Charming Hand Tiles-- Kindergarten Mother's Day Gift

We made tiles for Mother's Day with the Kindergartners... I know it's early, and it's a bit crafty, but it is something the parents love to get!  Here is what we did:

1.  I purchased a bunch of glossy floor tiles (glazed already) at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (which is like a surplus/recycling store for building supplies).  Super cheap... like 25 cents each I think.  I love these tiles and they are fun to just draw on also, like we did here.

2.  Then, I explained to the kids what we were going to do and drew out a picture on the board.

3.  The kids had a selection of Sharpies on their table and wrote their names in the corner, and included things like "2012" or "To: Mom" on the other corners.  I told them to write tiny so they would have room for their handprint.  They could also add other doodles or borders if they wanted.  (Steps 2-3 took about 5 minutes)

4.  I then got the kids started on their next art project.

5.  While the kids were busy coloring their next art project, I called the students up one or two at a time and I painted their hand with gold tempera paint.  I helped them press it down and lift it up.  If anything smeared, we grabbed a wet paper towel and wiped it up before it dried.

totally cute, right?

6.  After they dried, the tiles were flipped over and picture hangers were attached with cement glue. 
And usually when I read tutorials I get to a part like this and am like, "what do they mean? attach picture hangers?"  So.. here is a picture of what I used:

Picture hangers, which I also bought from the Re-Store.

Some of the finished tiles.. a few kids were absent and will have to do them later.

Cross Hatched Animals-- Third/Fourth Grade

Cross-hatching is fun, but a difficult art technique (at least in my opinion).   The third/fourth grade class picked out some animals from Zoobooks magazines and drew them in pencil.  Then, we looked at Brian Selznick's books for inspiration. Wonderstruck
  His novels are full of beautiful cross-hatched drawings, alternating with the chapters.  Plus, the two books I have read by him are charming and wonderful stories.  Read them!  You'll love them too, I guarantee it.  They are listed below.  I think bringing these types of books into the classroom is a great way to tie in to real-life applications and literature, as most of your kids will have seen these books before.  If they haven't seen the books, they will probably want to read them after looking at them.  I photocopy some of the pages and pass them out for the kids to look at.  I also have the books available on the table for the kids to browse if they wish.  Your school library might have them, but I purchased copies for my classroom.





After the kids drew their animals, I demonstrated the cross-hatching and shading for them and the kids made sure to keep their reference pictures close by.

First Grade Bird Paintings-- Audubon

These beautiful bird paintings were drawn and painted by first graders.  The students learned about the artist John James Audubon and we read a book about his life.


I love this book about Audubon, because it has beautiful pictures and ties science and art together nicely.


The students looked at pictures of birds and drew them with crayons.  Then we painted the background with tempera cakes. 

This is a lovely picture.. too bad we didn't use thicker paper, it wrinkled a bit.  Lesson learned!

Positive/Negative Space Stencils-- First Grade

Here are some fun pictures we made by creating our own stencils.

First, the kids looked at little animal figurines for ideas.  I did not limit them to drawing just the animals, so some chose to turn their animals into mythical creatures or draw something else entirely.  They drew their animal on tag board, cut it out and then used that as a stencil.

The students traced their animal stencil over and over again, flipping it around and arranging their composition. 

In addition, they were able to use some of my letter and shape stencils from a box I had.

Then, they colored the negative space (background) of the picture.  They were to leave the positive space uncolored.  Some students chose to add defining details (such as eyes).

This student did not want to make an animal stencil, but chose to make a wizard instead!

Giveaway Winner

And the winner is..... Katie Morris!  Email me your address and you will get a copy of the Pick and Draw game.

I went to a party at my sister-in-law's house and they had these very cute cupcakes there!

NAEA Session Handouts

Are you bummed because you didn't get to go to the NAEA Conference this year?   Did you go to the conference and miss a session you wanted to see because you were busy scoring free samples?   Have you never heard of the NAEA conference and want to know what kinds of things go on there?  

The session handouts are up on the NAEA website.  So, if a presenter uploaded their session powerpoints or handouts they are there.  It's a great way to get new ideas and see what you missed!

You should be able to see them without logging in.

Have a great Spring Break (to those of you who are on Spring Break now)  and don't forget to spend some quality "you-time" making art of your own!

Recent artwork by Me!  (Cabinet of Curiosities #3, February 2012, Marcia Beckett)

Circular Weavings

Kindergarten Rainbow Fish Sculptures

First, DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY FOR THE PICK AND DRAW GAME!!  I will be picking a winner on April 1.

Rainbow Fish is an awesome kids book to go with fish art projects.  The kindergartners made rainbow fish sculptures from water bottles.  I learned about this idea at the NAEA conference.  The lady who presented it did it with large 2 liter bottles, but I used little water bottles instead.

Steps:
1.  Cut off the bottoms of the water bottles ahead of time for the kids.  Cut squares of tissue paper for the kids to use.

2.  The kids used paper mache glue paste (you could use mod podge or diluted glue as well) to adhere the tissue paper flat to the bottle.

3.  Next class period, kids used construction paper to make fins.  We glued these with O'Glue bottles (or regular Elmer's glue would work fine.)  Then, they cut eyes from white construction paper and used black marker to draw a circle in the white eyeball.  They glued on sequins to decorate the fish.

4.  As the kids were working I had them choose tissue paper, which I stuffed and hot glued into the back of the bottle.  I flattened the end of the waterbottle to kind of make it more narrow and fish-like and stapled the ends together.  Some of the staples were not sticking well, so for those, I just hot glued them.

5.  Poke a hole in the top with a pointy stick/awl, attach a bent paper clip and tie a string for hanging!

Here is the book Rainbow Fish, in case you aren't familiar with it.  We are also making 2-d fish pictures which will be finished after Spring Break

Pick and Draw Game: GIVEAWAYS

Rich Davis, creator of a new drawing game called Pick and Draw, sent me a copy of his game to play with my kids.   I love this idea!   I can't believe no one has invented this card game already. :)

The concept is simple.   The deck of cards contains face shapes, eyes, noses, mouths and hair.  Pick a card from the face pile, draw it.  Then pick the other facial features.  You can add your own creativity by changing the sizes, directions, adding bodies, etc.  What are the cartoon characters holding?  Where are they located?  What are their names? 


Here is how I set up the classroom.

Each table had cards to pick from.  The kids moved from table to table.

Starting the face

Drawing lots of faces!  The kids were really excited and wanted to keep drawing more and more.

This student stapled together 5 sheets and set them up on the floor.

More characters

Beautiful!

You can try out the game online for yourself!  Go here. You can order the game for yourself here for $10 per deck.  I think it is well worth the money.  This would be a great game to have in your free-time drawing area.

Now....  Time for a giveaway!  If you would like a chance to win the Pick and Draw game, leave a comment here.  I will pick a winner randomly from a hat on April 1. 

Contour Line Drawings of Shoes

 Contour Drawings  The students observed the details and lines on their shoes.  They completed a contour line study of their footwear.  Next, they turned these drawings into "miniature playgrounds" for stick people.  Contour drawing helps define and explore edges through line and locates one object in relationship to another. It also establishes an expressive and accurate representation of the subject by the richness of the lines, thick or thin, crisp or soft, and the speed and rhythm with which they are drawn. Contour drawing enables the artist to develop the illusion of volume through space and line.