Recycled Paper Flowers

Each school year the art teacher is asked to have students make some art for some occasion.  We were asked to make a center piece for a retirement party in our district.  Some of the third and fifth graders made these recycled paper flowers.  I asked the librarian for some books that they discard each year.  She gave me a whole box!  The kids traced and cut out a flower and creased each petal.  I assembled them using wire that the electricians cut and usually throw away from the ballasts in our lights.  My husband is an electrician so I have an in!  Them is assembled them in styrofoam on the basket.  Cute!  We may do these flowers again.  At the end of the school year we have a party for all of our volunteers.  Art students usually make them a gift.  Maybe we'll do these flowers.

Kinder Self Portraits!

Before each Kindergarten student drew and colored their own self portrait, we looked at one of the many self portraits of Vincent Van Gogh.  We discussed facial features and used geometric shapes to draw the body.  I love these self portraits!

These are some of the eight 5th grade helpers that give up their recess to come and help me with Kindergarten.  They helped me cut out all 90 Kindergarten self portraits.  I could not survive with out their help!  Thank 5th grade!

Kindergarten Painting

Kindergarten learns to paint!  The kids all tell me they already know how to paint but they are learning how to paint with 20 other children, how to carry their painting to the drying rack, wash their hands, and clean up the mess all in 45 minutes!  The fist paintings we made were about mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.  In the picutres below the studens were allowed to use all of the paints and paint any thing they wanted (free paint day)!

                                         

  

Kinder kids learn to clean up too!

3rd & 4th Photography

Third and Fourth Photography

Because of the after school grants that our school has received, our art room has 16 digital cameras.  Third and fourth graders are learning about photography, photography careers and how to us the digital camera.   My favorite photography lesson is "point of view or vantage point".  After looking at examples of previous students photographs, the class goes outside to take some "point of view" photographs, close up and action photographs.  They come up with some amazing photographs!

Here are a few examples of 4th grade photographs.

Taken by Destiny

Taken by Dominika

Taken by Emiledy

Taken by Juna Carlos

Taken by Jose

Taken by Veronica

Pinwheels For Peace!

The pinwheels are everywhere!  650!

Theses pinwheels were done with Kindergarten and I incorporated a lesson on how to carry their artwork to the drying rack.  The students colored on the pinwheels using watercolor markers and then I sprayed them with "magic" water.  They have to carry the wet artwork to the drying rack with two hands so they don't drip.  The older students want to know why they can't spray theirs!

Unfortunately, we were not able to create our pinwheel art installation outside because of rain.  So we made it into an art performance!  We did two separate performances in the gym.  We sang part of the Beatles song, "Give Peace a Chance", read a couple of "Who will you make peace with?" writings, reviewed all of the things we had been learning about peace on the announcemnets in the morning, and talked about how to stop a bully!

Ace Summer School Activities 2013

Weaving

 Paper Making

Paper making was fun but wet!

Pulling up the paper pulp using the deckle.

Take off the deckel.

Squeezing out the water.

Flipping it over on to a towel.

Peeling off the screen.

We made three types of paper.  Brown grocery bag paper, white paper from our shredder and paper from newspaper advertisements.

These are clay markers we made for our "Seed to Plate" garden.

Batik 4th Grade 2012-2013

Batik-4th Grade

First, students draw their pictures with very little detail. Next, tape the top and bottom of the fabric over the drawing. Then, tape the sides, stretching to make it tight.

In the pictures below, the students are painting their entire fabric with the melted crayons.  They also, check the coloring using a picture.

Next, they put their fabric 
into one color of dye.

Students crumble their 
painted fabric over the trash can.

Early finishers peel crayons for next year.

The last step is to iron the batik and it makes a print.  I have an old dry press that I use.  I place the dyed batik face down on a white piece of paper and place it between several layers of news paper and   press it in the hot press for a few minutes.

SPILLS!

Today is June 18th and this is my first post.

 I have been working on my blog in my head for a while.  This photo is one of the things I have been thinking about-SPILLS.  Sometimes we spill in the art room.  Most of the time it is me who spills things.  So here are the first spill pictures!

My best spill ever!  I shook up a containter of blue glaze and the lid was not all the way on....

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A hot wax spill while doing batik.

How I fix a perfectly good shirt!

More shirts I have saved from paint splashes!