Batik Owls

These lovely owls were done by my 6th grade girls.  To see the  technique, please check out  the sugar skulls from the post below.

Sugar Skulls

A new version of sugar skulls!

• - I had the basic shape of a skull for them to see.  They drew their own.
• - Fill in with various lines to create areas for color
• - Fill in with fluorescent oil pastels
• - Crumble paper and open (repeat 3 times)
• - Paint over entire skull with black tempera (the paint will go into the lines to create a batik effect)
• - Rinse off in the sink with water and a sponge or big brush
• - Let them dry.
• They did all the drawing with a pencil first and then traced over the pencil with a Sharpie (they could choose any color(s).
•                                                               
•                                                               

Torn Paper Collage

 

    Making a torn paper collage is such an engaging  experience for anyone.  The students learned what it means to tear with the grain of the paper and what it means to tear against the grain of the paper.  They  also  arranged their papers in a way that was pleasing to them as artists.  Some chose to make representational collages while others just had fun exploring tearing the paper with a new insight. This lesson really gets a chance to bloom with two class periods versus one.  On the second day,  I demonstrated how you could add details by layering colors on top of other colors.  This really helped them develop their ideas.  Toward the end of class I showed Frederick by Leo Leonni.  With their new found understanding,  they were able to differentiate which shapes were made by tearing and which were made by cutting...pretty cool.  To see all of the collages, click on the slideshow below!




Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Beautiful Owls!

These wonderful clay owls were done by 2nd  graders.  I especially love how they just dove into adding texture with the tools.  Thank you to  That Artist Woman for the inspiration for this lesson!  I did tweak it a bit though.... I  like to put a bunch of tools on the table and let the kids figure out how they can be used to create the texture versus telling what to do with each one. I find it makes them  explore the materials and make new discoveries.
Here are the steps:
(First I demonstrated the process to the whole class)

1. I gave them a small piece of clay and they rolled it into a ball. 
2. Then they squished it down with their palms (just enough to flatten it a bit). 
3. Then they took the rolling pin to make the oval like shape. 
4. They  folded over the edges to give the shape of the wings. 
5. For the head you just fold the top down. 
6. For the ears they  pulled out the clay. 
7. For the eyes they used  marker tops.
8. Texture was added with various tools.  
9. Some of them decided to add a beak with a small bit of clay.

 Voila!

Happy Birthday!

 

These wonderfully delicious cakes were done by Kindergarten students.  Scroll down to see more about this lesson on a previous post!  I just had to add this new collage of pictures because I love the way they turned out!