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At the end of the school year, we had several 1 and 2 day lessons. This was one that the students wanted to do. It involved song lyrics, positive sayings and just good ole fashion feelings. They used 9x12 paper. Had to choose words the words wisely or use a famous quote. They needed to design around the words in an arty manner using a medium of their own choice. I thought these 3 demonstrated a variety of ideas to share on the blog. The last week of school can get tough when you are winding down he classroom and kids are anxious about exams.
The ladies in our lunchroom are just the best. They are always thinking about art teachers with extra chicken tenders, the biggest potato, and yes, CANS!
Here's a look at what happened...
Directions:
Get a large can.
We used big tubs of the Crayola Air Dry Clay to form features for the can.
We put the air dry clay on the front of the can.
After the clay dried, some of the features fell off the can. Easy fix, pop the features with a glue gun and move along to the hair.
Once the clay was in place, we used plaster wrap to form the hair on the sides/backside of the can.
Once the plaster wrap was dry, we spray painted the entire can with silver paint.
After the cans were painted silver, we began to use acrylic to paint the details we had added to the can.
Here is the only other pic that I have of the can project. Sorry, the kids grabbed them and ran out the door to fill their cans with their "stuff".
Cans.
Can'ts.
Here is a random combo with Cee Lo Green and Daryll Hall singing "I Can't Go For That".
The Faculty Excellence Grant was created in 2014 to enhance the quality of the liberal arts program at Maclay School in a meaningful and substantial way. Stipends are offered to faculty or staff members who have the potential and desire to make a meaningful impact and sustain the excellence of the Maclay academic program. Any employee of the school may apply, but preference is given to applications in the areas of differentiation, technology integration, or innovation. Grants were awarded for those proposals leading to significant curricular innovation beyond the normal annual revision or growth. A committee reviewed the submitted proposals and the following grants were awarded for the 2016-17 school year.
Why am I blogging about this you ask? Well, my friend BH had a great idea to implement a Genius Hour Passion Project at Maclay for next year. You see, with this idea and research she needed a way super cool logo or "Brand" for the class. We have a super talented artist in 8th grade that took on the challenge with her very own artsy vision. What do you think? I was most impressed with her detail of painting.
Genius Hour gives students time to explore their own interests, wonders and passions. It gives them autonomy over their learning and time to be creative. This idea is credited to Google, who asks its employees to spend 20% of their time working on a pet project, a project that their job description doesn’t cover, which has produced amazing results (Gmail!). Every Friday afternoon, the entire Lower School will be participating in our own Genius Hour at Maclay. Bentley's grant includes professional development training for teachers, including workshops and books, as well as materials for student projects. Beginning in fall 2016, students will be given the time, freedom, and resources to deeply explore topics that may eventually become a job they love; time to learn a topic, hobby, skill that defines who they are and who they might become; a time to learn and share with fellow students and others in the world who share their passions. In short, it builds knowledge, connections and possibilities.
Other schools have done this and have their own "Brands" check them out in the links below:
Okay, so I am going to do a unfinished artwork blog post. Maybe some people will say, "Well, that is not cool," but I just cannot let this cute little project just pass away without a little share.
I came across the book below, "Uncle Andy's Cats" by James Warhola. I love incorporating children's literature into art activities.
I provided the kids with a picture of Andy and his cats.
I worked to show the kids how to overlap the cats in their drawing. I thought they really did a great job with this!
In my end of the year teacher tired brain, I thought it would be a good idea to use watercolor crayons. Well, my art teacher friend, Laura, reminded me at the end of the day that watercolor crayons never work for me. She was definitely right on this specific project. The kids did enjoy using the watercolor crayons. They thought dipping a crayon in water was a treat!
I would love to see the one below completed. The colors are amazing.
I posted on Monday a slumped glass bowl. 1965 told me she needed more information. So, I thought this post would be geared with more links of how to slump.
My sixth graders wanted to do bobble heads. I thought emoji bobble heads would be cool. Below, here is my example!
The bobble heads were originally made in 2 parts. I made the head and the base.
The toenails were calling my name for some glaze.
Due to the end of the school year, I gave the sixth graders the option of just painting their emoji bobble heads. Crazy enough, the kids preferred painting over glazing. I like glazing much better!
Fun project for the kids! Have a go at it, will ya?
This lesson is successful for everyone. You take a glass mold and kiln wash it really good. Cut the glass the size of the mold. Use Elmers glue to add glass pieces. Let sit for a bit. Place in kiln. Use preset firing. The firing is slump. It takes 1 class time.
This lesson was awesome. I started the kiln about 3:00 pm and was able to unload the next morning at 8:00 am. I can't wait to post more. So glad we were able to teach kids how to slump!
My third graders asked to do Emoji art a few weeks ago. Uh, this week is the last week of school. Of course, I want to make their emoji dreams come true so I came up with this project last minute. The Emoji Batik project was a lot of fun. The kids were very excited with the results.
Directions:
Give the kids a copy of the face Emojis.
Have kids trace a circle with a black oil pastel using a roll of tape as the tracer on thick watercolor paper.
Then, kids need to pencil in the features on the Emoji face.
Once they get the face done in pencil, they need to go over the facial expressions with a marker. Just trust me on this.
When they have got the facial expressions done with sharpie, they need to use an oil pastel and color in the face. Tell them that they cannot get the oil pastel on the marker or the facial expressions.
After they have filled in the face with oil pastel, they need to complete the Emoji face with oil pastels.
Once the Emjoi face is filled in with oil pastels, they need to put random oil pastel colors in the corner of the paper. I told the kids to leave some white space.
Now, we just apply watered down tempera around the face. DO NOT cover the face with black tempera. Also, do not wrinkle the paper like you do with lots of batik activities.
When the black painting is complete, take the Emojis to the sink and wash only where the black paint has been placed. I used a big paintbrush and gently scrubbed the edges. I tried to keep water off of the face. Of course, some water will get on the face, but that will be okay.
Waa-Laa!
Great song by Wet Willie covering lots of emotions, "Keep On Smiling."
Easy to smile tonight, it is the last day of school tomorrow.
