Summer Program: Week 2

My goal this year for the summer program was to come up with some quality art and crafty projects that would take the kids more than one day to complete.  The last two years we did the program over summer, we did great on that planning aspect for the first two weeks, and then for the second two, the students went home with cheap crafts that they probably lost at home.

So, for the second week, we made those 3-D cardboard letters.  I did this with the younger students for two reasons...(1) to see if this project was more elementary than high school and (2) to see how well they would handle the X-acto knives for future reference!  All in all, I think we had two bleeders total throughout the entire project!  A few students were able to make their letters super crisp...even more so than some of the high school students when they did the project!

We started by building the letters first...the same way I had my Studio Art students create them for the Master's Paintings.

Next, they picked a single color to paint the entire letter...

 And lastly, we splatter painted them!  I have always wanted to do splatter painting with the students to learn about Jackson Pollock, but I know that a student will come to school in their best clothes during the school year despite how many warnings I may send home...

To make the paint we splattered with, I took acrylic and added acrylic gloss and a little bit of water to get a more drippy paint.  We set the cups up on the sidewalk outside of all the colors with a brush, and the students came up one at a time to choose their colors to paint with. 

 I had the students line up outside in the grass, an arms length apart so they would splatter each other!

To ensure we didn't make a huge mess and splatter the side of the building, I had the students dip their brush in the paint and then wack it against their finger to get it to splatter.

 They still got messy...but they loved it!  Their legs were a work of art all on their own! ;)

A few finished paintings from day 1 of splatter painting...we had a few rainy days in between so students finished the other sides a few days later.

And finally...a few of the final products!

 I think that this proves that the 3-D cardboard letters could be done easily with elementary age students as well as high school...the hard (or easy part) for the desired grade level is all on how you have them treat the surface.  Oooh!  A great idea just came to me!  My elective this upcoming year is sculpture...I wonder if I could get my sculpture students to create letters in the shape and style of an object...i.e. a "P" for pencil that looks like it's made out of big pencils!!!???

Summer Program: Keith Haring Murals

Once again this year, we worked on expanding the Keith Haring-style murals we did the last two years.  This summer was most likely the last summer that we will receive the grant to do the summer program, and we had three panels left in the hallways at the little gym, so we decided to do three murals instead of one!

Needless to say, we didn't quite finish, so I will post the the final, touched up murals once school starts.  I plan on taking the painters who pay more attention to details to finish it up.  We had a lot of great painters this summer, but they started to trickle out of attendance and I was left with, well, the over-eager painters who didn't necessarily pay attention to paint drips on the floor and such.  Either way, I think we accomplished quite a bit for tackling three panels at once!

On Day 1, I drew out a beach scene and we started painting with Chroma Acrylic Mural Paint.

Day 2 continued with the beach scene, and I also added a winter scene and of course a hiking scene...because you can't live at the base of the Adirondacks without making art with mountains! ;)

The other two murals, which can be seen on "Our Completed Murals", were flat color.  For the beach scene, we decided to get a little more fancy and added some cool color blending in the big wave as well as sponge texture for the sand.

I think the beach mural is by far my favorite one of the entire group!  This one just needs a few black lines touched up and the sand redone.  We had some drips and when the student repainted over them, she didn't sponge the sand on the same way as she did the first time.  :-/

Again, these ones just need some touch up on the black lines and then the top coat of non-glossy acrylic.

Where has the summer gone???!!! (Summer Program Week 1)

Um...staff development days next week on Tuesday and Wednesday...start of the school year on Thursday??  I know a lot of you are already back to school, but up here in New York, we wait until after Labor Day to start.  I have been meaning to post about the four weeks of summer program I worked at school in July, but in typical fashion as it seems once you have a child, it gets pushed aside!  My goal now is to do four posts about what we accomplished in July for art projects so that I can post my back to school pictures and such next week!

So here we go:

Week one of the summer program had record attendance.  I believe we had about 26 students ranging from grades 4-7 attend the first week, therefore the projects I started with were pretty basic and simple.

For the first two days, we made signs.  I purchased these blank signs from Oriental Trading.  I showed the students how to trace and cut out the shape of the sign on scrapbook paper, and then how to Mod Podge it onto the sign.  A few students also used the fancy duct tape to decorate their signs.  We used various ribbons, buttons and flowers to embellish them.  I also looked up how to make chalkboard paint (because mysteriously, my can of chalkboard paint disappeared from my elementary room...hmmm).  I took a poll for colors and mixed chalkboard paint using acrylic and grout (the kind without sand).

Of course, the zebra print with Camille written on it was mine!  It matches her room! ;)

The second project we completed during the first week were these mini trays.  Again, these were purchased through Oriental Trading.  On the first day, the students painted them and then laid out a pattern with mosaic pieces to grout on the inside.  A few students opted to do chalkboard paint again instead of the mosaics, or painted the backside with the chalkboard paint and then mosaic-ed the inside.  I used a standard indoor grout that I had in my cupboards and then these mosaic pieces from Nasco.  On the second day, we mixed the grout and put the pieces into place!

5th Grade: Oil Pastel Jungle Animals

I think...but I'm not sure...but I think...that this may be the last "catch-up" post I have from the 2013-2014 school year!  Woo-hoo!  Then it's onto the month of July and the summer program activities...

These beauties are oil pastel drawings that my 5th graders completed right before the art show in May...oh wait, art show?  Whoops.  I've just realized that I haven't even uploaded photos from the 2012-2013 art show onto my blog yet!  Eek!

This group of students absolutely LOVE using oil pastels.  I honestly think I could do an entire school year of oil pastel projects with them and they would be ecstatic!  They had done an oil pastel project last year...oil pastel poinsettias, which were observational drawings, and loved creating it.  This year, this particular group of students had only completed three...yes 3...projects this year.  The first was the complementary clay checker boards project, which I started before my maternity leave.  They finished them just before I came back.  I then did the 3-D color wheels with the students, which took forever.  Then, I had them do monochromatic paintings...and come to think of it, I never shared those either from this year's class.

My substitute sent the students home with checkerboards, against my directions, so I wasn't able to photograph those. :(  Either way, when it came closer to setting up the art show, I realized that I didn't exactly have a wide variety of choice for this grade level, nor did a majority of the students really have anything to showcase their abilities.  So, the week before I started set-up, I introduced this project.  

I asked students to choose an animal from the jungle or rain forest to depict using oil pastels.  This also connected with the Common Core because the students were reading a book about the rain forest.  Usual rules applied (having a good background, color blending with the oil pastels, etc.)  Students started them in class and then I sent a box of oil pastels up to each 5th grade classroom so the students could finish these before the art show. EVERY student finished theirs and brought it back to me!  Amazing!  They were all also extremely proud of their work, and I am too!

3rd Grade Mondrian Unit (Part 4): Our Finished, Glazed Cubes!

Sorry about the wait in sharing these!  Here are those glazed Mondrian Cubes my 3rd graders created at the end of the school year.  They look awesome!  This is definitely a project that I will be doing again.  It's an awesome way to incorporate Common Core Math (using a ruler, 3-D objects, horizontal and vertical lines, geometric shapes, etc.!).  Again, students could choose to glaze their cubes with primary colors like Mondrian, or secondary, warm, or cool.  Love these!

If you missed my past posts on this project, check them out below!  Part 1 is the introductory lesson, part 2 is how we built them, and part 3 is glazing!

Mondrian Cubes Part 1

Mondrian Cubes Part 2

Mondrian Cubes Part 3

Kindergarten: Rainy Day Self-Portraits

Well, it's a dreary day of rain in Northern New York today, accompanied by Day 2 of DDI Camp.  That's Data Driven Instruction for those of you who may have not been forced to use it yet!  The concept behind it is understandable, but try to get two art teachers from different schools to meet for the first time and to agree on content to cover in their classes by the 10 week, 20 week and 30 week mark?  Ha, yeah right!

So, since it's a rainy day today, I'll leave you with my kinder's last project of the school year.  In alignment with their NYS Listening & Learning strand of "Seasons and Weather", we did these spring time portraits.  We discussed what the weather is like in spring (lots of rain!), what happens with the trees and flowers (they start to get leaves and bud!), and what a self-portrait is.

I took a different route with the kinder's for this project when demonstrating how to draw their body.  Usually, like with my pattern cow project, I would demonstrate one step at a time and have the kids do the step on their own paper before moving to the next.  This time, I demonstrated how to draw the umbrella and then had them do the umbrella.  Next, I showed them how to draw their entire body, starting with their head, the neck, their shoulders and arms, torso, legs and feet.  Then, I let them go to town!

We put in a horizon line (always important and something I stress!) and added good details for spring time.  This all happened in one class period.  The only thing I didn't allow them to do was color the sky, which is usually against the rules!

On the second day of the project, I gave each student a straw and we went over proper straw etiquette (no spitting at others, if you drop it on the floor get a new one, etc.).  I had the students turn their papers upside down and I then went around to the best "Mona Lisas" and gave them a few drops of blue ink on their paper.  Students blew through the straw to make the ink run and look like rain!  Once they were done with the blue, they received a few drops of turquoise, rinse, repeat and done!