Tots on Tour: October 2012

This month for my Tots on Tour class at Grounds for Sculpture, we created portraits of 'Splat the Cat'. I couldn't resist giving this project a try that I have seen all over the internet but I believe originated on a blog found here.
After our tour, we enjoyed reading "Scaredy-Cat Splat!" and then got started creating these adorable paintings.

Grade 3: Square 1 Art Monkeys and value

Third graders began their first project of the year for our art fundraiser. This year, third graders are doing a drawing of a silly monkey and then learning about shading and value.

Here is a picture of a monkey that is getting set to be colored in. Third graders are trying to create value using a colored pencil. Not as easy as it looks but they are starting to get the hang of it. By 5th grade I hope they are able to use value and shading like little Escher's!

Art Room Jobs

We are enjoying our art room jobs this year. After thinking about the daily jobs that we do in the art room, I listed the six most frequent tasks. Last year I had a "helper table" that helped with everything that day. This year, I am giving each table a job to do each week. The color for each job stays the same for the entire week for all of my classes to make it manageable. If we are not painting, the table that would handle washing the brushes does "quality control". Otherwise, my job is quality controller. 

So far, the kids seem excited for all of the jobs and are taking pride in them.

Tots on Tour: Sept. 2012

The weather this past weekend was incredible. I had a great turnout for Tots on Tour, a preschool art program that I have been teaching one Saturday per month for the past 7 years at Grounds for Sculpture.

We had a nice tour of Ming Fay's 'Canutopia' exhibit, walked a portion of the grounds and found the secret path to the lookout tower that gives a nice view of the grounds.

After reading a story, the children did a simple, classic color collage using tissue paper and water. It's an easy project for preschoolers to see the magic of color and to enjoy the process of overlapping shapes and/or arranging the pieces of tissue paper.

Here is one of my regular "Tots" named Lucas working on his collage and Lorenzo's final collage

Engaging Students via Blocks

I am really looking forward to this school year. We had a great first week and I am really thrilled to see the kids and know 90% of their names on day one. My first two years in elementary was tough to get to know over 400 names quickly. When at the middle school, it was much, much easier because I would see my students every day or on an A/B day schedule.

So, I am feeling great to know their names and know more about who they are individually.
Part of that individuality, is making the art room an environment that nurtures each student and recognizes interests that they have.

In my experience, one of the best ways to engage boys (and girls) is to vary the medium used frequently, to use tools that are cool (think gouges for printmaking) and to incorporate SCULPTURE! Teaching 7th and 8th grade sculpture classes that were 80% male when I was at Timberlane, I loved to see how much the materials that I shared communicated to them. Wire, plaster, building with cardboard, clay and carving...

In elementary, I share any and all of my favorite building materials whenever I can. But what about when I can't? How can I fill the need to build 3D structures?

With that thought in mind, I came across a good article over the summer about engaging boys in art during those "down times". The times when a student finishes a project early, did a great job and has some free time.

The answer is blocks. More specifically, Keva Planks.
I purchased a set and made an Architectural Center for early finishers.
In my intro week, wow, so many of my students seemed so excited to begin creating in this center.
I am definitely going to have to purchase more and create a secondary carpeted area to keep the building areas small, contained and with only 4-6 kids at each area.

Brand new bin of Keva planks and a guide book the kids are excited to use

Click on this picture to access the Art of Ed article that inspired me to add blocks to the art room!

Although my kids will not have a ton of time each class period to build because we really are quite busy with our projects, it is my hopes that having the blocks as an option will be one more thing to be excited about and motivate some students to work hard to finish up.

So, if you are ever at a yard sale and come across similar blocks, GRAB them! They are also available on amazon.com. I will be buying many more as soon as I can!

My 1st graders had some extra time yesterday and couldn't wait to build together

The Art of Miss Chew

Add "The Art of Miss Chew" by Patricia Polacco to one of my favorite children's books about art education.
This book is a fantastic story about a girl and the experience she has trying to navigate school with a difficulty in reading. What I ultimately adore is the lovely bond she develops with her homeroom and art teachers because of her learning disability, love for and talent in art and the support system she develops from the passionate teachers in her school. Found at and borrowed from the wonderful Montclair Public Library and I am sure available on amazon.com, I will definitely be adding this book to my collection.

1st Grade: Tooth Fairies

End of the year crunch and I was only able to squeeze this tooth fairy project in with my 1st graders at Toll Gate.
Next Year, I'll make sure my new group of 1st graders at Bear Tavern gets to do this project as well.
I saw a tooth fairy lesson on Pinterest that I modeled this lesson after. We talked about portraits and discussed the zillion ways a tooth fairy could look. Boy, girl, young, old. Next, I showed students how to draw a basic face and how to divide a face so that the eyes, nose and mouth looked correct. We added a simple body, hairstyles, toothy grin, etc. and then outlined in Sharpie. Students started to paint when finished. Day 2 was to used to finish painting and add glitter. The homeroom teacher also came in to work on a class gift with students for the 1st grade room parents. It was one of the only times this school year that I used glitter in the art room. It's funny because I never shy away from messy projects but there's something about glitter that gives me nightmares! Anyway, I manned the glitter table where the kids came to add the right amount of sparkle into their almost finished portraits and there was minimal mess.

We were able to critique the tooth fairies as a class on day 2 before finishing them. I will post detailed photos later on...

Umm, a Cupcake?!

I never thought that I would blog about a cupcake but I guess it's no surprise as I am a cupcake connoisseur.
Today, one of my 4th graders named Molly brought in these cupcakes that I think are the absolute cutest things I've ever seen. Simple, pretty and perfect for summer.

Ingredients:
-Basic Vanilla cupcake
-Tinted blue vanilla frosting
-Ground up Nilla wafers, Teddy Grahams or you could probably use graham crackers for the "sand"
-Honey Teddy Graham inside of a
-Gummy Life Saver for the "tube"
and of course
-Paper drink umbrellas
-Floral cupcake paper

So cute, so easy and I am sure this will be all over Pinterest..Thanks MOLLY!

Art All Night: Opportunity to Check out Rory Mahon and crew

This year at Art All Night, Rory Mahon (Hopewell Valley's own) and his crew will do an iron pour. I find watching an iron pour to be simply amazing so it's a great opportunity for anyone interested in seeing how heavy duty metals are liquefied in a furnace and poured into a mold. Hot as lava!
Date: Saturday, June 16 @ 3pm until Sunday, June 17th @ 3pm. The iron pour is from 9pm-2am with the iron being poured sometime halfway in between.

There are a TON of events for children, families and then just adults later on. You can also submit any piece of artwork that you desire.

Here's the blurb and accompanying hyperlink for Art All Night:

AbOmInOg Intl Arts Collective presents The Live Iron Pour
Time: Saturday Night, 9:00pm - 2:00am
The Art All Night-Trenton 2012 Iron Pour once again reunites the forces of Art All Night - Trenton with the AbOmInOg Intl. Arts Collective, who first worked with Art All Night in 2010. That year, the crew from AbOmInOg Intl. amazed spectators by forging steel live throughout the night, as one-story-high orange flames enveloped Trenton's urban backdrop. This year’s Art All Night-Trenton festival marks the second historic collaboration between these two dynamic art forces as they once again bring the mesmerizing art of a live iron pour to inner city Trenton. The AbOmInOg team will also be pouring 75 cast iron, fresh-from-the-flames, limited edition medallions that will be available for sale at the Art All Night - Trenton retail station!

End of Year Folders

1st grader

As much as I am looking forward to a wonderful summer, I am also looking forward to next school year. Looking at some of the projects going home as I clear out the display art that has been in the hallway and around town, I am reminded of the school year that is coming to a close. Every student has made a large white folder decorated as they wished to hold all leftover art to take home.

2nd Grader

The Worm...

When I was in late-elementary or middle school, I used to draw worms on the rubber side sole of my converses along with sunflowers, symbols from Tolkien's books and whatever other doodles.
As an end-of-the year free project, I introduced worm drawings. Challenge is using line to create the illusion of 3D on a 2D surface.

Serena

Kerry

Dragon Mural in Progress

Mrs. Muhlbauer (our Media Specialist/Librarian) and I donated a Teacher Experience for the PTO auction this year. The winner, a 5th grader named Cait, gets to paint a dragon on the wall of our library with a few friends. On Friday we are having a pizza and mural painting party after-school. Cait has a lot of work to do but got a great start yesterday by drawing her dragon on the wall and she started painting a base coat of color.....keep in mind that the colors you see are undertones for the final painting.

Next year, at some point the plan is to have students paint a castle around this dragon.

Grade 2: Mexican Serape

I've realized that I am drawn to the messier materials (except glitter) for some reason. It was nice to have my second graders working on the drawings for the Mexican serape project today.

We loved looking at this beautiful fabric

I loved talking to my students about where they have seen serape fabric before. Most answers detailed family trips to Mexico, trips to Shop Rite and displays in Senora Morrison's Spanish classroom. I loved the recall. 

Gathering the kids around the demo table, I spread the serape out and we touched it and admired the beautiful colors. I was excited that when I asked where value is seen in the serape, my students identified areas of light and dark blue.

Intricate center design

We talked about the designs and how they were created using lines with a neat center design that is more elaborate. How can you create a design using only lines? Here is a sketch and the start of the  final serape a student completed.

Kind of Cute but Meaningful Nonetheless

My Toll Gate 5th graders started the Mandala, radial design project today that I blogged about a few months ago with one group of student at Bear Tavern.

So I am demonstrating and explaining what a Radial Design is and the kids got so excited because Radial Symmetry was a topic on their NJASK standardized test they had this morning. They got a bit sidetracked for a few seconds as they chatted about what the right answer was on the exam. So cute they were!!
Later in the period, I was discussing the pros and cons of the use of a symbol in their radial designs and mentioned that when viewing art with symbols, it can be reminiscent for the viewer (ex. If you use a symbol of HV and then move out of Hopewell Valley, every time you see your art with the HV symbol, you will remember the times before you moved) in a positive or negative way.
 Again, some of the kids were so excited because "reminiscent" is one of their current vocabulary words in 5th grade.

The meaningful part. It is important to be aware of the various topics that students are learning in their respective grade levels to help them to secure the information,  grasp the learning and really understand it.

I love when kids are excited about connections that they make in their learning.

Art Room Posters

One of my favorite things in the art room is this poster that I made earlier in the year. It reads: "Are your words True? Kind? Necessary?"
I am glad to report that I do not have to refer to it frequently but on the days where a student says to me with hurt feelings "Mrs. Johnson, so and so said such and such" I can refer to the poster with "so and so" and they realize quickly and easily that they did not choose the best words. An apology to the student with hurt feelings follows.

I have noticed students really looking at and thinking about the words on this poster throughout the year. What posters or sayings do you have in your art room that you feel are particularly helpful and meaningful?

Grade 5: Slimy Start to the Day

I was mixing art paste (slime) before 8 am this morning so that my 5th grade art enrichment kids could create their vase structures today. Next week will be more of the same. What was neat is the fact that we are using plaster in 5th grade classes so the Art Enrichment kids could feel the incredible difference in the two materials.

They had a lot of fun working with the incredible wet material that is harder to control than plaster. 

The final product is a paper vase made out of colored magazine strips that the kids folded prior to the art pasting.
Art paste is a great material compared to traditional paper mache BUT it takes a few days to dry compared to plaster which is 6-24 hours. Huge difference in materials. 

Grade 1: Blue and White Vases

I guess with it being spring, it's hard not to focus on projects relating to nature: trees, flowers and of course flowers in vases.

Tim and Jaina working hard

Detail

I saw a glimpse of a project at my daughter's school that her art teacher Ms. M worked on with students. It was a simple blue vase with flowers. Blue and white pottery is one of my favorite kinds. You should see our dinner plates! Anyway, I decided to teach a lesson incorporating geometric and organic shapes using the iconic blue and white colors. The kids seemed quite interested in hearing how in Ancient Greece the potters added designs to their vases in bands. We talked quite a bit about Contrast in art and why it's important. I also taught the 1st graders how to draw a vase in several ways. They all did an awesome job.
I will take more pictures in the next week and post the progress.
The green paper is for the background which kids divided so that their vases will actually look like they are sitting on a table. We will fill these vases with paper or painted flowers.

Flowers on my bookcase

Grade 3: Pastel Vases

I try not to repeat lessons with much frequency from year to year as there is no need. There are a million and one ways to teach the same concepts and explore materials.
This pastel vase with painted flowers lesson is one that I will never tire of. This is the 2nd spring that we have created these vases and I believe they will be a 3rd grade spring staple. The kids love 'em, I love 'em and families love them as well. I wish I could take credit for designing this lesson but the honor goes to Linda Bradshaw who retired last year from HES.

Chalk pastel blending techniques

We will finish these up next week and I will send them home for kids to give to someone special around Mother's Day.

A finished vase

Finished vase

We took a look at vases sitting on a table by Van Gogh to understand where to begin drawing so that the vase actually sits on the table.

Exhausting but worth it!

Can you believe that we started and finished all SIX of these 8"x10" paintings yesterday at TGG??! I am surprised myself considering that we were working on individual projects at the same time. 


These paintings were collaboratively completed by my 1st through 5th graders (all hands on deck) and will be framed and given to the six 2011-2012 HVRSD Teacher of the Year recipients. Each year a teacher is selected from each school in our district. 
The paintings will be given out on Monday, April 16th at a small reception being held for the recipients at Toll Gate. 
I chose the tree as the theme for these paintings because each recipient has shown characteristics that trees possess.... strong, unique, important for our environment & beautiful.


The 3rd, 4th and 5th paintings from the left were made using the kids fingerprints.

Falling in love, again.

I have never considered myself to be a gushy person and definitely not a groupie but in the past 2 years, I have been both. In the past few years, I have developed a strong inclination for art with recyclables...reusing materials in a creative way (thus the Bear Tavern bottle cap mural). The plastic bottle caps was timed well with my viewing and falling in love with 'Up the Decibel' by Sculptor Katie Truk who I stalked, admired and became a groupie of. She uses pantyhose and wire to create the most amazing abstract sculptures that are so strong yet delicate. Timing was perfect, it was destined and Katie came to Bear Tavern to present a workshop to my 5th grade Art Enrichment students in early 2011 and then exhibited her work alongside theirs in an art show hosted at RiverStone.

Chakaia Booker is another Sculptor that I really admire. She sculpts with tires. Have you ever tried to shred or even cut a tire? It is extremely difficult and dangerous if the proper protective equipment is not worn. 
Her sculptures are incredible. Again, I love the creative way of reusing a material that so easily pollutes our environment but in a unique way that sends a message. Love the uniform color of the tires as well.

Now, for the newbie. Brittany Watkins. Whoa! I don't know much about her but looking to find out more. She is a recent graduate of Montana State University and is displaying a piece at Grounds for Sculpture. Last night, I attended a Focus Group meeting at the Grounds to discuss strategic planning for the education department. I had viewed her untitled piece prior but during museum hours when the building was busy. 
Last night, I was the only one on the first floor of the Domestic Arts Building at 8:30 pm, on a day the entire grounds are closed. 
I was able to really inspect the sculpture without feeling odd. Basically, Watkins collected and melted hundreds of white plastic bags to a point where they are connected, layered and take on a fabric look. Honestly, at first look, I thought I was viewing a beautiful white comforter that could be sold at Anthropologie. 
The way that Watkins has molded the bags together is so unique. There are lace-like holes in many spaces where the heat melted through. These simple, white plastic bags are altered just enough that the everyday item becomes nothing less than beautiful.
The sculpture, which is really in the category of Installation Art, is not one to miss if you appreciate the use of recyclables. 

All three of these women have been a huge influence on me...and actually, make it four because I can't forget Installation Artist Tara Donovan who inspired a fun sculpture experience for my 2nd graders this year. 
Each uses everyday objects in a way that forces us to respect the materials in a way that is had to conceive. Tires, throwaway bags and pantyhose....Styrofoam cups. 

Tara Donovan: Installation Art

I am in love with the ideas these women have and how they piece together a single material in a way that brings attention to the environment, social issues and our everyday lives. Each sculpture portrays how delicate yet strong female artists are. 

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.




Update: 4/4/2012  I went back to GFS today to visit a few friends and bring my son over to say hello and looked at 'Untitled' by Brittany Watkins again. The day prior, I was testing out melting white plastic bags with an iron to see how quickly the process worked. I had to place a thin barrier in between the iron and the plastic to protect my iron but even so, the bags took some time to melt together. Looking, again, at Watkins' piece, I was struck by how seamless the plastic looks and how the plastic took on more of a tissue paper look hanging there on display. 
I understand that not every viewer is as taken with this untitled piece but the more I dig and find out about the process, the more intrigued I am. Still in love.

Bear Tavern PTO Auction Masterpieces

The Bear Tavern PTO is an amazing group of dedicated parents. Below are the painted masterpieces that my students collaboratively painted between December and March. It took us forever to multi-task this project but was well worth it. 

Grade 5: Gargoyles

We started sculpting gargoyles in 5th grade at Bear Tavern. At Toll Gate the 5th graders are happily working on their tiles. 

Using cardboard coffee carriers, we cut them apart and are using them as a foundation for scary gargoyle faces. Above are the first 2 steps. The kids have used wire, paper and cardboard to build up many more features (tongue, antlers, you name it!)

We will use plaster gauze (one of my top favorite art materials) to make the gargoyles look realistic. 

We looked at European Gargoyles and discussed their symbolism on the sides of churches as well as their function as a water spout. Check back for more pictures as we make progress.