Pinch Pot Turtles

As an introduction to clay this year with my Grade 2 class, we began by discussing pinch pots and clay vocabulary as a stand alone unit. I demonstrated for the students how to create a pinch pot by rolling the clay into a ball and pressing my thumb in the middle. I found this great visual on Pinterest and had it posted in my classroom for reference while the students were creating their pots.

I then showed the students how to slip and score in order to securely attach clay pieces to their finished pinch pot and our beautiful turtles were born! I absolutely love these! 

Texture Monsters

At the beginning of the school year the focus for P1 students is learning about and experimenting with the elements of art, then using that knowledge throughout the rest of the year to inform their work.

This lesson was started after the students played a short game involving different textures. I had a box filled with different materials and labels on the classroom carpet with words like "soft" "hard" "rough" or "bumpy". The students took turns taking an item from the box and deciding which texture word it fit with best.

After our game and discussing how each item felt, I began demonstrating what visual texture is by using a textured plate and rubbing it with crayons. The students practiced doing this multiple times in their classroom sketchbooks as seen below:

When the students finished their texture rubbings, we met back on the carpet and read the book Where The Wild Things Are. As we were reading together, I would stop and ask the students what kinds of textures they could imagine with the different monsters throughout the story.

After reading and discussing the variety of imaginative monsters, the students worked in their sketchbooks to create their own creature with a variety of line and visual texture using crayons, markers, and textured plates.

Here are a few examples of their finished textured monsters. I love the creative results!

Surrealism Unit

I love Salvador Dali, he has been one of my all time favorite artists since the day my elementary art teacher introduced me to him back in fifth grade. I remember being in absolute awe of the paintings she showed us and my brain literally exploded with a thousand questions as to why an artist would paint the things he did. Now being an art teacher myself, I am so excited to share this interdisciplinary Surrealism unit that my MYP students finished up before the winter holiday. 

Statement of Inquiry: Dreams and nightmares inspire imaginative thoughts, creative activities, and provocative representations. 

Inquiry Questions: How can dreams and nightmares describe past and present experiences and help us imagine future aspirations? Can literature be considered art? How did the narrative of Alice in Wonderland inspire Dali?

To start off the unit my students did a short research activity of Surrealism and Dali's background, discussing their findings as a class. After research and discussion, the students did an individual art analysis on Dali's Burning Giraffe. They focused on the above inquiry question about past and present experiences and how that can influence an art work. Each student's response to the painting was unique and they all had something original to contribute while exchanging their ideas. 

During our next class period together the students were introduced to Dali's Alice in Wonderland inspired watercolor paintings. They had just started reading Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in their English class, and were excited to interpret different parts of the story from the paintings.

 (Here is a link with some of the examples I showed in class: https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/11/15/salvador-dali-alice-in-wonderland-1969/ ) 

After discussion, the students chose a personal dream or nightmare to write about in their process journals. When their stories were complete, they circled action verbs and other descriptive words that had been included in their writing. The words were then used as inspiration for practicing a variety of watercolor techniques with different materials as seen below. 

The students then began drawing ideas for their final painting based on their personal dream or nightmare. While they started sketching their ideas, I showed them the video Destino, which was a Walt Disney/Dali creation that began in 1945 and was completed in 2003. They loved it just as much as I do and it was great for further inspiration for their designs! 

While their initial designs were being created in their process journals, we were lucky enough to have a Dali exhibition come to Shanghai! The English teacher and myself brought the students to the exhibit. It was an absolute blast and perfect for our interdisciplinary unit with Visual Arts and English! During their visit, the students used their process journals to sketch down ideas that could influence their final designs. 

This was such a great opportunity for the students to experience Dali's work firsthand and gather new inspiration outside of the classroom! 

  After our wonderful field trip, the students chose one of their designs to begin developing for their final watercolor dream or nightmare surrealist painting. 

When their paintings were complete, the students made photocopies of their original work. They began discussing typography and literature as an art form in English, while choosing specific words from their dream/nightmare story to incorporate into their final painting. They practiced creating decorative letters in art class on the photocopies until they came up with a design they felt comfortable with, and applied it to the final piece. 

This unit was so much fun to teach and the students were able to make clear connections through interdisciplinary learning in both Visual Arts and English classes. 

Kusama Pumpkins

My PYP 3 class was introduced to the art element of value by none other than a pumpkin. Yes, a pumpkin. I love everything about pumpkins and of course the season of fall! The cool weather, bright warm colors, and the delicious pumpkin treats that range from sweet to savory...I could go on and on but enough with my pumpkin obsession...back to the lesson!

We started off the first class period with a discussion about what value is by looking for highlights and shadows on our little orange pumpkin that I had brought to class. After identifying lights and darks, I showed the students how to make a value scale by pressing harder and lighter with their pencils. I also demonstrated how to add value to a drawing by smudging the pencil marks with my fingers. The students then practiced a value scale while also working on an observational drawing in their sketchbooks.

During our next class session together I showed the students a picture of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's spotted pumpkin sculpture. We did a visible thinking routine by discussing and interpreting what the students were observing in Kusama's wonderful work. What did they see? What did they think was happening? What did they wonder about the artist? The thoughts, ideas, and questions they had were great, and made for a fantastic jumping off point for our next part of the project.

*photo credit to Google Images*

I gave the students a large piece of paper to design their own pumpkin on. Their pumpkin could have any design they chose, as long as they were drawing large and practicing mixing lights and darks to create value with their paints. Once the paintings were dry, we outlined them with permanent markers. I love the final results and how creative each student was after being inspired by Kusama's work and our class discussion!