Fresh New Coat of Mouse Paint!

I LOVE the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh.  I have for as long as I can remember used it to teach kindergarten students basic color theory.  In the past, I would read or have the students listen to the book and then they would use a large sheet of 12X18 paper to draw three ovals and then use the primary colors- first yellow then red to make the first mouse orange and then yellow and blue to make the first mouse green and then red and blue to make the third mouse purple.


This year, I decided that in the spirit of the book, students should try painting the paper instead of the mice and it turned about even better than the previous years.
Here is the flipped video I made for students to follow along with as they worked.  You can see more of these beauties on our Palencia Elementary Artsonia page.  Palencia Artsonia

Last year's Mouse Paint- This one turned out cute!

This year's new mouse paint- paint the paper instead!

Another Read Across America Art Lesson First Grade- Dancing Giraffes

Read Across America and Dr. Seuss were celebrated all week long with lots of fun activities all geared towards encouraging literacy!  So first graders were mostly finished with their Cool Hands Warm Heart Collages from February, so I got many of them started with the awesome Giraffe's Can't Dance art lesson that focuses on not just literacy (fluency because the story is adorable and it rhymes like Dr. Seuss) but also the principle of art- Rhythm and Movement and the element of art Value.  So I made the flipped video to show my first grade students during their art time. classes that brought iPads drew their giraffe on the ipad first and next art class will be drawing them on paper.

Lorax Landscapes for Read Across America and Dr Seuss!

Tomorrow Kindergarten will be working on this awesome art lesson from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books; THe Lorax! This book is great for art teachers- because I don't know about you, but I SPEAK for trees, and hate when kids waste paper. This is a great opportunity to reinforce fluency with your kinder artists and inspire some creativity. I share with students the opening of the original 1970s Lorax video and we discuss how the land looks in the beginning when all the trees are gone. The skies and grass are dark and gray and then we talk about how the land looks before the Oncler comes to town. We talk about the important resources that come from trees and how we can help save trees (not throw away that paper just because you made one little mistake!) So here is my flipped video. I tell students their learning goal is to be able to identify the parts of a landscape and to create balance /symmetry by making a reflection. Lorax Flipped Video

Mind Blowing Artist of the Month for March!

My daughter and I at our Art Show last year- me in my Starry Night Dress!!  This year- it will have LED light upgrades!!!

Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists and I am so excited to celebrate his birthday, artwork and life during the month of March.  I found a glog from Glogster that I put on my Artist of the Month page to share with students.   I even have a fake Van Gogh 'ear' that I promise to show students if they do a great job during art time.  The fourth graders complete a Van Gogh inspired Cityscape collage that I learned from an awesome FAEA conference several years ago.  It involves having the students creating an impressionistic background (sky) similar to Van Gogh's using paint or oil pastels.  Then the students use cardboard painted black or even black cardstock to cut our a variety of rectangular shaped buildings.  They also use other colors of cardboard to make small windows and other details.

 They turn out AMAZING and this year I plan on making them even better using paper circuits so they really light up!!!  I can't wait.  I show them a few short videos and read them excerpts from the Getting to Know Van Gogh Book and also a great book called The Starry Night by Neil Waldman.  It is a book about a boy in New York City who meets Van Gogh painting in Central Park.  All the illustrations are beautiful impressionistic depictions of various places in New York City. In the end the boy sees Van Gogh's famous Starry Night painting in the MOMA and Van Gogh disappears.....mysteriously!
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1563977362/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
There is also a great Starfall online book for younger students. If you have an iPad there is also an AWESOME app that allows you to move your fnger over the Starry Night and move the paint and brushstrokes interactively!  Really neat!
The MetMuseum also has a cool Van Gogh Interactive site that allows students to study his drawings and create their own.  The real Starry Night can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  They have a cute online art game called Destination Modern Art in which the students can look closer at the painting, review facts about the artist and complete an activity about the color in the painting and a poem.

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	1889
Medium	Oil on canvas
Location	Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Dimensions	29 in × 36.25 in
	73.7 cm × 92.1 cm I also just saw this really cool optical illusion trick that I will be sharing with my students- it involves staring at the black and white swirling lines for 30 seconds and then looking at the Starry Night and it REALLY looks like it is moving!! How cool!

Here are some of my students Van Gogh Cityscapes from previous years.

"nǐ hǎo" Chinese New Year Dragons

Gung Hay Fat Choy!  February is a great time to study Chinese and Asian art because of Chinese New Year!  This is the year of the sheep and it fell on February 19th.  For several years, I have had a great lesson that I do with third grade about 'Cave Dragons'.  Most classes third grade classes have finished their Mola Collages so I introduced the dragon lesson with an emphasis on Chinese culture.  Cultural art appreciation is found in many of our state standards for art.

VA.3.H.1.1 Describe cultural similarities and differences in works of art.

VA.3.H.1.2 Describe the importance of displaying suitable behavior as part of an art audience.

VA.3.H.1.3 Identify and be respectful of ideas important to individuals, groups, or cultures that are reflected in their artworks.

VA.3.H.2.1 Compare differences or similarities in artworks across time and culture.

GSo of course I made a video and also shared with them a great online fable called, Draw Dragon Dot Eyes on Starfall.

Then I printed out some handouts that show basic steps to start their drawing.  In my video I drew my chinese dragon on black paper, traced it with glue, let it dry and then shaded it with chalk pastels.  Last year, I had students draw on white paper , trace with sharpie and paint them with watercolor paint.  So for this project I let them choose.  I think they are going to turn out great! 

Selfies! 5th Grade Self Portraits

As an artist, portraits are one of my favorite types of art.  I love the human form, figure and face.  It provides so many opportunities for expression and

One of my most recent paintings of a 'selfie' my daughter took.

communication.  I usually try to have each grade do a type of portrait. For Kindergarten- I am going to try a 'Pirate Pattern Portrait' because our school mascot is the pirate.  First grade does a Frida Kahlo style portrait with an animal.  Second grade does a Klimt Quilt type of portrait.  Third grade does the famous Picasso Style portrait.  Fourth grade is going to do a Pop art portrait.  This year I am going to show fifth grade a Chuck Close/Abstract grid style portrait but I plan on letting them choose an art style to inspire how they color/shade their portrait.  So I made the video below and adapted a PowerPoint to show them.  It goes over some popular art styles and movements.  I actually do not have a class set of mirrors but our fifth graders DO have laptops with webcams, so I had them bring their laptops and use a website called BeFunky to take a 'selfie' and use one of the artistic 'funky' filters to make theirs resemble a well known art style.  Once they finished their digital selfie- they saved them and uploaded it to artsonia for review. http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=911462
Next art class they will be using a photocopy of their picture or (their yearbook picture) to create a portrait on paper.  I show them how to take their photocopy and shade the back of it with pencil.  Then they lay their copy on to another sheet of paper and trace over the contour lines.  The pencil shading from the back will show up on the front.  I encourage them to trace over their lines again with pencil or sharpie so they are more visible. But once that step is complete, they are allowed to choose a medium and a style to finish them.  I plan on showing them how to use the chalk pastels, because they are my preferred medium but students pick a variety of tools to work with.  They end up all so creative and interesting!

ART MOVIE MADNESS!

Okay- maybe I am little obsessed with making art movies!  But our music teacher told me about a great opportunity through PBS learning Media to apply for their Digital Innovators Program.  All I had to do was fill out an application and of course- make a YouTube Video about how I am leading innovation in digital learning.  So - I used my two fav apps on the iPad- iMovie and Doink (green screen) to create a fake interview with myself.   Here is my interview!  I love green screen!  It's so fun!

I also entered a video contest through a local business sponsor Davidson Cares.  Please click the link and vote for my video, Shake Your Art and help us win $1000 for ipad minis in art.  THANKS!
http://davidsoncares.com/palencia-elementary-school.aspx