Painted paper still life

Although this project took four to five, 30 minute class periods, the results were well worth it. They turned out so cute, and the kids really had fun designing their own bouquets. 

These were done by my 5th grade students. I have four fifth grade classes of 20-24 students each. I have each class for 40 minutes either 2 or 3 times a weeks, depending on the block schedule. It took two weeks to complete this whole process.

Day one: Using recycled cardboard and sticky backed foam, students spent a day creating a stamp and stamping a tempera paint background onto chip board.

Students spent another day making painted papers to use for the flowers, vases and table for their still life. This was a great activity to get hands on time mixing colors and creating texture.

Once a week, we practice drawing skills in a sketch book,  so I tied that activity into this lesson and taught the children how to draw various flowers, leaves and vases, and they practiced this in their sketchbooks.

From their designs they sketched lightly onto the backside of the painted papers and then started cutting their vases, flowers, stems and leaves out and attaching with Elmer's glue.

We gave the finished piece a good coat of Mod Podge.

Children will get these back in time to take home for Mother's Day.

Chagall inspired Story Art

My service student put together this great display of some of the Marc Chagall inspired artworks created by my 5th graders this semester. 

We started off our lesson learning about Marc Chagall and characteristics of his style of abstract art. We watched a great short video on Biography.com that the kids loved, and also looked through two storybooks on Marc Chagall.

Using liquid water colors, students created a colorful background.

I showed a sample of artwork I had created and told a story of my memories behind the pictures-the kids love this! Then I asked each of them to use the back of their paper and brainstorm a list of words that communicated a story or memory they wanted to tell. Then students drew images for each word, turning the page each time so the images floated around the page. Students drew in pencil first, outlined in Sharpie, and then colored in with construction paper crayons.

If you would like to see more samples of student works for this project, visit our gallery over at Artsonia.

Mixed Media Hearts

I wanted to share these Jim Dine inspired mixed media hearts made by my fifth graders. They are are colorful, fun and unique--just like the kids who created them. We made these on recycled cardboard tiles, approximately 4 x 6 inches in size.

First we applied a layer of gesso, and then used tempera paint for the heart and background. I instructed the children to use a contrast of warm and cool colors. We spent a day painting papers with tempera paint, texture tools, and foam stamps.

We used our papers to add a collage element to the entire piece. After the paper was added, we added some more color with oil pastels and sharpies. Last, but not least, we sealed with a glossy coat of Modge Podge. 

I'm planning on putting up all 85 of these on a bulletin board in the 5th grade hall. I'll be sure to post pics on Facebook when I get it done. My only regret was that it wasn't done in time to enjoy the entire month of February. There's always next year, right?!

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Strike a Pose and Learn about Lines

Here's one of my first fifth grade lessons I taught this year. Keith Haring has a great kids website with some fun lesson suggestions, but my inspiration for this came from Cheryl Trowbridge over at Teach Kids Art. I've used the aluminum sheets before for art projects, and they always yield great results, but they are a little pricey when you have 75 kids. So instead, I used heavy duty aluminum foil and it worked just fine, and the kids thought this project was the "coolest thing ever"!. 

For this project, we were learning about the Elements of Art, and specifically focusing on lines. First, I asked for volunteers to come to the front and "strike a pose"- of course, there are always a handful of class clowns who love helping out here. On the white board, I showed the children how I would draw each pose in a stick figure form. Then I showed them how to use a contour line to draw an organic shape around the stick person.

 Next, I had the children get into small groups of two's and three's and "strike a pose" and draw three stick figures on a piece of scratch paper. Then, I instructed children to draw their stick figures larger onto a piece of paper and trace around them with the contour line. Then we traced the three figure design onto a piece of tracing paper.

I had prepared ahead of time, a piece of cut poster board covered with heavy duty aluminum foil. Each student taped their tracing paper over the top, and secured down to the desk. They traced over their tracing paper design with a pencil or sharpie pen lid and it leaves an imprint into the foil.

The last step is to color in with sharpie markers. It's hard to tell in these photos, but make sure the children leaven the silver imprint lines silver (or showing) to divide up the colors.

School is in session

I started teaching 5th and 6th grade art on Thursday at my childrens' school. I've taught art in my studio for the past 6 years, but teaching in a classroom setting is a big change. I have 8 classes that I teach over a two day period, with around 120 students. I'm so blessed to be teaching in a Christian environment where I can share my faith. I don't know how else I could teach art because my faith is such a part of my artistic journey. To me, you can't have art without God. His creation inspires all art; and because we are created in His image, we are have an innate ability to create.

After just two days of teaching and getting the year kicked off, I have a whole new appreciation for teachers. I have been working pretty much 24/7 for the past two weeks, but loving every minute of it. There's planning, parent correspondence, setting up a grading system, discipline policies, entering lesson plans, etc. I'm not a very organized person when it comes to these type of things, so they have taken a lot of energy to wrap my mind around. I finally had some extra down time this morning to sit and reflect, be thankful for God's provision and direction, and do a little art journaling.

I want to share my journey this year with you. I am so thankful for the web and all the bloggers out there who share their ideas. I couldn't have put my year together without you! I even purchased a great planner/curriculum workbook from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle that helped me to get organized-the link is HERE.

Here's my first couple days and a pdf that you are welcome to use. I found several great "Get to know You" ideas out there, so I combined all my favorites and created my own sheet. I've had so much fun looking through all my student's sheets and getting to know them better!

Here's the link. Feel free to use in your classrooms. I've never embedded a pdf in my blog before, so let me know if you have problems accessing it.

Another thing we did, was take a quick look at the art of Origami. The "art of folding paper", originated in China, but was brought to Japan by monks who coined the term oru-kami, to fold-paper. We talked about familiar origami like paper airplanes, boats, hats, folded dollar bills, and looked at some more detailed animal pieces. I found a template for the "fortune teller" pieces by googling origami fortune teller-there's a ton out there. I let the students choose their own questions and use these as an ice breaker to get to know their classmates better. It was a fun and great exercise for a short class period for those first days. One smart student told me that these used to be used to hold spices in the kitchen.

 I found a great website here with lots of info about these. Being a child of the 80s, I also enjoyed making mine-brought back some childhood memories!

Painting Pumpkins on Canvas

Yes, I teach art. But, as a parent, art is a great way to spend time with your child, and make some cute art for your home. Here's a lesson I've done before with a class, but YOU could easily create these with your kids. Just have fun with it, and you will end up with some great art for the fall season. Add your own personal touches, like words, patterns and color schemes.

 First, I teach students how I draw a pumpkin-use the steps above. I always teach that before you paint to practice your drawing and plan your painting. And I love talking about painting fruits, and stress that there's not such thing as a "perfect" pumpkin. They can be fat, tall, bumpy, lop-sided, etc. Students painted on a 12 x 12 stretched canvas with acrylic paints.

When drawing your design onto the canvas, DON'T use a pencil. You will have a very hard time covering the pencil and correcting mistakes. Use a light color paint or chalk. I have students use baby wipes to correct mistakes. They remove wet paint from a canvas almost like it's a dry erase board.

For younger children, just coach them on what to do one step at a time. For instance, "First we are going to paint our pumpkin shape. What shape do you see? Now try that on your canvas." Remind them to paint big. If they mess up, show them how easy it is to erase it and try again.

Outlining with a darker color helps the colors "pop" and gives the art a more "finished" look.

We added a little green puff paint for the vines and tricked out our edges with stripes. Students were kindergarten through 2nd grade (one fourth grader), and completed their paintings in a 2-hour workshop.

How to draw or paint Santa

Each year I do painting workshops for children where I teach them how to paint a portrait of Santa Claus. I do this in groups of 6-8 and it takes about two hours. Here's how I teach kids how to draw Santa Claus. I start out breaking him down into basic shapes. Once they get the basic design down, I show them a variety of painted Santa portraits and how the shapes are incorporated. Then they can change it up and make it their own.

Basic Shapes

Santa Variations using shapes

Break down

Some Santa portraits...I love how they each turn out so unique!

These were painted by 2-5th graders.

Painted in acrylic on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas.

To see more, follow me on Facebook under "Sleepyhead Designs Studio".

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 Have a Blessed Christmas!