What the Art Teacher Wore #111 and Dottin' It Up for Dot Day!

Feelin' Funky Monday: I wish I'd snapped a better photo of this skirt because it's straight up amazing. I scooped it up at the super fantastic etsy store SassySenoritaVintage (great shop, awesome seller!). It's completely hand appliquéd and so detailed. After receiving it, I thought I'd try my hand at the same appliqué method only to find that it's super intense! That's a DIY that might take a while. top and necklace: Anthro, gift from a friend; skirt: vintage, SassySenoritaVintage; shoes: last season, Payless

Hey there, all y'all! Unlike last week when I wrote this post, this week zipped by at the speed of light. And it's kinda freakin' me out to think that we'll be in September before we know it. So much art making to do, always so little time! Story of every art teacher's life. 

This week I thought I'd share with you a lil sneak peak of our dot-inspired projects for International Dot Day! At first it was kinda tough coming up with dot-esque projects...and now I can't STOP coming up with ideas! I'm trying to force myself to save 'em for next year. I mean, we can't have every project this year be based around a dot...or can we?! I'll share the complete deets on these projects when the kids have completed 'em.

In other news: I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT THE APRON SEW-ALONG! I've loved seeing everyone's creations thus far (some of you have even finished your aprons, you over-achievers!), it's been so inspiring and super fun. If you wanna join along and see what's peeps be making, go here. This week, I'll share with you how to finish that apron off. Then I HAVE A SURPRISE in store for those of you that complete your apron! But you'll have to wait for the final apron-sewing installment to find that out, eee!

Also, can I just tell y'all how much I've loved hearing your stories of childhood memories that built the brick sh## house you are today?! I'm so inspired, happy, motivated-to-be-that-person-in-a-child's-life that you just don't know. You can still leave your story and be entered to win a Spiral Art Kit by August 31st. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Finally, can we talk about the neglected elephant in the room: The Artsy Book Club? This week I'm gonna show y'all the influence the Teach like a Pirate book has had on my first couple of days/weeks in the art room. I've tweaked routine/lessons/song-and-dance a little bit and I'm looking forward to sharing with ya what's worked and what needs more work, if ya know what I mean. 

Alrightie, kids! I'll be back soon with more apron-age, a visit to my art room and a brand new DIY (er, finally! It seems I got a little distracted by Orange is the New Black marathons. My bad.). Chat soon!

Second Grade Reversible Abstract Paintings: I'll share the complete lesson with ya when these bad boys are finished. But for now, lemme give you the short version: listened to a variety of musical instruments (my gong, rain stick, and this thing called a spring drum that I'll share with you this upcoming week) and painted a variety of lines. Our influence was Kandinsky and how music influenced his work. Once the lines were painted, we've started adding color. Some kids have decided to also embellish further with pattern. I'm hoping by next week or so we'll be ready to start on the other side of this pizza round (purchased through School Specialty for $16/100 rounds).

Tacklin' Tuesday: Sometimes I get the question: How do you stay clean in the art room?! Well, I usually don't. Nor do my students. We're almost always in aprons but there are the occasions where we forget, there's a paint spill and clothes receive an unfortunate makeover. I had a sweet first grade student spill paint who FREAKED because she thought her skin would be permanently stained ("I can't be paint splotchy for the rest of my life!"...y'all, I tried SO HARD not to laugh). I thought we'd cleaned up the entire spill when a third grader came up to me later with the very same paint on her skirt (there'd been a blob hiding on the table, just waiting to attack). I felt so bad! But the next day, she came in with a bag of chocolates for me and a kind note from her mother telling me that "this happens, no worries." Gah! Such kindness. And chocolate! top and shoes: thrifted; skirt and necklace: Anthro

First Grade Concentric Circles and Radial Designs: For the dots in first grade, the kids painted their plates with a concentric pattern and then added detail in tiny brushes with black ink. Once complete, we created those painted papers (one side textured the other side dot-stamped) which we'll use to enhance our plates. This is gonna be for a great big hairy group project that I just can't wait to show you! Deets to come, y'all. 

Dang! Can you believe some of that detailed first grade painting?! I mean, these kids are 5 years old, y'all!

Maxi Wednesday: This is my Art Teacher from the 1970's ensemble. You like? I'm into this whole bright color/ethnic pattern thing that I'm seeing everywhere and it's totes influencing my outfit choices. dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange

Sparkly Relief Dots by Third Grade: So my third grade kids cut out a circle from a styro plate and then added smaller styro circles on top of that. Once complete, we hit it with some spray glue, covered it with foil and they went to town creating their designs. They're kinda like round zen-tangles. I really like how they are turning out...but I'm uncertain just who we'll present these to the world. I'd love to hear your thoughts...should we simply mount them on a piece of construction paper? Maybe continue the line design on that background paper? Or perhaps create a design on the reverse and hang them mobile style? I'd truly love some input, y'all!

Thursday, Already?: This week seemed to zip right by for me. And next week will be the same as we have a half day on Friday and Monday off. Then, it will be SEPTEMBER! How in the world did that happen?! dress: vintage, Buffalo Exchange

Because I love them so and didn't think the first photo did 'em justice, I thought I'd share some close ups. 

String Art in Fourth Grade Land: When I was in fifth grade, we did this really fun string art project that I still have. I thought it was the best thing ever...and decided that my fourth grade should experience that fun-ness too. So we've spent the last couple of art classes decorating our boards (with a lil texture combin' and splatter paintin...since I was an 80's child, splatter paint seemed appropriate). The kids also had to start punching the correct amount of holes into the board and practicing their design ideas. Their fingers are itching to start stitching...and I'm excited to say we'll begin next week!

A Friday with Balls: Holy crap, when I saw this crazy ballsy outfit at Anthropologie recently, I knew I had to have it in my life. Of course, I waited around until the sucker was on double markdown (I just cannot stomach purchasing full price in that joint or even first markdown for that matter). I did learn something interesting with this purchase: if they don't have your size in the store but have it online, you can purchase it in the store and they'll ship it FOR FREE to your house. Which saved me like $10 in shipping. everything: Anthro

Speaking of shipping, there was some serious happiness in my mailbox this week! Artist and art teacher Daniel Langhans sent me those awesome CareBear stickers along with that rad card...and that envelope! You can find more of Daniel's awesomeness here: TiltedEarthStudios.com. I can't wait to enlarger that envelope on the copier and make it into a sign for my art room!

And another art teacher buddy of mine sent me this gems she'd recently printed (Kelly, I LOVE THEM!). You can find handmade items by Kelly here: etsy.com/shop/jkmartinstudios. These prints totally put me in the mood for my fave holiday. I already have a place for them on the wall in our living room, I just need to get them framed. Funny thing is, both these awesome artists are from Arizona! Thanks guys!!

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In the Art Room: The Art Show, Part 2

 It's kinda funny to think that just a couple weeks ago, my school's hallways looked like this. Of course, now that school's out, the halls resemble some sort of institution (which, let's be honest, those last couple of weeks, we coulda all be institutionalized. The kids, the teachers, shoot even the class pets, were all a wee bit bonkers.) As I mentioned in my last art show post, all artwork that all students have created all year is hung for this show which is like hundreds of masterpieces. The World's Most Amazing Parental Volunteers hang everie-thang, can you believe that? I'm a lucky girl, this I know.

In my last art show post, I shared with ya'll the work of the wee ones in kindergarten through 2nd grade. I've yet to share with you the clay projects that were also displayed at the art show because I'm slowly putting together the how-to posts on those babies. When that's done, I'll wrap up this art show series. Oh! And if you wanna see some art shows of the past, you can see last year's show here and here.

And now, without further jibber-jabber, I present to you the masterpieces of 3rd and 4th grade with loads of linky-loos to lessons...

 For the art show, the parent volunteers hang the work outside the classroom. I don't give any directions on how to hang...just cross your fingers and use enough sticky tack to make it stay. I love how each volunteer hangs the work differently.

 In third grade, we started out the year learning about Norway and Vikings. My amazing student teacher Rebecca had just returned from a trip to Norway and this was a lesson created by her (and influenced by Painted Paper!). I wrote up a blog post all about Rebecca's adventures and this lesson here.

 My goal for this past school year was to create a mural with each grade level. I only partially achieved that goal (my younger kiddos did a collaborative mural to be shared in an upcoming post). My 3rd grade created a Magritte-inspired mural that proved to be the art project that just kept on giving. You can see examples of that in the work at the bottom of this photo.

 Here's one part of the Magritte project with tissue paper collaged landscape backgrounds.

This enormous beast of a mural hangs right outside of my art room. I think it's there to stay a while, I love seeing it when I walk out of my art room. The details of creating this mural are here.

 The paper we used to create the birds for the mural and our collage landscapes were so cool we decided to use them in yet another Magritte-y project. Final installment of Magritte series here.

 After all that Viking and Magritte-ness, I introduced the kids to the world of Asian art with a heavy dose of Ming vases and cherry blossom trees.

 This was a super fun lesson that incorporated so many thing. A review of watercolor techniques, symmetrical vase design, drawing a narrative, shading/shadow making and new ink painting methods. Full lesson here.

 

Both 3rd and 4th grade were introduced to Chinese calligraphy. We learned to grind out own ink and paint with sumi-e bamboo brushes. This was a big hit and we seriously painted tons of these characters. After a couple of classes doing that, the kids picked their fave to mount, label and frame.

 My 4th grade this year was like a dream group. We had such a good thing going, as they loved being in art as much as I did having them. Which was a bit of a problem as I was therefore always late sending them back to class. Seeing them go at the end of this school year was very hard for me, sniff. I'll miss them so much!

They kicked off the start of this school year creating this huge mural for a canned food drive. Full details here.

 I think this Viking project was one of my favorite lessons this year. I simply love all the watercolor techniques that the kids incorporated into their work. I will definitely be doing a redo of this here lesson in the future (I have a bad habit of doing a lesson only once as I get a little bored with repeats).

 Again, another lesson with many layers of stuff taught. It's like an onion, this project. Without the onion breath.

 These guys also did some Chinese calligraphy. However, theirs included a hanger with Sculptey beads on the end of a wooden dowel and a red stamp.

 Like with the wee ones, I also have these kids write an artist biography. These are slightly different though in that they are to also have friends add comments about them. I'll share more details about those bios in an upcoming post (I keep saying that, I hope I can keep up with all this "up-coming" posting!).

 When learning about Asia, we did some Suminigashi which is Japanese paper marbling. Details here.

 When I ran outta paper marbling supplies mid-way through the lesson (don't you hate that?! Argh!) I did a quick switch to chalk marbling...which I kinda liked even better!

 With those stars we used in the chalk stenciling, we created some fun narrative collages.

 Near the end of the school year, we put our sumi-e painting techniques to good use with these paintings. Students could create either bamboo, cherry blossom or pine trees after practicing on newsprint.

 I've not written up a lesson on this project yet...it's on my summertime to-do.

 A favorite was adding the tissue paper leaves or flowers. They just couldn't stop adding these, loved 'em so!

 Of course, in my absence at NAEA, the kids drew these adorable Chinese pandas. When I returned, they put their watercolor painting skills to work on the background. Lesson here.

 The day before the art show, in 30 minutes, the kids created these sweet things. On the night of the art show, we also host an ice cream social. The kids painted these for the occasion and I managed to get them up the day of the show! This was seriously the easiest 30 minute lesson ever. I'll be sharing the details in an upcoming post,

And there you have it, ya'll! The 2014 Art Show! Stay tuned for the final installment of the show which will include kid clay projects. Until then!

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In the Art Room: Ceramic Painted Elephants of India

My kids busted out the most adorable clay pieces this year, not gonna lie. This project, created by my fourth graders and inspired by the painted elephants of India, was a fave of mine.

Each year in my art room, I like to focus on a particular country and/or continent and introduce the kids to the sights (lots of groovy cast-off souvenirs from the thrift store), sounds (a wee introduction to the languages) and tastes (this year that involved making candy sushi) of that place. The previous school year, we "traveled" to Europe with an emphasis on Paris. At the end of that particular school year, I had a third grade student ask, "Can we please travel to India next year?!"

Photos from National Geographic taken during an annual Elephant Festival in Jaipur, India. Elephants have long been revered in India which has helped them survive in greater numbers than any other country in Asia. That being said, there are roughly 3000 elephants currently held in captivity as apart of illegal animal trafficking. It sucks how, as humans, if we can capture and keep something, no matter how big or how much respect we claim to have for it, we will. Thankfully, the elephants shown in these photos live in a large open area created just for them.

I agreed to the little dude's request, "Sure! Let's learn about India!" and then, weeks later, turned my art room into this...aka NOT India. At our registration night preceding the first day of school, after viewing my art room, said student marched up to me, totally ticked. 

"You said we were gonna learn about India!"

Me (realizing my Big Fat Hair Mistake and thinking fast): "Oh! We are! We're learning about Asia this year."

"Asia IS NOT India."

Me (noting that it was a good think we'd be studying geography): "Well, India is in Asia. So we'll cover it, I promise." 

Little Dude, crossing arms: "We better!"

And, Every. Single. Time. I saw that kid, I swear to you, he asked me, "When are we gonna learn about India?"

Photographing these elephants proved to be tough as it was hard to showcase all of the details some kids put into their work. Like this bowing elephant who is carrying a colorful box with a baby elephant, covered by an umbrella, inside. Both balancing peanuts, by the way. I guess they are those gag-tastic orange Circle Peanuts, hence the color choice.

So then I got an idea. Usually when I introduce the kids to a country that I've not been to, I do a whole lotta homework. But here I had a kid that was not only Indian-American but had also been to India several times! So I asked him to put together a list of the Top 10 Most Important Facts We Should Know about India. Days later, he returned with a list of 20 things as well as a large bag full of beautiful saris and other clothing. 

I've gotten into this habit that if the kids have extra time, they can make whatever they like outta clay. But they have to remember to follow the clay rules: No clay should be thicker than an Oreo cookie; Slip and score everything; If your clay project is wiggly like a loose tooth, it won't make it to the kiln. It'll go to the Clay Fairy. This class was so interested in making elephants that many of them created babies to match. I love the sweet gaze on this mama elephant's face.

With my student ready to present, I had to come up with a coordinating lesson. I didn't want my student to simply present to his classmates and then not have a project tie-in. It was then that I remembered this awesome Painted Elephant lesson created by an art teacher buddy of mine (hey, Debbie!) featured in Arts and Activities a couple years ago. 

This is the elephant created by the student who inspired the lesson!

So just how did this presentation go down in 30 minute art classes when clay elephant makin' was involved? Well, I had the kids gather around our demo table (which is just a rando table in the room. It's crowded but I've found that the Elmo doesn't led itself to demos as it has a hard time focusing on constant movement. Yay, technology.) I told my little presenter that he had 5 minutes at the beginning of each art class to read and explain a bit from his list. When finished, I would jump in and explain the first phase of the project.

Ya'll. This kid was amazing. His passion for his country and culture was so inspiring and touching. The kids were thrilled to learn more about their classmate and asked so many awesome questions. I hated to stop him but told the kids that we'd be learning more in the next coupla weeks. Then we did this:

(In case you didn't know, my classes are 30 minutes in length. Here's what we did the first day:)

1. Divide your clay into two equal spheres (I stopped saying "BALLS" a loooong time ago, ahem) and make two pinch pots of relatively equal size. In an upcoming post, I'll share with you how I teach pinch pot making. Until then, stick your thumb in the sphere, take it out and pinch the sides evenly. 

2. Crumple up a page from one of those countless art supply catalogs you are hoarding and stuff inside one pot.

3. Argh! It's a Monster with Poor Dental Hygiene! Use an old toothbrush and a cup of water to slip and score the rim of both pinch pots. Place one pot atop the other.

4. And close by smearing the clay. If there are gaps, seal those with a clay Band-Aid or a smashed piece of clay that can seal those gaps.

5. Roll that pot back and fourth until it is smooth. Yeah, I know there's paper inside. It's there to stay. Now, wrap a damp paper towel around that bad boy, pop it into a ZipLock bag with your name on it and I'll smell ya later.

6. The next art class, after my student's chat, we were back at it. I gave a super rough example as to how I would make an elephant. However, I emphasized that it was how I would do it...you're a different and much more creative artist than me. I know you'll think of something way better. Smash a sphere of clay into a cookie size for the face. Cut another smashed sphere of clay in half for the ears.

Poor elephant staring at his disembodied legs. Explains the surprised expression.

7. With rulers on the tables, the kids were requested to make four legs as thick as a hot dog and 2" in length. Heads were attached to bodies but we held off on the legs. At the end of Round 2, we put what you see above in the bags. By the way, a whole lotta kids didn't get that far. No worries. The kids know art class is super short and are used to our little sing-song: "Art class is Oooh-ver, But I'm not finished yet!, That is Oooh-kay, We'll finish next time!" 

8. The following class, the kids were ready to add all the fun details to their elephants. I printed off those pics from the National Geographic website and placed them on tables. This really inspired the kids. One thing I pointed out was how many of the elephants were draped in fabric. We looked at the lovely fabrics of the outfits my student brought in. I had tons of textured fabrics on the tables (from doilies to burlap and placements) and showed this kids how to pound the clay onto the texture. this texture could then be used for the fabric on the elephants back. Notice that the clay is super thin. This is because it will be attached to another piece. If it were a thick piece attached to another thick piece, it would explode in the kiln.

9. On our fourth and final day, the kids were allowed to use whatever amount of clay they needed to finish. They added baskets, jewelry, babies, umbrellas, you name it. Once the legs were attached to the bottom, I jabbed a bunch of holes to prevent that sphere from exploding (because an enclosed piece of clay will blow up). Again, we left the newspaper inside. It didn't harm the kiln or the firing. 

I let these guys dry a long time. Like a week and a half. My room was pretty warm and dry due to the constant running of the kiln. But I wasn't taking any chances with these guys exploding.

When this student's umbrella proved to be too top heavy and fell off, we improvised with this drink brolly. She said the holes in the ears of her elephant were going to hold her earrings. Genius.

Once these guys were out of the kiln, the kids were given two art classes to glaze them (although some took a class longer). I give the kids two brush sizes: medium and The World's Smallest Paint Brush. I encourage them to use that wee one for the tiny details and I think they did a good job of that. Also, I am in love with Mayco's Stroke and Coat glazes. I give the kids a wide variety of colors and they love them. Two coats gives a great shine and the color is very vibrant.

Some students opted not to have their elephants so brightly colored. Just a bit of blue eyeshadow to accent my eyes, thank you very much.

And other kids took it to the extreme. I love that bright yellow with the orange earrings!

This girl may have worked on her elephant forever. But look at it! It's amazing! From the basket to the detail of the baby, such awesomeness.

On our last day of All-Things-India, our kid-presenter told us a bit about the clothing he brought. He explained that some of the clothing would be worn at an Indian wedding and that those were big parties that lasted for days.

Me: Oh! I wanna come! Will you invite your favorite art teacher to your wedding party, please?!

Kid-Presenter: Haha! No! You won't be around any more. You'll be old! And probably dead.

Wow. Comments like that make me happy it's summer. Time to live it up before the Grim Reaper arrives!

Until next time, go make yo'self a painted elephant, they're super fun, ya'll!

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