So one day before the art show, we managed to pull together and pull off one of our biggest collaboratives to date: our Legacy Mosaic Mural!
This big honkin' mama-jama was created by my first thru third grade students. I knew that my kindergarten and fourths would need two weeks for their clay projects...and that my other kiddos would only need one. But when we work with clay, we ALL work with clay so I knew I'd need a project for that group which would carry us thru the second week. And that's when I got the idea for this big ole project. Here's the video I created months ago for the kids. Feel free to use in your art teacherin' world!
I'm a big fan of the artist and illustrator Galia Bernstein and this project was inspired both by her and by the book Who is the Beast? by Keith Baker.
I know you can totally see the influence, can't you? I've always loved this book. When I came to my school so many years ago, I loved that a tiger was the mascot. It meant I could share this book even more with the kids!
So, who did we do it? Lemme tell ya.
First grade made the flowers, second grade made the butterflies and third grade made the birds. Everyone who finished their small piece then created a leaf or two. Before each piece was placed in the kiln, I placed the alphabet noodles of the kid's initials into the clay. These noodles burned off in the kiln and left behind the impression of the initials.
Once each piece was out of the kiln, I created a diluted black glaze. Then I dunked just the surface of each piece in the glaze and then gave them a quick wipe on a damp sponge. This part was time-consuming (the entire thing was, honestly). But I just sat one day after school and dunked, swiped, dunked swiped until they were complete.
These pieces were then returned to the students where they were tasked with glazing just the raised surface. I did limit the palette so that it wouldn't be too much of a sea of color. Flowers were yellow, pink and red, birds were blues, butterflies were purple, orange and yellow. Leaves were a variety of green.
After these were fired the second time, the workload was on me. I had acquired this huge frame last year and I'd been dreaming of a mosaic project since. I measured the inside of the frame which is 3' X 4'. I went to the local hardware store where they cut me a piece to size. I also picked up a jumbo bottle of Gorilla Glue and high gloss paint. My P.E. teacher buddy painted the board for me. From there my custodian friend glued and drilled the board into the frame.
I created the tiger. This literally took me 45 minutes to draw out, cut and texture-ize. With the art show looming, I was short on time which meant I was in hustle mode. That dried a matter of days. This past Sunday, I came in, laid out and glued each piece, glazed and fired the tiger.
In other news, does anyone know how to get Gorilla Glue off of skin? I've had it on my hands FOR DAYS now!
The tiger came out of the kiln this morning and was glued into place. This massive masterpiece will not be grouted. Before hanging it, it weighed in at 70 lbs. Grout would have only made it heavier.
There were small empty spaces that were driving me nuts. I remembered I had a stash of decorative marbles and glued them in place. I LOVE them as they add a bit of sparkle to the piece.
Stroke and Coat by Mayco is the best, y'all!
This afternoon, my custodian friends worked tirelessly to get this beast up on the wall. It's drilled into the wall as well as supported by both a hanger and a beam underneath.
And the pieces are rock solid with that glue.
With the art show tomorrow, I'm so excited that we were able to pull this one off! It is my favorite collaborative to date!
Because we do so many collaboratives, my students rarely are upset if they don't get to "take it home". I emphasize that this is their beautiful mark they are leaving behind...and for real, look how beautiful it is! I'm so happy with my sweet artists and this beast of a creation. Love to hear of any mosaics y'all have done like this!
Need a big ole messy project that introduces your kiddos to the magic of monarchs and the spectacularness of symmetry? Try this fun painting project that I did with my kindergarteners on for size!
We started our 40 minute session with this video about monarch butterflies. The kids LOVED this short clip! I then had them go "shopping" at the "store" (my term for gathering up supplies) for one large brush, two small brushes and a piece of pre-folded papers. I also had the kids grab their aprons as I knew this was gonna be a messy one. This process is similar to one I have done with my second grade kiddos. We created these butterflies a couple of years ago:
Here's a video I created to share that lesson:
Same concept, different lesson!
Once at their seats, the kids wrote their names and teacher codes on the back of their paper. From there, I told them that I'd be painting something on my paper. Whenever they heard me say, "your turn!" they would go for it. When they heard my chime, even if they were not finished, they were to press the pause button to see what I was painting next.
We worked on big 12" X 18" pieces of paper and the kids had a blast. They loved the magic of printing and symmetry.
Once our big masterpieces were complete, we placed them on the drying rack, put our dirty brushes in the paint brush hot tub (where they go to hang out before being washed by my amazing middle school assistant) and learned a song about the monarch butterfly! It's def a earworm of a song, watch out. I've been humming it all weekend.
These lovelies will be displayed in both the halls and as apart of our clay displays for our art show! It's coming up THIS TUESDAY...I'm so excited. Video tour to come. Until then!
A while back, I had two third grade classes that were a head of the pack (I see my third and fourth grade classes combined, meaning I have two classes at once. It's how I am able to get an hour with my older kids). I didn't want them to jump ahead to the next project so I got a WILD hair (I get many, it turns out) and decided that they should learn about James Rizzi and create a giant Rizzi City...in one class period. Crazy is as crazy does, whatever that means.
I allowed the kids to pick their Rizzi City Building Teams with groups of 4 kids. I had a mountain of large painted papers for the kids to pick from as the base for their building. Smaller papers were used for the roof tops.
I often have a stockpile of such papers because when my students finish early, one of the options for them is to go paint some pattern papers. I'll lay sheets of bulletin board paper out, paint a pattern on it and they are to repeat the pattern. These papers are then used for large projects such as this.
After the teams picked their building paper and roof, they set to work with scissors, glue and mountains of papers for windows, doors and faces. We'd spent some time going through a prezi I had created on the artist, so we were feeling all sorts of inspired.
Once the pieces were glued down, the kids were allowed to use white and/or black paint to add details. The kids really loved working together to create their building and they turned out so fun and happy. A fellow teacher said they reminded them of PeeWee's Playhouse which you know is a HUGE compliment!
For our art show next week, I thought I'd get these bad boys up! There is a cork strip behind the buildings. With the help of my P.E. buddy, I got the buildings pinned in place and just added a couple of lines of hot glue to the tops of the buildings. They'll stay up until the start of the new school year. OR when the Fire Marshall says to take 'em down.
Then I got ANOTHER wild hair and decided that the buildings needed some clouds above them. This was totally a pinterest idea, y'all. I picked up a set of 6 light up lanterns at the local craft place and, with the help of my other P.E. buddy (what would I do without my specials team?!), we hot glued cotton batting to the lanterns. They won't stay up for long, just until the art show.
The fact that they light up pretty much makes my world go round.
If I had all the time in the world, I would have had the kids then create a Rizzi-inspired cityscape. But, alas, this was just a go-between project to slow down a group that was speeding ahead.
This has gotten a lot of giggles from the kiddos (and adults!). These buildings are as fun as Rizzi's paintings, says me.
So much to do until the art show next Tuesday...but I can scratch this off the list!
We had more buildings than we did space...which meant that some of the buildings had to flank our It's Okay mural from last year. I can't bear to take it down, I love the message!
Um, yes.
I can't wait to give y'all a tour of the art show...until then, have a fun Friday!
First grade just finished up their clay fish sculptures and before they get placed in our art show display, I thought I'd share them with you. This was a fun project where we used speckled glaze (Jungle Gems by Mayco) and a metallic watercolor. Here's how these cuties were created:
I see my firsties for 30 minutes twice a week. On the first day, we created the base, complete with a starfish (Patrick!) and seaweed. After the kids left, I added a hole in the base and their names to the bottom. On the second day, we created our fish. I did the same thing to the fish...it was tricky writing their names on such a small surface, but I managed to get it done.
After the pieces dried for two weeks, I fired them in the kiln. I then dipped the bases in a gold watercolor to completely cover them. From there, the kids used metallic watercolor paints for the seaweed and starfish. Glaze was used on the fish. I encouraged the kids to use at least three coats of glaze for complete coverage.
The speckled glaze really is the coolest. And the kids love the surprising change they see once their creations have come out of the kiln.
After all of that fun was done, I had the pleasure of gluing the pieces together. I used chopsticks (I had a donation given to me) that I broke down to a smaller size. After gluing a couple of tall fish, I realized that they might be more inclined to tip over and break than the shorter ones.
They are much more stable with the smaller sticks. And super cute, I might add. I want one for my home!
The kids had a lot of fun adding texture to their fish which really turned out beautifully with the glaze.
By the way, when first adding the holes to the bottom of the fish and the base, make sure you wiggle the stick back and forth a bit. Clay shrinks as it's drying and the wiggle will keep the clay opening the right size for the stick.
Our Pet Shop themed art show is next Tuesday night...I'm slowly getting the art room ready for the transformation. I can't wait to see these fun fish on display. I'll be sure to share!
Last week was our very last felting craft night! All during the month of April, every Wednesday night at 8pm CST, me and a group of many others, learned the fine art of felting. I've had so much fun sharing my fibers hacks and learning from all of those who joined the fun. You can still participate and purchase supplies here as all the LIVE videos are archived both on my YouTube channel and on my Facebook page. For our last night, I shared how to create a palette hair clip. This one was created by Charlene @artteacher. Here's the video of our session together:
This week, we began a new creating adventure: working with clay! We explored Celluclay, one of my favorites. We are working with this kit (but you don't have to purchase to join the fun). We have been spending the first 20-ish minutes of our session just chatting all things art teacherin' and clay. Then we explored the medium together! You can see what folks are creating (and share your creations as well) by using the hashtag #creatingwithcassie.
So to wrap up our fibers fun, I thought I'd share what we created. Shout out once again to the amazing Sue Bunch for creating those kits and joining our live sessions. You are a rock star!
Don't you LOVE Heather's Leia? How perfect for May the Fourth, y'all.
Sculptural needle felting was new to me and I loved sharing the process with folks. Desiree's colorful owl is so stinkin' cute!
Maddie's fox is so cute. A coworker of mine had a baby fox in her yard this week and it immediately reminded me of Maddie's creation.
Ms. Yoon's shirt is just about the cutest thing ever. I bet you she could sell these cuties!
Deborah's creations have been blowing me away every week. I never thought to felt on a straw hat such as this. She's got me excited to explore new surfaces!
She also created this needle felted dryer ball.
Mariana's sweet daughter needle felted this portrait of Friday. How incredible!
I love the incorporation of embroidery with this needle felting. Maddie created this blouse that looks like it is straight out of Anthropologie.
Desiree's sparkly woodgrain on her palette was so creative. I loved seeing everyone's spin on their palette hair clip.
Seeing photos of everyone's creation throughout the month of April really did make me so happy. I loved that folks got to experience something that I truly love. Look at all of this beautiful felted goodness!
Angela's palette made me so happy but this knocked me off my feet:
Love her tribute to Klimt.
Meganne's addition of the two brushes was a super cute idea.
Biggest heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been joining our live chats. We hit our 25th chat recently and it made me so happy...spending time with my favorite folks is something I look forward to all week. Thank you!!
