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.

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

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.

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.

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