Native American Dreamcatchers

I've been wanting to do a dreamcatcher lesson for so long. This was my first time teaching it and I'm thrilled with the results. We began the lesson by going over the history of dreamcatchers through a slideshow. They couldn't wait to make their own! Each student got a paper plate to start with. I usually double them up to give them some thickness to make it more sturdy. They were then told to cut out the middle circle very carefully. This is easily done by folding it over and making a slit to start. Next, each student drew 11 dots spaced out around the edge of their paper plate. I demonstrate this first. Then, they use a hole puncher to make a hole where they drew a dot. Make sure they don't draw their dots too close to the edge. I then show them how to label their plates with corresponding numbers on the back. This comes in handy later when we do the inside weaving. Students start to make designs on their plate using a pencil. I make sure to give them a worksheet of Native American symbols to help them along. Once they are done, they trace it in Sharpie. Because I wanted them to look more authentic, we used only neutral and warm colored acrylic paints to fill them in. Students normally need a few days for this part. When they are ready to weave, each student gets a piece of brown string. The first end of the string is put into the hole marked 1 and taped off. They then loop the string through the numbers in the correct order and then its taped off at the last number. I let them watch me do one first before they start. Three more hole punches are made close together on the outside edge and this is where we tie 3 longer pieces of brown string. 3 beads and one feather is tied to the bottom on each brown string. A lot of students struggle with this part so it requires a lot of patience! This project took a couple of weeks but they were so proud of their work by the end!

Ted Harrison Canadian Landscapes

Students learned about one of my favorite artists, Ted Harrison. He was a Canadian artist well known for his Canadian landscapes. We read the book A Brush Full of Colour and looked at how he depicted land and sea and how he used vibrant neon colors. Students worked on a large sheet of paper and got to choose between a number of different landscapes inspired by the artist to draw. I also provided stencils of Canadian animals to include if they wished. Students used neon colors to paint in their landscape any way they wanted.

William Wegman Dog Parodies

Oh my goodness. This lesson was amazing. Students were not only engaged but having so much fun! We learned about the famous photographer William Wegman who captured his dogs in interesting ways. Sometimes he would dress them up as humans, have them pose with a prop, or shoot videos of them that were aired on shows such as Sesame Street. I showed them several example of photographs and videos while the kids smiled, laughed or pointed out how unique the artist's thinking was. Their goal for this project was to place a dog in an unusual or comical situation, creating a parody. We spent the first day simply cutting out as many dog heads as we could find in magazines. These would all be put into a huge pile for everyone to pick from. The dog heads had to be medium to large to work well for the project. The next day was used for the students to brainstorm and sketch out their idea. They were allowed to use 2 dog heads in their picture if they wanted. Once their sketch was approved by me, they could pick out their dog heads, glue them on their paper, and start drawing the scene around it. Their ideas impressed me and they made for such a great hallway display. 

Name Skeletons

I saw this project on the Pinterest and decided to give it a go. Let me start out by saying, it was very challenging for some students. Luckily, with a lot of one on one help, we got it all done! We talked about symmetry for this lesson as well as positive and negative space. To create symmetry for the skeleton's ribcage, students had to write their name in bubble letter-cursive on a folded sheet of paper. I gave them cursive alphabet sheets as a guide and we spent a good 2 days getting this part done. Students struggled with writing their letters too skinny of small so I really had to emphasize that these were to be thick bones for our skeleton. The next job was to cut out their name with the paper still folded, so that would have two pieces. Again, this was very tricky for some because it was such intricate cutting work. I had to help some kids cut the circles out from some of their letters. They then glued down both their names in the center of a big black sheet of paper, making sure that the same letter was touching. Some names are read from the top to bottom and some read from the bottom up. The last class period was used to cut out the skull, arms, legs, hands and feet. Some students opted for the mitten hands and some took it a step farther and made individual fingers. I know the kids were relieved to be done but extremely proud of their work.

Andy Warhol Pop Art

For this year's Pop Art lesson, I decided to have the 4th and 5th graders study Andy Warhol. We watched a slideshow of fun facts about the artist and had fun looking at the celebrities and objects he made prints of in different colors. Students were asked to choose something from today's popular culture for their project. It could be an object, food, toy, celebrity, sports team, cartoon, etc. I then printed out an outine of all their choices. By placing their outline behind a white sheet of paper pressed up against the window, they traced their object four times. I really emphasized doing this neatly to show craftsmanship. They then traced over it in Sharpie and painted 4 different background colors behind their subject. Just as Andy Warhol chose interesting and new colors for his subjects, we did the same. I told the students they had to find NEW ways to color their subject in using markers. For example if they chose Spongebob, it couldn't be yellow! The end results really do POP in the hallway :)

Detailed Snowflakes

4th and 5th grades are learning about Wilson Bentley, the snowflake man. He really is a great inspiration. He pursued what he loved, despite others not understanding his passion. He was the first to photograph a snowflake and became obsessed with capturing as many as he could. The images are breathtaking and remind me of how awesome our God really is! I taught the 4th and 5th graders how to cut a snowflake from pre cut white paper circles. After folding the circle in half 3 times, I told them to make cuts from the top, bottom, and both sides. They were encouraged to cut out really unique shapes that will create interesting details when opened up. The kids had a lot of fun with this. For the final project they had to choose 3 of their favorite to put into a collage. I found that having 2 smaller snowflakes and 1 bigger snowflake, looks really well. Some students added even more tiny ones into their collage, but hey, I loved it!!! Each of their snowflakes were glued onto different colored blue or black paper and then cut out again to leave a color border. This really made their snowflakes POP! All 3 were glued onto a larger sheet of blue or black paper. Any parts of the snowflake that hung off were trimmed. The time and hard work clearly shows in their finished pieces!

Paper Plate Weavings

I think the older students, and myself needed a break from paint for awhile. It was time for a weaving project! This was super fun to teach and I had full attention and interest the whole time. We went over a few weaving art vocabulary such as textile, loom, warp and weft before we started. I showed pictures of different types of textiles and looms in a slideshow. I told them that we would be making a round loom that resembles a bicycle wheel. Each student got a paper plate and was told to cut slits at every 4 ridge. They then used small pieces of black string to pull through the middle, wrap around each notch, and tie on the back. This took a whole class period. If I did this again, I would have the students double up on the plates for it to be a bit more sturdy and less likely to bend forward. The next day I showed them how to start the fun part! I let them choose as many colors as they wanted, warning them to cut longer pieces each time, as their rings get bigger. I had a handful of students struggle with the over and under concept and they would lose their place, or pull too tight. But even they had fun figuring it out and starting over again. I told the students to stop weaving when they got close to the round ridge of the plate. They then drew a pattern going around their plate with a pencil and used fun paint colors to fill it in. I'm pleased with the results and couldn't wait to hang them in the hallway.

Why So Grumpy?

This lesson was inspired by my love of grumpy cat. I am not ashamed! I introduced the internet famous cat to 4th and 5th grade. Some had heard of her, some had not. We learned that her real name was Tartar Sauce and that she had feline dwarfism. Their objective for this lesson was to come up with their own reasoning for her being so grumpy and to determine a solution. They wrote a paragraph on this and then created an artwork to go along side it. I showed them step by step how to draw grumpy cat and the rest was up to them. Their drawings were traced with Sharpie and painted in. This project really let their creativity shine and I couldn't wait to make a hallway display!

Haunted Houses

This Halloween season I decided I wanted the 4th and 5th graders to create haunted houses. We explored what the word silhouette means when it comes to art and looked at several examples including paper cut designs. I also displayed several haunted house designs for them to study. We brainstormed what things reminded us of Halloween such as bats, pumpkins, skeletons, etc and started thinking of how to add those things into our picture. They were responsible in designing their own haunted house silhouette on top of a flat ground line or a hill. It's important to emphasize that the house will be COMPLETELY colored in with black oil pastel except for the windows before they get started. Most students really struggled with wanting to add extra details to the house including shingles, potted plants, or bricks. With a couple of reminders that only the outline will show, they eventually grasped the concept. I did say that adding things to the SIDE of their house was ok, such as a porch, stairs or even gravestones on the ground line. Once I checked out their individual designs, they got started with the black oil pastel. This part is definitely time consuming and oh-so messy, haha. Giving them a paper towel to rest their hand on while they color helps with the smearing. Once their spooky houses are filled in nice and dark, they get to use watercolors! First they fill in the windows and doors with yellow and then they got to choose 2-3 colors for a spooky night sky! The results are even better than I hoped!

Alma Woodsey Thomas Paper Designs

We started out Art Club this year by talking about the art of African-American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas. She recently became a favorite of mine because of her long career as an art educator and love for children. Her works are both intricate and colorful and so much fun to look at. The students made their own unique designs out of pieces of paper. "The Eclipse" was our inspiration. We started by choosing any color background. They then traced the inside of a masking tape roll in the corner of their paper. This was used as a guide for them to start making rings. I gave them free reign with the color choices and patterns. Cutting their pieces the same size for each ring was encouraged as to keep the circle from becoming misshapen. This project can be time-consuming but totally worth it!

"The Eclipse" by Alma Woodsey Thomas

Gustav Klimpt Trees

For this project we studied the artist Gustav Klimpt and talked about similarities between his works. We focused on the painting, "The Tree of Life." I told the students they would be designing their own version of this tree. I demonstrated drawing the tree in his swirly style step by step as they followed along. Bigger limbs were drawn first and then smaller branches were added to them. They were encouraged to come up with their own interesting patterns and shapes for decoration. Gold and black Sharpies were used to color in their patterns and brown crayon for the rest of the tree. A yellowish-gold paint color was chosen for the background, in true Klimpt fashion.

Kaleidoscope Name Designs

This project was exciting from start to finish. Students loved it and couldn't wait to see the results! Each child got a square piece of paper and folded it into a triangle 3 times to make 8 folds. They were also given a separate triangle the same size as the folds in their paper. They wrote their name in bubble letters inside of this triangle as big as they could, making sure each letter touched from top to bottom. I gave them the helpful hint of making sure the middle letter of their name is in the middle of the triangle. I reminded them to make sure it was neatly done as this is what will create their kaleidoscope design. They then traced their name in Sharpie on both the front and the back. This step is super important. The triangle is then placed behind their square paper, lining up with the triangle folds and their name traced with pencil on the front. The triangle will need to be rotated all the way around as they keep tracing, making sure the same letters are touching all the way around. I like to tell them to put their first letter facing the middle. If done correctly, their name will create a design which they will color in with markers. Each letter should be the same color all the way around. They are to color the spaces in between the letters in the same manner. This project was done with 4th and 5th grade. Can YOU spot their names? They are tricky to find!