Sunday, August 30, 2009

india art ideas

Usually I go
*cave art -sept
*Australia-oct
*Egypt-nov
*Greece-dec
*Roam-dec
*India/Middle east-jan
*Asia-feb
*Africa-march
*South America-april
*Central America-may
*Native North America -june

give or take a few weeks here and there. This year I want to move India to October because that is when Diwali occurs. I also want to do a very short day of the dead activity but no move my entire central America/Mexico unit.

There are great projects having to do with Diwali, the New year, the festival of light.

We will make little clay bowls for our flame less candles
Design a Mandala (middle school only. get's its own post)
Rangoli,
Make Loki's foot prints (little kids only)
Make peacock art
elephant art
Try our hand at Mehndi
and make Doorway welcome flags Torans
Here are some inspiration images

foot prints for 2nd-3rd.


2nd peacock art


3rd-5th peacock art

cute, maybe some older kids will want to make this, too much work and paper for lower grades in the large number of students I see

elephant template link
great for 2nd-3rd
Too cute! made from felt and the elephant templet. Could 4th-5th manage to sew these or should we make them "stuffed" with paper, staples and plastic bags like with the carosol horse I made in elementary school.

Then there is the elepthant batike I did in summer school. I wnat to do it with paper with one grade level and with glue and fabric with the older kids and their choice of India animal. Maybe 4th will paper batik and 5th will sew if they still have the good attitude from last year it hink they can pull it off and not do a peacock project.

rangoli examples and links:
love this for older kids. has the Diwali lamp
3rd grade example and link to more examples by kids
http://www.mancent.school.nz/rangoli.htm
and more adult and kid examples
this set up reminds me of a geo board. maybe we can use them to help us create our designs. Good math connection, reminds me of quilt designs.
the link to the website with samples:
http://www.diwalifestival.org/diwali-rangoli.html

made from flower petals. So pretty

some patterns:


grid system like the geo board
dot to dot design


Next are Toran's or wall or door hangings that are made with bands and "drops" or flags
band

drop
band and drop designs

lots of great examples
love the elephants and lotus

more traditional colors



I am now following a blog with a ton of desgins from India. The ones from west india look really helpfull.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

art room # 10 Life Skill Projects

On top of my k-8 classes I also teach two life skills classes. One is the higher functioning life skills, working at about a kinder level and the other is the low functioning where the kids function at a 8 months to 3 year old level. I find coming up with projects for the low functioning class really challenging because while several of the kids have no clue what is going on during class it is the teachers aid's that come with them that want to be entertained by the projects. No one reads this but me so I can say that. If my projects are too boring to keep their (adult) interest then they complain.

I'm torn. Do I do projects that the KIDS can do, or do a I projects that the adults can do. I try to find projects that are a mix of both. Because several of the students have very very low motor skills I find that cutting and drawing are basically out of the picture. Painting must be uncontrolled and gluing must be done with large glue sticks and a hand guiding little hands. The one thing we discovered that makes both parties happy is bleeding tissue paper. The kids can "paint" on the water that makes the paper bleed the color and the end result is a nice water color effect.

However, really how many times can you paint with bleeding tissue before you get tired of it. I see the group every week. Last year we did blot painting and string art and a myriad of other things and I am running out of ideas. Oh yeah and of course the kids stay in the same class year to year so I basically have to find a whole new set of projects each year. I have yet to find any other art teacher that teach life skills classes or provided life skills art projects. When I get this together enough I think I'll make a e-book of project ideas. These are my plans so far for this year.

1. Use the bleeding tissue to fill a paper with color and then have the kids help roll the dye cut machine to cut out the first letter of their name. Paste the letter in the center of the painted paper. Here is a image of this project. I also want to do this with Kinder.
I believe these were done by using the paper letter as a resist but we are not going to bother with that. We will just put the letter on top.

Next it is time to bring out marble painting. You know this one. Dip the marble in paint, put a white piece of paper in a shoe box, throw in the paint covered marbles and tilt, roll and shake the shoe box. Take out the painted paper. Ta-da. One website suggests golf balls instead of marbles. This might be easier for the kids to grab.

On to car paintings! Take any toy car or truck, hopefully with different size wheels, matchbox cars to Tonka trucks. Roll the wheels in paint and then roll the paint covered wheels on paper. The fun part now is that a auto maker did this with a real car for a add campaign so I can show that first to set the mood.
http://www.expressionofjoy.com/#

Then we have good old dipping a marker in water and then drawing on a coffee filter and watching is spread and then using a clothes pin to make a butterfly.

Good for Halloween, also good for kindergarten. Paper plate owl with only a little cutting and fun gluing. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/owl/


Balloon painting. Get some water balloons fill with water or air. Dip in paint. Dip on paper.

I would love it if we could manage something like this http://www.makingfriends.com/sculpture/sculppaper.htm

I just found these pouches with paint and oil in them to squish around on dick blick. We can make 20 pouches for $4. I think this would be great!
http://cdn.dickblick.com/lessonplans/insoluble-paintings/insoluble-paintings-insoluble-paintings.pdf

Thursday, August 27, 2009

ideas

just a few images of things I want to do with my students this year. I want to do a whole dinosaur unit with K-1 this year. Who doesn't like dinos. I'm not sure if we can get to the place where they can control the white glue so we will probably have to do with white crayon. But the glue will be worth a try. From that artist women


Next this seems like a good time killer to have on hand. I wonder if the 2nd graders handwriting is good enough now for this to work. From art projects for kids


And this one is for all the grade levels when we do Mexico and south America. A great example of bark painting. Beautiful colors and detail from Teach Kids Art.
I think the key here is a lesson on using two colors that look good together in each space. Like the Purple and red and the yellow and blue green. Ah analogous colors. Ding. Also love how the dots remind me of aboriginal dot painting.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

art room #8 first week kinder and 1st projects

When looking at Teach Kids Art for classroom rule ideas I saw she is using two books I was planing to using to start off the year and then one more brilliant idea. So here I go borrowing flat out again.

As I mentioned I want to do a self portraiture to start the year. I think I will do this with both K and 1st and then laminate them and make the the front of the kids art portfolio which I hope to turn into art books this year. But, gosh, kindergarten just finished the year with self portraiture. Oh well they have short memories. To shake it up and incorporate a story I am going to barrow the idea of reading Henry and the Purple Crayon and then have the kids draw themselves in black and things they like in purple. Here is the sample from Teach Kids Art

1. Using a black ("F") Sharpie, draw your self-portrait vertically on your portfolio. (You may want to demonstrate drawing a large circle about 1/4th of the way down from the top, so that students don't start their drawings too small.) Add lots of details! (We always do another self-portrait at the end of the year.... it's so fun to compare them and see the growth!)

2. Now use a purple crayon to draw pictures all around you of the things you want to learn about in Kindergarten.... letters, numbers, bugs and flowers, anything you can think of! Don't forget to draw a purple crayon in your hand!




Then she has a great idea for using the book The Dot which I wanted to read to encourage the kids to relax and not worry about things looking "right" here is her The Dot sample



My only worry with the dot is the kids mixing all the colors into a brown much. We will have to work on remembering to clean our brush between colors.

I think these dots if they turn out right will look amazing framed so this will make a great second project . I don't know if the kinder's will be ready to do this one the second week. Wait...kinder doesn't come back for an extra week. Ok this is good. I will start both kinder and first with the Harold project (1st will do it a week before kinder) and then the week that kinder is doing the Purple Crayon then 1st can be doing The Dot. I also think this would be a good one for those crazy second graders also till I know I can control them this year. I still want to use the book
ISH by the same man as THE Dot. I can do that with Kinder their second week and draw ISH animals or something.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

art room rules easy to read fromat

I AM RESPONSIBLE:
I follow directions the first time I am asked
I show up to class on time and ready to work
I try my personal best: "I'll try," rather than, "I can't"
I use our art materials and art studio correctly
I clean up after myself

I AM RESPECTFUL:

I talk respectfully to my classmates and adults

I use a classroom voice volume and language
I allow others to do their work and respect their workspace
I only touch other people's art with their permission

I treat my own art respectfully

I AM Safe:
I use my hands and feet in a safe way
I sit in a safe way
I use sharp objects correctly
Art materials are tools not toys

I AM KIND:
I share with my classmates
I use Kind words when sharing
I use kind words when talking about my art and other peoples art
I use kind words with my classmates and adults
I help others

ASK YOURSELF "R" YOU:
*Respecting yourself
*Respecting others
*Respecting the materials
*Respecting the studio

If not I encourage you to make good choices

Monday, August 24, 2009

art room # 7 PBS in the art room

No that is not Public Broadcasting Station, that is PBS Positive Behavioral Systems. This is a school wide behavior program that was started in Corvallis Oregon and has growing flowing across the country. It is sometimes also called Safe and Civil Schools.
We are a PBS school, in fact I'm on the PBS committee and have been at both schools I have taught at. I enjoyed going to the massive PBS conference in Eugene two years ago.

Two of the fundamentals of being a PBS school is consistency and pre-teaching expectations. The primary way these are achieved is to have school wide "expectations" (that's rules to you and me). These expectations have 3-5 broad categories with specifics to each part of the school such as the cafeteria, the playground or the art room! Students are pre-taught expectations so they know how to behave up front. The idea is to break the assumption that students "know" how we want them to behave, they just choose not to.

Turns out kids can't read our minds. Also from first hand experience I know how I expect them to behave is not necessarily how their parents expect them to behave. So we have a gap that needs to be filled.

Our school expectations are very similar to most schools:
I am Safe
I am Respectful
I am Responsible
I am Kind

You will see these as either BE, I AM or WE ARE. We go with I AM. The idea being that BE is a demand/instruction (not taken well by our student population) and WE ARE leaves the kids an opening to say You may be respectful but I am not! (I have had this conversation many times) so as a school we choose I AM.
In my ideal world I would have it say I AM Striving to be. These are actions that we have to work towards and constantly monitor.

We also added Kind. Kind is a hard one to define and as a staff we argue about it. Isn't being respectful being kind? Can you force kindness? Do you have to be kind to people you don't like or do you need to just be respectful? We will debate this forever, but Kind has stayed.

PBS in the art room has it's own look. For my own benefit I need to break down what I want to see in the four categories and post my EXACT expectations along with the broad categories this year.

Let's start with the hardest one. KIND (which looks a lot like respectful)
KIND:
I share with my classmates
I use Kind words when sharing
I use kind words when talking about others art
I use kind words when talking about my own art
I use kind words with my classmates and Mrs. Bauer


Taken from TeachKidsArt is:
Rule #3 - Learn to say, "I'll try," rather than, "I can't".
I really like her Rule # 3 and plan to brow it flat out. I am trying to figure out where it belongs in the categories. I think I will put it in Responsible. You are responsible for trying your best and for your own attitude. So lets move onto:

RESPECTFUL:

I talk respectfully to other students and adults
I use a classroom appropriate volume and language
I allow others to do their work and respect their workspace
I only touch other people's art their permission
I treat my own art respectfully

Did I mention that you are supposed to only have 3-5 guidelines for each expectations and they are supposed to be worded in a positive manner. Lets try

RESPONSIBLE:

I follow directions the first time I am asked
I show up to class on time and ready to work
I try my personal best
: "I'll try," rather than, "I can't"
I use our art materials and art studio correctly
I clean up after myself


I have a problem with the kids banging on the tables when they first come into the room. So much trouble that TWO of our tables were broken because of this behavior last year. That's why I put in caring for the art studio itself. Lets cap things off with SAFE:


Safe:
I use my hands and feet in a safe way
I sit in a safe way
I use sharp objects correctly
I always walk in the art room
Art materials are tools not toys

I like how this women consolidates this all


O

http://www.hermann.k12.mo.us/Pohlmann%20Lela/art_room_rules.htm

MY personal rules for the year. If you have physical contact (hitting) with another student or me or if you call me a Bitch you are out of the room for the day if not week. After three years my tolerance to being called Bitch has reached zero. Oh and any kids that bite or cut another kid have to miss the next week's art class. Ok whew. That took three days to do.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

art room # 6 First week of class projects- take two

I've been thinking about it and am realizing doing a hand print color wheel the first week or two back is bound to lead to disaster with a lot of my classes. There is no reason to have paint out for the first week or two. So I have rethought my first projects and borrowed from Deep Space Sparkle and Art Projects for kids.

Kinder- sticking with self portraits and reading "Ish".

1st- Fly into a new school year birds from this lesson : http://deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com/2009/03/bird-drawing-and-painting-lesson-for.html


2nd- Lord, I don't know what to expect for this one. Overall the 1st graders last year were out of control and many were really, really troubled...like send that kid to counseling troubled. Getting through any project was hell on wheels. Maybe we will do the birds that the 1st graders are doing...I'm going to have to think about this one.

3rd - this is a pretty happy group. We will be making color wheel hot air balloons with theme of "Sail into Third Grade"
http://deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com/2009/03/hot-air-balloon-drawing-lesson-for.html
We will use this lesson and maybe have the kids divide the balloon part into the color wheel and use the media of their choice to color or collage each section. Only trick is each color needs to be a different media. We will see if they are up to this challenge or if I need to just let them decorate them however they want.


4th and 5th: Joan Miro Name and self portraits. I like the silly-ness of this project. It is a personalized project that doesn't require the kids to get caught up in "realism" or, "it doesn't look like me!" break downs.
We will start by looking at some of Miro's people and the way he connected his lines and used lines, dots and containted shapes (good reviwe) First we will write our name at the top of the page and Miro-it (I made it into an action) adding lines and dots and stuch till our names are disguised. Then we will do "self portraite's" Miro style following these directions.
http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/search/label/artist%20Joan%20Miro
combined with this
http://deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com/search/label/Joan%20Miro





Looking forward to "harvest" season (aka Halloween) I really want to do something with the book Owl Moon and do some owl projects. I found this owl applique the other day and am really inspired by his expressive eyes. I will create a paper quilt applique collage project based of this little guy:

Thursday, August 20, 2009

art room # 5 cave art 4th-5th grade projects

4th-5th graders will expand on the project from 2n-3rd only in a more complex form. I teach 9, yes 9, grade levels AND 2 levels of special education (27 classes each week). The only way I can pull this off is to stick with basically the same projects with the same supplies just with increasingly difficult skill level.

Our 4th/5th graders feel they are too cool for story books (rolls eyes) so we will skip First Dog and go right to a power point of the cave paintings. I'll set up the lesson by talking about crawling through the caves with your torch hoping you don' t run into a sleeping saber tooth tiger or bear who wants a easy meal. I'll share the info below which comes from this website:

From http://earlyhumans.mrdonn.org/caveart.html

COLOR: Early man used natural colors. You may have heard that they used charcoal to create these paintings. Actually, most art was not made with charcoal, but rather with mineral pigments, such as iron oxide (red ochre) or black manganese. They drew stick figures for people, but the animals were well drawn, and usually filled in with natural colors, to give them even more shape and substance.

DANGER: When you think cave, you might think of a big place, with high ceilings. Not so. In order to reach the places where cave paintings have been found, Cro-Magnon man had to crawl on his belly, through mazes of narrow, dark tunnels, by the light of a flicking torch or a spoon-like oil lamp (which had to be hand carried and balanced carefully to hold the burning oil in the rounded part of the spoon - while crawling along on your belly), and carrying the paints he had carefully prepared, with no idea if he might run into, oh .. a cave lion or a bear, on the way. Certainly he wasn't decorating his home, as these marvelous paintings were hidden deep within the darkest portions of the cave.

4th and 5th graders will also do two projects. A paper cave painting and a painting on "stone".

Paper cave painting: Start class with guided drawings of several cave animals. For older students I prefer to have a guided drawing worksheet for them to work on at their own speed. This allows me to give the students more examples to choose from. I try to have five objects/animals to draw and ask the students to try three. Students that finish early do the extra two.

After practice drawing we are right back to the brown paper bag that has been crumpled up. I LOVE to have the older kids get under the table to do these paintings. If the table is too tall or you are worried about paint dripping on the kids then just put the table on it's side so it is like a wall. Tape the paper bag to the table. Start by having students paint the outline of the animal they chose and any extra details like weapons or people. Use black and dark red/brown tempera paint.

After student's have painted the outline of their animals they will add shading and extra detail with paint and/or oil pastel. Emphasize to the students to leave some "rock" showing on the inside of the animal.

Project 2: Painting on Rock

We are going to "make" our rock using equal parts plaster, vermiculite and water.

*Mix this up in a plastic bucket till it has a thick cookie dough texture.

*Push all the tables and chairs away and have the kids sit in a almost circle around you.

*Give each child a plastic place mat (I get these from dollar tree) to put in front of them.

*Have each student come get a hand full of this "rock" slop. Take it back to their place mat and have them plop it down from about four inches above. This will make an interesting rock shape and texture. This mix will set up pretty fast. We are working with Fresco painting today.

*Have the kids use sticks to draw the outline of their animal or person into the "stone" and then start painting it while it is still wet and drying. The color will soak in. Worse comes to worse you can just make the stone and carve the design on the first day and then paint the stone the next day.

Make sure to let the "stone" dry for a week or so before giving it back to the students. It will take about four months for it to dry out all the way. At that point it will be surprisingly lightweight and sturdy.

NEVER put plaster in the sink and down the drain. Wait for it to dry out a bid and scrape it into a trash. Also have your students rinse their hands into a wash bucket not the sink:)

Next time: Middle school cave project lessons

Art room # 4 cave art 2nd-3rd grade projects

2nd-3rd: I will set up the lesson by reading The First Dog, then we will look at a few posters of cave art drawings. We will think about what kinds of things we see in the paintings (animals, hand prints, some people, weapons for hunting). Then we will think about what colors we see used. We will also pay close attention to how the art works are "signed" by the artists hand print.

We will then do two project that I believe will take about three sessions (including reading the book).

Project 1: An easy version of the same project that all 2nd-8th graders will do. I hope to put them all together and plaster the hallway I am in to make our own cave. We will do a guided drawing practice of a four legged horse like animal. I'll show the kids how to put on a horse mane or different types of antlers to make it a elk or antelope. We will also do a guided practice drawing of a mammoth.

After our guided drawings we will crumple brown paper bags, tear along the edges to make it look rough like rock and do a drawing of the animal we practiced before. We will make sure to "sign" our work by tracing around our hand.

Here are some cute examples from kindergartners Ceder Creek Elementary School
( I full anticipate my 2nd graders work to look a lot like these kindergartners work based on how far along they were at the end of last year. Most of our students are one to two years behind developmentally due to a variety of reasons)




Our second project will have the student's making "clan" necklaces.
*On paper I will print a circle about the size of a silver dollar.
*Student's will make a disk out of modeling clay and add modeling clay on top of it with snakes of clay to make a design or they can "carve" into the clay.
*We will then take the disk. Put it face up in a wax paper cup and pour in plaster of Paris mixed with vermiculite that gives a stone texture.
*We will stick a bar-b-q skewer into the cup to make a hole in the pendent.
(Put each students name on the cup! )
* We will let the pendents dry for a week and then tear off the paper cup to revel the pendent.
(Make sure to write each students name on the back of the pendent! )

If I get the funding I want to get some fake leather cording to make the necklace part.

Art room # 3 First Dog --- cave art childrens book

I took a really great class this summer that focused on art through history for kids. During this class I was introduced to a new/ old book (1988) by Jan Brett called The First Dog. First dog is about a cave boy named Kip who is traveling home and keeps encountering dangers, he is forewarned about these dangers and saved again and again by a wolf who eventually becomes Kip's companion and therefore the "first" dog. Here is the official description of the book and a picture of the cover.



Between 35,000 and 12,000 years ago, as the last of the great glaciers of the Pleistocene advanced and retreated over the grasslands of Europe and the New World, people like ourselves--Homo sapiens sapiens--began to flourish. Hunters and gatherers, they wore clothes made of animal skins, had shell and bone ornaments and used such tools as spears and knives. They made music and were prolific artist. This was a time of exceptional artistic achievement and technological advance, and it may have been during this period that the first wild animals were domesticated.
Jan Brett has created an appealing story from this possibility, setting it in a breathtaking Ice Age landscape populated with animals that coexisted with early man in Europe and the New World. The images and ornaments of her borders were inspired by the cave paintings and artifacts surviving from this time.


I think this book will really appeal to my students for several reasons. First they really love dogs and stories of animal companionship (many of my students feel animals are more trustworthy than their human counterparts...which frankly, and sadly, is often true). Second this book features a independent and adventurous young child who has been out having a grand adventure...WITHOUT the aid of adults. What child doesn't like that idea. Third Jan Brett's illustrations are so appealing. Not only does she do wonderful illustrations, but each picture is surrounded by boarder images that let you go deeper into the story.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the stone or clay medallion that Kip gives first dog to show that he was part of Kip's clan. One of the projects I'm going to do with my students is have them make a "clan" medallion for their own family.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

art room # 2 Cave art of France background info



Once we get past the first few weeks of the school year we will start our study of art from around the world and through time. This is a series of lessons that I have been working on for about 6 or 7 years now. I have a two week summer camp version of art around the world, a year long elementary version that I am working on right now and a half year long middle school version that I have used before and will tweak for this year to make it year long.

Of course when we talk about pre-historic art we have to start with France and the Caves of Lascaux. This website is phenomenal and allows you and your students to tour the many caves of the Lascaux area and learn about the history of the paintings and the discovery of them.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

My 6-8th graders will go on a web scavenger hunt to learn more about these caves. I will post the scavenger hunt questions later.
This website is particularly nice because it has a time line that features other caves int he Lascuaux area...ones even older than Lascaux. The time line, and photos, start with Chauvet which is dated at about 32,000 BC! Lascaux is dated at around 17-18,000 BC.

2nd-8th grade will also be shown a slide show of images from the caves and we will talk about these questions:
*How old do you think these paintings are?
*Why do you think these paintings were made?
note: most students, and a lot of adults, will think that the artists of these caves were painting pictures about the food the people ate and of the hunts they went on. Some older students may go as far as to predict that the paintings were done as a tribute or to attract the animals, sort of like a rain dance. After making guesses I like to show a sister Wendy clip that explains that most of the animals painted were NOT part of the diet of these people. In fact we now believe that the paintings were done by religious leaders, shamans of a sort, who were calling upon the power of these great animals.
*What do you think the caves were used for?
*How do you think these paintings were made?
*What other objects do you think you might find in the caves?

Next we will watch the Sister Wendy Clip. Then talk about the spiritual nature of the caves, the power animals per say. We will see the use of power animals in many native cultures throughout the year.

For 2nd-5th this is when we stop and do our art projects.
For 6-8th this is when we stop and do the web scavenger hunt.
This year I am also going to seek permission to show some fertility figures such as the Venus of Willendorft. This figure was found in modern day Austria and was made between 24,000 BCE – 22,000 BCE. People have debated round and round in circles about the exact meaning of this statue, the only point they can agree on being that she is a fertility figure. I like her as a class discussion piece because she is A. Sculpture, B. Sculpture in the round, 3. Portable (shows the nomadic lifestyle) 4. clues us into how important having a close, large, fertile, family would have been to survival.
Questions for the Venus:
*Why make a statue of a pregnant women?
*Why would it have been good to have a larger family during that time period
*more people to hunt, defend family, if someone dies still have a functioning group
*What were men and women's job's during that time?
*Why do you think she doesn't have a face?

Now as much as I want to show this work of art it will depend on me getting permission from the principal...boobies and all, and how mature each class is. I might do more of the talking then having a group discussion for the first question for Venus.
I have found a few more "school appropriate" shots of the the Venus.
I have been working with middle scholars long enough to know that this viewing will be saved for AFTER our art projects are done or I will have a pack of boys drawing naked women all over their cave art.





Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Art room post #1

This is the first official art room post of the year. Because of how late Labor Day is this year we don't start school until September 8th. So in 21 days school starts for the kids. I won't have any students in my classroom for the first week to week and half but I will be responsible for doing assemblies and such around the school.

Each year a great construction company donates backpacks and school supplies to ALL of the students in our school. Yes all 537 of them. The music teacher and I are responsible for getting the assemblies to pass these out all set up and moving all 500+ packs around the school to the right locations. Its a lot of work.

This year we have a special event the third day of school. The new Max (light rail) line is opening up right outside of our school. The people at Tri-Met have offered to take all of our students on a free ride the day Before the official line opening. I for-see myself going on a lot of short rides that day and walking a lot of excited kids back and forth from the school to the Max.

On the art room front our theme for the year is "Art around the world and through time." It is what is sounds like. Basically a crash course in ancient to Renaissance art across the world. This is year two of my three year subject rotations. Year one is "Art and Me," where we explore the elements and principals of art and then go in depth in how to correctly use all the types of art media that I offer, from printmaking to painting, sewing to "stone" carving. Year two we get into some art history. Hopefully, by this point the students know how to correctly use all the materials in the art room and are feeling more confident with different art methods. So we start looking at how people around the world and through time have used the materials and methods that we learned about the year before. Year three we look at specific artists and the art movements from the Renaissance onward. This year has less focus on the country of origin of the artist and more emphasis on the art style/movement that they were part of.

I should also mention that all Kinders and 1st graders are in their own two year rotation where we focus on making art that relates to picture books. This is my art in literacy rotation. We really focus on learning how to use our materials such as scissors, glue, crayons, makers and paint during these first two years.

To start off the year we always do getting to know you activities and try to get a self portruite from the younger kids so that we can compare their work from the start of the year to the end of the year. This is what the first few weeks of art class will look like for my students:

K-1: Welcome to/back to the art room. Basic procedures (where we sit for story, where we sit to do our work, how to safely sit on the chair, how do I get help, how do I go to the bathroom, what materials can I use, how do we correctly use the materials, what dose sharing sound and look like in the art room, clean up procedure, voice level, chill zone/time out, what if I get done early...) and a self proiturate, a print out of their name for them to decorate to go on their work folder and a "scavenger hunt" for colors to help build the color wheel.

2nd-3rd: Welcome back to the art room. Basic procedure (same as above), what the four school expectations look like in the art room (Safe, Responsible, Respectful, Kind). Explain that our theme is Art Around the World. Pre-view the countries we will "visit" and make our "passports". We will also make a big scavenger hunt color wheel and then make our own colors with paint and put our hand print on the color wheel in the correct space.

4th-5th: Same as 2nd-3rd ( I like to do the same project with all grades levels for the first week just to keep things consistant. There is bound to be "issues" that first week and so the focus needs to be dealing with the students not the project)

6th-8th. Now we are into the meet of the issue. This group comes to my classroom every day of the week often for the entire school year. Aside from students who are new to the school, I will have had all of these students the previous year. I lay it down pretty hard and clear for this group concerning what I will, and will not, tolerate. We talk a lot about a student and a teacher's rights and responsibilities. Although it boils down to this " You have the right to learn, your classmates have the right to learn, I have the right to teach. If you are impairing my ability to teach or your classmates right to learn then you either stop or you leave. It has taken me four years to be able to say THIS is MY Classroom, take it or leave it. I am caring and fair while I enforce this but in the end that is the fact. I am there it teach, keep the kids safe and nurture their growth. I can not do any of those things if my classroom is out of control and the students do not feel safe or like their are boundaries.

So we have a lot more set up to with this group. We need to make a large portfolio for each student. We need to need to set up our stab bound sketch books. In these we have several sections: Lined paper for notes, recycled paper to glue the Wednesday watercolor too, newsprint for practice sketches and good sketch paper for Friday draw. The stab bound books will be any type of school appropriate drawing the students want but it has to incorporate the line, texture, color and movement of the Austrian artist Hundertwasser that I mentioned in several posts back.

Our next project is a accordion fold book with each students name as the feature. On the cover will be the student's name. On each page will be one letter from there name. That letter needs to be accompanied by a drawing, or a collage, or whatever of a person, place or thing that starts with that same letter.

This project has several ideas behind it. One I get time to look at the kids name. Two there is a wide range of techniques the students can use therefore I can see what they naturally lean to and get an idea of their art style and skill. Three there is enough structure to keep the kids moving along. Having to find something that starts with the letters of their name gives each student a starting point. Depending on the group I may ask them to stick to a theme for their pages. Animals, extreme sports, food, celebrities, clothes, cars...not sure yet.

Mine according fold book may look like this Mrs. Bauer M: Married (I got married this summer) R: Reading (I love to read) S: Sewing ( obviously I love to sew) B: Bike (I am going to ride my bike to work each day...I hope) .... and so on.

THEN we will start with our art around the world unit about a week to two weeks in.
Why wait this long? Students are going to transfer in and out of class. They will come back late from summer vacation and being in Mexico. It will take them a while to get used to being in a mixed grade level class and settle down enough to start on the major project.

wow long post. but you can see how much thought goes into planing just a week of teaching:)

Apples Love Oranges update and desgin sneek pre-viwe!

Wow unbelievable sale day yesterday. 9 items! Most of those were reserved items for friends but then to top it off a random stranger bought my ocean friends onesie! I now have made enough to officially get some business cards before last Thursday. I was also happy/sad to find the cute girls tee-shirts I use on super sale last night (happy). Sad because they were on sale because they are only doing long sleeve for the rest of the season so I can't get more on demand. I bought out the rest of what they had but it was not as much as I would like. I'll have to go to a different location of the store today and try to get a few more.
I'm going to add three new designs today. I have a feeling the black bird fly! one is going to be a good seller.

First new design.
The apple and the tree Onesie...they say the apple doesn't' fall far from the tree.




Second design: Hug a tree Toddler tee-shirt ( I like how this turned out better than the apple and the tree, oh well. It really only fits on a toddler tee shirt, not a onesie)





And my pride and joy of new designs.... Black bird fly! Onesie and Girls tee. First time I have used colored onsies. I hope this one does well! Super hip and modern.



I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek at my new designs.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Friedensreich Hundertwasser




The new school year is rapidly approaching and I have been spending more and more time putting together start of year lesson plans and looking at my art teacher blogs. I was on one of my fav blogs today, art projects for kids, and Kathy had a new project up with a link to a artist I had never heard of before. My art history classes from college and intense studying for my art teacher testing has given me a pretty large mental encyclopedia of artist knowledge. Somehow this man has never come up in my studies.

I instantly fell in love with his stuff. The COLORS the fun, exciting movement of the lines within his images, the use of pattern! I think he might be my new favorite artist... well he is at least tied with Chagall. So Hundertwasser and his mom were Austrian Jews during world war 2 and they pretended to be Catholic to survive the war. He even joined Hitler's Youth to go to school, even art school in Germany and Austria.

Now I find this very interesting because Chagall was a Russian Jew and working about the same time. Both of them use these bright colors, these almost surreal images meshing humans and nature, the strong use of line to show movement and they have a mystical, uplifting feel. Did they both feel lucky to survive the war? Did they survive because they saw the bright side of life and appreciate nature?

Hundertwasser was also really interesting because he was an architect making these crazy buildings that look like they are rippling.


I wish I had a reason to write an academic paper comparing and contrasting their art works and lives.

What I thought was most interesting about his art is how incredibly modern it is. I mean it looks like some Portland Hipster painted his stuff. Do lots of people know about him and are influenced by him or is this a strange coincidence? There was limited info about him online, although a lot of images, so I somehow don't think your average hipster knows about him.

Here are a few works of his: