Cute Book:)

Im dedicating this blog post to my college/teacher/blogger friend Molly (also known as "art and ideas that grow"). She opened my up to a love to everything mustached. This book, written and illustrated by Kevin Sherry, is about a cute little octopus who paints all over the ocean spreading his creativity for other creatures to see. Great inspiration for an art lesson. 

World Masks

Students learned about masks in four major cultures/ geographical areas from around the world. They then completed a worksheet where they listed major mask characteristics including materials used, colors, uses, etc. for each culture/ geographical area. Students crated a "mask skeleton" out of old grocery store sale signs that had been donated to the art classroom and tape. The combination of slits and tabs in paper cut put help to create 3D elements. This skeleton was then covered in plaster gauze strips and then painted with acrylic paint. Very fun and engaging project!!!

Wolf Kahn Landscapes

These are sample drawings I did for a landscape lesson I hope to further develop soon. School year is coming to a close very quickly and I'm running out of time for experimentation. The artist Wolf Kahn has great color blocked landscapes that I think would work well with a younger age group. I tried it with High School students and it was a constant struggle to get them to think beyond what they thought a landscape should look like (green grass and blue sky). Younger elementary students think about the world in color already so why not expand on that? 

NLA ART WINS BIG!

Students at North Lakes Academy won big at an area juried art show!!! We are a small school with a substantial amount of art talent which has been a continually pleasant surprise as my long term substitute contract moves into a its sixth week. The two drawings on the left were from my 7th graders and they took 1st and 3rd place for the middle school division. I had a 5th grade student win 2nd for his quirky magazine collage and also an 8th grader win for a large zentangle inspired drawing we titled "Chutes and Arrows"! This post is in congratulations to them!!! 

Non-Objective Drawings

5th Grade students were asked to create a non-objective colored pencil and oil pastel drawing that was inspired by a small triangle magazine clipping. Clippings were required to be abstract and have a good amount of lines, shapes, patterns, and colors to help inspire the non-objective drawing. Final projects were required to have movement (we talked about how an eye can move and dance around a drawing following the lines, shapes, and patterns) and unity (as a class we looked at various student examples of this project and we critiqued each drawing talking about whether or not the drawing had unity). Overapping was encoraged in order to give the drawings a sense of space.

Botswana Coil Baskets

8th grade students learned about the Botswana coil basket making tradition and then created their own basket with pre-wrapped paper core and yarn. Students were able to incorporate a design for extra credit. My favorite part of this lesson was having students push the tables to the edge of the classroom and rearrange their chairs in a circle in the center of the room. With this age group being as social as they are it was a nice change to have one large conversation rather than having six going on at one time. I was nervous initially promoting socialization but it turned out to be rather nice and the students were very productive. I should mention however that my class sizes range from 22-15 students and a class of 35 my become overwhelming. Having two circles may be a better option.  

Oaxacan Wood Sculptures

Last month I started a long-term substitute teaching position at North Lakes Academy in Forest Lake, MN. I have been having a blast with this amazing opportunity but have unfortunately have been unable to post in a long time. Above I have posted some photographs of sculptures the 6th graders were working on the first couple weeks I was here. When I arrived they where in the process of gluing the wooded shapes together with wood glue. I awkwardly finished out the lesson mispronouncing "Oaxacan" the whole way through, haha. I thought the sculptures turned out nicely painted and patterned. Very bright and fun, however I wish there was an alternative to the wood glue. It takes so long to dry that the students could only glue one or two pieces on a class period. Made for a lot of misused class time! Any alternative suggestions?