Environmental Machines

After seeing a post a couple years back I was inspired to at some point create an "Environmental Machine Collargraph" lesson. Finally I was able to put something together and I couldn't be more excited by the results. The stars couldn't have aligned better.  Both the timing of the "Lorax" movie coming out and Earth Day on April 22 really made this lesson current and well rounded. 

After discussing the word "environment" and coming up with a brainstorm list of things that are negative towards our environmental, students watched clips from the old "Lorax" movie. I then assigned their mission...

To create a "Truffula Seed Planing Machine"!

Many of the machines used in the story cause negative impact towards the environment. IDEA! Lets create machines that help the environment. Fresh off the train named "Dr. Seuss Inspiration Express" the kiddos were ready to sketch! 

Collagraph printing plates. 

After a day of brain storming and sketching students were ready to learn about collagraphs. On a small sheet of tag board students sketched their final idea. Then, on top of all pencil lines, students began to glue small strip of craft foam. This process took two full class periods. On the forth day we printed using brayers and block printing ink!

Now for printing I have no organization advice. 

No matter what I did it turned into a MESS! 

But thats ok...

Because we tried out best

While were riding...

The "Dr. Seuss Inspiration Express"!

In my next life I will teach poetry and creative writing:) 

MORE Stop Motion Animation!!!

Please enjoy more stop motion animation films, this time from our 5th graders! 

(4th grade videos can be found here)

Song: "This Head I Hold" by Electric Guest

Song: "Daylight" by Matt & Kim

Song: "Some Nights" by Fun.

Mark Rothko: Color + Emotion

How delicious are the colors and compositions of these Mark Rothko inspired chalk pastel drawings!?

To introduce the links between color and emotions, we read the story "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss". We then made a mental list of all the emotions we had felt during the day (tired when we woke up, excited to be at school, happy hamburgers were for lunch, and so on). Whatever color we felt we drew.

Our next step was to talk about artists who use color to influence emotional responses from a viewer. Enter...Mark Rothko! 

Using chalk pastels on black construction paper we mixed and blended our Rothko inspired works. WOW! I'm still getting goose bumps, they turned out so stunning! I'm so proud!

Wolf Kahn Landscapes

Students were introduced to Wolf Kahn and his color field landscapes using arbitrary color. After discussing horizon line, background, middle ground, and foreground, students began creating chalk pastels landscapes inspired by Kahns work.

Example of Wolf Kahn's work

We did four small 6"x6" drawings in total. First I would show them a large picture of Wolf Kahn's work (see above) and they would create a landscape inspired by it. At the same time they were asked to include background, middle ground, and foreground. Adding details was the final step.

 I encouraged no blue skys and no green grass and showed students how to achieve texture using blending and drawing techniques. Pure exploration of the medium really made this project a joy for me to teach, just allowing them to learn the capabilities of this material.

 
Our final step with this project will be to create a landcape more details and textures on a larger scale. Still creating a landscape with arbitrary color, but drawing in a more calculated way. Excited to see where they take it!

Amazed with this composition, the colors, and the textures of this work. 

Again the texture and color choices are so delicious to me!

100th Post & 100 Followers!

WOW! Thanks to all who have been following my blog, stopping by for a comment, and inspire me to continue doing what I've doing for the past couple years. As Art Teachers we are at times so secluded in our specialty we are rarely offered the opportunity to collaborate. This blog was an "experiment" for me to share ideas and be be inspired. I can safely reach a conclusion and say a professionally blog is truly a way to, among other things, remain creative, reflective, and spontaneous as an educator! Thank You again!

-Katie

Stop Motion Animation

Japanese Bento Boxes

A Japanese Bento Box is a container in which a meal is stored for convenient travel. (Bento means "convenient" or "convenience" in Japanese). Typical foods found in bento boxes include rice, fish, noodles, fruits, vegetables, etc. Shapes of boxes vary, and at times the contents are arranged in ways that depict anime, animals, people, characters, etc. If prepared in an elaborate way it could be a symbol of status for the Bento owner.

4th grade students created these Bento box paper sculptures over three class periods. (original inspiration for lesson found here!) 1st they made the box and then after researching common Japanese foods students began to construct items out of paper. Students were required to have three sections (not including chopsticks area) that contain three different foods.