Sunday, August 23, 2015

In the Art Room: Teaching Line with Larry the Line!

Hi, friends! Well, it's been one of those Wild -n- Crazy art teacherin' weeks and I didn't manage to snap a single What the Art Teacher Wore photo (tho, if you follow me here, you'll see what I'm wearin', what I'm making and what's goin' down in the art room, daily). However, if YOU did, please be sure to send it my way at cassieart75@gmail.com for the What the Art Teacher Wore/Back to Art Teacherin' Contest! You're good-looking face will not only be featured here but, if chosen, also in School Arts Magazine. AND the winner-winner-chicken-dinner will get a free subscription to School Arts. So get dressed, snap a pic and send it to moi, s'il vous plait. Gracias! 

In other news, if you are an art teacher with other art teacherin' buds on Facebook, then I bet your feed is just blowing up with photos of back-to-school/freshly-deocrated art rooms. I absolutely love it because it is art teacherin' eye candy! I've shared several snaps of my art room (with a blog post about my first days here) and was asked about my Line poster. If you've been around this blog for a pinch then you know that I use this poster with my kindergarten friends in my unit on line. I created this and accompanying poem years ago. It's been a great tool for me to teach line with a bit of rhyme and a whole lotta fun. So, without further ado, here's the Larry the Line poem! 
So that you don't have to watch this video a million times, here's the Larry the Line poem in it's entirety. 

NOTE: This poster and poem were both created by me. Please feel free to share this with your students and colleagues (credit thrown my way would be greatly appreciated). This may not be reproduced by you for profit. I feel sad that I have to add this disclaimer...but I do. 

Larry the Line
Is a friend of mine
(creating a snake by opening the fingers of your hand, puppet style and there's your snake!)
He can make three
(hold up a three with your fingers)
Straight lines for me!
Ver-tickle
(create a vertical line with your forearm)
Diagonal and horizontal!
(pantomime each)
Any curve, he can learn
With a twist and a turn.
When he's out of his tangle
he makes a great...angle.
(created by placing your hand on your hip and pointing to your elbow)
Any line, he can make
After all, he's a snake!
And here's how I go about teaching the creation of line sculpture to the kids! 
From there, my kindergarten friends create line sculptures like this. I have a super silly way of teaching this which I will share on my youtube channel this week. By the way, if you subscribe to my channel, you'll see my videos before I share them here!
I'm not gonna lie, sometimes after the whole Larry thing, the kids are bananas. To bring them back down, I'll often do this activity called palming. It works magically! 
I love this unit on line and it's made so much more fun with this goofy poem and carnival snake! What poems and songs do you use when teaching? I'd love to have a whole collection! Too bad my songwriting skillz are seriously lacking. 
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27 comments:

  1. I love it! You crazy girl, I know your kiddos think you are the bomb.com!

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    1. I think it's the reason half of them call me Mrs. Crazy instead of Stephens...I get no respect!

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  2. Oh - you're the coolest! Love it!

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  3. No. I am not, didn't you watch the video?! I'm the dorkiest!! (but thanks ;) )

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  5. OK Cassie, I just have to say that your poem is GENIUS!!!

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    1. Thank you! In my longish art teacherin' career I have managed to write ONE decent poem. I guess lightening only strikes once ;)

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  6. What a great post Cassie! I love the way you go all out for your students, something I hope that I will be brave enough to do when I begin student teaching this year (yay! so excited!). I commented on one of your posts awhile back, shamelessly blah, blahing about how you, your blog, your passion, inspired me to go back to school to earn my art education degree. Well I'm doing it, and I'm almost done (phew!). I continue to visit your blog for useful tips and tricks, project inspiration, and let's face it, to have a really good laugh when I'm feeling discouraged. Thank you for being an advocate for arts education and making a way for future teachers like me!

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    1. Christina! I did see your comment a while back and it made me so happy (I'm one of those read-comment-respond-in-my-head-but-not-in-fur-realz-life types!). I'm so excited for you!! Being a wild -n- wacky art teacher takes some building up...it's like lifting weights (um, I guess cuz I don't do that) you gotta start gradually and then the next thing you know, you are wearing a donut hat and playing with a stuffed snake! Just remember to have fun and laugh it off. No matter what "it" is! Keep me posted on your journey and feel free to email me anytime at cassieart75@gmail.com...I'll try to respond fur realziez not just in my mind ;)

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  7. You're a Rock Star, Cassie!!!

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  8. Hi Cassie! I completely felt in love with your blog! I'm Miriam, a spanish teacher, and this year (we start the school year on september) is the first time that I'm going to teach in english, cuz I'm going to be the arts & crafts english teacher!! I'm so excited (and quite nervous), and I want you to know that your blog it's an inspiration for me. I'm going to teach in 5th grade but, obviously, my students are spanish speakers, so I need to use simple songs and materials to help them to learn new vocabulary and expressions. I saw your "Larry the line poem" and I'm thinking about use it in my classes. Congratulations for your blog! You're a very creative person.When I grow up I want to be like you ;)

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  9. I love this! I'm going to try the Line sculptures on Tuesday with my K-1! Do you ever do this with 2nd and 3rd? Keep up the great work! Love the inspiration!

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  10. Kristen8/29/2015

    Haha! I love it! I want to be like you!! :)Thanks so much for sharing all of your cool ideas and methods. I'm teaching elementary art after doing 7 yrs of high school. Your posts are really beneficial. Thx!!

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  11. Anonymous8/30/2015

    Thank you to the moon, and beyond for posting this total breakdown of your unit on line w/ photos, videos, etc.! I'm about to being my first yr teaching in a k-2 elementary school, and I'm art on a cart. Our first unit is supposed to focus on drawing/line, so i'm definitely going to try out your lessons- line paper sculpture, & abstract guided line painting. Then, I think I might read "You be You" to the kinders for the 3rd lesson and have them draw a fish w/ black oil pastel using lines inside we learned about, and paint w tempera, watercolor, and later add oil pastel designs!
    Thank you so much for how specific you are! I'm so glad you shared your snake line poster, poem, and explained every step of your lessons! You're awesome- thanks for the time you take to do this!

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  12. Hi: I teach lines using body movements. Straight vertical the students stand with arms at side very straight. Vertical hold arms out to side. Diagonal- move arms out to side and move like an airplane flying, Curved or wavy they move their arms going in a curved movement in front of their body sometime interweaving both arms together like a dance movement. Zigzag move arms and head like an Egyptian. and spiral they the move both arms in a circular movement arms out to the side and make circles or big circles. I then form a congo line and play the music for it and I tell them what line movement to make as we go around the room. I sometimes with permission go into the hallways and do this.

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  13. Sorry the second one was horizontal with arms out

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  14. Sorry the second one was horizontal with arms out

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  15. Anonymous3/22/2016

    Cassie, your line paper sculpture lesson was phenomenal! The video tutorial of how to teach young students to create "feet" before gluing the paper was brilliant and worked like a charm with my little learners. They LOVED it! Here are some photos of their sculptures https://amoablog.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/whats-going-on-in-museum-school-art-adventure/

    Much thanks for the idea!


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  16. Anonymous9/15/2016

    Sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice:

    Red, yellow, blue.
    Red, yellow, blue.
    I see you.
    Red, yellow, blue.
    You are the primary colors.
    You make all the other colors.
    Oh, I wish I were a color like
    Red, yellow, blue.
    Red (drag it out), yellow (drag it out), blue-00000000 (like a wolf howling at the moon.)

    **From Sharon Johannesen finnandelsasmom

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  17. Thank you Cassie! Larry the line appeared in my classroom this week and he was a hit! My principal walked in while Larry was wrapped around my neck and he took a photo for the school's instagram account. As the new art teacher, I'm so grateful for you!

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