Information + Imagination =

My body is squarish roundish, like a swimming pool.

My head is long and slightly pointed, like a slide at recess.

My tail can change like the day changes to night.

My feet are like tree trunks in the winter, or is it tree branches?

I have patterns on some areas that sparkle like diamonds in the light.

My color can change you see.  How do you ask? I’ll tell you.  If you are happy, my colors will be happy colors.   

If you are sad, my colors change to sad colors.  How do you feel now?

by Me!

This lesson was inspired by The American Museum of Folk Art-

Students explored individual artists' interpretations of animals and created a drawing in response to the description above. What we realized during conversation about the art was that different artists imagine, interpret an depict animals differently. This was especially true for folk artists because of their limited resources. To help us understand and appreciate the folk artists better, I read the description above (of an unfamiliar animal) as they responded with a drawing.

Skyler, Kindergarten

artwork by Kindergarten and 2nd Grade

Communities Calendar

Your client is The Nature Channel.  You have been asked to design a calendar for their viewing audience.  Based on your knowledge of how artists can represent nature, how would you design it?

Two students collaborated ideas to come up with a plan for their particular month. Foreground, middle-ground and background had to be considered for the landscapes.   The images are in order from January- December.  

All artwork by 2nd grade-

Monotypes

 

2nd grade monotypes

We had a great experience making monotypes this week.  We actually painted the plate on our tables and
used a q-tip for drawing the image.  We then placed a piece of paper on top, burnished with our palm and pulled the print... voila!
The bottom image shows the process.

Kindergarten Monotypes

Transforming Ink Blots

Predetermined outcome is a closed door. 

Mitzi Scott



 

Artwork by 3rd and 6th grade students

Second and 3rd grade artwork.

The students loved this project.  I got the inspiration from the Field Elementary Art Blog. They added color which really added a wonderful element.  I've seen these before but it was more or less used for a Halloween lesson on spooky trees.  If you go to Teacher Tube, and search dailymonster.com, you will find videos of Stefan Bucher, the man behind dailymonster.com.  The kids loved watching his time lapse videos of his ink blot drawings.  We did this first and then went to the tables to create our own.  I put ink in a spray bottle and sprayed just a tiny bit on each paper.  The kids used straws to blow a couple of times and then pen or marker to continue the image. Super fun!

The Way of Collage

There's a wonderful tension that exists between the artist, the mind and paper.  Ah, but when the moment arrives, hands cut, papers fly, imaginations soar.  This is the way of collage.

The collages were made by first making the "material" for the collage and then cutting it to build a character.  Texture plates were used to created the illusion of texture.  The following week we cut the paper into 4  pieces that were used for body parts.  I also placed solid colored paper on the tables that could be used for contrast.
  One of my main goals was for the kids to explore the endless possibilities of this imagined character.   I showed a wonderful piece by  Miga de Pan (link and image below).  I also demonstrated the process of making a character while intentionally cutting free form or odd shapes. This way, the kids could see that it was not necessary to cut a "proper" head, body, legs, etc.
                                                                   

Miga de Pan

Beyond Invented Insects

This was an amazing lesson-
Inventing Insects

As they were painting,  I encouraged them to name their insect, based on the characteristics.    I decided to tap into their musical intelligence by having them compose a sound for their insect.  How could that sound be symbolized?
 They could map it! (video above) One thing that blew me away was seeing the collaboration among students.  Transcending any limitations of spoken language, the map became the tool of communication.  And in its use, students traveled from the abstract to the concrete and back again.  What a journey!

Inventing Insects

1st Grade Invented Insects

I think insects are such an engaging subject for study.  Did you know there are nearly 1 million known species? Ah, but this lesson is not about the known species, it's about the unknown species.
To deepen our understanding of this amazing part of life,   I'm planning on doing a few lessons on insects but just vary the media .  




great insect source here

We started by discussing how artists often find inspiration from nature.  We looked at images of parks and forests and talked about what you might hear or see there.  This led us to the world of insects. Adult insects have the following characteristics: 6 legs, 2 or 4 wings,  a segmented body including a head, thorax, and abdomen, antennae, proboscis and eyes.
 I demonstrated painting the 3 body parts first and then going back to add eyes, antennae, legs, wings, etc.  A  wonderfully challenging  part of this lesson is for the kids to free themselves up and create a new species of insect.  Many of the students also gave their insect an amusing name.


This is one of my favorite sites: Encyclopedia of Life

Celebrations

Winning the Corn Festival Race
1st Grade Student

I love this celebration artwork because it makes you visually anticipate what's going to happen next.
Kindergarten Student.

Happy Day
4th Grade Student

This is the celebration of the departure of the Titanic.
3rd Grade Student





Concept: Celebrations
Essential Questions:
Why do we celebrate?  Who celebrates? How do we celebrate? How does art help us understand celebrations from other cultures and our own?  Is it important to celebrate? Do celebrations bring us closer as a whole?


That's how we started this lesson, by looking at celebratory artworks throughout history and sharing our own stories of celebrations.  I tried this lesson with various classes from K-4th.  I must say it was successful at each grade level because the students were able to connect the concept of celebrations to their own life experience and what is important to them.

Imagining Underground Worlds

In this lesson the students worked as artists to imagine an underground world or setting.  The question was how could they, as artists show this place. We discussed how artists can use space and viewpoint as tools to communicate their ideas.  We looked at and discussed the quilt Mother Earth and her Children which you can see here,  it is such a fabulous piece to explore!  Another favorite part of this lesson is reading the thoughts and feelings the kids have about their work.  Having them write about it helps them understand their own work better and develop a true relationship with it.   As a viewer, it makes you go back and explore the artwork more thoughtfully by looking at the details and seeing things you failed to notice before.  Notice below what Rosaura wrote about the dad rabbit being afraid as he is watching the coyote; now look at the expression on his face.