progress and next projects k-2

kinder: cut lines, drew lines and painted lines have been asked to do more cutting projects. Will be using Plant a Rainbow to work on the color wheel and cutting circles. week one we will read the book and cut red, orange, yellow, blue and purple circles and glue them on paper. The second week we will paint stems and leaves on our flowers. I need to make sure to pre-lable the artwork so I can get it back to the kids on week two with no problem. If we have time on week two we will choose a few colors and paint petals on our flowers.


1st. Ended up drawing sunflowers from a guided drawing and then coloring them with crayons. It was good drawing practice, some ended up with really nice drawings but I can see a lot of them need to practice coloring to cover all the white space. This was our first drawing project of the year and I totally forgot that one of my now 1st graders is ridiculously advanced for his age. I need to take some photos of his stuff. This week we will explore line in a 3-D form
I like how Mrs. Jahnig art space puts them together to create a large work of art. I still need to take this groups "Dot" paintings and put them up with the gold swirly frame from $1 tree around it.

I also had a teaching revelation with this group today. I had all the kids sit on their lines on the floor, passed out clipboards, drawing paper and pencils and gave drawing directions with all the kids right there looking at me. When they were done drawing they could do to their table and start coloring. No more trying to give drawing directions while all the kids sit at tables with all that room to wiggle around.

2nd grade:
The paper towel and tissue paper trees turned out super cute and were done in one 20 min and another 30min class. We had a really high success rate. I'm going to carry the sunflower theme into 2nd grade next week. I found this cute version of a sunflower on the crafty crow flicker stream with no owner to credit.
I think the blue/purple/white paper is the best part of the project. We will paint our paper the first class of the week set it aside to dry and will draw 12 triangles. The next class we will cut out our triangles and make our sunflower with collage. I have one 2nd grade class that only comes once a week. I think I'll use my 6th grade class as child labor and have them make the background for that one class.

tree time-lessons for October

These lessons should last us about two weeks


In the past I have worked really hard to have students complete two "hallway display" level projects a month. Thanks to our new 20min a week schedule I'm going aiming to get one hallway piece a month. October usually features trees, a complex still life and a one time "Halloween-ish" project. I'm questioning the ability of a harvest still life to stay nice looking for several weeks and I have no place to store it. So trees it is. I also happen to have some really fun tree lessons.

Kinder: will keep working on lines, we will use our lines to try to draw a tree at some point, but more likely we will try this painting project from Mrs. Picasso's Art Room.


First: I love the idea of leaf rubbings but it is dumping rain in Oregon and it is not fun making rubbings from soggy, wet, decomposing leaves. Instead we will do a guided line drawing of several types of leaves and then use our fun bleeding tissue paper to "paint" in our leaves. It will be an adaption of this project from Art Projects for Kids


2nd grade: will try our hand at this twisted paper towel and tissue paper tree project from who? where? did I get this pic from the crafty crow? Can you help me find the originator?


3rd grade: I created this lesson last year based on a greeting card I saw. I felt it was a great way to teach students about overlap and work on controlling our watercolor paint. I do allow the kids to use a raindrop shaped tracer (yah yah I know, 20 min people, 20 min!) After the kids have drawn their trunk and "leaves" with pencil have them go over the lines with crayon. Make marks with crayon on the trunk to create texture. Have students make "peacock eyes" in each leaf. The next class have students choose three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel (analogous or as we call them "neighbor" colors). Use those three colors to paint the tree. Finally cut out the tree and mount on construction paper if you have the time.


4th grade: I took this lesson from Kids Artists and it was a huge hit last year. I did change it a bit. We never have enough blue oil pastels so I have the kids use paint for the moon and sky. This is a great lesson in variegation. I do have them use oil pastel to do the fields. Also, I don't have the kids cut out the tree shape from our painting to create the negative space. Instead I have them cut out the tree from a separate piece of black paper and glue it on.


5th: There is this thing in Colorado called canvases and cocktails, in the south they call it sip and strokes and I'm sure their are other variations out there. Anyway my mom's neighbor in Colorado teaches painting at C and C as she calls it. She was showing me the paintings they do and low and behold there was a version of our good old birch trees from Artsoinia that we all do. I like the addition of the paint splashed for fall leaves. I'm going to try a version of this with the 5th graders. We will tape off our trees, sponge in a light med and dark blue background and then set the painting to dry. The next class we will peal off the tape, paint our trees in with shade of brown and use yellow, orange and red dabs of paint for our leaves.


6-8th grade are working on complex color wheels right now for their painting unit. Here are some examples from past groups.

this will get it's own post later. When they are done with their color wheels they will need to do a monochromatic painting based on this clip card from School Arts

then we will do an adaptation of Klimt's tree of life, with some concentric circles mixed in and a colorful background. I'm still working it out in my head.
Thrid grade version from last year...we'll take it up a few notches.

literacy in the art room

If there is one thing I love even more than art it is books. Picture books to be exact...so I guess that is books and art. But I am the most avid reader I know aside from my husband (who is reading next to me right now). Thank goodness I find joy in pursuing kids books because our school improvement plan over the last three years has focused intensely on improving student literacy, particularly student writing skills.

While I do make attempts to get the students writing during my class (as much as one can when already trying to cram an art project into a 20 min long class), I've decided to focus on integrating children's literature into my curriculum. I think using books to ground your curriculum comes with some wonderful benefits.

*Starting class with a book gives students a set structure. It gives students who struggle with transitions a time to calm themselves and focus before attempting an art task.

*Reading a book gives all students at least some background to draw from for the technique or theme you are working with. I feel it levels the playing field a bit.

*It is excellent for my English language learners (and all students) to hear a story being read aloud with correct pronunciation, timing and expressiveness.

*Unlike a single art poster, you average picture book offers 10+ visual images of inspiration

*Reading stories in the art room introduces students to new authors and makes them more aware of using the pictures that accompany a book's story to help them decode the content of the story.

*It's fun!

There are so many amazing books out there and I know lots of us use picture books in our curriculum. There is one book that I have recently stumbled upon that I have never seen discussed on any art blogs and it is called Alphabesties: And Other Amazing Types.

All the animals in this book are made up with the letter that their name starts with in different fonts. I think these are so cool and plan to use this book for both younger and upper (middle school) projects. I would really like to tie in the idea of contour line drawing and then filling the space with typography. Older students will need to fill their drawing with descriptive words along with one letter.

I can't wait to see what wonderful art this book will inspire! If you are looking for this book at your library here is a hint, I did not find it in the art area, but instead in the language area.

Lessons for 1st week October

Steal, steal, steal, maybe a I stole a lesson from you!
We are still focusing on shape, line and pattern as our elements of art. We are also practicing our oil pastel and watercolor skills. No tempera paint till we show good control with our watercolor painting.

Kinder: Last week we read "The Dot" and made dot stamps. This week our dot will go for a walk and read "Lines that wiggle."

We will make a chart with different types of lines and make them with our hands
lines that go up and down, lines that go side to side, lines like a slide (diagonal) lines that make little hops, lines that make big jumps, lines that zig zag, and spin around and wiggle.
I don't think we are ready to do a oil pastel and watercolor line resist, we will save it for later on.
We will go back to our tables and play with string. Then we will practice drawing our lines as a group on chart paper. Finally if we have time each table will get a new chart paper, toy cars and one tin of paint that matches their table color. They will drive their cars into the paint and then leave tire tracts on the paper to make lines.

1st grade: no school Friday so no 1st grade this week

2nd: I like this Jasper Johnson inspired idea over at We Heart Art

There is no way to get through the alphabet in 27 min in a reasonable number of weeks.
Instead I will pint up regular size paper divided into 12 rectangles. 3 rows of 4. In row one the students need to draw a geometric shape in each box, in row two they need to draw a different type of line in each box, in the last row they will draw a different pattern in each box. We will then go over our lines with oil pastel and start painting each square showing control with our paint. NO black paint as it muddies our other colors.

3rd grade: I love the book Matthews Dream. So dose Teach Kids Art who has this great lesson
this is a great project because it has us working with shape and thinking about overlapping which I will need the kids to be awesome at for our next project. We will use standard size paper and each student will need to include these shapes:
square, triangle, circle, rectangle, oval, diamond, crescent and three organic shapes the kids make.
Each shape must overlap the other. Depending on time we will either use markers or oil pastel and paint it. Our third grade students are spaz monsters so I think we will have to stick with marker.

4th: Used shape to make falling boxes last week and worked with colored pencil. I realized we never use colored pencil (mostly because my classroom is not equipped with a real pencil sharpener argg low income arggg) I think we are done with shape and are ready to move onto line and pattern. We will do a modified zen tangle. I am inspired by this project from Blue Moon Pallet. Tami is the only other k-8 teacher I have encountered and she has awesome lessons to boot!

We will follow her project to the tee. Kids will go over their lines in marker and then color it in with colored pencil

5th grade: Will keep working on our op art circles. the 5th grade class I see twice a week is getting the yearly bike safety class so for their second project we will have a little side lesson learning how to draw a bike and design our own bike.

6th-8th-
Last week we finished our rhythm and movement drawings that I will post soon. They turned out so well. Then for a change I showed them how to draw a large, simple sunflower, ala Van Gogh. I then told the kids they would paint without brushes and I broke out the plastic butter knives the left over acrylic paint and are trying to paint like Van Gogh. Some kids are lovings this and some are not. I keep telling them to imagine they are making peanut butter and Jelly Sandwiches. We will play with this project for one ore day. Then it is time for our color wheel unit. I'll detail that in another post.

OH one last thing, I found this linked on the crafty crow...soooo cool! Website is Zakka life

top 20 they say...

(summer camp, not my school)

On Friday night I noticed my blog follower-ship has gone up a lot this week. That's odd I thought (brb one of the chickens is walking around in the kitchen...woops, I forgot to close the door, kitchen is now chicken free) anyway, why would all these people be joining my blog? I have barely posted this year and I doubt that many people want to know the gory details of loosing a parent. While reading comments I found a note telling me that:
"I recently compiled a list of the Top 20 art blogs for educators, and I just
wanted to let you know that you made the list! It
is published online at
http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-20-art-blogs-for-educators/"

Well that explains that. I don't fancy myself a top 20 anything but if they want to include me, what the heck and if you want to burn some time in your day reading my blathering then go for it:) It's just funny, I never expected anyone to read this. I started the blog because I always loose my paper lesson plans and lesson plan book. I figured it would be harder to misplace the Internet. 50 more people read my blog now then the last time I posted my basic info/warning list: Enjoy:

1. This is a personal blog, not a school blog. At times I will talk about non art things
2. If you don't like something; a project, a belief I have, whatever, then do as I ask my students to do..." If you don't have something nice to say keep it to yourself" and I will do the same
3. Steal my lessons, most likely I stole them from someone...I probably already stole some from you
4. No I will not give specifics on the school I teach at

About me:
I'm a female
I'm rapidly approaching 30
I'm married
I have no kids
I have a dog and four chickens
I live in rainy Portland, OR
I teach at a K-8 school
I have taught in both high schools and middle schools
I got me one of dem master degree thingies
I like to sew, read and belly dance in my free time
I love to eat
I'm five feet tall and am referred to as "little shark" by the staff at my school
I don't take s*&t from kiddos
That's why I am able to successfully teach at one of "those schools"

Yes my school is everything a movie producer dreams of when doing a feel good teacher/student movie:
we got your low income
we got your drugs (kids and parents)
your weapons
your cussing and racial issues
your broken homes
parents in jail
Little budget
A falling apart playground
We feed into the neighborhood HS that graduates less than 50% of the students each year (yah that's depressing, looking at your class of middle school students and knowing only half will graduate high school)
3 DHS workers dedicated to just our school! How cool are we!
92% of our kids enjoy a nice free breakfast and lunch...and "dinner" thanks to the government
The dental van comes to see us twice a year
Our school has five official languages and 17 more unofficial languages
A super cool Spanish immersion program (no sarcasm with this one)
2 life skills classes (nursing)
A multi national, multi cultural staff and student body
Some kick ass teachers
Some teachers that need to retire
Some teachers who need to find a new line of works
And one little, bossy art teacher who is going to run the best damn art program possible.
And a lot of kids who are trying their best, despite all the obstacles they come across, to be great kids. See I told you the movie producers would love it!

The End