What the Art Teacher Wore #172

Allow me to just kick off this here What the Art Teacher Wore by saying No, I did not create that AMAZING felt flower Frida-esque crown I am wearing. It was created by art teacher Linda McConaughy who was so sweet and kind to send it to me. You can check out and purchase Linda's designs here. If there is something you have in mind, message her! And, if you've ever been to NAEA, you might also know Linda by her paint brush crown pieces (you can see me wearing mine here!). In fact, she'll be at NAEA in NYC this March (as will I, so excited) so you can check out more of her wares there. Thank you so much, Linda, I LOVE my flower crown and my students did as well. Matched my color wheel shirt completely!

 Target, You have the Best Kid's Clothes: I ain't ashamed to admit I just about purchased the entire Cat and Jack line at Target...for myself. Yes, it's kids' clothes. No, I don't care. That color wheel shirt is currently on clearance for something crazy like $2, y'all! top and skirt: Cat and Jack for Target

So. Did y'all survive Friday the 13th, the full moon and Mercury Retrograde (I'm not exactly sure what that is but if it had anything to do with the painting of one's hands and then licking it off episode I witnessed this week, I ain't down with it)? Thankfully, I have a long weekend to recover. It was my first week back after the break and we hit the ground running: weaving, sculpting, painting, printing. You name it, we were doing it. And all of it was in the name of LURVE...

 Before break, my firsties had finished these weavings. Honestly, I had NO idea what we were going to do with them until Monday morning. I remembered that before break, these kids had whizzed through weaving. So I decided to see if they could handle a little bit of hand stitching. Y'all, they rocked it! You can check out the complete lesson here. 

With all the possible bad luck floating around, I decided to ward it off with some freaky evil eyeball jewelry. You can see more of this craziness here. I'm so on a 80's kick right now, y'all. I've had a hair crimper in my Amazon shopping cart for a week now. 

 The Problem with Wearing Kid's Clothes: Is that half of your students wear them too. I was told that I match several kiddos in our school, a couple in kindergarten and a few in first grade. Yep. I've got the fashion sense of a 6 year old. Sounds about right. top: Cat and Jack; skirt and tights: Target; boots: Frye

Second grade printed this week and learned about the artist Chris Uphues. I love his artwork but his street art hearts are my faves. The kids really got into his work. Lesson to come!

 Wonderful Wednesday: I was so excited about Wednesday because my fourth graders started on their Candy Heart Sculptures! sweater: thrifted; pins: vintage; top: JCrew; skirt: resale find at Buffalo Exchange (I knooooooow!); yellow tights and hot pink fishnets: who knows

We got out armatures complete and started on the process of cutting the plaster into strips. I wasn't about to do that myself so I put the kids on that one. Next week, we cover in plaster!

 When You Look as Ridiculous as You Feel: All day long. That's what happens when you dress like a kid, y'all! top and skirt: more Cat and Jack. I done told you I bought everything they had. Gift cards from Christmas came in mighty handy; shoes: Aldo

Second grade had so much fun printing hearts that I decided to create more stampers and have kindergarten do it as well. You can see how I made the stampers here. More to come on this lesson! 

All Eyeballs on Me: Yep, I had to. Details on this dress here. Shoes from Modcloth

In the Art Room: Give Directions Just One Time!

Hey, y'all! If you missed last night's Facebook Live chat, it was so fun! We talked about all things Art Show and so many fabulous ideas were shared. I'm so thankful for all of you that took the time to join the convo. You can still catch the archived chat right here and be sure to join me on Wednesdays at 8pm CST for the fun! 

My least fave thing? Repeating myself. As much as I love to talk, saying the same thing again and again to small people is, like, the worst. I have found a solution that works for me: Call and Response! I have chatted about it here as well:

The kids really enjoy Call and Response and it's very much apart of our art learning routine. Do you use this? What techniques do you use to help your students retain directions? Love to hear from y'all!

In the Art Room: First Grade Fiber Arts

Every year I do paper weaving with my first grade artists...and every year, when the weavings are complete, I think, "well, now what?"

This year, my first graders FLEW through weaving without much help or reteaching from me. I was so excited that I decided to throw some simple stitching into the mix and I'm so glad I did. The kids nailed it and created a beautiful heart-tastic quilt to boot.

Day 1: If you've never done paper weaving with kids before, here is how I teach them to cut their looms. We used painted paper for our looms. Cutting our looms and weaving a couple of strips took us one 30 minute class. 

Day 2: On our second day, we reviewed the weaving process. We sit in a circle and weave together. I like to use peer tutoring for those who understand weaving to help others. I find the kids do an excellent job teaching one another!

Our Love Quilt now hangs outside my art room! This is the work of two classes. My next two classes will have a different color scheme. I'll be sure to share when they are complete. 

Day 3: The next art class, students chose a 12" square piece of construction paper. We learned all about symmetry as well as positive and negative shapes and how to cut out a heart! This was then glued over our weavings. We saved the positive shape hearts for our next project. As a wrap up, we had a drawing sheet full of symmetrical and asymmetrical images for the kids to draw.

Day 4: I had to do some prep work for this day, not even gonna lie. I hot glued another square paper on the back of the artwork to anchor the weaving (see below) and I hole punched the sides. For two classes, that took about 20 minutes. Then I cut the yarn to about 18" strips and had pieces of tape on hand for the kids.

To begin, each child anchored their yarn with tape on the back. I showed them out to do a whip stitch and they went to town. To end the stitch, they added another piece of tape on the back. 

Early finishers helped those those who needed assistance. Everyone finished in under 20 minutes. This gave us time to add our names with silver Sharpie!

Once the kids were done, I laid the pieces out on the floor and decided to display the artwork quilt-style. 

For that, I simply hole punched the tops and bottoms of the weavings and tied them together with two pieces of yarn. This created long pieces of art that I hung next to each other to create the illusion of a blanket. That took a mere 30 minutes! 

I was so excited that with 4 30 minute art classes, the kids learned about weaving, symmetry and stitching...all while having a blast! I am so glad to have this beautiful masterpiece outside my art room. 

Love to hear about your favorite projects that involve paper weaving!

DIY: Eye Love Jewelry

Lately, I've been getting that 80's itch: I've had a hair crimper in my Amazon shopping cart for weeks, I've started shopping the 80s-inspired kids section at Target and my hair has been reaching bigger and bolder heights (thank you, Aqua Net!) Pretty soon I'll be busting out the Bangles, Bruce Springsteen and Def Leppard (okay, seriously, these are always on repeat in el Honda Azul). I can't help it, it's the era I grew up in...and the best era EVER. After the 20's, 40's, 50's and 60's/70's, of course. Ahem.

After making The Eyeball Dress, I've been [eye]balls to the wall obsessed with all things peepers. So when the dress was complete, I started painting eyes...an everything!

I have a decent assortment of wood beads and bangles thanks to etsy and late night online shopping. I've seriously had this stash of wooden beads and bracelets FOR YEARS and when I got the itch to paint over winter break, they were the victim. The diamond shape resembled eyes and, well, the rest was history. 

Did I mention it was winter break and I was power watching the following: Schitt's Creek, Transparent and Arrested Development? Yes, twas good times. 

It's so evident I have 80's-itis. Just a quick scroll thru my Insta-feed is proof of that. I think it's the color that gets me...and the patterns...and the happy memories. ALL of it! Can we just bring back jelly bracelets, charm necklaces, leg warmers and neon eyeshadow already?! Please check your banana clips and pegged pants at the door, ermkay?

After painting my beads, I decided that I couldn't have a necklace that was all eyes...so I splurged on some polymer clay and created some extra beads. Some I mixed and others I painted...

And I really had the very best time. Like, totally, It was rad, dude. 

By the way, I spoke with my 80's Gag-Me-with-a-Spoon accent today in art class...and a second grader whispered, "she's trying to sound young." Needless to say, I seriously contemplated sending him to Time Out. Like, whatever, eh!

In the Art Room: Clay Hearts with Wings

If you are a teacher, then you've probably experienced team building activities. They can either be big hits or misses, depending on the mindset of the group. I work at a school with a very low turn over rate, a whole lot of history and love, both for the children and each other. However, knowing that we were coming back from a break of much needed time off, I knew it might be hard to feel that love when we really just want to hibernate until spring (I could simply be speaking for myself here!). Before break, I asked my amazing administration if I could possibly host a team building activity on our most recent professional development day. I was so thrilled that they agreed and even more happy with the beautiful results...

I chatted with the teachers about how we teach from our hearts and give our students wings to fly. Our students don't see us for our outward appearance but what is in our hearts. I used this sweet poem as a reference. I don't know who the author is of this poem, if anyone does, I'd love to know!

Knowing that I would have a packed house, I thought it would be best to record the process and show it on my big screen telly. Here is the video. I played it in phases, pausing it to allow the teachers time to work. It took us 45 minutes to create and clean up. Not too shabby!

I loved hosting the teachers in my art room...and they were the best of sports. I was asking them to step out of their comfort zone and they did so happily. It was so fun!

Knowing that these teachers might have a limited creative background, I wanted to remove any obstacles. I didn't want this to be a frustrating experience for them but a fun one. One where they could chat, laugh, create and forget about any stresses. 

 Here are some short cuts I provided: 

* Templates. In the video I told them that they didn't have to use them...but almost all of them did. I was glad I took the time to make them.

* Tons of Textures. I didn't want the teachers to have to wait on each other as I knew we wouldn't have time. For textures, we used doilies, placemats, burlap...anything with a beautiful raised surface.

 * Toothbrushes and water cups. Instead of teaching them the slip and score method, I provided them with a tool that would get the job done much faster. 

 * Skewers. The best and cheapest clay cutting tool!

 And, finally, I provided glaze. Yes, glaze! You can glaze on greenware (or fresh, outta the bag, clay). I plan to do a clear glaze over all of the pieces before they are fired in the kiln. 

 We had such a fun time, I'm so lucky to work with these people!

Have y'all ever done a team building activity before? Love to hear about it!

Feel free to share this project with your admin and teachers. Also, this project is age appropriate for your elementary (and up!) students as well. We just might have to make this a school-wide endeavor. I'll keep you posted.