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. 

Updating....

• The first week of school we decorated our sketchbook covers...

• went over rules....
  
  Now the classes are starting their first projects.. for example 2nd graders are making Andy Warhol style self-portraits, 1st graders are painting sunflowers... pics will be coming soon!
  
  The company that makes Smart Fab sent me 2 sample rolls to try and perhaps share about on my blog.  I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but I was excited to get it.  I will have to research a bit online to see what to do.
  
  
  

Bubble Prints!

After experimenting with several ways of doing bubble prints, I think I found a way that works well.  I poured some kids bubbles into small containers.  Then, I mixed a few drops of food coloring into the containers.  The bubbles were cheapo and weren't really bubbly, so I added some dish soap as well.  Then, I blew bubbles just as you normally would blow bubbles and let them land on the paper.  When they popped, they left these splatters and circle prints.  I think they're cool.  These would be cool backgrounds for further art or drawing.  Before I found this way, I tried using tempera paints in bubbles and blowing with a straw and those ways were not very successful. 

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New School Year

Welcome back to a new school year!

Clean Classroom

Origami Hanging from Ceiling

Conduct Contract taped to inside of sketchbook

Decorating the sketchbook covers with our names

Pinterest

I'm on Pinterest too.... I know a lot of my art teacher friends have joined recently.   I don't think of it as one more thing online to keep up with, but just to browse through whenever I get bored!  It's a good way to see lots of inspirational photos.

Find me:   http://pinterest.com/marciabeckett/pins/

Here's some fun photos from pinterest.

 

First Week Books

During the first week of school I like to read books to my younger classes to introduce art. I think it is good to tie literature to all subjects and allow them to see connections through storytelling. These are ones that I am going to read this first week:

Kindergarten:



















1st Grade:















2nd Grade:















3rd Grade: