Community Helpers Cityscape

It's taken a while to get these done, but we finally did it!  About a month back, the librarian asked me if I could do a project with 2nd graders that related to community helpers...i.e. police men, emergency workers, firemen, etc.  While we finished up our gyotaku prints, I brainstormed ideas and finally came up with this project!  I searched Pinterest up and down to see if anyone else had done any community helper projects in art class, and found some little ideas that helped me build my big idea.

The first thing that we did was talk about cityscapes versus landscapes.  We had previously done this winter landscapes back at Christmas time (to which I just realized I never did a post about, but found the idea on Pinterest...), so this was a good project to introduce the other 'scape'.

We looked at a power point, did a review game, and then looked at the symbolism and characteristics of important buildings in a community.  On the first day, I had students draw their city.  They had to draw a road at the bottom of the  page and then they had to have at least five important buildings.  We drew in pencil and then outlined in Sharpie marker.

On the second day, we finished the outlining and then put a red hand print on the road.  This later became firemen (idea straight from Pinterest here).  Students also started making emergency vehicle collages.  They were required to have at least 1-2 emergency vehicles on their road.  I showed students some collages that I found on Pinterest to give them a jumping off point.

On the fourth and last day, students finished up their collages and made their firemen!

Getting ready for the art show!

The end of the year has been pretty hectic for me so far...between my pregnancy brain, morning sickness and lack of energy, I'm struggling to get to the end of the year!  I've used more sick days so far since the 6 week point in my pregnancy than I did all of last year!

I know some of you have already had your big art show...I'm using this week to get ready for mine!  I always do the art show on budget vote day in our district, which is May 21st this year.  So, I'm taking a full day sub on Monday to set up for the art show and a 1/2 day sub in the afternoon to run my art club table (boondoggle sale and glass plate sale).

Here's how I get ready for the art show...

First, I pass back all of the artwork I've saved for each class and I have the students sign their names on the FRONT of each artwork.  I always have them do it on the back so that I can put their artwork on Artsonia. When everyone has signed their artwork, we neatly pile it up and I collect it.

Then, on Monday (set-up day), I go through each student's pile and I choose their best work from the pile.  This way, everyone gets at least one artwork in the show.  After I hang everything, if I still have room, I'll go back through and pick the next best, and so on and so forth.

This is my cart after three classes signed all their artwork...by Friday this week it will probably be over flowing...top and bottom shelf!

This is a storage cart that I have in my room by the door.  I use it to store 2-D artwork throughout the year for the art show.  It's currently a little messy, but each grade level has a black, canvas zippered bag to store artwork.  Then, if that folder fills up, I use the shelves underneath to store artwork.  Any 3-D artwork gets stored in boxes on top of cupboards until the art show.

Art Club: Glass Plates

For the last few weeks, my art club has been working on lots of glass plates to sell at our art show.  This is going to be our major fundraising event for our field trip.  We will also be selling our boondoggle as well.  The art show is slowly creeping up on us...this year it will be on May 21st, budget vote night.

This particular student wanted to do a version of Starry Night...

The top two plates are my creations...

It's been a slow process getting them all fused and slumped...I can only do one large plate at a time with a few small plates.

One of our experiments are coral bowls.  I found this pin on Pinterest and I decided to experiment with the students.  My finished bowl is on the right, and one of the bowls that has not been fused is on the left.  We didn't quite follow the steps exactly from the pin, but pretty closely.  I have a box of Wasser glass (I think that's the brand) that I tried using with the Amaco glass last year, but with bad results.  The COE for both types of glass was the same, but I think because the brands were different, they didn't fuse very well together.  My test plate had a lot of holes and air bubbles in it.  I decided to try using the Wasser glass for these coral bowls...if it didn't work, it wouldn't feel like as much of a waste as if we used the Amaco glass, which I always have positive results with.

Basically all we did was cut up a 6"x6" piece of glass into strips and then layer them on top of each other.  Some students added some extra color using noodles and stringers.  It's been a slow process firing these, but they're looking pretty cool!