Invasion of the Art Robots!!!

Even though this is the last week before Winter Break, after the last art teacher PLC I went to, I got really excited to start the fifth graders working on their Art Robot/ Scribbling Machines!  So this morning, my first class was fifth grade.  I allowed the students who were finished with their Clay Slab Mug to start working on the design of their robot!  It went great!  There was only one student who got frustrated with the duct tape- which I totally understand!  I should be receiving the motors and the battery packs soon but parents and students sent most of the other essential supplies in.  Not only was I hoping we could have this project finished before Christmas Break (so they could take them home) but the fifth grade are currently studying energy and electrical circuits so I really wanted that info fresh in their mind.   Here is a prezi I put together with some background info and a video that I showed to the students.  And there are some pictures of the works in progress from today.  I was so proud of the student who made a "Dali' mustache robot!   LOL

Playing around with Photo editing! Picmonkey and Pizap

Pizap Art Lesson cover

So I have been trying to find some fun online based photo editing applications/sites for the 3-5 students at my school who have laptops.  I really like Pizap and Picmonkey.  They are both/somewhat free but have adds for upgrading.  Here are two photos that I edited with the applications.  ALSO- have you tried the PANORAMIC setting on the new iPads?  I LOVE IT!! I didn't even realize the iPad camera did panoramics.....I kind of stumbled upon it the other day and I love it!

Panoramic View of my art room

Picmonkey

Pizap Holiday Card

We had all our third grade classes in during ROW (Resource on Wednesday) today.  They started their first clay project, which is a Nature Leaf/Flower or Seashell Bowl or Ornament inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe.  Here is the video lesson and some pictures. :)

Henri the Art Butterfly

Henri- Newly Formed Chrysalis

Henri- Today- you can see his wings

As I said in a previous post, our artist of the month is Henri Matisse (whose birthday is on December 31st).  I made a page on my school wordpress blog http://teachers.stjohns.k12.fl.us/wardley-j/artist-of-the-month/
that has great resources for each artist of the month.  If you scroll down to December- there is a great short video about Matisse that I show my classes.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7OmJ_tTLTQ

We named one of the monarch caterpillars that I kept in my plastic butterfly habitat after him.

Well today, the first graders were finishing their balanced bug art lesson and I was showing them his cocoon.  I noticed that the color had changed over the weekend from a bright lime green to a dark grey AND you can SEE HIS MONARCH WINGS through the shell!  That must mean that he will be hatching soon!  SO COOL!  Mean while, we listened to Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar
and the students that had finished their Balanced Bug on paper, used Educreations on their iPad to take a picture of the art bug and write/record their own story about it.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!  Educreations is such a great app for younger k-2 to use and the first graders got really creative.  I used Doceri( which  is similar to Doceri but with more tools) to record my version of the Story- The Very Hungry Bee.
I also recorded- The Paintbrush Tales- using iMovie- the Movie Trailers to remind students to take care of their paintbrushes (you can see I really do not like washing brushes all day!:))

Snowmen! In Florida! Plus Balanced Bugs Art Lesson

For at least 4 years now, every December 1st I take green and red bulletin board paper and decorate my art room door like a present that reads: The Best Gift is Art.  This year, I was inspired to do something a little different.   I had so much fun at the Elf Workshop that I decided that instead of a present....my door should be a.....SNOWMAN - Art snowman that is...

And you can bet I will be having early finishers make paper snowflakes to hang all around the room!

I also starting thinking about how much time I spend washing out paintbrushes and thought- a great 'gift' my students could give me would be to do a better job at cleaning up!  So I made this powtoon to go over the steps!  http://www.powtoon.com/show/da1i8bRpXGx/happy-holidays-in-art/#/

http://www.powtoon.com/show/da1i8bRpXGx/happy-holidays-in-art/#/

This is our first grade Balanced Bugs Lesson:

Aaarrggghhh... Pirate Collages!

So the fourth graders are finishing up their Native American weavings (which they LOVED- especially the boys!! who would have thought!?) And one class started working on their Pirate Ship Collage.  Our school mascot is the Pirate so naturally, this project is one of my favorites.  I have used it with fourth grade for over 3 years because they turn out so great and the kids really get creative.  ( I already had a student draw the titanic instead of a pirate ship.  So here is the lesson and video.  Enjoy!!
Lesson plan

December, Matisse, Clay Snowmen and more in Art! :)

Well welcome back all!!!   I had a wonderful (but always too short) Thanksgiving break.  On Saturday I got the opportunity to teach an 'Elf Workshop' at our local St. Augustine Amphitheater!  It was SO much fun.  It is  a free family fun event with lots of fun holiday things for our local kids to do.  I got to teach a craft and earn money for art supplies for our program.  My craft was AIR DRY CLAY snowmen!!!  It was A LOT of fun and we had some REALLY cute and creative snow men. (and several Olaf's!  )  Here are some pictures of them!

Henri- the Art Chrysalis

I was also able to find 3 milkweed plants for the overflow of monarch caterpillars we had in the art garden.  I was able to rescue one and take him home with me.  I have named him Henri in honor of Henri Matisse who is our artist of the month for December.  (His birthday is on December 31st)  Little Henri has formed his chrysallis and I have been eagerly observing him and awaiting his transformation.  In the mean time, the first graders are finishin up their Balanced Bugs art projects and it is great getting to show them a real life specimen in the midst of metamorphosis.

An Air Dry Olaf!

All the air dry snowmen !

Also- I have worked on an artist statement for students who have finished their artwork to fill out and keep in their journal.  It is geared more for 2nd grade and up.  I plan on starting using this tomorrow during our new rotation of students who have finished their current projects.

Artist Statement Google Doc

Last day of Art Before Thanksgiving

Who is excited about a long Thanksgiving break?!  This art teacher!  Today was a great (kinda hectic) day in art.  Our normal schedule was revised for our school wide grandparent's day Lunch. But the classes were just as if not more exuberant and excited about art as they normally are.

There are so many cool projects that we are working on that my head is spinning!  I really tried to emphasis Native American Artwork:

this month/week with ALL my classes instead of doing simple 'turkey' related art/crafts because our art standards in Florida focus ALOT on comparing art from other cultures.  We read the Indian Paintbrush and The Arrow to the Sun.  We learned about and made weavings on a cardboard looms

(4th grade), kindergarteners finished their Navajo Sun Collages.

Today we watched the Brainpopjr video about Collage and also talked about how to make patterns and cut out geometric shapes.  Here is the 'flipped' lesson I made for this project.

Third grade worked on their Nature Drawings inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe.  There is also a BrainpopJr video about Georgia O'Keeffe that we watched I made this video to review the steps for this lesson on my iPad using iMovie.

 The second graders finished their clay 'Fish Dishes'.  This lesson can be found here.

and fifth graders are slowly but surely finishing their Clay Slab Mug. 

I made a makeshift Native American apron with a cool broken arrow (peace) symbol with brown fabric and burlap.

 We also had a parent donate a rocking chair to be painted by the art club and possibly auctioned off. 

And we ended up with about 100 monarch caterpillars on our milkweed plant in the art Garden. They completely devoured the entire plant leaving lots of baby caterpillars 'homeless' I was able to rescue two and will be going to Ace Hardware tomorrow to buy up all their milkweed.

Manic Monday....explosions and messes.... and SYMBALOO

So I excitedly loaded the kiln on Friday after school with many kindergarten clay pendants..and my large scale 'fairy house' I made for our art garden.  Alas, I opened the kiln lid to see the horrific scene below:

So sad! I can only guess there must have been air trapped inside? I'm sure it was completely dried out. The next time I try such a large scale sculpture I'm going to fire it during the day so I can watch it closely and maybe turn it off half way through.  Bummer! I'm so sad! It looked so awesome! Oh well, back to the fairy house drawing board....:(.

Also- I worked ALOT on my school web page. I am trying to organize slideshows for each grade with projects completed so far.  But my wordpress data limit was maxed- and luckily I was able to get more space (500 mb) Not sure if it is enough but hopefully it is!!! My other options are weebly or google sites.    Here is my symbaloo I put on my links page.  TONS of resources!