African Masks web scavenger hunt guide

Type this website into the search bar:
http://www.artyfactory.com/africanmasks/index.htm

You should be at a website called Art Factory and you should see pictures of African Masks

Click on the mask that says African Masks Information
(This mask!)

The artist holds a respected position in African tribal society. It is his job to provide the various masks and sculptures for use in ritual ceremonies. His work is valued for its spiritual, rather than its aesthetic qualities.

(scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see 16 different mask pictures)

Choose 4 masks that look interesting to you and for EACH mask answer the set of questions below. One of the masks you choose will be the mask you use for the final project.

Mask 1:

What is the name of the mask?


What country is the mask from?


What colors do you see on the mask?


What shapes/designs do you see on the mask?


Tell me one other fact about this mask:


Sketch the mask:








Mask 2:

What is the name of the mask?


What country is the mask from?


What colors do you see on the mask?


What shapes/designs do you see on the mask?


Tell me one other fact about this mask:


Sketch the mask:








Mask 3:

What is the name of the mask?


What country is the mask from?


What colors do you see on the mask?


What shapes/designs do you see on the mask?


Tell me one other fact about this mask:


Sketch the mask:









Mask 4:

What is the name of the mask?


What country is the mask from?


What colors do you see on the mask?


What shapes/designs do you see on the mask?


Tell me one other fact about this mask:


Sketch the mask:










What is your favorite mask you looked at today? ___________________________

If you have extra time look at the other masks on this website and explore the other information, try taking the mask quiz!

You MAY NOT surf the web or play online games.

africa resources

My 6-8th class is starting the new trimester by looking at the art of Africa. They did a large africa unit two years ago so this will be a short unit.

Some websites I have found helpful are: AFRICA (a PBS show and website) there is an adult and a kids version with good lesson plans.

A few basic facts:
Africa is a continent made up of 54 different countries
Over 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa
797 million people live in Africa
Africa has 8 major regions. Sahara, Sahel, Ethiopian Highlands, Savanna

The top part of Egypt is the Sahara desert region
The Sahara is the world's largest desert
Egypt is a country in Africa, not the middle east
In the Sahara desert salt is very valuable for trading and selling
If you lived in the Sahara you might eat couscous with onions and tomato, dates and goat milk for lunch or dinner.
The temperature in the Sahara ranges from 109 during the day to below freezing at night

The next lowest region is the Sahel region
Grazing and grassland is mixed with desert in this region
Goat, cow and chicken are a main part of the diet in this region
The Dogon people are the master artisans of the area and are famous for their masks and gourd desgins
Elephants and giraffes live in this region

Next is the Ethiopian Highlands
Has Africa's highest mountians
Is the only country in Africa that has never been colonized
Ethiopia has experianced horible droughts
Christianity is really important to all aspects of life in Ethiopia
If you lived in Ethiopia you would eat a flat spongy bread called Injera along with stewed lentels, vegetables and meats like chicken, beaf and lamb
Ibex, babbons and wolfs live in this region

The Savanna
When most people think of Africa they think of the Savanna
This region is full of wildlife and where you would go on a Safari
Wildebeest, lions, zebra, gizelles, elepthants, cheetas and lepords all live on the Savanna
The Massi live in this area and are known for their beaded jewlery and carved shields
A favorite meal is called Irio made of peas, potatos, corn, spinach and butter

expectations

New and improved for spring 2010 Art Room Expectations and Explanations

Welcome back from spring break and to the spring semester of art. This year we are looking at art from around the world. This trimester we will do units on the art of Africa (African Masks, Savannah sunset painting, African animal painting), art from South and Central America, (such as Mola's, tropical bird pastels, Amate bark painting, Mayan calendar images) art and artists from Mexico (Huichol yarn designs, nichos, tin work, Freida Kalo, murals with Diego Rivera) and the art of North America (Pacific Northwest Native American Masks, art in the style of Georgia O'Keef ). We may add projects depending on time and interest.

We will work with these types of media:
Painting
Drawing
Textiles
Metal Work
Clay
Oil pastels
Collage

As always you WILL receive a grade in this class. This trimester we are going to try something new. Each project will have a grading rubric that will be done by both you and me to help determine your grade on the project. Just finishing the project is no longer enough to pass art.

In addition to your major art projects your grade will be based on attendance, daily participation, working to your BEST ability and completion/participation in daily warm-ups.

Daily warm-ups can include:
Monday Masterpiece
Power Point presentations and discussions
Wednesday Watercolor
Drawing from objects
Drawing from how to draw sheets
Guided drawings
Oregon Art Beat viewing (NEW)
Verbal or written artist statements

Of course I expect you to uphold our general school behavior expectations:
Be Safe
Be Kind
Be Responsible
Be Respectful

I also expect these specifics:
Show up to class on time
Listen respectfully
Use respectful language
Treat your art and others art respectfully
Use the art room and the materials in it correctly
Clean up after yourself
Participate in class
Get help when you need it (ask 3, then ask me)
Work to your best ability
Show persistence in your attitude and effort

Extra privileges such as choosing where you sit or listening to music are EARNED based on individual and group ability to follow the above expectations.

***This trimester, if you or your class earns music listening privileges, music MUST be enjoyed through your headphones and only headphones*****

A few extra things to think about:
560 students come through the art room each week. I provided each 6-8th grade class with a cabinet to store your art in. If you want your art to be safe, make sure you put it in the cabinet.

One at a time to the bathroom, take a pass, you may go during work time, not during warm-up, instruction or clean up time.

If you, or others, take things from the art room that belong in the art room...they are no longer around for you to use in the future (for example sharpies and pencil sharpeners)

Art should be an enjoyable part of your day, but it is still a class, not a social hour, if you are in art, you need to be doing art.

Asian art unit : watercolor koi

When students were done with their paper cuts they learned how to draw a koi from a step by step guided drawing lesson. After drawing one, two or three koi students went over their lines with black crayon or oil pastel. Finally students used watercolor to make vibrant works of art. Some students dug the salt out of the student supply cabinet to give a special effect to their water.

Asian art unit : Paper cuts

Paper cutting is an art from in Japan and China. We looked at a power point of traditional and modern paper cut artwork then choose a paper cut design to work on from a Dover book I have. The designs ranged from small and simple to large and very complex. Students who really struggled with this project were asked to use a stencil to write their name and then cut out their name.

Students choose their paper cut design. They put their paper design on top of black construction paper and taped it down at the edges. They put the papers on top of a magazine and then listened to me give a long boring lecture about using exacto knives safely. Then they cut and cut and cut. Many had to start over several times and switch to simpler patterns. When everything was cut out each student choose a bright color to put behind the black paper and I laminated the finished product. These took about two weeks but the end results were amazing! (P.S. I had another project, the watercolor koi, for students who did simpler paper cuts and were done early)

Asian art unit : Sumi-e Pandas

Now for some photos from the 6-8th grade Asian art unit from right before spring break. I posted photos of the clay kimonos about a month ago but they were also part of this unit.
So the kids wanted to learn how to do brush painting which meant I needed to learn how to do brush painting. In the end we did three mini paintings. 1. a straw blown cherry tree, 2. our version of Mt. Fuji (Mt. Hood here in Oregon) and 3. a panda.
These samples are from a talented 8th grade student. She is a far better artist naturally then I will ever be, but a modest and eager student. I will really miss her next year.


We looked at a power point of brush painting from China, Japan and Korea to compare and contrast common themes and styles. We then did the Mt. Fuji painting because it was a pretty simple perspective watercolor. Next we did the straw blown cherry tree. If students added a bird to the tree they got bonus points. Last came the pandas. Argg the pandas. I watched a lot of videos on You-tube to learn how to paint those pandas. I was shaking under the document camera when I first showed the kids. This was a good chance for me to point out that I am constantly learning and growing in MY art skills along with them. I showed them some of my less then perfect panda paintings that I did while learning how to show them how to paint the pandas.

Part of my job this year is to teach persistence. I think there is no better way to teach persistence than to model persistence. I try to do this by showing my students my learning process and how I have to start over and over again and my "mess up" projects. it is easier to ask them to try again when I have shown I am willing to try again and again.

Our practice pandas put into class collages:

hidden animals

Done several years ago with a 5th grade class. The focus was on pattern and camouflage. Students used markers to fill a paper with colorful patterns in a radial design. Then they chose a template of an animal that uses camouflage to stay safe. I believe the choices were lizard, snake, rabbit and butterfly. Students tracked their animal onto tooling foil (you could also use card stock) and they cut out their animal. I then asked them to use a stylus to press 1 pattern into the animal. Next they placed the animal on the middle of their pattern paper and had to "hide" their animal in the picture by continuing the design onto the tin animal. Finally we taped the animal onto the paper by putting a little bit of foam core between the paper and tin animal. They turned out so well and everyone loved looking for the hidden animal.

building community in the art room

I had a teaching nightmare last night. I wonder if this happens to anyone else. I dreamt that the new semester had started and my classroom was full of students who wouldn't listen to me. Students of years gone by who were challenging to work with were back in my room in my dream. I did not have the supplies I needed and was teaching a different class than what I had planed. Needless to say I woke up in a cold sweat.

I think a lot of these subconscious fears steam from my middle school classes last trimester. We had a lot of racial based arguing and flat out fights, name throwing and physical interactions. Thinking back to grad school, I have gotten pretty sloppy about building community in my middle school classroom. Just because I have had all the students before, doesn't mean I don't need to keep building community.

So as a I reminder to myself and ideas for others, these are some activities I have used successfully to build community/team work in my art room.
1. Calender puzzle.(I use this one for summer camp and short workshops) Take a dollar tree puzzle. Take as many photos as you have groups. Cut the photo into squares. Keep the squares with their correct counterparts. Before handing the puzzle to the students I give them a big hint. "Good artists are observers. They are like detectives. They look for clues in art to help make sense of what a work of art is trying to tell us. Don't miss any clues with this puzzle."

2. For middle school classes I have been buying murals from Art Projects for Kids. I choose more abstract ones or ones where the color choice is not as important. The students have to work together to make sure their puzzle piece matches all the other puzzle pieces that touch theirs. The kids like this and it usually takes them about 1 1/2 class periods to finish the mural. I like to do a short lesson on the artist featured to go with the mural.

3. Good old newspaper building contest. Every group gets one section of newspaper and a roll of masking tape and is challenged to build the tallest free standing tower they can.

4. Iron Artist. A variation of Iron Chef. Each group is given a box of junk and recyclables from around my house and the art room. I like to have a theme that all groups have to stay with. Things that fly, animals, vehicles...so forth. I like to give the groups two classes to make their object and a poster explaining it. Judging is done by "celebrity judges" like the vice principal and science teacher or some 2nd grade students.

My students like Iron Artist best of all, but it can get kind of crazy. Be warned

What community building activities do you do?

Blog NAME CHANGE!

Hey all,
Just a heads up, I need to re-claim the apples love oranges name for my etsy blog that links to my etsy shop: Apples Love Oranges. I will be changing the name of the blog to how I am commonly referred to at my school by the little kids, "Mrs. Art Teacher!" Sounded better then Hey, Teacher! To which I usually respond...yes student? And the kids responds with mild annoyance, "My name is ______!" and I say yes, and my name is Mrs. Bauer not hey teacher. Anyway I hope the name change is not confusing for people.
S-

being replaced by technology? or did I just fire myself?!

I knew something was up when the principal came into my classroom on Friday. I've been at my school for TWO years and through two principals and neither one has ever set foot in my classroom to my knowledge (All my evaluations are done by the vice principal).

I'm with a class, bent over helping a student, when a hush descends over my classroom. If you work with kids you know that quiet is a a sign of trouble. I look up and see our principal has come into the classroom. The student I'm helping whispers to me, "Mrs. B are we in trouble?" "I don't think so," I whisper back and, like a scared crab, I scuttle over to our principal.

"How are you today," I ask the principal. "I'm good," he replies. "Did you need to speak to me or a student?" I inquire. "No, just looking around," he says. Warning bells go off in my head, but I smile, explain the project and go back to helping my students.

He stays for about 10 min, examining every inch of my room. Finally he comes over to me and says, "After school I was hopping to bend your ear about teaching keyboarding." Um...ok, I am thinking to myself, and assure him I will come by after school. What in the world he could be talking about?

Recently a group of our teachers went to a technology conference. When they came back we had a staff discussion about teaching keyboarding/typing. I commented that I felt it was a really important skill and maybe we should have a typing elective. Perhaps he wants me to teach typing?

At the end of the day I go to see the principal with some vague ideas of how I could combine art and typing .We chat a bit and and he asks me to talk about my ideas of mixing art class and technology. The only clue I have is his earlier mention of typing class. I offer that I could teach a half typing/half art class. He frowns and tells me he thinks typing is important but something we will work on later. How else can I turn my art class into a technology class. WHAT? Who said anything about turning art class into a technology class?

I must look confused. He starts talking about the technology conference they went to and how he wants a technology program with a technology teacher. I'm nodding along, not sure what this has to do with me. I suggest I could teach a photo shop class if we got the software. He doesn't like that idea. He wants the technology classes to teach core content material (math, science) by using different types of technology. I offer that a few years ago I taught a claymation class where students animated the life cycles of a butterfly, frog or flower. He says that is getting closer, but what other technology do I know how to use. I'm grasping straws now. I took a CAD class in high school, 14 years ago... and then built my house out of foam core. We could do that if we bought the software and had the money for the foam core and materials.

Can we stop a moment here, I need to mention that I am given 72 cents per child for art supplies for the ENTIRE year. We have ONE computer lab in the school that is used for state testing most of the time. As a school we own only 2 digital cameras and the kids are not supposed to use them. I did a architecture class last spring but couldn't afford either the foam core or the exacto knives for all 25 students to build houses so we did Popsicle stick bridges instead. I have spent close to $4,000 of my own money over the last two years to fund my art program. AND my classes are mixed age 6th, 7th and 8th...all doing different core content each year.

Back to the meeting. The principal must know I'm running out of ideas because he goes in for the kill. I am informed that he has received the numbers for next year's FTE from the district. He wants to add another half time gym teacher, a foreigner language teacher for the middle school students and he wants a full time technology teacher/coordinator. We also need another 4th grade teacher for our Duel Language program. I'm doing mental math and it's not good for me. We are being given 1.11 new FTE but he is talking about 3.5 FTE. I see where this is going. I have basically just proved to him that I don't have the technology knowledge to be a technology teacher. I think I just fired or demoted myself.

This is the exact sentence I am sent to spring break with. "I'm not going to say art will be a class here next year...I'm not going to say it won't. If I keep art I'm not sure how it will look next year. Obviously it is a waste of FTE to have an art teacher teaching something that is not art. I'll let you know if the next two weeks what your role here next year might look like."

I'm speechless. How did I go from being asked about teaching typing to being told I may not have a job in two weeks. I feel like the Principal tricked me with the premise of the conversation. I'm also hurt that I have put in countless hours and personal resources over the last two years to build an art program at my school with no recognition in return. He has never even observed my classroom to see what I have to offer. How will he fund this technology program? This is the second school I have been at that has gotten rid of their art program in favor of other classes. Maybe I'm waisting my time trying to teach art and need to go find another carer.

I will just have to wait over the next two weeks to see what my future holds.

5th grade Koru paintings

I found this lesson last December when looking for Australian/New Zealand art projects. I saw photos of these on the homepage of an elementary school in New Zealand and while there were no lesson plans I really thought they were beautiful. (In the year sense the original author of this lesson has put the project on kinder art here is her lesson) The label said they were Koru paintings. What the heck is a Koru I though. It turn out it is the Maori word for a baby fern, which represents new life and rebirth. Anyway I did my version of this on large 12"x14" paper and lead my students though a guided drawing of the Koru using the idea of parallel lines. ( I had my students do a small practice drawing first and look at photos of baby ferns). My 5th grade students had no problem with the DRAWING part. I had them draw some double lines inside their basic shapes to make the layers of design. Then I had students choose two to three colors plus white tempera paint. Students carefully painted in their drawings. The next class the students went over the pencil lines with black paint. I love how these turned out. In the photos these are accompanied by 4th grade dot paintings of aboriginal symbols.

kinder quilts

Back in early February we did a quilt unit with all grades. These were the kinder pattern quilts. I this project I had the students really focus on spacial skills. Each student was given a "puzzle" board which was a black line template for the quilt square. I then put all the puzzle pieces down and they had to "build" their puzzle. Students had to match the correct color to the color word marked on the puzzle. They also had to keep manipulating the shape pieces till they matched the puzzle board. I did pre cut all the shapes for this project because I wanted the students to focus on word matching and spacial skills. I also made sure to only use colors where the words had been taught already in their classroom. Finally I had a cheat sheet on the board that had the color word and = sign and a rectangle of paper in the color that matched. I think this would be a good lesson for early ELL learners who are working on color and shape words.

who am I?

Who am I?
This is not an art post...this is in response to the now 20+ strangers that are reading my blog. That is an odd thought to me as I never really thought anyone would look at it.

I started this blog last spring as a form of digital lesson plans. I am a flake and loose anything on paper. Traditional lesson plan books don't work so well for me. That and I like having the option of pulling up my blog and looking at samples of projects during the day to remind me what I'm doing or look for alternative plans I have found.

So if you have read my posts, not just looked at the photos, you have probably gathered this info:

• I am female
• I have my Masters of Teaching
• My undergrad work was a double major in urban sociology (aka pre social work) and studio art
• I have been teaching for four years
• I teach at a K-8 school
• I teach at a public school in a very large district
• I teach at a low income/rough school
• I teach four immersion classes yet I speak very little Spanish
• I teach 2 life skills classes one low functioning and one high functioning
  
• I do not disclose the exact school or district where I work
• I'm rapidly approaching 30 and while I'm married I have no children aside from my dog
• I have a side business that pays for my classroom art supplies and my belly dance lessons...it's that shop on the side bar: apples love oranges over at Etsy. I'm pretty successful with it!
• I love to sew
  
• I live in the neighborhood where I teach...my students are my neighbors
  
• I think some shifty, crappy stuff is going at my school right now and I'm not happy with it
• I run a pretty structured art program as far as classroom management but try to give my students a lot of freedom when it comes to making choices about their art
• I hold myself and my students to very high standards
• I draw a lot from the ideas of the DBAE program
• I think art history is an important part of art education
• I think art teaches problem solving skills and forces kids to try things that are outside of their comfort zone
  
• I raise chickens
• I have a sweet tooth
• oh yeah and I look like a kid....I'm all of five feet tall :)

That's me. Have a great week.

cities, castles, houses, barns and buildings

Artwork By Michael Holland

So this month I want to do earth, sky, water as our overall theme. We started with all our ocean projects so water. Next it is time for land. I was going to go with basic landscapes but then I decided to go more with buildings of some form. So I went searching for anything building related...houses, barns, cities, castles...stuff like that.

Let me start by saying that Patti over at Deep Space Sparkle has the lock down on this genre of projects. She even has an instruction packet for the three projects I tagged from her site.

Art Projects for Kids of course also has a lot of good lessons as they always do.

I like these project because they don't take fancy materials and they seem pretty flexible with what type of media you use to make them. I grouped the photos by subject.

House/barns:
Deep Space Sparkle Fun painted barn that she suggest for 3rd graders. I think I would need my 4th graders to do this because my younger students are really struggling with painting this year.
Deep Space Sparkle Painted Lady Victorians from San Fran. I would love to see watercolor or colored pencil added to these. 5th or 6th grade is what I would use this for
from Art Projects for kids Wow she did this with Kinders! I'm going to do it with 2nd grade with oil pastel and tempera cake resist
from Art Projects for Kids THIS will be our kinder project so we can use up some extra "painted paper" from our ocean projects. I'll make some square, rectangle, triangle and trapezoid templates they can trace around to make the parts of their collage houses.

Castles: Everyone, all ages, boys and girls seem to love castles!

A book of art projects I have...not sure the book. I'll find it and post it.
Art Lessons for Kids, also made with templates. She put sticky labels on the castle and had the kids color over it to get the neat stone texture. I think 2nd and 3rd would like these a lot and it would be fun to do a dragon project with it.

Deep Space Sparkle using templates, more for 4th, 5th and 6th graders
??? cute model magic castle made by some kid

ok it is not a castle....but the Taj is basically a different type of castle. From Childs Elementary School a good lesson on symmetry. This one done by 5th graders. My 4th graders like drawing and do well at it. They do NOT like coloring or painting things so I think the drawing and quick watercolor wash of this might go over well. We will need some templates to work with or they will get to frustrated.

Cities:

I don't know where these came from...sorry! Maybe Kid Artists? I don't know where it came from but I LOVE it! It is hard to see but the cities are painted on newspaper then cut out and glued onto the sky background. As I see it you would need to sketch the city, do the black line painting and windows and set aside to dry till next class. If you have remaining time do a quick blue background with tempera paint. Next class cut out city and glue onto background and then black backing paper.
from Teach Kids Art

Tigers!

click on photos to see them larger







Here are some photos of our tiger drawings that 4th grade did. The lesson came from Art Projects for Kids I had them trace around a paint pallet to get the right size and shape of head. I also gave them almond shapes to trace around for the eyes if they wanted. They did a really nice job on drawing these. About half finished coloring their tigers and the rest got tired. I'll keep bringing them out every few weeks till the end of the year in hopes that I get at least 80% of them done. I've put up photos of the kids working on their drawings and the finished projects.

french curves and watercolor flowers

Another old-ie but goodie from my year at Damascus. I got this from a lady that taught middle school in either Minnesota or Wisconsin. I got most of my first year lessons from her site, she was amazing. I could have sworn her last name was Max-Weber or something like that. Her site has sense disappeared and I've spent hours trying to find her/it with no avail. Sigh.
Anyway this project was done with my 8th grade students. I had them draw a rectangle in the middle of their paper and then do a close up drawing of a flower using watercolor pencils. Then around the flower I had them use french curves to create a design. They had to go in and color in parts of the french curve shapes. I'm going to do a spring advanced art class after school and this will be one of their projects.

Click on photos to see larger close up of the images.