Pinterest

We all know pinterest is addicting!  Well, those of us who are on it. 
Today I was reading a magazine and saw a cool picture of a robot made from tin cans and the first thing I thought was "pin it".  Then I realized I could just cut out the picture. 

a recent "pin"

String Balls pt. 2

  

 So, in one of my previous posts, I talked about making string balls.  All you need to do is blow up a balloon, dip yarn in glue and wrap the balloon.  When it dries, pop the balloon and take out the deflated balloon.  Easy, right?   I started making the string balls with a few classes last week.  It was definitely a comedy of errors.  This was not an easy, low stress project.  First, we blew up the balloons too big.  If the balloons were larger than a small melon it was hard for the kids to keep a grip on them.  The balloons kept slipping out of their hands, flying across the tables, bouncing, and splashing glue in people's hair.  So, TIP #1:  BLOW UP SMALL BALLOONS (like water balloon size)!  So, I went out and bought a bunch of water balloons, the smaller kind.  I soon discovered you can't blow up water balloons with your mouth.  The kind we bought just would not blow up!!  So TIP #2:  BUY REGULAR BALLOONS, the smallest kind, and blow them up to a small size.  TIP #3:  Cut a few really long pieces of yarn and use them to wrap the balloon.  Wrap tightly otherwise they will fall off.  Don't just place the yarn on the string, actually wrap and overlap it.    Some of the string balls collapsed after they were dry and we had to reinsert a balloon and blow it back up to push out the sides.  Then, we reinforced them with more yarn and glue.  

We are making these into large mobiles.  Soon I will show you pictures of the mobiles!!

 

Art is...

The 3rd/4th grade classes thought about what art means to them.  We also read the book Art Is, by Bob Raczka.  They made a poster that used a slogan about what art can be.

Self Portraits in the Style of Andy Warhol

Self Portraits

in the Style of Andy Warhol

2nd grade

            How are tools properly used in the art room?  What is a self-portrait?  What is Pop art?  These are the questions the 2nd graders explored in their first unit.  The students learned about proportion and drawing a human face.  They used mirrors to draw themselves and these were photocopied four times.  Pop art was discussed and they learned about Andy Warhol by reading a book and watching a video.  The kids used expressive color to color their faces in a Pop art style.

                  

Elements of Art Exercise-- Line Shape, Color and Form

My 5/6 classes just started reviewing the elements of art.  We watched a short video online about the elements and then we started a drawing exercise.

1.  Divide the paper into 4 sections.

2.  Start with line. Draw as many types of lines as you can think of.  Wavy, zigzag, dotted, dashed, straight, bumpy, etc.

 

2.  Shapes-- Draw geometric shapes and organic shapes.

3.   Now, in another section, draw forms.

 

4.  In the last section,  show colors.  We chose to do the primary and secondary colors, warm and cool colors.  

In the next class, we will learn about SPACE, TEXTURE and VALUE.

The Dot

Grade K learned about the most very basic marks in art... DOTS and CIRCLES.  The class read the book The Dot, by Peter Reynolds.

They also looked at a slide show of artwork that uses dots.  These are some examples:

Aboriginal Art made in Australia

Georges Seurat and his Pointillist technique

 






The Kindergartners made a picture using dots and circles as design elements.  They focused on drawing circles, cutting and gluing circles and overlapping.  The students got their first experience in art class with using paints properly.

1st grade Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Last year, when the 1st graders were in kindergarten, they planted sunflower seeds in the garden in the back of the school. Over the summer, these flowers grew tall and bloomed radiantly. Each child also brought home a small pot with a sunflower seed in it. Many of the students watched their sunflower grow big and strong.

When we returned to school this year, some of the sunflowers were cut from the garden and placed around the art room to draw. The students drew and painted these sunflowers.

We also tied in Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. A book about VanGogh’s life was read and they saw pictures of his paintings.

Making a fabric cone doll

I was playing around with how to make a fun art doll for 1st grade.  You will need to get either parent volunteers or older helpers to hot glue.  I am lucky to have a K-8 school where there is often study halls in which I can borrow older kids for help.

Here is what I came up with.

1.  Cut a piece of muslin fabric into a square.  Place it in the palm of your hand.  Put a ball of stuffing in the middle and wrap it with a rubberband.

2.  Take a cone shaped cardboard (a yarn cone) and cut to size.  Stuff the ghost figure into the cone.

Here is what it should look like after it is stuffed in the cone.

 3.  Next, wrap a rectangular piece of fabric around the cone.  Hot glue in place.  Cut arms from thick twine or raffia type material.  Hot glue to the sides of the cone.  Wrap more fabric and yarn around for scarves or belts.  Hot glue on eyes, nose, mouth if desired.  For hair, I had some "doll hair" (which can be bought at a craft store in the doll building section) lying around in the closet that I used. 

 Maybe when I do this with kids I will get different color of muslin for the base fabric of the head.
Any other suggestions or ideas for easy doll projects with young kids?

String Balls

I have this cool idea to make a mobile out of string balls.  It's a project where you blow up a balloon, dip strings in glue and place around the balloon.  When the glue dries, you pop the balloon and take it off.  Here are 2 that I made.  The kids are going to make these next week.

How I organize my paints

I know many people have different ways to organize painting days.  I just pour the paints into little cups with lids.  I get them fairly cheaply from a local restaurant supply store.  The kids share the colors with the kids at their tables.  They mix colors directly onto newspapers.  When the class is finished, they learn to put the lids back on and return them to the counter.  These paints last at least a month in the containers.  When the paint is gone or dried out, I just squeeze out more paint on top.  There is very little waste.  After a couple months, I will end up having to throw away the containers, but not too often.  If the lids are fairly clean, I will reuse the lids too.  I put all the paint cups in a nice box and store them away until the next day we paint.