In the Art Room: Time to Make the Donuts

So if you've recently smelled the delish scent of donuts (or heard the crazed chatter of sugar'ed up chil-rens), then there's a good chance you've been hangin' out in my neck o' the "with sprinkles, please" woods. 

This week, my fourth grade artists were introduced to Wayne Thiebald, Peter Anton and Lucy Sparrow (all artists with work that is sweet-tooth provoking) via this wee prezi I created. Feel free to use and edit (you just might wanna remove that pic of me in my donut hat!). My kids thought this was just about the best thing everrr so I thought I'd share the deets of this fun -n- fast lesson with y'all here!

After an intro to Mr. Thiebald and friends, I showed off my hat created this past weekend. The kids were all, "wait, YOU took an art class?! Why didn't you TEACH the art class?!" It was a fun chat about how even as a wanna-be grown up, I still have lots o' learning' to do. 

Y'all don't even know how obsessed I currently am with creating hats. Itz 'bout to get all kinda hat-making cray on this here blog, fyi-ness. 

So for this here lesson, you're gonna need the following:

* Donuts (not necessary but super fun and a GREAT motivator! I chatted with my school nurse about allergies beforehand, of course. Also, call the donut joints ahead of time, they will prolly give you a good discount if they know what you're up to!)
* 8" X 10" white paper. I've started trimming an inch off my paper before giving it to the kids. This way, I can easily frame it by just cutting my construction paper in half.
* 9" X 6" white paper for the donut. 
* Oil pastels.
* Tempra paint.
* Texture combs. 
* Doilies or paper plates.
* Puffy paint. 

This project took us two, one hour art classes. For me, that's a fast project. Which should really be a clue to me that my art projects take too long. I'm working on it!

By the way, I love puffy paint. Almost as much as the kids. They used puffy paint earlier in the year for this fun project. 

1. On their 8" X 10" paper which was folded in half lengthwise, the kids used "naked" oil pastels (paperless, people) on their sides (aka, sleeping-style) and created two different patterns: one for their background and one for the surface or table for the donut to sit upon.
2. On the smaller paper, the kids used oil pastels again coloring at random.

** NOTE: In my art room, when I have a lot of directions to give, I present the directions in bite-sizes. For example, I have them those directions and set my timer for 7 minutes. This gave them enough time to "go shopping" for their supplies, write their names on their papers and complete steps one and two. When my timer goes off, the kids know, finished or not, they are to report to the floor to hear the next set of directions. 

3. The kids were told to go back to the store this time for a texture comb, a large paint brush and a messy mat. Once at their seats, they used whatever color they wanted for their "wall" and their "table". As soon as one section was painted, they immediately created texture with the texture comb.

**I LOVE my texture combs. We use 'em all the time and the kids find them fascinating. I purchased this set a million years ago from one of the art supply catalogs. I used to make my own outta cardboard but those break down after while. These have lasted me for years. 

4. The last step for the first day: paint a donut. We chatted about point of view and foreshortening for this portion. They simply painted an oval, painted a smaller oval hear the top of the donut and filled it in. Because these kids just finished a big fat color-mixing unit, they knew how to mix a good color for a donut. Once the donut was painted, they used the back of their brush to draw the icing.

Once complete, we slid these puppies onto the drying rack and gathered for our donut dining session. And that was the end of our first day.

Now you'd think the kids wouldn't be as excited about the next day being that it was donut-less. But, I tell ya, you bust out the puffy paint and the kids get real excited, real fast. 

5. The kids cut out their donuts. Several wanted to have a colored icing so they mixed up tints of colors for that. Others were content with they way their donuts looked with the scraping method. Like this dude. Once the donuts were cut out, either a half a doily was glued to the table or a 1/3 of a paper plate. Those that used plates decorated them with paint.

6. The final step: El Puffy Paint-o! Twas the perfect thing for sprinkles and an outline. The kids were absolutely thrilled with their delish looking work. I can't wait to see them on display for our upcoming art show!

I hope your week has been as sweet as these yummies! Have a great one, y'all!