Clay Looms & Weaving

I have been seeing other Bloggers and Pinterest Pinners posting things about clay looms. Every post I have seen shows a unique approach for these hand made looms and I just couldn't wait any longer to try it out with one of my PYP classes.

As a class we had been investigating texture and had just gone through new art vocabulary while practicing some clay techniques. What a great time to try out these looms and add in some weaving skills!

We began by doing some practice radial weaving on paper plates. The students used a template to cut notches in their paper plate and wound yarn through the notches during teacher demonstration.

During the next lesson, students wedged and rolled out their own slab of clay. This slab was cut into a shape of their choice, with a circle stamped out from the middle. 19 holes were then punched with a straw evenly around the circle that was cut from the middle. Before the loom was complete, students had fun pressing a variety of materials into the wet clay to create texture. They used shells and other natural materials to get interesting shapes and designs.

Once the looms had dried and were fired in the kiln, they colored the finished clay with a crayon and chalk technique. The students then strung up their looms as we had practiced before with paper plates and began weaving with different colors.

Although the weaving was difficult for students at first, they all were successful with practice! Here are some students finishing their weaving below. 

The completed looms were absolutely beautiful. I wanted to take them home myself!

A few of my happy students being proud of their finished work!

   

Cultural Identity

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have been involved in the blogging world! About a year to be exact, and it has been an exciting year to say the least.

I have moved from the International Programs School of Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia to the EtonHouse International School of Wuxi, China. Besides moving to a new country, I have also been busy learning how to use the International Baccalaureate program for MYP, PYP, and Early Years students. It has been an interesting transition and I feel as though I have grown immensely in my approach to teaching visual arts through out the year. I am excited to start sharing my lessons again and I am so proud of my students' creative works of art!

My MYP 2-3 students just wrapped up their final unit of the year. While investigating a variety of cultures around the world, the students were also discussing cultural identity and how that is represented through different forms of art. They researched a variety of of cultural costumes, masks, and body art and infused their findings into a final piece. The final work was a mask made out of chosen materials (plaster, cardboard or clay) that combined elements of cultural identity from different parts of the globe.

This is an example from a student's process journal with their unit title page and cultural research. 

After the research was complete, students used inspiration from their investigation to start a series of designs for their final product. When the final design was decided, the initial drawing was developed into further detail and materials were chosen as shown below. 

Once the final design was complete, students began creating their mask with the medium of their choice. This student decided to work with clay and acrylic paints. The results were fantastic!

Here are a few more examples of students' final work made with clay, cardboard, or plaster.

The students and myself really enjoyed this unit. I personally love cultural art and collect masks among other things during my travels. I was able to bring in those items and share with the class, which sparked even more creativity as well as student discussion. The MYP 2-3 class worked very hard and each them have a unique piece as a final product! 

Clay Dali Portraits

This is was one of my favorite lessons in Kindergarten this year. I don't think myself or my students have ever laughed so much during a class period before.

I decided to introduce my little kinders to my absolute favorite artist, Salvador Dali. We viewed some of his surrealist paintings and discussed how imaginative they were. I also showed them a few pictures of the famous painter himself and they fell in love with his mustache!

Then came the giggles. I did a demonstration for the kids on how to roll and pinch their clay into a flat oval for the portraits face. We used rolled paper for the nose, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners for the mustache. The kids loved it!

I only have one picture of this particular project from the art show, we were having too much fun to stop and take photos during work time!

The students still talk about this project and how much they love Dali. He's now an artist they will never forget!

Routines

I really enjoy doing this project with high school students as it is very open ended and the students are free to choose what relates to them using a wide variety of materials.

As a class we discuss different types of daily routines that the majority of people do every single day. Getting up in the morning, going to school, eating lunch, household chores, and the list goes on. Once the students have compiled some ideas, I ask them to choose a specific daily routine that is personal to them. They can represent their routine any way they wish including charcoal, paint, photography, and any other techniques that we have practiced and implemented through out the school year.

The students have always come up with something completely different and I feel like it is a very successful project. Here are a few examples of the finished projects below:



 

   

3D Identities

As an introduction to sculpture this year, my combined class of freshman and sophomores completed a three dimensional self portrait.

They were instructed to choose six things that represented themselves and would then construct those items using clay, paper mache, or cardboard. The background was finalized by their choice of materials.

 I thought this was a great way to start learning and experimenting with sculpture and constructing three dimensional pieces. Overall it was pretty successful and each final product was unique!

Crazy Splatter Painted Hair

I really love doing abstract art work with younger grades. Most of them are not afraid to jump right in and explore with colors. This year I wanted to try something new with my second graders and this lesson is what inspired me: Art Projects for Kids.

To introduce the lesson I read the book "I Aint Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont. The book has great splatter painted illustrations and is bright with patterns and color.

After the story the students and I discussed the different facial expressions and emotions associated with them. I prompted them with the question, "How does art make you feel?" Based on that question, the students began drawing an expression of their choice at the bottom of their paper.

The rest of the paper was saved for the best part- splatter painting! Straws were used to drip paint near the top of the portraits head and the paint was then blown upwards. When the paint was dry, the students finished coloring their background and wrote a sentence about their chosen expression or feeling.

           

           

           

My students and myself loved this project so much. I feel like it could be done in a variety of ways and can be adapted for other grade levels. I even used these in the final school art show because they were so funny! The students different personalities can really be seen in each individual portrait. 

Kindergarten Architecture Prints

I stumbled across this art lesson while trying to come up with some new ideas for printmaking with my Kindergarten students. The original lesson can be found here: Smartest Artists. I really liked the idea of using simple materials to get a bold line for the architecture print.

At the beginning of the school year I had ordered a great book called "Roberto: The Insect Architect" by Nina Laden and have been wanting to share it in my classes for some time. I thought it would go great with this printing lesson! However, the book is quite lengthy for a Kindergarten class, so we mostly talked about the fun illustrations and different types of architecture seen through out the story.

After our book discussion, I asked the students about the different kinds of houses that they know. They described shapes, sizes, and materials that houses are built from. I then did a demonstration of how to print different lines and shapes on the paper to create a house.

Kindergartners began printing after the demonstration. They were really enthusiastic and the only materials used to print were different sizes of cardboard and recycled bottle caps for circles.

During the next class period we reviewed the different types of architecture discussed during the story and colored in the printed houses with crayon.