Big Heads and Famous Faces

Recently I was looking through my previous posts and realized that I had never mentioned one of the most fun and amazing projects ever! I am so excited and pleased to share this with you!

I truly believe that one of the best ways to develop professionally in the 21st century is to take part in the online world through blogging, Pinterest, etc. So many wonderful ideas, lessons, and units are shared online and they are inspiring teachers and students all over the world! It's a great thing to be a part of.

This project was one of those amazing ideas that I came across on a teacher's wordpress website. You can find the original project here: WVartist's Weblog.

I taught this lesson when I was at IPS in Saudi to my hard working group of junior and senior high school girls. To begin the "Big Head Project" we discussed familiar/famous faces that are recognized globally. Most of our discussions led to famous cartoons or TV shows, and the girls chose a favorite character to start their wearable sculptures.

These "Big Heads" took quite a while to make, but the students were so excited and engaged with this project they willingly spent almost every lunch time or free period in the art room working on their piece.

At the end of the year, their sculptures made an appearance at the final art show in a local art gallery. Some of their creations were even sold to people in the surrounding community! The "Big Heads" were definitely a huge hit with students and staff alike. Here are a few examples of the students' final creations below. I was so proud of their effort and creativity!

                                                    

Art History Chairs

While my amazing kiddos are working on some wonderful new artwork for this year, I thought I would share some of their creations from last year that I did not get a chance to post!

Before the summer holidays we discovered all of these old classroom chairs underneath the steps inside our school building. They weren't being used, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for an art project! 

My PYP 5 class started this project by picking out a famous artist's name from a jar. When the artist's name was chosen, the students did a research activity on the library computers to find information about the artist and investigate their style of work.

The students used this information as inspiration for a chair design in their classroom sketchbooks. Once the design was drawn and colors planned, the students applied their ideas by drawing on the chairs.  

Their final chairs turned out wonderful and the kids had so much fun with this! The chairs are now displayed through out the school and the students are still talking about the artist they researched last year! It was a successful project and one they will always remember. 

Magic Sandbox & Clay Sculptures

I love sensory play, It makes me wish I could be four years old again. I suppose it's a good thing I am able to spend my days teaching, playing, and learning right along side my cheerful reception class!

The first few sessions of art with my new group of four year-olds has been so much fun. I am slowly introducing line, shape, and color while also teaching how to use materials and art tools appropriately.

On the first day of class we talked about line and took turns making up our own lines in my "Magic Sandbox." I poured salt over colored paper that had been glued down in a recycled box. When the students press their finger in the salt to "draw" the colors underneath show through. They absolutely love it!

 After playing in our "sandbox" the students worked on making and matching lines with pipe cleaners. It was a great activity for them to build up their fine motor skills.

We then put that bending, folding, and tying to good use by creating some sculptures! The students were given a small piece of clay that they rolled into a ball and stuck with as many kinds of lines as they could think of. They really enjoyed it and every student came up with something unique. 

                 

The next class session the clay was dry and the students painted their lovely open ended line sculptures. We also reviewed how to take care of paintbrushes and practiced a bit of color mixing. 

I am so proud of my little artists! 

Here are a few examples of their finished sculptures!

What is ART?

I enjoy doing a lot of online reading through fellow art teachers' blogs, Pinterest, and other art websites to gather new sources of inspiration. There are so many amazing ideas out there! I love the collaboration and sharing that goes on between educators through blogging and websites.

This bulletin board activity was one of those great ideas I stumbled upon while reading online. I thought this was a great way to start the first day of art class with sharing and discussion.

As my upper PYP students entered the room on the first day I asked them two questions: What do you think art is and why is art important? They took the questions very seriously and the answers they came up with truly made me smile.  

"....can solve problem like when you are boring." This cracked me up!

Many of my students are not native English speakers. Some felt comfortable writing full sentences while others wrote down specific words. For my students who are just beginning and really don't have the skills that writing in a new language requires, I had them write in their own language or draw a picture. The students were eager to share their answers and at the end of class we posted them all together on one of the art room bulletin boards. It was a successful activity for the first day! 

The Art of Line

It is so nice to start the school year with students who are eager to learn and jump right back into art class! My P1 students have been doing some wonderful work and I am happy to share what we have been up to!

During our first class together we reviewed the art element of line. Line was something we had discussed and created with last year in their Pre-K class, so it was familiar to them and a great starting point for lessons to come. We began by reviewing line on the white board and discussing how to take care of and properly use our paint brushes. The students then sat in groups of four or five at tables and practiced painting lines on a large piece of paper.

They enjoyed sharing the colors and took their time moving around their table to cover the space.

Once the paper was covered with beautiful lines, we played a wonderful game I found on a variety of different blogs and websites called "Walk the Line." I had taped two sets of "lines" on the floor of my classroom and had two groups of students line up behind each set. The students had to listen to which line I said to walk while doing an action/dance that had been made up. The whole class really loved it and all of us had so much fun while listening to music. 

    

Best game ever!!

During our next class we reviewed line again and began discussing sculpture. I had previously cut their large line paintings into smaller pieces and our line sculptures were born! 

I loved the discussions that took place while they created their free form line sculptures. Some students decided theirs was a water park or roller coaster ride, while others described crazy buildings, haunted houses, and cool playgrounds. 

So far we are having a blast learning together! I am so happy to be starting another great school year with such creative kiddos! Can't wait to share what we are up to next!

2D/3D Abstract Splats

This is a lesson that students and myself absolutely loved. I taught this with my grade 5 students while still working in Saudi Arabia, so I thought I would share!

To begin this lesson my students viewed and discussed abstract paintings by Jackson Pollock. They looked at the movement created by the splashes of paint mixing with other colors.

We then discussed contemporary artist Martin Klimas who photographs brightly colored paints being bounced around by sound vibrations. We also watched a video of the process he goes through to capture these beautiful images. My students were amazed!

To make things even more fun, we also took a look at the famous performance artists, The Blue Man Group. My students had never heard of them before and loved the amazing things they can do with music, humor, and brilliant colors. 

After our discussions and comparisons between these three types of art, we began our own art making process. The students first designed an abstract shape inspired by the bouncing blobs of paint from the videos, photographs, and paintings viewed previously. Once the drawing was complete, students were in for a surprise. They had to construct their abstract splat into a three dimensional form with clay. The students loved creating the final piece, especially when they were able to paint with neon colors. 

I thought this lesson was a great way of showing students how contemporary artists are influenced from artists throughout history. The final product was a huge hit at the end of the year art show! 

Landscape Studies

What I enjoy about teaching IB is that the program encourages students to go deeper within their studies. To inquire, think critically, and communicate their thought processes. While teaching this unit about the varieties of landscape art to my PYP 4 students, they were able to utilize those skills successfully and develop a deeper understanding of their personal creative approach.

The unit was started with investigating different types of landscape art that have been made by artists throughout history. We broke these types of landscapes down into three categories including representational landscape (or realism), impressionism, and abstract landscape. As a class we viewed artists involved with each category and discussed the differences.

After discussion, the students also learned a new set of vocabulary and how to create perspective within their drawings and paintings. The first task was to create their own landscape using perspective and value as seen in this student's painting and sketchbook work.

The next task was to introduce a new technique and style of painting. After reviewing impressionist artists and famous works, the students were ready to try their own impressionist style paintings. The students used a brand new pencil that had not been sharpened to dip into colors to create the bold dots or brush strokes seen within this style. The students had a lot of fun mixing colors to their landscape with something other than a paint brush! 

The final task for this unit was by far the best, according to my students. Together, we took a look at Australian artist John Olsen and his famous abstract landscape paintings. The students discussed the different colors used by this artist and how that influences the feel of what type of landscape is represented.  

After discussion, each student was given a picture of a map with an aerial view of a landscape. In their sketchbooks, students designed a line drawing based on the bold lines found within their aerial maps. When their drawing was finalized, the messy (and most fun) part began! 

Each student was given a small canvas, glue, and pieces of white tissue paper. The students rolled their tissue paper into a line, dipped the "line" into glue, and arranged the "line" on their canvas as it was in their sketchbook drawing. When all of the gluey lines were dry, the students chose specific colors based on what type of landscape they wanted to represent. 

They were so engaged during this assignment you could hear a pin drop! The students loved the final results of their mixed media abstract landscapes and were really impressed with how unique everyone's was. I loved teaching this unit and feel like each student was successful and gained a deeper understanding of the creative process and art history!