4th graders are working on this right now.  
On the first day of class I introduced the project by talking about architecture and interior design, because they go hand in hand.  I showed the students a slideshow of cityscapes from around the world and had them take notice of the sizes, shapes and structures of buildings and details that they saw.  

Next, I gave each student a 6x9 inch piece of drawing paper. We folded it in have like a book and painted with water color using WARM colors on the top to represent a sunset and COOL colors on the bottom to represent a body of water. 





I set up ONE table for 4 kids at a time to print at with mat for printing, ink, scrap paper, a clean brayer and a brayer for inking. The students then rolled ink over their foam city and printed it in the sky. When they were done with the sky, the students printed their city upside down in the water to represent a reflection. (I know they dont line up because it is a mirror image, but it still looks cool!)