1st Grade: Oil Pastel Snowmen

Last post for the weekend...these are the oil pastel snowmen we finished up this week with my 1st graders.  We started them right before break, as a review of blending oil pastels (from the pumpkin patch project) and having depth in an artwork (through multiple horizon lines, size, and overlapping).  We also talked about and looked at photos of the Northern Lights.  The one thing I'm seeing from this project, is that we now need to focus on appropriate details in a drawing, which I will get into when we start our next unit, which is going to be dinosaurs.

This project was challenging for a few, because of the idea of having a white snowman with white snow in the background.  Some understood the concept of blending in blues to the white snow to differentiate between the snowman and background, whereas others just left some background parts uncolored.  We did discuss what other details could be drawn in, such as Santa, people building the snowman, etc., but only a few put some of those details in.  Here are some of our finished snowmen!

Roll-A-Snowman Activity

I just wanted to post my Roll-A-Snowman activity that I created.  I didn't have the worksheet with me at home this weekend so I couldn't post it with my Kindergarten Snowman post.  Here it is! This photo should be large enough that all you need to do is right click and "save as".

Kindergarten: Sponge-Paint Snowmen

Kindergarten just finished up a snowman unit.  It worked out perfect because I didn't know they were learning about snow in their classroom!  This unit took us a total of three days to do from start to finish.

Day 1: On the first day, we built a snowman as a class on the smartboard using some snowman games.  The particular snowman game (I call it a game...it really isn't a game...just an interactive activity to build a snowman, though I'm sure you could turn it into a game!) came from Castle Arcana.  I went to this website and saved the site to my hard drive.  It saves it as a shockwave flash file and makes it easier to find instead of hunting through websites to find it.  They even have other fun activities for the smartboard like the trim a Christmas tree activity.  (Here is the link to the Castle Arcana Christmas activities page.)

Anyways, after building a snowman or two as a class (so everyone gets the chance to come up), I gave everyone a "Roll-A-Snowman" game to do for the rest of the period.  Right now, I don't have my worksheet at home.  I based this off the Roll-A-Monster game.  I searched for a similar snowman one and couldn't find one, so I made my own template for the dice games and drew in my own snowman features.  The kids LOVE these games!  They are great to play with K-1 too because, as I found out, they are working with recognizing the numbers on the dice in their classroom!  Here is my template I made and a few student examples.  Tomorrow I'll be sure to post my filled out Roll-A-Snowman game that I made.

I did this with my 12:1:1 class as well...on of the aides thought this was great and suggested I let the kids make their own dice game using a blank grid!  WHAT?  WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!?

Day 2: On the second day, we reviewed how to build a snowman (large ball, medium ball, small ball).  I passed out large blue construction paper and these great foam dauber brushes I bought this year. We used these brushes before on the fall trees (which I just realized I never posted about! Whoops!) when we talked about pointillism, so it was a great review.  We talked about how the pointillism effect would help create the texture of fluffy snow.

Day 3: On the last day, we used various types of objects to add the details.  Buttons, pipe cleaners, foam, felt, beads, etc.  I changed it up with each class as to what they got to use depending on how wild they were when they came in.  I also let them use markers to add some details (many tried to draw Santa and the reindeer in the sky). One class used gel glitter glue to add snowflakes.  One class used q-tips and white paint, and the other two I sprayed with fake snow.

I love the one on the right!  This was the only student who did something different with his snowman!  I was a little worried he didn't understand about snowman on the second day when we did the sponge painting, but when he started adding his details, I have to say I was impressed!

It always makes me giggle a little because some kindergartners (and even 1st and 2nd graders!) don't realize that their people are naked!  It's winter!!! ;)

These two have some of the spray snow...

This one has the glitter glue stuff...

Glass Fusing Tutorial: Snowman Plate

A few posts ago, I posted some of the glass art my After School Art Club did last year and I was asked to post a tutorial.  Soooooo, since I've been a little down and out about my Delilah gone missing, I decided to take 30 minutes today to create a little snowman plate out of glass to post a tutorial!

All of the glass supplies I use I have purchased in classroom kits from eNasco and Dick Blick.  The glass refills come from Blick.

To let it be known, I am not a paid sponsor of any type for Nasco, Blick, or any of the glass supply companies that I will mention.  I also have a very limited background on glass art, except for what I have self-taught myself in the last year since I purchased my glass kiln for my room in the summer of 2011.

My glass kiln is a Skutt Hot Start electric kiln.  It comes pre-programmed with a slow, medium and fast firing schedule for doing a full fuse (melting glass together to be a flat sheet), a tack (melting the glass enough so that it sticks together; will still have raised aspects to it) and slumping (heating fused glass in a mold so that it slumps to a bowl/plate shape).  The kiln is about 12" round and about 8" deep.  It only has one shelf, so when I work with the 6" glass pieces, I can only do one at a time.  When we work with the 3" glass, I can usually fit 4-5 in the kiln, depending on if I am fusing or slumping.

Note: I cannot fire clay in this kiln.  There are kilns you can purchase that do both, however since I have virtually no clue about the temperatures that you must hold the glass at, I decided a kiln with an automatic firing system would be best!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The glass on the left is confetti glass.  Confetti glass is very thin and very sharp!  The glass on the right is called millefiori...it looks like a little flower encased in a cylinder.  

The glass on the left is just called glass chunks...they are thicker pieces of colored glass.  The glass on the right is frit...a very fine, almost powder like, glass.

These are just some of the glass plates I have.  You can order the glass plates to use as a base for projects in 6"x6" squares, 3"x3" squares, and 6" circles.  The circles are more expensive than the squares, and the colored glass is more expensive than the clear glass.

You also need a glass cutting tool (the red tool), which actually only scores the glass.  It has a tiny wheel that you run along the glass to put a score line.  Then, you use the glass pliers.  You line up the pliers with the score line and squeeze the pliers.  The glass literally just pops apart! I like having a piece of felt under the glass when I am scoring.  It helps hold all the little shards and keeps them off the tables so you are less likely to get a splinter from one.  Also...make sure you wear goggles!  Glass shards can fly into your eyes!

You can see the teeth on the scoring tool...those are used to pry at the glass edge to chip it off if you have to thin of a piece to snap apart with the pliers.  As far as I know, it is nearly impossible to cut a perfect circle out of glass, however, when I fuse the glass together, it should melt into a decent circle.

Here is my snowman so far...this will be interesting to see how the glass works together as I am using glass from two different companies.  You have to make sure the glass has the same COE, or coefficient of expansion.  Some glass is COE 90, some is COE 96, and some is COE 90 compatible.  (COE 90 glass can be used in a microwave glass kiln.  I also have two of these...a post to come in the future about using a microwave glass kiln!)  

next I added the arms using stringers.  These are long pieces of glass that are either shaped like a noodle or a flattened noodle.

So far, I have used millefiori for the buttons, cut glass for the snowman body, hat, nose and scarf, confetti for the mouth and eyes, and stringers for the arm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now for the hard part!  Right now when I create a glass piece, I don't use any type of glue to hold the pieces in place.  Some people use watered down Elmer's glue to hold the pieces in place when moving it to the kiln, however if you use too much, it will create imperfections in the glass.  There is also a special glue you can get for fusing glass, however I have heard much of the same complaints...that it creates imperfections in your glass.

Usually what I do is just carefully pick it up and shuffle across my room to take it to the kiln.  Once inside, I usually have to push the little stringers back in place, and that's about it.  

Before moving the glass pieces to the kiln, you have to make sure you have a good surface for it.  You can use kiln wash, or you can use fiber kiln paper.  Kiln wash is definitely cheaper, but it's more work.  I've noticed that after every fuse, I need to scrape the shelf and reapply the kiln wash. Then I have to wait for it to completely dry, otherwise it will produce air bubbles in the glass pieces when firing.  The only thing I have found I haven't had to reapply kiln wash to are the slump molds, but more on those later.

Kiln paper is expensive, but it creates a smoother edge on the glass and a smoother bottom.  With kiln wash, you end up with the brush strokes on the back of your glass piece. I'm opting for kiln paper.  Simply cut it to be about the same size as your project.

My piece after I moved it in the kiln...all the noodles moved!

After I put it in the kiln, I added some light blue frit...this will make it look like snow!

On goes the kiln!  I set it for a slow speed full fuse.  It will take about 7 hours to complete.  The fast fuse takes about 4 hours.  Hopefully I'll have good results to share with you on Thursday! (Tomorrow is my day off...no school for me!)