Friendship Mural with Oakridge Students

Friendship Mural with Oakridge Elementary

After my last school mural with the Civil Rights theme and working with the high schoolers, this little mural was simple, fun and quick, by contrast.  It's been a fun little piece, made by a fun little group of kids. At Oakridge Elementary in Oakridge, OR., the students do not have school on Fridays.  I've found this to be true at a couple of the more rural school districts I've worked at.  Fridays are optional. It's pretty sad, really, that the funding has been cut so severely that kids and teachers have 4 day weeks every single week.  But, at least there's grants around that allow artists and guest specialty teachers like me to come and work with the kids who do opt to come on Fridays.  

I'm only working with Oakridge for 3 Fridays, so we went pretty small with our mural project (also it had to fit within a pretty tight place in their hallway).  We worked on plywood with acrylic paint (as always - environment AND kid-friendly paint).  The coordinating teacher wanted the mural's theme to be "friendship" - pretty broad, so this simple little image is what I came up with.  Bright, fun to paint, and gets the right message across.  Plus, I've been wanting to incorporate the "hanging stars" image into something for awhile now.... my own agenda!  

To spice up the project and allow for kids getting bored and needing other stimulation for the 2 hour time block I have with them, I added a collage element for the border.  Kids decorated little squares with cut paper people, pets, rainbows, hearts, etc., that we will glue all around the border of the mural.  One more Friday to go, can't wait to see this all finished and on the wall!

First Grade Cityscapes

This lesson was the first grader version of this self portrait lesson that I did with all the older kids (grades 2-5) during my last residency.  I figured that we'd use all the same materials and techniques, just with a different subject matter.  Not that first graders couldn't do self portraits, but probably not the proportions lesson that I went through with the older kids. Anyway, here's what we did:

Materials:

• white paper

• star sequins

• sharpies in dark colors

• "bleeding" art tissue cut into small squares

• paper scraps for windows and half sheets of black (cut the long "hot dog" way)

1.) Have kids draw "space-y" things in sharpie on their white papers. Planets, spaceships, stars, etc. etc. Pretty cute to see what they come up with here. 

2.) Have them lay out their tissue paper squares over their drawings. Come around and spray water on the finished ones. Peel off tissue paper. If it's not colored enough, this process can be repeated, for a more saturated, layered effect. 

3.) When these are dry, show a couple cityscape examples and talk about shapes they could use for their skyline silhouettes. Hand out a half sheet of black to each kid and have them draw and cut out their city skylines in one piece if they can. Glue little windows onto them, and add sequins in the sky if you want. Super cute!

Kids draw the funniest things

The other day I had a 4th grader draw this when he finished a project early.  When I asked him what it was, he said: "A kitten-dragon laying a dinosaur egg." 

I love my job. 

Pop Art Lesson with 3rd Grade

I love using Pinterest for many reasons.  It satisfies a need for stimulation without having to really think about anything.  Almost calming in it's chaos.  Pinterest is where I got my AMAZING recipe for St. Patty's Guiness and Bailey's infused cupcakes (almost time to bust that one out again!).  I love it.  If you're a teacher or an art teacher and on Pinterest, you know the abundance of lesson plan ideas on there.  You've probably come across those Kandinsky circle projects about 1000 times.  Usually, I like to tweak the lesson plan ideas I get from there, combining with other lessons, adding or subtracting certain materials, etc.  But this lesson is straight-up Pinterest, with a bit of added art school/art history flair from me. The original link can be found here.  

Pop Art Mugs

Supplies:

• Big white construction paper (12 x 18")

• Oil Pastels 

• Watercolors

Lesson:

1.) Discuss "Pop Art" (short for "Popular Art") movement.  It was the late 1950's, early 60's response to the early 50's Abstract movement.  Pop artists did not care for abstract art; they wanted to produce art that actually looked like something.  Pop Artists starting producing art that contained consumer products, comics, mass media and advertising - things that everyone would recognize.

2.) Show some pictures of Pop Art: Andy Warhol, Wayne Theibaud, Roy Lichtenstein, etc. Ask kids for their observations.  Note that Warhol often repeated images over and over, though slightly tweaked each time. 

3.) DEMO and work time!: Show how to draw an ellipse correctly - no pointed sides, only rounded! Show how to draw a cup with the sides angling inwards and the bottom also ROUNDED and not flat. Explain how the oil pastels will resist the watercolor, so they should not be filling in areas with their oil pastels, rather drawing patterns.  They should leave their cups blank with no designs.  Lead students through folding their paper to get 6 even sections, then outlining fold lines with black pastel. Draw a cup in each section, with a table underneath it. Make patterns in each area, except cups. Fill in areas with watercolor. Voila! Pop Art cups. These turned out really beautiful and we only had a 45 minute class to complete the entire lesson and project! 

Two lessons in Perspective

Today, I learned of the massacre of the children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.  I don't know what to write after that sentence.  The faces of the 2nd and 1st graders I teach keep coming to mind.  Their tiny voices, shiny hair, uninhibited grins.  Big people are supposed to protect the little people in this world.  It hurts my heart to think about it too hard.

It's a lesson in perspective whenever something this tragic happens.  I have my family, my friends, my work, my mental and physical health, my... everything.  It makes every current worry seem so much less important.

I'm not going to go on about gun control or health insurance for the mentally ill, not here in this blog-space.  This space is about bringing positivity into the world and into children's lives through art.  Read on if you'd like to learn about a lesson in a different kind of perspective. 

BAOBABS PERSPECTIVE LESSON

(Best for grades 3-8)

This lesson was a part of the Madagascar Mural Collaboration residency that I did with 4th graders last week (the previous blog post has all that info).  This was the second big art project that we worked on in the classroom, while small groups were painting the mural.

Supplies:

-Watercolor sets and brushes

-Black and white tempera paint

-Background paper (we used watercolor paper taped to brown construction paper)

Day 1:

1.) Introduce students to Baobabs through pictures and/or youtube video. I like this one.

2.) Have kids describe in words what the shape of a baobab tree is like. How are they different from other trees? (wide, curved trunks, branches only at the very top and spreading outwards, etc.)

3.) Have kids paint sunsets with watercolors covering their whole papers. Let dry.

Day 2:

1.) Explain perspective to the kids. Things that are closer to you will look bigger and darker. Things that are further away will look lighter and smaller.  Explain that today, they will be painting the baobab trees that are furthest away in their pictures.

2.) Mix up some grey tempera paint. Have kids outline their baobabs in pencil first.

3.) Have kids paint in their baobab trees and some of the ground with the grey paint.

Day 3:

1.) Have kids paint the closer baobabs in black tempera. Explain perspective again, emphasizing that they should paint these trees a little bigger than the last ones.  Make sure they know it's ok if their trees overlap each other some. 

2.) Now put them up and talk about how awesome they are! 

Madagascar Mural Collaboration Residency: Days 1-3

Well, it's FINALLY HAPPENING!!!  After coming up with the idea in August, sending many emails back and forth between continents, researching materials, planning lessons, talking to school administrators and teachers and getting a grant funded to pay me for teaching time, I FINALLY got to do my Madagascar Mural Collaboration art residency! 

In case you missed previous blogs about this, click here to read about the forming of the idea, or read the rest of this paragraph.  This all started last Summer, when I did an internship with the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia.  There, I learned that you can paint on a specialized fabric and then install it on any wall you want.  I have been working in schools doing residencies that involve painting murals permanently on the school wall(s).  But after learning this new technique, I had the idea to have my students paint a mural on this special fabric then ship it to Madagascar (where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer 2008-2010) to be installed.  There has been a recent push for Peace Corps Volunteers to organize the painting of murals in their villages that double as public art and health teaching tools around the subject of Malaria prevention.  The mural I am having the students paint is based on care and proper use of mosquito nets (a form of Malaria prevention).  When it arrives, a current Peace Corps Volunteer will install this mural on the wall of the hospital in their village.  There is text on the mural explaining the pictures, but the pictures are really important because of the high illiteracy rates in the rural village.  We left some pieces of the mural unfinished, so that the villagers who will eventually have it on their hospital, can finish it.  This makes the project a collaborative mural between American and Malagasy people.    

This Madagascar art residency was done with almost 90 4th graders at Holt Elementary School over the last 7 days.  During this week, we have been studying Madagascar, doing art lessons related to the country's flora/fauna, and working on the mural.  

Before beginning the residency, I showed kids a little slideshow with some basic facts about Madagascar, and some pictures I took while I was there....followed by a long Q&A session with the kids.  I got, "How do they go to the bathroom?" "What was the weirdest thing you ate there?" "Were you scared all the time?" etc. 

The first day, we made "passports".  These were just little blue and white construction paper booklets that acted as the kid's journals for the residency.  Every new fact, and every new Malagasy word they learned, got written in their passports.  They even drew eagles on the front, and filled out their info on an inside page, complete with tiny self-portrait "passport photos".  Super cute. 

The first 3 days of the residency, after making the passports, we did an art project about chameleons.  All kids worked on their chameleons in the classroom, while I periodically pulled a few kids aside to work on the mural.  If you want to learn how to do the chameleons lesson with your kids or students, read on! 

CHAMELEONS LESSON:

You need:

-watercolor sets and brushes

-yellow construction paper, brown strips of paper, half sheets of green paper

-skinny black "Teacher Pens" as the kids call them. (Felt tip markers)

Day 1:

(The first day, we spent half the class making passports, so this part and the Day 2 step may actually be combined).  This day, we did a step-by-step follow along drawing of a chameleon in pencil on white paper. The kids draw, as you draw. Show them how to make a "jelly bean" shaped body, then add a triangle head, legs, back spikes, etc.

Day 2:

This day, break out the watercolors, and have the kids paint those suckers. Show some pics of real chameleons to get them inspired by their colors, patterns, etc.  These have to dry overnight.

Day 3:

Outline and draw designs on them with the felt tip pens.  Cut out the chameleons.  Use the brown strips and green half sheets to make leaves and branches.  Have them arrange everything on the yellow backgrounds, and paste down.  Remind them that it will help make things look more dimensional if they overlap a few leaves on top of their chameleons.  Done and DONE!  So cute, right?!

Thanks for reading, and check back soon for the rest of the week's Madagascar projects!

Corie

Matisse Still Lives

It's the end of November already and that means posting about this month's art lessons!  Here is the lesson I did with 3rd grade. (Look for more posts to come about my 2nd and 1st grade projects!) Read on if you'd like step-by-step instructions for this lesson. 

MATISSE STILL LIFE

1.) Introduce Matisse to the students. Show a short slideshow of his still lives. Ask kids what they noticed. What was similar about all these/how do we know it's the same artist? Make sure they notice: color palette, texture and patten elements, the thick black outlines in a lot of his work. 

2.) Set up still lives on each table. I used silk flowers in vases and fake fruit. Talk about how still lives were studies of composition, how an artist arranges objects on a page. 

3.) Hand out small sections of cut wrapping paper and have kids glue them down and cut off access to make their "tables".

4.) Kids draw still lives in thick black sharpies.

5.) When they're ready to paint, they can use tempera. (I use those little white round kids palettes with the wells all the way around.)

October Art Lessons

I've decided to start blogging about the art lessons I'm doing with my students every month.  I teach 2nd and 3rd, and have recently added 1st grade as well.  I love to read other art teacher blogs, and thought I would add myself into the mix.  Maybe I can inspire a few other teachers out there! So look for lesson posts at the end of every month for some more ideas this year.  Hope you enjoy!

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TIM BURTON HAUNTED HOUSES

For my 3rd grade October lesson, we did haunted houses inspired by the art and movies of TIM BURTON! If you'd like to try this lesson, read on!

here's what you will need:

- yellow, purple and orange construction paper

- thin and thick line black pens (sharpies work well, just make sure to put scrap paper underneath kid's work areas... sharpies can bleed through and stain desks!)

- glue sticks

- (optional) a "Principles and Elements of Art" poster

Prep: 

- Cut yellow and orange sheets in half. Students only need half a sheet of one of these colors or their choice. 

Lesson:

- Introduce the principles and elements poster and explain that for each lesson, we will be learning about another principle or element of art.

- Introduce Tim Burton and give a super short bio (wikipedia him!).

-Show slideshow of a few Tim Burton character designs, art and scenes from his movies. Ask students to be thinking about what makes his art look like his art, but hold their comments till the end.

- Ask students what they observed during the slideshow.

- Go back to principles/elements poster and explain how Tim Burton uses "Positive and Negative Space".

Project:

- Talk with students about what makes a house look haunted. (Ex.: pointy shapes, tall and skinny house, ghosts, old and broken looking, etc.)

- Students cut out moon shapes out of their half sheets of orange or yellow paper and glue to the top of their purple sheets.

- Sketch their houses in pencil first

- Small details in skinny black pens, use thicker sharpies to fill in larger areas.

FOLK ART BLACK CATS

For my 2nd grade October lesson, we did black cats inspired by FOLK ART! If you'd like to try this lesson, read on!

Here's what you will need:

- White paper

- Oil pastels

- Watercolors

Lesson:

- Introduce concept of Folk Art.  (Art that is usually made by indigenous cultures. Rather than “fine art” (art that goes in galleries) It is usually on useful items or for decoration (baskets, on pots, etc.). Usually they are not trying to make things look “real”.)

- Show slideshow of examples of Folk Art from around the world. Ask students to hold their comments till the end.

- Ask students what they observed during the slideshow.

Project:

- Tell students that there are a few rules for this project:

#1 They must draw a border on their pieces.

#2 They must draw the cat inside that border as big as they can fit it.

- Students draw in oil pastels, without coloring everything in.

- Paint over drawings with watercolors.

Peter Max Artist Lesson for Grades 3 - 6

This is a lesson about the artist, Peter Max. I like this lesson for 3rd graders up to 6th graders. This is harder for the littler kids to really get into, but older kids LOVE doing this one. Here is my lesson plan:

• First, talk to the kids about: Who is Peter Max?  He was an artist whose work got popular in the 1960‘s.  Ask them, "what comes to mind when you think about the 60's?" You may get "peace signs!", "Hippies!", etc. Then you can talk about his imagery that he used that spoke to this time period.
•  Talk about how Peter Max did things like album covers, posters for concerts and events, and other illustrations. Ask the kids, "What is the difference between an illustrator and other kinds of artists?" Explain: Illustrators create art from other people’s ideas, fine artists create art from their own. Illustrators get paid by other people  to make their ideas come alive, visually.  Children’s books, magazines, product packaging, etc., all use illustrators to tell a story. 
• Show examples of Peter Max's work in a computer slideshow. Ask kids to hold their comments until the end of the presentation, but to be thinking about what do all of these pictures have in common? What do you notice that keeps showing up in a lot of these pictures? How do we know it’s the same artist? At the end, take comments from kids and talk about Peter Max's style and how it is unique.  Hopefully the kids notice these things: He made lots of heavy outlines in black. Stars. sun rays. doves. people. neon. BRIGHT and FLAT colors. 
• Mention: He was interested in astronomy (study of the cosmos) and so thats why he had lots of stars and planets in his art. 

Explain the procedure for the project: First, do pencil drawings. They must include a sun and/or stars in a composition that is mostly sky. Then, outline everything in black sharpie. Color everything in with markers and highlighters.

These are what some of my kids have come up with. They turned out amazing, I think!!! I LOVE doing this project. The kids get SO into this. I think Peter Max's style lends itself perfectly to kids projects. 

I hope some of you out there can use this lesson plan and enjoy!

Stars and sun rays,

Corie