Sesame Street: Will.i.am's Song "What I Am"

The plaster animals

A good paint job can really make a good sculpture great, and by the same token, can tank a questionable one. At least that's what I try to tell the kids. Here are some successes, and well, some others from the plaster animal found object thing.

Turkey Talk

My first graders and I "researched" turkeys, and made practice sketches. After choosing their best/favorite one, they drew it bigger, and traced it with a sharpie. I gave them water color crayons and let them paint in their turkeys. While they worked, I asked them questions about turkeys, and took notes. It made a great thanksgiving project while slipping in skills we'd have to cover anyway. Just love to hide the learning in there amidst the fun.

Texture Turkeys

I wanted a new twist on an old lesson. In talking about texture with my Kindergarten students, I teach them to make rubbings from texture plates. This year, instead of sending them home with pages of rubbing attempts, we spent part of the class making rubbings from a variety of plates, with fall colors. (Thanks Mr E for the suggestion about the gallon bags. It does make hand out and trading easier). After all students had a reasonable amount, I taught them how to draw shapes on top of their colors of rubbings (circles on the brown, triangle on the yellow, etc) We assembled the pieces to make texture turkeys. Sometimes I think when a kindergarten student has a concrete goal in mind, they work a little harder.

2nd grade cities

Along the same lines as my previous post about the Sculptures, I decided this was the year to give up all those cereal, shoe and oatmeal boxes I'd been saving. Rather than the typical collage/2-D city lesson, this year, we really brought it to life. Each student used a box to create a storefront. Scrap paper, markers, etc. Then we used posterboard scraps, and corks to create a simple version of a 3-D vehicle. This allowed me to discuss symmetry, and depth with the students. Those who were able then made mini-self portraits, and I showed students how to cut a slit into the bottom of the person, and into a matching scrap to make the people stand, even though they were flat. We found out of the way places to build our city, and keep it for display, and my students don't realize it yet, but we will be finishing it off by making advertisements for our stores- allowing me to review some of the elements of art that students always seem to need reminding of.

Found Object Animals...

So, I've decided that as long as packing up my room, and moving TO MY NEW ART ROOM is really happening, it's time to clean out the back room, and use up all those boxes, button-things, cords, etc that all of us art teachers seem to stash for just the right project. It's a great year for this- who cares about the floor, the walls, etc, because it's all getting re-done with our re-model. SO- things I may not have tried, I'm tackling this year. BRING ON THE Found Object-Plaster Animalish-Sculptures. My idea was to use up all the left over water bottles from the Chihuly unit, along with letting the kids at my found objects to create an armature of an animal- I explained it as a skeleton. Then, we covered and strengthened it with Plaster strips, and will paint them over the next few days.