Imaginary traveling

Oh, hey..it's the end of October already. Jeeze.

We're back into the swing of things in a big way..but I want to talk about one of the first projects I do in September: Art Passports

Each year in art we create passports in both of my higher elementary levels. I love what this project does. It's a great starting point to see where students are in their art abilities, whether is drawing, coloring, cutting, threading, sequencing, etc. - you get to see the gamut...and it's pretty simple for the most part. 

Because I love teaching from a multicultural standpoint..the passport is a great way to tie everything together. For each place that we study, students fill out a log of information about the project and a new fact that they learned. When we're finished, I stamp their visa page (just an old date stamper from the library - easy!) and we travel somewhere new. At the end of the year, each student has a written account of the places that they've been and the projects that they've done. 

The process for this is simple..but could definitely be jazzed up for higher levels with a more complicated stitched binding or glue..or could be adapted for lower levels by making a fold book. I've found that the following process works fabulously with grades 4&5:

PROCEDURES:

 1. Ask students if they know what a passport is or if they have an idea of what it could be.

2. Explain that a passport is a document used when traveling from country to country. Passports began as letters of safe passage from an area’s ruler. Now they are international documents that confirm your identity and citizenship. If you use a passport to visit other countries, it may have some national stamps and seals to show where you are going or have been.

3. Give students an actual passport to look at. Point out specific elements in the layout of the book including photo, personal information, and the stamps of several countries.

4. Explain that as a class, we will be studying art from several countries around the world and that we need to make a passport in order to travel to them. Each time we "enter" and "exit" a country, we will need to stamp our passport.

5. Provide students with a template to create their passport. Have each student fill in necessary information. (I made a simple quarter page document in Photoshop that had a space for a photo, name, grade, age, nationality and passport number. I made another quarter page document in MS Word with the "Visa" information, and copied them front and back.)

6. Students will draw a passport photo in the allotted space and add color to the booklet cover. (LAMINATE the cover - trust me..you will not regret it.)

7. Demonstrate how to fit the booklet together to create the final work. (Stack together ID and Visa pages, hole punch two holes through the inner pages and the back cover, along the spine. Lace a piece of yarn through each hole and tie a knot on the outside, put the strings back through to the center and tie a knot in the inside. Cut off the excess string.)

8. Store each class' passports in a designated area within the classroom and fill out relevant information at the start of each project.

Art show?!

Art show season is here. It always seems like it shows up so fast. I'm making the mad dash to get projects completed and up on the walls. This can be extra stressful when some of the children develop a severe case of turtleitus. (I believe that is the scientific term for it.) I also travel between two schools, each with an art show on the same week. Zoinks! Deep breaths though...

Wayne Thiebaud

Most of the time when I'm thinking of project ideas, I usually gravitate toward the types of art that I like, or pieces that stick out in my mind, and then I try to adapt them so that they're kid-friendly and awesome. Thankfully, when it comes to the art of Wayne Thiebaud, very little adaptation is necessary.

When studying Thiebaud's art with children I make sure to stress the idea behind it. Why did he make these pictures? Pies and cakes seem silly, right? Well, they are! It's Thiebaud's intention to make us laugh and feel good. We can all do that, kids and adults alike. Everyone can connect to this project - which is what makes it so fun. (You can sneak in other concepts too - like value, form, space, shape, overlapping, color theory, the list goes on!)

Gum

My fourth graders focused on Thiebaud's Three Machines, 1963 for their assignment.

Their task was to recreate a Thiebaud gumball machine and give it its own personal flair. We talked about overlapping, shadows, and high lights as well. Students first drew their machines, outlined everything in permanent marker, painted with watercolor and sparkle paint, then added shadows, highlights, and accents with oil pastels. I loved seeing the personalities come out in each project!









Cakes

My fifth graders observed all of the beautiful painted cakes in Thiebaud's collection. We talked at length about how his cakes almost look real enough to eat (after which we all became very hungry and insistent upon making REAL cakes part of our art assignment)!

Students were given the task to create their own cake. They could add as many tiers as they wanted, but there had to be at least two. We talked about how to create an ellipse for the top of our cylinder and how to overlap cylinders to create the cake. Students were given free reign on how to decorate their cake and color choices. We colored these in with oil pastel to give the illusion of thick frosting - just like Wayne Thiebaud's paintings - plus they're awesome for blending.

We talked about value in the real world - how lights and darks help something look three dimensional. We added a cast shadow, shaded half of our cake and highlighted the opposite half.

This is definitely one of my favs!



Fun
There is a resources link for this assignment on the left. Please feel free to use/share/adapt in your classroom!

New Beginnings

This is a weird time of the year for an art teacher to start a blog. Already half of the year has passed, I'm knee deep in art projects, and my once impeccable classroom has morphed into its predictable state of controlled chaos. I realize this.

However, I'm always looking at blogs I come across on Pinterest and Google, seeking out that extra creative push I need to come up with something really exciting for my ever-so-individualistic student population. I'm always fascinated with what I can find. Fascinated and grateful...and inspired.

So...it's January. A new year and a new opportunity to inspire. I'm hoping that what we create in my classroom can be of help to someone, even if it's changing a little detail of a teacher-tested, kid-proof, lesson for the masses - or if it's just a smile you need on a really rotten day.

I'm your gal.