Wordless Wednesday

Leaf Sculptures

For these simple leaf sculptures we rolled one inch strips of colored paper on the end of a narrow paint brush and gave it a good twst, forming it into a tighter coil.

The second grade students rolled and glued coils for the interior space of the leaf.  They shaped them differently Ito triangles, eyes, hearts, and diamonds.  They also shared and donated coils to classmates that needed more.  Cooperation and collaboration was an added bonus to this lesson.

I f the student had designed a strong stem at one end, then I threaded a string through the opening for hanging the display.  If not, then I punched a hole for hanging.

 

I should have more photos next week to show other results.

Abstract Bike Close-ups By Grade Six

We tried a new project shortly after school opened this fall. 

Here are some of the results!

The pieces look so nice in the cafeteria.  I think it almost transforms it into a makeshift gallery!

After a class period of using the viewfinder to isolate objects in the room and for selecting close ups in a magazine, we went outside and drew bike parts from the bicycles that were in the racks.  Some kids were unusually loud and obnoxious, but we persevered anyway.  Nearly everyone came back inside with 3 to 5 sketches and had at least 1 or 2 usable compositions.

I had them use a star, plus, check, and a minus to indicate which sketches they preferred.  From there, we enlarged them to map paper from road atlases that I took apart at the binding. 

I have more atlases since we cleaned out the trunk of the car and the husband said, " The Garmin is easier to use". 

Anyone want to chime in with how your students may have used old map paper for art compositions?

100 Faces Project

Since this fall we have been devoting some time to composing an assignment called "A Hundred Faces.  I got the inspiration from an actual art exhibit called "100 Faces Project"  Just over a year ago the exhibit was preparing for an opening.  Stephanie Fontain is the artist that worked on the project.  Her opening was held in Geneva Switzerland last November.  We found her video to be interesting, since she talks about and shows her creative process.

It has been challenging to the children of our school to create a work of art over the last 100 days of school.  We are soon to have our deadline and most students should be able to meet the due date of mid February.  Have yet to pinpoint the exact day since we would like it to be the 100th day of school, or at least in that week!

I got into it myself and am currently designing face 55 and 56.  I found that it helped me to keep track by writing a small numeral beside each face as I drew it.  

We have an annual showing of work at the shopping mall.  It'll be interesting to see a small sampling of these exhibited among the other assignments.  I plan to include the 3rd graders portrait bust sculptures surrounding the display boards of our drawings. 

I also found a YouTube drawing video that was quite inspiring.  The kids enjoyed drawing along with the artist as he explained how he like to show emotions on about twenty faces.

Wordless Wednesday

Artist Trading Cards

Each 4th grader recently made a set of 2 trading cards with the theme of portraits.  We tried for one colored one and the other just one color and white.  They did a pretty nice job for just one class period.

I was wondering if there's anyone out there in the art teacher blog world that'd be interested in a trade of cards between students in grades 2 - 6 for this school year.   If so, leave a message here on this blog or send me a quick e- mail.