20 min art class...

It is that time of week again. To put my lessons for the week down on paper...or keyboard so to speak and to wrestle once again with the fact that art class only lasts 20min. If you haven't read the post about this year's schedule, that's right, 20 min long. The 5th - 2nd graders are coming to art twice a week for 20 min and by cutting the amount of projects I hope to do with them in half and really finding projects that can be broken up into smaller parts we are slowly making it work.

Kinder and 1st are proving harder to work out. They only come to art 1 time a week for 20 min. Three classes back to back each time. 25-32 kids per class. Needless to say we are not as productive as in past years. So far we have stuck to one session projects. Reviews of line and shape. Working on our drawing skills, cutting and collaging. Practicing holding a paintbrush, painting without getting more paint on ourselves than our paper. We haven't really produced much of anything that I'm excited to hang in the halls.

1st grade is ready to do their first multi week project. During their last class I had them draw and paint nice big pumpkins for a harvest collage. This week they will use some pre-painted paper to make a crook neck squash and glue that, the pumpkin and some dollar tree leaves to a big sheet of paper. Basically we are working on the same project that Holly did (thanks for the idea!) Instead of the woven basket with apples (too hard for my 1st graders) we are going to make dot corn and add tamale making corn husks. So imagine these two images combined:
+ ish
At the rate at which I see the 1st graders we will be done just in time for thanksgiving break. No turkeys for us this year.

Over in kinderland we are still dragging our feet. I think they are cute, even if one pooped on my chair last week, but they are so young. At least half of the kids can not get a recognizable name on paper yet...and are still struggling to recognize their name when it is written. I'm trying to find a way to upload the kinder class lists and print their names onto labels so that A: I can return the art to the right kid and B: we can work on a ongoing project.

To add to the struggle of a only 20 min long class, each class of kinders comes directly from P.E. to art. I'm the one who picks them up and herds them down the hall, crushing their hopes for a drink because, "We don't have time!" Most of the kids are so riled up/worn out from PE that it takes about five to ten min to calm them down. I have found the best way to use this time is get them right onto the floor and read our "inspiration" book and then demo at the "circle time" easel. I would get more time for the projects by skipping the book, but they are less focused on the task at hand if I don't give them a down time. This week my sub read them Bear in a Square and they reviewed drawing shapes

Week after week they beg to paint. And we have done a little bit of painting. I like to put out the glue in cups with paintbrushes to have them paste down their collage shapes. It helps them spread the glue, keeps thing cleaner, and gives them a chance to, "paint." When we did our collage pumpkins I broke out the green paint so they could add grass and a stem. This week are going to read, Art, and then just like Art likes to paint we will paint with water and bleeding tissue paper. The kinder teachers are studying leaves with the kids this week and have given me cut-out leaves to put on top of the kids tissue paper paintings. The kids are always AMAZED at the magic paint paper.
we have done both versions before

Then we will spend some quality time with our holiday oriented, yet non offensive, friend Mr. Turkey!!!
We will learn about concentric circles and do more practice drawing, cutting and collage-ing circles to make these fun turkeys

and then its time for our big painting lesson...Mr. painted turkey!!!
the kids start by coloring in the body, then each table gets one plate of paint, with one color, with one brush per kid. Each table has a different color and I rotate the paper plates every 3-4 min. This keeps things remarkably clean.
After Mr. Turkey is set in the hall to dry we USED to glue a strip of green paper to blue paper and put on a name label. Later I make my 6th-8th graders cut out the turkeys, glue them onto the matching paper and add the google eyes and beak. Yes I believe in child labor. I use it often. I could never teach K-8 with no in-school prep time without making my older kids help me prep. I call it school service. With our time limits I think my middle school laborers will have to do the pasting of the green strip and the name label part also. Let's call it a collaborative effort.

Too much turkey...perhaps, but the only grade I indulge in the turkey projects with so we will say its ok.

video for still life, value and practice

(I'm home sick today if you couldn't guess from the number of posts)
So this is another video from Oregon Art Beat. I like this one because it has a clear explination of value and good examples of creating value in paintings. Also she is working with a viewfinder for still lifes (and squiting like a pirate just for Phil! ). Finally she does a painting a day and has a blogger blog where she posts them all, a great lesson for the kids on practice, practice, practice!

The video from the show

and her blog...........

Printmaking video...with a steamroller!

In Portland our PBS station has something called Oregon Art Beat. Each week they have three segments about local artist...music, dance, visual art. Anyway the clips and broken up by artist and are not blocked by our district firewall so I like to show them to the kids. It is a great way to incorporate technology and prove to them that not all artist are dead white men:)

Last week they had the best clip to go with any printmaking unit...a group of artist in Oregon are doing printmaking with a STEAMROLLER! Such fun!! I can't wait to show it during our next printmaking unit.

Check it out!! Steamroller art

does your state have a similar tv show?

rhythm and movement landscape

I'm originally from Colorado and I go home pretty often. One thing I love about Colorado is the varied landscape. Yes there are mountains ;) but there are also great plains, sand dunes and amazing mesas. Lots of artist have painted and photographed Colorado but I am particularly fond of a man named Phil Lewis who is a current day artist.

Phil merges a Peter Max, band poster, psychedelic aesthetic with modern day, fresh colors and a mix of hand drawing and computer manipulation.


Phil's bold colors, recognizable images and young age make him a great artist to base a lesson on.
First I showed my students his artwork (they really liked it) to get them interested. Then I introduced the idea of rhythm and movement in art. We then went back to look at several of his artworks to find examples of rhythm and movement. The repeated lines in his sky, the waving arms of his tress, the use of tints and shades to create color. I told the kids to imagine they were standing inside one of his paintings. How does the air feel? What is the weather like?

Next we thought of two landscapes we see in Oregon and choose the coast and Mt. Hood. Then as a group we did two brainstorm sketches one of Mt. Hood and one of the beach. We simplified each landscape so we could focus on rhythm and movement.

The next class we started by watching a really cool movie from Phil's website that shows him drawing, coloring and computer manipulation his artwork called "The Buffalo". It is a GREAT video. He is young and has his band's music playing in the background. But he takes time to talk about how making art takes time, how he has to be patient and practice his artwork. Most of the video is in fast forward but he slows down and show how slowly and carefully he works. What a great example for the kids. A young, hip, ALIVE artist who was not their teacher saying the stuff she naggs about all the time.

After watching the video we pulled out our two sketches (Mt. Hood and ocean) and each table got a pile of reference photos. Students started sketching out their individual drawings. We said there had to be trees or water in each drawing that showed rhythm. We also said that the clouds in the sky needed to indicated the wind direction. Students were asked to think about how they could create movement in solid forms...like mountains and rocks.

Finally I broke out the markers and sets of metallic knock off sharpies (from Target). I showed the kids how to use tints and shades to create interest and let them get to work. Everyone loved the end results! I think they really understood the idea of rhythm and movement. Make sure to check out Phil's website.

adious dia de los muertos!

I was all ready to make a post showing photos of the great dia de los muertos celebration we have on Nov 2nd each year at my school. The fun of decorating sugar skulls, making day of the dead art and eating that sweet bread; pan de muertos:)

On Thursday, after school, I pulled out all my lessons for my k-4th skulls and skeletons that we do each year then went to find my best friend at the school, the 2nd grade Spanish immersion teacher. I wanted to know what time we would have the annual party.

I went to the Spanish immersion hall to find it void of the usual decorations? Odd. I went into my friends room to find her and two other immersion teachers having a very heated discussion...in Spanish of course. I said I was there to check on the day of the dead party and the kinder teacher, a passionate Nicaraguan, started yelling in Spanish. Ok... I reminded them that while my Spanish had improved I still was pretty slow on the translation. I had only picked out the words "he, stupid" and something the kids say to me under their breath when they are mad and I'm pretty sure means idiot. Well after I learned what was going on I felt like using the words stupid idiot also.

I guess some misguided parents, in a attempt to get the Harvest Dance back, had gone to the Principal and pointed out/complained that the immersion program was celebrating "Halloween" and having a party during the school day AND only inviting the other immersion students. They wanted the school wide harvest dance back. Did the principal say "Your right, lets have the harvest dance back!" or explain that day of the dead is part of the cultural education of the immersion program or agree that everyone should be invited to the party. No. You know what happened instead? The immersion programs dia de los muertos celebration got cancelled!! Upon consideration, our no parties, no holidays, principal decided that if the harvest/Halloween dance was not ok for public school that it was only fair that there no longer be a dia de los muertos party. Beyond that, there should be no more dia de los muertos art around the school. Obviously it was upsetting the other students and parents.

So there you have it friends. We killed day of the dead. On Monday k-4th immersion had a short review of dia de los muertos as a holiday in Latin American culture and then hit up our state writing standards by writing to someone who had died. The end. No pan de muertos, no music, no sugar skulls, no plaster skull necklaces, no tissue paper marigolds, no paintings of skeletons dressed up to sing and dance.

Worst of all, this one one of the few events each year where we KNEW that a LOT of parents would show up at the school bringing pan de muertos, jugs of fruit punch, chips, salsa and if we were luck some early season tamales so that they could dance, eat and make art their students!!!

I'm livid and I know plenty of you are going to suggest going to talk to the PTA...oh wait you mean our non-existent PTA? Or that the parents should get together and rally to save the event. But the honest truth that I have learned is no matter how smart and sweet the parents of our duel immersion students are, that if they are recent immigrants (and most are) that they are totally uncomfortable dealing with school admin and only come to school events if they are linked to the immersion program. I know that some of our students are lets say not here on permanent stats and I'm sure the status of many of their parents is um...unsecured. I don't care how you feel about immigration issues. All I can tell you is that if you are nervous about your status in the country or have recently received your citizenship or originally are from a place where the school had no indoor plumbing that you are not going to go fight the two tall white men that run the school over a party.

There is a divided within the immersion teachers right now. Half want to raise a stink and the other half say they need to respect the Principal and find a different event to have for the immersion program. Of course my answer is bring back the harvest dance AND day of the dead. That anytime you get families into a school that you are winning. That anytime the kids are having a fun time at school and feeling like they are part of a community then you are going to have a stronger school. But who's going to listen to me. Someone get me a tamale please :(