In the Art Room: My Favorite Chalk Pastels Projects and Techniques!

Hey, friends! We are currently up to our elbows in chalk projects in my art room and it got me thinking...I should share my Top 12 Chalk Pastel Projects with y'all AND my tips and tricks. I steered clear of chalk for the longest time because of the mess; the lack of understanding how to set the stuff and because the chalk I had on hand for my kids was, well, crap. So I'm gonna debunk all of this chalk nonsense and hopefully help you get excited to bring this beautiful and vibrant medium into your art room. In this post, I'll share my fave projects but if you want even more details, check out this podcast episode:

Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Abstract Portraits I don't often repeat lessons, but this one is a hit year after year. Follow the link to a video that you can share in your art room. 

 Symmetrical Butterfly Project with Second Grade This lesson includes a video! It was a fun project that I did with my second graders and each one was a beauty. 

Claire West Inspired Landscapes with Chalk and Liquid Starch If you've never used liquid starch with chalk before, oh boy, y'all are in for a treat! This hack is magical and I cannot wait for you to give it a go. More details in this blog post. 

Faux Stained Glass Project We did this a few years back and the results were so striking! You can find more details here. 

 Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Fish! I love Sandra Silberzweig and her work as do my students. Anytime I can share her with the kids, you better believe I'm gonna. This project did just that. Video included!

 Crayon Chalk Collaborative Working together, my students created these large pieces that were so fab. You can see all the details here. 

 Fourth Grade Fauve Portraits This project uses the chalk and liquid starch trick and the results are so vibrant. More details here. 

 Desert Landscapes with Third Grade Stencils and chalk go so well together. More details on this fun lesson here. 

 Floating Chalk Prints! Behold! This is the coolest thing you can do with chalk. Don't believe me? Check this link! 

 James Russo Inspired Animals with Chalk and Oil Pastel We're the tigers at my school so this project was just perfect. More here. 

 Glennray Tutor Inspired Marble Project This one was fun and had the kids so excited to work in the third dimension! 

Annual Ceiling Tile Legacy Project! This is a massive undertaking I do every year with second-grade students. They create chalked ceiling tiles that are then placed in the ceiling permanently. How fun is that? More here. 

Read more »

In the Art Room: Chalked Fish Ceiling Tile

Y'all...it's getting down to the wire and I'm all about the last minute at this point in the school year. Between our art show, clay week(s), a ceramic mural undertaking (stay tuned!), our annual 2nd grade ceiling tile project just kinda slipped my mind. Not until a teacher asked did I remember that it was that time of year. After a mishap with a chalk order from China (they sent me HAIR CHALK, y'all!), I reached out to my friends at Faber-Castell and they sent us the most beautiful chalk I have ever seen. Last week, I sorted the chalk, created the following video and today, in just under 2 hours, my 65 second graders created magic!

The video so saved my voice! It's a loud room with lots of echos...I know that I would have struggled to keep my voice going and my patience in check. It was just me, one parent and a handful of super helpful 4th grade girls to assist these four classes of kiddos. The kids did wonderfully! I am so super proud of them...and they were so proud of themselves...here's a short video of them in action: 

If only we worked that fast! 

In addition to the video, I spent about an hour in the morning with my super helpful specials team laying out large sheets of paper, setting out the chalk trays and the foam brushes. Last night I cut out 65 fish templates (we'll be painting them for our very last art project of the year!) and had them on the kids' tiles. We always work on the opposite side of the ceiling tile as it takes to the chalk so much better. 

32 chalk trays were ready for the kids to use. Check out that chalk, isn't it beautiful? 

Now, with 65 kids, you know they don't all work at the same pace. So I would share a little of the video and then put them to work. When they finished OR when they heard me ring my chime, they knew they were to stop immediately and meet again on the floor to learn the next steps. 

 Kids who finished early were asked to walk around and see if there were any friends who might like some help with their tile. I wouldn't normally have the kids work on each other's pieces but this is an exception. These tiles are BIG! And some kids wanted the help of their friends. Also, I emphasized that this was a collaborative project so help from our friends was great...but only if the artist wanted it. If not, move on to another friend!

This is our third year with this project and it's a big hit each time. This particular group was so excited about it! We do a different theme each year. Our first year, it was butterflies and least year was flowers. I'm so pleased with these bright and cheer fish, perfect to create a school of fish in our ceiling! 

 I get a lot of questions about this project so I thought I'd address them:

* How do you seal these? After the kids are done, these are sprayed heavily with Aqua Net. It does dull the color but not much...and def not noticeable from the ceiling.

* What does the Fire Marshall think? Our Fire Marshall didn't mention them! And, of course, we didn't ask. 

 * Do the kids get these back? No. I emphasize that the tiles are there to stay, it's our legacy, our magical mark we leave behind.

* How do you get all of the tiles? The first year, my custodian was able to order extra for me. Now, we just use the ones he has taken down. Meaning, when he takes down the clean tiles to hang the fish, we'll use those as our "canvas" next year!

 * How did you convince your administration to allow this project? This project came from a request from my principal! She saw artwork on the ceiling of a school and asked if I could do something like that. At that school, the kids had drawn on paper and the work was tacked to the tile. Originally, when our street painter artist came, we were going to do sidewalk drawings...but rain was in the forecast. Thinking that the texture for the tile would be the same as the sidewalk, the night before, I came up with the idea to do the back of the tiles. We do the back because it takes the chalk much better. 

 * Why chalk and not paint? Personally...I find the surface of the tile to be very porous and just absorbs the paint. This seems to take a lot longer...and I don't always love the look. Chalk, however, works great on the back of the tile and I love the look. 

 * What happens when you run out of ceiling tiles?! Pretty sure that won't happen any time soon. Our school is large and our librarian just asked today if I'd do something for the ceiling in there! Short answer: I'll retire, ha!

* Who hangs the tiles? One of our amazing custodians. He LOVES doing it and seeing what the kids create. I tried to hang them once...it's a rain of chalk dust! He's the best for doing it for the kiddos. 

I think that covers all the questions about this question I've gotten in the past. But if you have others, feel free to drop me a line in the comments!

 Love to know if you've done a project like this before...or any legacy type project. They certainly add a punch of happy to our school. 

I'll be sure to share what they look like once they are installed. Until then, I'll be unloading/loading a kiln, matting artwork, scratching my head over a mural and having a nightmare about the art show. You know, the usual. 

Read more »

In the Art Room: Bebo Birds!

Earlier this week I shared with y'all a new video series I'm creating for my students called Field Trip! Our first 'trip was to hang out with folk artist and musician Bebo. Some of my classes took that virtual field trip this week and really enjoyed it. I am in the process of creating videos to accompany the field trip...and today, I'm excited to share with you the first one: Bebo Birds!

This project is geared toward my first grade artists. I really want them to explore textured mark-making. That will be our focus for the first day of this lesson. On the second day, we'll learn the difference between organic and geometric shapes. My goal is to teach the children that you can create anything with shapes. Keeping it simple will insure confidence and success for the kids...at least that's the plan. Of course, I'll keep you posted and share their masterpieces with you. In case you missed out on our field trip adventure, here's our 'trip to meet and create with the artist Bebo!

Such a fun guy and so giving with his time. I felt very lucky to have that opportunity to meet him and share his awesomeness with my kids. 

One piece of his that really struck me were these birds. I loved how fun they were. I also really loved the texture, the pattern and the use of shapes. I knew my first grade kids would not only enjoy looking at Bebo's work but also creating their own version of these Bebo birds. Here's our lesson:

I'm excited to work on more Bebo-inspired lessons in the future. I've got a lovely week off for Thanksgiving break and I'm thrilled to say we aren't going anywhere! I'll be traveling to Texas this week for their conference, which I'm stoked about (!!) however, I am a complete homebody so staying put for a while and working on my pile o' projects sounds like my kind of break. 

Love to know if you make Bebo Birds! 

Read more »