In the Artroom: 4th Grade Viking Ships

I'm just gonna tell you right now, this is one photo-heavy blog post. Which is totally not my fault. I blame my amazingly talented 4th grade artists who just so happened to kick some serious Viking butt with this project. They absolutely loved the Viking unit that student teacher Rebecca introduced (before heading off to high school-land) and I really think their amazing work shows it. Call me a brag-a-saurus (been called worse, trust me) but I'm in love with these works of art.

If you've seen some of the our Viking projects this year (like the 1st grade Viking self-portraits or the 3rd grade Viking ships), then you know a coupla things about how the lessons were designed: 1. They're collage-heavy. Seriously, I think I have a teaching problem(s); 2. They incorporate several different techniques and media; 3. And just about all of the projects take approximately a million years to complete.

I know. I told you, I've got teaching problem(sssss).

And yet I keep coming back to projects like these. Le sigh.

What I really enjoyed about teaching this unit was all of the media the children were able to explore (watercolor, colored pencil, permanent pens) as well as the techniques (painting, sketching, shading, collage). So I thought I'd walk you through our big fat Viking Unit. So put on your horned helmet (horny helmet...?) and hang onto your long ship (dare you to say THAT ten times fast), cuz we're about to get our Viking on (er, what? Never mind. Just keep reading, please).

As you know, my classes are 30 minutes long. So on the first day, using a folded 12" X 18" sheet of paper, the students had to decide how they would like their sky to appear. We brainstormed ideas of what could be seen in a day or night time sky. Using oil pastels, students drew stars, clouds, a sun or a moon. They were given both yellow and white oil pastels. From there, they could begin painting but they had to use analogous colors only. Students were encouraged to paint with horizontal brush strokes (and by "encouraged" I mean and the stink eye if scrub-painting commenced). Several students were unable to finish in that short amount of time and were given the opportunity to continue work the following class.

On the third day, students were given a tri-folded piece of 12" X 18" piece of paper. Rebecca introduced them to three different watercolor techniques. For splatter painting, the students were given the choice to paint wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry. For the wet-on-wet technique, students had a small sponge which they could swipe their paper with water before splattering. This gave the splatters a soft look. For wet-on-dry, they simply began splattering which gave more defined dots. For the mid-section, students were to paint wet-on-wet and add a sprinkle of salt when finished. For the last section, students were to again paint wet-on-wet and when finished, cover with a piece of cling wrap. This was left on the paper over night and when removed, had the cool effect you see on the bottom.

The next class, the collaging began. The students cut each of the three sections down the fold. Then they were instructed to tear each section horizontally creating a wavy line. From there, they painted a line of glue (we keep our glue in cups [think butter dish with a lid] and apply with an old paint brush because I HATE glue bottles. But I'll save that tirade for a separate post) on the straight edge of the paper and added it to our sky to create a horizon. Another strip was added directly below that one.

This process was continued until the bottom of the collage was covered in a lovely sea.

Oh! A tip: Once the kids have used the oil pastels and painted over their drawings, sometimes beads of paint will form and leave unsightly dots. If this bothers the kids, have them go back over the (now dry) paintings with oil pastels again. That will cover up the dried paint dots.

We chatted about blending oil pastels to create a three dimensional look for the sun or moon. This genius got it.

For the long ship, the students were given the option to trace a boat template. This ONLY gave them the general shape of the boat, not the head or tail shape (calm down, template-haters. Breathe). From there, the kids were given these directions:

1. Draw a sea serpent/dragon head and tail in pencil. The kids were shown about a trillion examples (some printed from images found online, some from books).
2. Add texture somewhere to your sea serpent.
3. Add shields and add designs to them that represent your Viking clan. The kids traced bottle caps for their circles.
4. Add curved lines to your ship to show the texture of wood and the 3-D quality of your ship.
5. Trace in thin Sharpie.

All that mess took a couple of days. They got really into their drawings. Reading the book mentioned in this post as they worked really sparked some creativity. After their drawings were complete, they then had to:

1. Add color to the sea serpent and the shields using either Sharpies or colored pencils. Shading was demonstrated.
2. Use watercolor paint on the boat.
3. Cut out VERY carefully. Which involved me saying a lot of this:

Do NOT cut off the head. Cut in...sloooooow...moootiooooon.

No, I cannot cut it out for you. 

I'm sorry your hand is cramping. Maybe all those spikes weren't the best idea. Keep cutting.

Do you think Vikings whined this much? Me neither.  

Some of them added Vikings to their ships. Oh, the hilarity.

And just when they thought I wasn't mean and cruel enough, I threw creating a 3-D sail into the mix. Go back to that 3rd grade Viking ship post for details on how to make the sail. All this typing is making my hands cramp. Sorry. I'm one of those whiny Vikings, in case you didn't know.

Shading is tricky for these guys...but they CAN do it. We talked and talked and talked about it and...guess what? They got it! Some of them had to make a couple of sails before they were successful, but in the end, we had shaded sails. Victory! Some kids decided to add a clan design to their sail. They were to lay out their pieces before gluing down, as you see above. This helped them settle on a good composition.

Are you checking out this detailed cutting work? And this was by one of my hand-crampers. I knew she could do it.

And this one was by my friend who said he couldn't shade. When he finished that sail, I had him to hold it up so the class could give him a round of applause. And then I put him in charge of encouraging other slacker-sail makers. A job he did very well.

So, one million years later, we've got Viking ships! And I really don't know who is the most proud, the kids or me...although I'm guessing it will probably be Rebecca. 

Okay, the end. You can take off your horny hat now. Thanks for reading.

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In the Art Room: Viking Ship Collages

Kids come up with the best ideas. You see those rough waves that viking ship is riding? This third grader decided to take her relief-sculpture-collage to the next level when she rolled the tops of her waves around her pencil. Genius, I tell you.

Before I get into the 'splainin' of this lesson, I gotta tell you that it was inspired by one of my fave art teacher blogs, Painted Paper. Laura's blog is so amazing and so inspiring that I'm often left shocked, stunned and just plain astonished by what her students create. And when I'm not picking my jaw up off the floor at her mad teaching skillz, I'm left shaking my fists in the air, jaw clenched, groaning, "Argh! Painted Paper! You did it again!" like some villain whose evil plans are foiled by a superhero. Cuz that's kinda what she is. Seriously.

Not sure if this Viking ship is coming or going but I do love the double-header.

When just-back-from-Norway student teacher Rebecca mentioned wanting to do some Viking-themed art projects we promptly scoured the interwebs for ideas. And that's where we came across Laura's viking ships. We changed ours up a bit for what-works-for-us/what-we-wanna-teach purposes and I thought I'd share the results with you. Rebecca and I are absolutely thrilled with how these turned out and the kids are pretty pumped as well.

These seascape collages took us multiple 1/2 hour art classes so lemme break it down for you. We began with two class of insanely busy painting processes. I blerged in detail about that here.

Day #1: The kids were to select a piece of colorful 12" X 18" construction paper that would be used both as the base of their collage and as their sky. They also collected a piece of 6" X 18" blue construction paper and white paper, as seen below (details of how we go about collecting supplies and general art room routines here). To paint the skies, the kids first sponge painted white paint over the top half of the paper with a large sponge. Using a smaller sponge and colors of the choosing, they added color to their sky. Once complete, students used different shades of blue to create a dry brushed painting on the white paper. Splatter painting was done on the construction paper. It was almost the most insane and fast-paced 1/2 hour ever. Almost.

FYI: The concept of dry brushing is like rocket science to children. Unless they are water color painting. And then it's let's-scrub-those-poor-paint-brush-bristles-until-there's-a-hole-in-my-paper land. Art teachers, amiright?!

Day #2: The day we completed these 12" X 18" babies WAS the most insane day ever. I explained these painting processes in detail here.

(Blogger was being a hater and wouldn't let me write a caption below that photo of Rebecca where I know she's talking about Norway and I know she's painting to not-Norway but, trust me, she's been there and she totally knows where it is...right, Rebecca?!)

Day #3: After all that painting madness, Rebecca shared stories and photos with the kids about her trip. The learned all about the terrain of Norway and the rough waters of the surrounding sea that the Vikings had to cross on their many voyages. From there, the kids watched as Rebecca demonstrated tearing the blue painted papers for the seascape collage. Once the papers were torn, the kids were told to only put glue on the straight line, not the torn one and begin gluing at the horizon line, making their way to the bottom of their paper, creating a pattern of alternated papers as they went.

Day #4: With the seascapes complete, the kids were ready to create their long ships. Rebecca took the kids on a voyage back in time to learn about the Vikings and their ships. She even had them practice their rowing skills on the floor which was awesome. Now, I'm not gonna lie, the kids did use a template for their ships. And I know that might rub some of ya'll the wrong way but with the time constraints I work with, it allows my students to get much more accomplished. Once the boats were cut out, the kids began creating shields for their ships that were unique to their tribe of Vikings.

Day #5: On this day, Rebecca reminded the students about how each clan of Vikings would also have sails that were unique to their tribe. However, the sails usually had stripes. Each student was given a 5" X 6" piece of white paper and shown how to cut a curve on the sides that would make their sails appear three dimensional. The kids used that curve of their sails to draw on their painted papers and create the stripes for their sails. Shapes were added on top of these stripes to make them unique.

When the kids learned that the Vikings hung their shields over the edge of the boat to both protect their boat and save space on the ship, the kids also took to hanging swords and helmets from their ships.

Day #6: On this day, the kids cut out a mast and glued that to the back of their ships. Then they applied a line of glue to the bottom of their boat and placed it under their first set of waves. Work on the shields and sales continued.

Day #7: With the ship and mast glued into place, the kids were ready to attach their sales. To really make them look like they will blowing across the sea, the kids applied a thick line of glue to both the top and bottom horizontal lines of the sail. These were then held in place for about thirty seconds to really get 'em to stick. A little demo on how to create a serpent's head on the ship was given to those that were interested.

So impressed with the design on the sail and the swords on the ship!

The puppy Vikings. Precious.

And there you go! Almost a dozen art classes later and one art project complete. Sigh. Such is the life in the Super-Short-Art-Class. On the bright side, these look totally amazing and my fingers are simply itching to get 'em up on the walls of our school halls. 

Thanks for reading and have an awesome rest of your week!

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