Join us tonight right here at 8pm CST on Wednesday to chat about BURNOUT. We've all been there. Let's share our stories and talk about ways of lifting ourselves out of burnout and getting the fire back into our art teacherin'. See you real soon! Hey, y'all! Just thought I'd do a wee update on this incredibly fun project my students just wrapped up. They learned all about contemporary artist Peter Anton, created a heart-shaped box armature, covered it in papier mache and made fun plaster-cast chocolates. We are finishing them off this week and I thought I'd share.
Here's the lesson video I shared with my students. This project took us about three one-hour art classes.
Supplies: * Tag board for heart: one 8" square * Tag board for sides of heart: 1" X 24" * Stapler * Tape * Newspaper cut into strips on the paper cutter * Papier mache paste. We used wheat paste after checking for gluten allergies. * Paint for the heart * Plaster. We used Art Plaster by Activa Products * Containers to make the "chocolate". We used ice cube trays and egg cartons * PUFFY PAINT!
Day One: We made the armature. We were in the middle of wrapping up another project so we did the armature in one class and early finishers completed their previous project.
Day Two: We did our papier mache! It was good messy fun. Then we did an insanely fun clean up...
I hosed the tables down with shaving cream and let the kids spread it out and draw and play in it for a good five minutes. Then we had a Clean Up Game. Here's how it worked: I placed a tub of water and sponges on each table. I told the kids that WITHOUT TALKING, they were to wipe down their tables and get their table the cleanest in the room. I even provided old hotel key cards for the kids to scrape off the glue. You have never seen kids work so hard! If you go here, and scroll down a pinch, you can catch a couple short clips of my kids in action.
Day Three: We picked out three to four plaster cast chocolates and painted them in a couple different shades of brown. While those dried, we painted our heart-shaped boxes. With about 10 minutes left of class, I busted out the puffy paint...and the crowd went wild! The boxes will be sealed with sparkle puffy paint before being placed on display. This project was definitely a kid fave. Love to hear if you've given this lesson a go in your art room!
I have to share with y'all this faux box of chocolates project my third graders are working on...they are so excited! So far, we've chatted about our artist inspiration, Peter Anton, created an armature for our box of chocolates and used newspaper and wheat paste to papier mache our box. Next up, we are using our plaster cast forms to create candy! The above is my example...
And this would be Peter Anton's! Don't you love it? He's an American sculptor who is often referred to as Candy Warhol. He's created many sweet and savory sculptures but at this time of year, I'm partial to the heart shaped box of chocolates. Here's the lesson video:
Here are the supplies we used:
* Tag board cut into 1" X 24"
* Tag board cut into an 8" square
* Tape
* Newspaper
* Papier mache paste
* Plaster
* Paint
* PUFFY PAINT!
If you've never used papier mache with kiddos before, just a few things: * Check for allergies. I used wheat paste but made sure that we didn't have any gluten allergies before doing so. * Sensitivity issues. Several of my students have sensitivity issues. Meaning, they don't like the texture of papier mache. For those kids, I had buddies who finished early offer them a hand. * This stuff is MESSY. In the best possible way, says me. However, we did a very successful clean-up party after the fact that the kids loved. When most kids were finished with papier mache, I explained to them that if they were standing quietly behind their pushed in chair, I would squirt shaving cream on their table. I gave them five minutes to go bananas, be loud, have fun and draw in the cream. When the five was up, I announced that we would be having a CLEAN UP CONTEST. I placed tubs of water and sponges on each table. My rules were there was to be NO TALKING...only cleaning. The kids were to squeeze their sponges over the tub of water and use it to wipe down the table. I also provided old hotel key cards for the kids to scrape glue off the tables. You can see my kids in action over on Instagram (I'm @cassie_stephenz). Not even gonna lie, they totally rocked clean up! The best tables got the grand prize of lining up first.
I'll be sure to share an updated blog post when the kids have completed their boxes and candy. My early finishers will not only write about what they've learned but give their candy company a name, make a list of ingredients and design the lid of their box. I can't wait to see what they come up with!
