In the Art Room: Tissue Paper Relief by Third Grade

Now that our Monochromatic Selfies are complete, the third grade was ready to spend their third day in the art room creating tissue paper reliefs! I've been looking for a different spin on Dot Day and when I saw Blick present this at the AOE Now summer conference, I knew I had to give it a go!

This project took us the hour to complete and made for so much prettiness (not to mention educatin'). I created the video to share with my students...but you are welcome to share it with yours! 

Now, the relief might be finished but the project isn't complete yet! Our next step will be to adhere them to 10" cardboard rounds found on Amazon (I just have them sitting on 8" rounds for the photo) and continue our study of radial balance. I'll be sure to share that with you when they are complete. I was just too excited by these lovelies not to share right away!
 I mean...so fun, right?

 For this project, you'll need some of the following:

* Texture plates I used the ones that was recommended by Blick at the AOE conference. I liked the circle design as it went perfectly with our Dot Day lesson. However, they have a ton of cool texture plate designs to chose from. I purchased thirty plus because that's how many third graders I have in a class...and the artwork will need to remain in the texture plate until completely dry. 

 * Tissue paper squares These small squares are PERFECT if the kids are wanting to create a design. I left that completely up to the students. Many chose to create a radial design on their plate while some did a random one. I was cool with both. 

I was DREADING the idea of cutting tissue paper. I was so excited when I found these at the Dollar Tree! I purchased one for each table of four students and it was more than enough. It is a bleeding tissue, however...so some designs may get a little fuzzy around the edges. I was willing to take that as opposed to cutting thousands of squares.

* Large Tissue Paper This is where all of your scraps come in handy. The kids were instructed to use the smaller pieces for their design portion. When that was complete, they were to put AT LEAST three layers of large tissue on the back to strengthen the tissue design. 

* Watery Glue...with GLITTER! I just put white glue and water in a cup and sprinkled glitter into that. The kids also used soft brushes to apply the glue. Anything bristly tour the tissue more than normal. 

The kids put a piece of tape on the back of the plate with their name and teacher code. Here's what they look like as they are drying...not so interesting as the cool design is underneath!

 Not even gonna lie: the big draw back to this project was popping the creations out of the plate. Because the tissue is pretty fragile, I knew the kids might accidentally tear their work and become frustrated. It took me about 10 minutes to bust all of these bad boys out of the texture plates. I did crack a few of the plates while doing so...but they're fine to use again. 

Once popped out, the kids will trim around their circle design, cutting off the excess. 

 I know they'll be thrilled to see them when they get them back!

 Next up: add to a cardboard round and continue the radial design! 

This was such a fun and unique project that the kids really enjoyed. I don't often repeat projects but I can see this one happening again in the ole art room sometime soon!

Art Teacherin' 101: Episode 16

In last week's Art Teacherin' 101, when I chatted about my favorite way to get kids to retain information, I mentioned that I use a lil sing-song and hand-jive to teach the kids the Element of Art. Several of you asked just what that was (and what it looked like) so I thought I'd share it with you today. It's nothing hard or complicated...in fact, it's so easy you can start using it in your art rooms tomorrow! 

Like, right? Super easy!

I like to use a lot of movement with my students because, well, they're kids. They like to move. Instead of fighting the wiggles, you sometimes gotta find a way to ride that wave. Like I said in the video, big shout out to my friend Erica for the idea! 

"Why teach kids the Elements of Art?" 

I've heard this question asked by art teachers and I'm usually all, uh...is that really a question? The E's and The P's (that'd be Principles of Design) are what you use to create a work of art. Not knowing what they are, why they are used, when to use them and how makes for a rocky art making journey. I was much too lazy when I was in high school to be bothered with learning them. I thought that my natural talent was enough. Once I hit college, I realized that my arrogance put me at a disadvantage with my fellow artsy buds as they were fluent in the tools of creating and how to best implement them. I don't want to deprive my students of this knowledge! Tis the reason I teach The E's and The P's...not to mention, it's in our curriculum, y'all.

AND if you are in need of a little line poem, allow me to introduce you to Larry the Line, an oldie but goodie in my art room. 

Have fun!

In the Art Room: Texture Relief with Second Grade

Well, now that our Monochromatic Selifes are finished and we are impatiently waiting for that art teacher to hang them up (can I contract out for that? I'm buried under cute and colorful self-portraits!), it's time for us all to move on to our next masterpiece: Texture Relief Dots for Dot Day! 

 Each of my grade levels, kindergarten thru fourth grade, we are creating a dot-based work of art inspired by Peter H. Reynold's The Dot. We're doing all new Dot Day projects this year...if you like to check out all the Dot projects we've done over the years, check here.

This year, for second grade, I decided to give one of my most popular blog posts a reboot and focus on texture.

Filming my lessons over the weekend means I have a shorter weekend...but a much smoother week. I am loving this new method. I actually feel like the kids are learning so much more as I don't forget valuable vocabulary and information. I just hope I have the stamina to keep it up! I also enjoy sharing them with you. Please feel free to use in your art rooms.

 For this project, we used the following:

* 8" Cardboard Circles purchased from Amazon
* 3M Spray Adhesive
* $1 a can matte spray paint from Home Depot. Be sure and get the cheap stuff, it rubs off the best.
* The finest of steel wool, 000 
* Textured items like leaves, burlap, twine, lace, etc.
* Aluminum foil. I found boxes of sheets of foil that worked really well because it was the perfect size. It is then and may tear so tell the kids to be careful.

Before the kids arrived, I sprayed each of their circles with the adhesive. This way, they were ready to start applying their textured items. When finished, they brought them to me. I sprayed again, added the foil and sent them to their seat to rub the foil and reveal the texture.

Once it was rubbed, the kids trimmed off the excess and folded it underneath. That took up all of our 30 minutes of art class.

 I took all of the circles outside today and spray painted them black. 

The kids watched the bit of video about burnishing. We definitely did have some small holes and tears happen. A thicker foil might have helped but it would have given us a less detailed texture design. 

 I mean...

 How cool is that? After the burnishing was complete and our hands were washed, we chatted some more about texture and the difference between real and implied. This was such a fun and quick lesson that gave us beautiful results.

I really like how they look on their messy mats, we just might have to frame them out that way!

I'm interested to know what other textures y'all might recommend we use in the future. I'd love to add more to this fun project!

In the Art Room: Fiber Arts Studio Course

Y'all, I've been waiting all summer to share some big news with you: I worked with the wonderful folks at AOE this summer to put together a fibers course just for you! Everything I've learned from teaching art and exploring my love of fiber arts over the past 20 years is packed into this class. AND I'm able to offer you a special discount cuz we're buds and all. More on that in a moment (just scroll downward if you can't wait). Let's talk about what I'll be talking about!

 I'll be covering the following of my faves:

* 2-Dimensional Weaving With fresh fun spins on weaving lessons. I LOVE weaving as it has so many connections: math (measure much?), science (let's dye some fibers to weave with!), social studies (y'all, every culture weaves) and so much more. I secretly think I became an art teacher just to teach weaving.

* 3-Dimensional Weaving Don't even get me started. I know I have shared MANY of my favorite weaving projects here over the years, but I saved some fresh and new techniques just for this course!

* FELTING! Eeep! Y'all know that's my JAM.

 We'll be exploring both wet felting and needle felting techniques. 

 * Sewing and Embroidery Which I learned as a kid and absolutely loved. I so enjoy sharing that passion with my students...and art teacherin' types. 

* Tips, Tricks, Organization and Management Never taught fibers and have a fear of the unknown? Lemme hold your hand and offer you my best tips for streamlining your fiber arts curriculum. 

And now for the best part! I'm able to offer you the course for a 10% discount! Just use the code: SAVE10CASSIEART17. That's almost a $40 discount (you can thank Google for figuring that out...cuz you won't see me leading a math course anytime soon). You can sign up for the class here! AND if you do, please drop me a line in the comments below. I'd love to stay in touch and hear all about your fiber artin' adventures!

In the Art Room: Art Room Placemats!

This summer, I spent some time creating all sorts of magical movies with AOE! In case you didn't know, I'm kinda like the Meryl Streep meets William Shatner of the art teacherin' acting world. STILL waiting for my Golden Globe. 

This week, I shared one of my favorite creations: Art Room Placemats! I love them so: they offer so much information for the kids and clean up with soap and water. I purchased the information for my mats from the wonderful Teacher Pay Teacher's store Art with Mrs. Nguyen. 

I printed these wonderful handouts two ways: one small for the images you see on my mats and the other large so I can hang them as posters. I love that they match and the kids can find the same information both on their tables and in the art room.

The color mixing recipes came courtesy of an internet search and were my favorite price: free. All color copies were made at a local office joint that offered pathetic looking teachers discounts. I spent a 1/2 day with the help of a kind assistant cutting, gluing and running these bad boys thru the laminator. They've lasted us a while and I hope to get many more years out of them!

This summer, I created several short clips like this one as well as a course and workshop video with their AMAZING film crew and WONDERFUL staff at AOE. It was such an honor and pleasure to work with them!

SOOOOO...that being said, stay tuned: tomorrow my AOE Studio: Fibers Course will launch! Check back here for all of the details as well as a super sweet discount code I have for y'all! 

Art Teacherin' 101: Episode 15

Second grade and I going over the Elements of Art. Here we are flexing our muscles and showing FORM. 

"Why, yes, I did become an art teacher so I could repeat myself over and over and OOOHHH-VERRRRR again. In fact, I'm pursuing my masters degree in the Fine Art of Repetition as I do love hearing myself give the same set of directions during one art class so stinkin' much!"

Said.No.Art.Teacher.EVER.

If you are like me (and bless you if that truly is the case), you absolutely positively cannot stand it when you have just finished giving all sorts of fabulous directions only to have a student come up to you and say, "So, like, what am I supposed to do?" 

Well, roll-those-eyes, shake-that-head and face-palm it no more, my dear art teacherin' buds. I have a solution that has worked wonders for me: Call and Response!

My face, after my head does a Linda Blair head spin, when asked to repeat the directions for the gazillionth time...

If you aren't afraid to be a little silly and animated (and, I mean, really. You teach ART, y'all! Get silly and animated already), then this method is for you. 

Here are the keys to making Call and Response successful (and fun!):

* Have a cue. The kids will need a signal to know when it is an appropriate time to repeat after you. I clear my throat with an "ah-hem" which they mimic and know that anything I say and do from then on, they are to parrot.

* Deliver it in bite sizes. Keep your directions short and sweet so that the kids have an easy time repeating.

* Make it silly. Silly sticks, y'all. They remember the silly. Goofy voices, funny phrases, that's the stuff they remember.

* Add a hand jive. I'm all about the hand motions. Use those to help reinforce what you are saying. Throw some sign language in there to boot!

Like I said, I do this with all of my students, kinder thru fourth. They are all expected to repeat (because I have noticed that those who do not never know what to do!). It truly works wonders! I've had parents tell me that they've tried it at home...sadly, it doesn't work as well there. 

And to change things up, I sat in front of a random supply cabinet this week. I thought y'all might want a look see without my crazy self sitting in front of it. 

So, what do you say? Is this something you would do? I really recommend you give it a go...your kids will love it and you'll be amazed at what they remember! We do this for all sorts of things: learning vocabulary, the elements of art and more. Have fun, y'all!

In the Art Room: Mini-Monochromatic Self-Portraits

Well, hello there. This big toothy grin is brought to you by our mini-monochromatic self-portrait project! Our first project of the new school year is a collaborative one. Each of my four hundred-ish students will be making a 3" square selfie to contribute to a large mural. Y'all might have seen the rainbow portrait mural that was all the rage on Pinterest a couple years ago (in case you missed, it's the same process as what I'm sharing here. When complete, the portraits are hung in Roy G. Biv order which makes for a beautiful display). The last time I did a project like this (back in 2012), we hung the pieces to create a large world map. This go-round I have something different in mind which I hope to have ready to share with y'all real soon. In the meantime, let's chat monochromatic self-portraits!

 I have my older students, third and fourth grade, for an hour. After watching the start of the video below, I allowed the students the choice of either participating in the guided drawing in the video or working on their own. My classes were pretty evenly split between those who preferred guided vs. independent. Some kids would draw along for a while until they felt comfortable then migrate to their chosen table (more on that in a sec) while others would decide they'd like a little guidance and join the kids on the floor.

Creating this video was great in that I could add vocabulary pop-ups when needed. I also think that the intro would work great with a variety of self-portrait projects. Feel free to show it in your art room, that's why I'm sharing it here! You can find many more videos like this on my YouTube channel. I add more videos weekly so if you subscribe, you can stay tuned. 

My third graders (seen above) were able to bust these bad boys out in no time. I had only one rule when coloring: only use colored pencils on the face. I learned from experience that the dark markers will often cover too much of the face and the kids lose their beautiful details. 

So, who did they know which colors to use? 

I color coded the tables! I told the kids that the table cloth signified which color was available on the table. Inside those plastic bins were markers and colored pencils of only one color. I also had mirrors and "idea sheets" (with a variety of faces and facial features) drawn on them.

So on the first days of art, the kids sat where they liked, no assigned seats. This gave me a chance to see who would migrate together and who would not be able to sit with their buddy (more talkie than workie means new seatie for sweetie). 

 AH!! First grade! Their selfies made me smile! 

 For the wee ones, we did a guided drawing activity. We spent one day learning about self-portraits and drawing them together.

I love this activity because it's such a great assessment of student skill level at the start of the year. It also is gonna make a super sweet mural that I can pop up on the walls right away. And, who doesn't love a selfie? Especially when they are this cute. 

Love to hear what y'all are doing for these first weeks back to school!