In the Art Room: A Chalked Ceiling Event

For months I'd planned on having street painter Lee Jones visit my school, chat with my students and have them participate in their very first street painting event. Juz to give you a lil back history on street painting, aka sidewalk chalk art, it surprisingly goes back to sixteenth century Italy. The Madonnaro were homeless artists who created lavish images of the Madonna, their namesake, in front of cathedrals in hopes of earning spare change from passerby. From this, Madonnari, or street painting events, evolved all over Italy. Twenty years ago, street painting made it’s debut right here in the U.S. and it’s been growing into a movement of performance-meets-fine-arts since.

 In preparation for the happenin', my super amazing bookkeeper (love you, Julie!) helped me track down the best deal on KOSS chalk (great stuff, man. Check it), foam brushes and mountains upon mountains of baby wipes. I'd prepped the kids by introducing them to what they'd be creating (like, der, butterflies) with that intro lesson I shared last week. We were beyond ready to get our street paintin' action on.

And then, the forecast: RAIN. Lots of it. With some thunder and lightening thrown in for good measure. Gee, thanks, Muthah Nature. You's the bestest.

So, like, whuuuut to dooooo?!

 

Okay, I don't like to brag or anything (hair flip), but every once in a while, I have super good idea. And, by "every once in a while", I mean, this one time. Right here. I decided on the fly that instead of us working outside, we could work inside on a texture that was similar to that of a sidewalk: ceiling tiles. My principal has been asking me all year if I'd have the kids create masterpieces for the ceiling and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. And, I have to tell ya: it worked out great! Added benefit: we now have permanent art on display at our school not temporary street art. So, take that Muthah Nature! I found me a silver lining and I made lemonade from your stinky lemons. 

 Just how did the whole thing go down? Well, lemme first start by telling you the supplies we used:

* KOSS brand chalk. We also had some Prang and Crayola thrown in for good measure.
* Ceiling tiles. Ours are 24" squares. A parent volunteer divided each square with a vertical and horizontal line right thru the middle which allowed the kids to try their hand at the grid method. This is one means by which street painters work. By the way, we used the back of the tiles as the texture was better suited.
* Foam brushes for blending.
*MILLIONS OF BABY WIPES.
* Cheapo hairspray (that Aqua Net we used in junior high? It's still around and good for sumpin) for setting the chalk.

We held the event in our school's multipurpose room. With the help of volunteers, we laid out sheets of bulletin board paper to protect the floors. Each kid had their own board, foam brush and light peach chalk to initially sketch their design. In the photo above you can see my teaching set up. I was teaching 80 second grade kids at once which was a total trip. I staggered my teaching so as not to overwhelm them with instruction. So for the first step, I gave them guided drawing instructions on sketching their butterfly outline. This was a snap for them as they remembered our butterflies from last week. You can see my drawings on the white paper in the photo above. 

Next up: block in your butterfly. I told the kids that every time they heard me ring a bell, they were to stop, drop and come to the floor for the next set of directions. If they hadn't finished sketching, that was okay, they could resume once I was done speaking. The kids had the choice of using all warm or all cool colors for their butterfly. They blended the colors in small circles so as not to lose the vibrancy of their color.

 Second grade, y'all. Like, wow.

Loving every minute of it! Since we were on the floor it did give the same feeling as street painting.

Upon our third on-the-floor chat, we talked about the background. This time they had to use the opposite color family of what the chose earlier. Block it in and blend, kids. 

By the way, we use the chalk horizontally as that covered the most amount of surface.

Lee was working just as hard as the kids right alongside them. That was a wonderful experience for the kids. As they roamed the room gathering their chalk, they would plop down and chat with her or just watch her chalk.

 The background came together so nicely with the butterflies!

At our last chat, we talked about using the black chalk. They sketched in the three parts of the butterflies body as well as outlining and any pattern making they wanted to do. Last thing: sign it. Lee told the children that when they signed their work that was it, no going back. 

Lee's work is made up of 6 ceiling tiles taped together. The next morning my AMAZING custodian set to work hanging the pieces in the ceiling...

I love our school mascot the tiger here!

And the beautiful butterflies fluttering down the hall. There were many a folk walking with their head looking upward down the hall today!

 Now the kids are asking: what ELSE can we make for the ceiling!

For now, we'll just stick with these beauties! 

What the Art Teacher Wore #136

New Skirt Monday: Nuthin starts a week off better than some new duds, says moi. I got this lovely skirt as a birthday prezzie (thanks, Tamara!) and I was so stoked to wear it now that the weather is as sunny and colorful as it is. jean jacket: Buffalo Exchange; embroidered blouse and bracelets: yard sale; skirt: Flying Tomato; tights: Target; shoes: Anthro

Hello, party people! How are all y'all? After having so many short weeks due to snow, holidays and being in NOLA, this week was like a big fat dose of reality. On Tuesday I thought it was Thursday and by Wednesday, I swore it was Friday. Yeah, that's never a good sign. However, this week I'm totally ready. Our school is hosting chalk artist/street painter Lee Jones for a coupla days. I cannot wait to see what she and my super stoked second graders create. And on Tuesday evening I'll be chatting with Tim Bogatz and Andrew McCormick right here...

I'm so excited! Both of those dudes are incredible art teachers as well as AOE presenters and writers. I'm thrilled to have been asked to chat on AOE Live. It'll all go down on Tuesday, April 14th at 8pm Central and, added bonus, it's free. We'll be talking about finding your own art teacherin' style. For more info, just get yerself here.

So that's my upcoming week...here's a lil taste of what went down in the art room this past week! 

I needed a quick one week self-portrait lesson for my super star first grade artists. They only needed a week before their clay projects would be back to them so this self-portrait proved to be a great project. I'll give ya the complete lesson here soon on the blog. I've purchased those fancy frame papers to insert these bad boys in. I cannot wait to see the result!

I wish you could see this sweet lil girl to know just how accurate that awesome portrait is!

Flowerin' Tuesday: So everyone around here is putting stuff in the ground. But, having lived here for some time, I know that the weather in Tennessee can be 80 one day in the spring and than BAM! we get a hard freeze. And, being the total lazy slob that I am, I always forget to cover my plants and therefore kill 'em all. So I'll be wearing my flowers for a while...and planting them in about a week or two. How 'bout you? Stick anything in the ground lately? sweater and dress: Anthropologie, purchased at Buffalo Exchange; dotted booties: made by me, DIY here

Third grade land is in the midst of creating these chalked landscapes. What you see here is the final-ish stage as most kids are planning to add their desert animals. I love 'em with or without! We chatted about the artist Sushe Felix (you can see my prezies here and here). I'll give you the full details on how we created these lovelies soon.

Painterly Wednesday: So I found this dress in a resale shop in NOLA and I was all, OMG, that thar is an art teacherin dress if I ever saw one! I wore it complete with my paint brush crown, another NOLA score. I tell ya, the shopping there, to die for! dress: Buffalo Exchange; Necklace: The Paper Source

My fourth grade has been on a color-mixing adventure. I loved all of those One Hundred Days of School/Mix One Hundred Colors images I kept seeing pop up on pinterest. I thought my kids could really use that concept in their landscape paintings. So the rule was: you gotta mix all of your own colors. They absolutely loved it! We chatted about he artist Xavier Castellanos (prezi here) and worked on these for a couple of art classes. Again, lesson to come, kids! 

 Color Wheel Thursday: Mixing color means knowing your color wheel! Those fourth graders became champs at reading that wheel. Although it still would crack me up (and some of the other kids) when one kid would say, "I don't have any orange!" to which we'd all reply, "That's because you have to MAKE it!" sweater and tights: Target; dress: Modcloth; palette belt (I know, right?!): vintage, etsy; shoes: Fluevog

Oh, lookie! We're getting closer and closer still to completing our Johnson Elementary Has Heart mural! I couldn't be more excited. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted. 

Soupy Sneakers Friday: My super sweet aunt and uncle sent me these new kicks in the mail. I couldn't wait to wear 'em to school and chat with the kids about them. But guess what proved to be the focal point of my ensemble? That's right, THE PANTS. They just couldn't see past the thought of me in pants to focus on my shoes. Le sigh. sweater and jeans: old, Target: dotted blouse: thrifted; shoes: Converse

Is it just me or are these first grade fish not the biggest crack up? We used the same technique you might have seen in my kindergarten clay post. I cannot wait to share this simple clay lesson with y'all! Until then.

In the Art Room: Kindergarten Clay Birds

Well, hey there, bird legs! It looks like you are getting a two-fer this week as I'm sharing yet another "In the Art Room" with y'all! That's partly because I've not had two seconds to do any sort of creating of my own (which is making my right eye twitch a lil) so no DIY-ness this week. And also because what the kids have been busting out in the art room lately has been so stinkin' sweet I just had to share. For zample, check out these kindergarten clay birds!

 Like, riiiight?! The kids created these birds in just under 45 minutes and they couldn't have been more proud of themselves. They were all created during our school-wide Clay Week (aka Cray Week). I'll be sharing what each grade level created in upcoming posts. But just had to start with these as they're currently my fave. 

Supplies:
* Low fire (cone 06) clay. Okay, so we don't all have a kiln. For that, I'm so sorry! Working with kids and clay is one of my fave things in the universe. I've already decided that next year, we're gonna have two separate clay events just so me and the kids have more clay time! 
* No clay? How about Model Magic? Or another air dry substitute?
* Sargent brand fluorescent oil pastels. Any oil pastels would work...but I personally loved the vibrancy of the fluorescents. 
* Watered down India Ink. Like, real watered down. I use a cup of water to a splash of India ink.
* Big brushes or...a bucket to simply dunk the birds into.
* Pipe cleaners and beads.

Since y'all seemed to like the butterfly video (despite the lackluster quality) I decided to film another clip for y'all. Once again you're sitting on a stack of miscellaneous art room stuffs. Next time, I promise I'll bring my tripod! AND not pound on the table during a taped demo. Der. 

Once the clay projects were complete, they dried over spring break (and then some. I'm a firm believer in a good two week dry out period. But only for clay. Ahem.). From there they were bisque fired. I then decided to have the kids do this lil pastel resist trick on 'em because it looked so groovy on these butterflies last year. And because I like to reserve my glaze (and that super fun second round of kiln firing) for my 2nd thru 4th grade kidz. 

Now I've gone about the painting portion two dif ways and I think I've found a winner. Normally, I give the kids a big moppy brush and let them have at it. The prob with that is that there are always white spots. Which means I gotta tell 'em one million times to go back and repaint. So today, for sanity and time-savin's sake, I had the kids gather round while I dunked each bird in a watered down bucket o' India ink. Which they though was like the bestest thing everrr. I then handed the birds to them on a plate (they're only drippy for a moment as the bisque absorbs the paint rapidly) and the kids set to work on the next step (which I briefly explained in the clip until my camera decided to shut me up).

 So what my lil clip didn't give me time to say was that once the feet were complete, the kids had the option to add beads. I did limit their bead intake to no more than 5 beads per foot. You'll notice that one lil bird in this post didn't quite get the memo. Que sera. 

 

Once the feet were created, the kids simply inserted the top of the pipe cleaner through the hole, bent it around and twisted. And I say "simply" but it's kindergarten. So it wasn't quite that simple. But those that did get it were great teaching buddies to their friends. And in the end, they all were complete.

Just to make sure the birds didn't lose their feet, I did add a touch of hot glue to the back. I also added the pipe cleaner hanger and hit that with glue as well. 

And there you have it, some super cute kindergarten clay birds! Have fun, y'all!

In the Art Room: 2nd Grade Printed and Chalked Butterflies

Next week my super awesome second grade students are going to be involved in a street painting event! Chalk artist Lee Jones will be coming to our school and working with the second grade to create street paintings. Because the kids are learning about the Monarch butterfly in their classroom (they'll be getting their very own caterpillar this spring), I thought they could chalk butterfly designs. To practice for next week's event, the kids busted out these butterfly beauties this week. I popped a photo of 'em up on my instagram yesterday and it blew up with questions. So I thought I'd try to answer 'em today. Let's hope it makes a smidge of sense. 

This lesson was short and sweet. It took us a grand total of two 30 minute art classes to complete. Here is a list of supplies we used:

* 12" X 18" paper folded in half
* watered down black tempera paint (I love Sax's Versa Temp)
* paint brushes
* KOSS chalk pastels

 During the intro to this lesson, we chatted briefly about our upcoming visit from Lee Jones. I then introduced the Monarch butterfly to the kids with this prezi. Feel free to borrow away! 

After that chat, each student collected the paper and paint brushes. They jotted their names down on their papers and immediately turned their attention to me. At this point, we only had a short 15 minutes to get this bad boy painted so there was no time to lose. 

This painting process was great because I could introduce all sorts of groovy math terms like symmetrical and parallel. I made a short clip for y'all to explain the process. I do hope it helps! You can find more of my lesson video clips here. 

Like, Holy Cats, how simple is that, right?!

 And I love how each one turned out. I got the idea this weekend when I googled butterfly artists. Of course, my homeboy Andy popped up. 

This summer when I taught a workshop based on an Andy Warhol exhibit, the docent revealed just how Andy accomplished that blotted look which he is so known for in his early work. Apparently he would paint with ink then blot his work with a paper. This would give the effect of an uneven line. I thought this would be a great way for the kids to create their butterflies as well. 

 In the video clip, I mention how I tell the kids that something is "practice". I often tell the children that to have them relax a bit. If they think that it's just a fun creative experience (cuz, duh, it is), I've found that they loosen up a bit and let go of the notion of perfection. 9 times outta 10, they grow to love their "practice" piece so much that they never ask to start again. 

Some kids were bothered that the line didn't appear as clearly once printed. In which case, some repainted those lines on the other side. 

 Now let's talk chalk, shall we? I purchased this KOSS chalk just for our sidewalk painting event. And, I gotta tell ya, we've been using it nonstop since I got it! My third graders are currently chalking these lovely desert landscapes. This chalk is loaded with pigment and it's just so stinkin' rich. Check it out, y'all!

On the second day of art, I told the kids that there were just a coupla tips for chalking: they shouldn't use more than three colors and the colors should be analogous. Notice all the warm colors at the top? Those colors look great together! Pick three from that side. Love all the colors at the bottom? Perfect, they love being with each other, feel free to pick three from there. But mixing the two sets of colors may result in dull colors. And who wants a dull butterfly y'all? That's what moths are for! 

 A kid after my own heart: mixing the chalk with her fingers. Some used tissues but I found that often wiped the color away. 

 Many kids went the Monarch route...

While some wanted theirs to be "camo-greens". Sargent Flappy Wings. You got it!

 Each one of 'em was an absolute stunner. I cannot wait to see just what these kids chalk outside!

By the way, I think I'm in love with the white background. The kids and I chatted about cutting them out ("Let's hang them up! From the ceiling!" Oh, yeah, kids. The Fire Marshall would LOVE that!). For now, I think they'll stay this way. But if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em! Until next time, y'all!