Tactile Texture Sticks

I was inspired by a post from @artwithmrsmac from earlier this school year. I was impressed with the simplicity of this tool and the size of this powerful teaching tool that will allow me to store them with ease year after year. @artwithmrsmac... This Minnesota teacher thanks you for inspiring me... Yah for the Art Ed Tribe! 

I used these sticks when talking about Tactile Texture. It was a great little 'cool down' from the activity that we had done in the hour. This support activity took 10 to 15 minutes. See the video below to get an idea of how I used the sticks.

Here are some of the tools I used to create my texture sticks. I thought about pipe cleaners and I think any pipe cleaners would work but I happened to have ordered this HUGE pipe cleaner set just to see what I could do with them.  I'm not sure at this point what else I can use them for, but it was perfect for the texture sticks :) 

A lot of our Art Rooms have a little extra Aluminum left over from students sculptures. After using a tool to press out some of the metal,  I added a little color to make it look more interesting and cut it to shape to glue onto the stick. I used hot glue gun for all of these sticks.  

Speaking of hot glue guns. I also experimented with these Cool Shot glue.  I thought this would be a good way to give students a feel for hot glue guns in a safe way. To be honest, I didn't get them out this year for student use... maybe next year. I did, however, use some of the color glue sticks to create a bumpy texture on one of the sticks. 

Tissue paper has a feeling like nothing else.  It was a good addition to this project.  I found using glue gun worked for the application but I did scorch my fingers once or twice... part of the job I think. 

These little fuzzy balls are another perfect fit. I think they worked well and I loved the bright beautiful colors.  It looks so inviting!  

I also used sandpaper, feathers, and felt. I have no tips or tricks for these three so I included them on this final image altogether. 

Overall, this was a great supporting activity for Tactile Texture.  I have posted often on Texture, please see the previous post to learn more. 

Pinch Pot Pets

First grade Pinch Pots Pets were amazing. I love the variety and choice given to the students as they created their little Animal. Mrs. Hare reviewed pinch pots with these students first. Explaining, creating, and them coming back for more instruction. Students were then learned how to slip and score their 'extras' to create their pinch pot into a pet.

After firing, our students used Tempera Cakes to decorate as I did the k's (see the previous post). These were a great choice for both my K's and 1st-grade students. These 6 and 7 year-olds have a little more patients than the K's so I chose to dip their works in a bath to help seal it. They had to leave the clay in my classroom a bit longer, but it was worth it because there was GLITTER involved.  I mixed Glitter Medium (I have used both of the Mediums pictured above) 3 parts water to one part Medium in a container deep enough to dip these little projects in. See this video to see how I did the dipping. I used the mixture day after day just adding a little water and mixing it up again with a spatula. The racks that I set them on our locker shelves. TIP: if you check the lockers at the end of the year, once students leave... I bet you will find several locker shelves that you can take for this purpose.

Take a look at some of their awesome works of Art...

To see what other projects PVEMS created with our visiting Artist, Tracy Hare during Clay Week 2018, please see this previous post. 


As a slide not: This is how I take all my sculpture pictures. A simple solution to get a very professional result.

Clay Week 2018- Tracy Hare

Clay week 2018 was a success! In the next couple of days, I will be sharing the events of the week and the finished products of Clay Week 2018. As some of you know, I'm allergic to clay. I miss working with it so badly, and perhaps I could with just a little itchiness... and slightly puffy eyes. But when I work with class after class in an Art Education way... My eyes swell shut and I have respiratory issues. The last couple of years I have exchanged with another teacher in my district (see previous posts). This year, I invited a fellow Art Teacher into my class as an Artist in Residence!

Tracy Hare is an experienced Art Teacher at Becker Middle School in Becker Minnesota. I have known Tracy professionally and admired her work for years. As I took the job at Prairie View Elementary and Middle School, I learned that I was going to be teaching her kids. How exciting! Mrs. Hare took a year off to pursue other avenues in her life, but it gave her a flexible schedule this year. I proposed a Visiting Artist situation and she excepted... and I'm so glad that she did. 

Tracy visited my classroom for a 6-day rotation working with the elementary students. Because our Middle School portion runs on a quarterly schedule. I was not able to offer them the clay experience.   She worked with K-5th grade and did a different project with every grade level. I can't wait to share the 6 lessons that she did with the kids and a few tips and tricks on the finishing on the projects. 

Monday, May 14th: Kindergarten, Pinch Pots

Wednesday, May 16th: 1st-Grade, Pinch Pot Pets

Friday, May 18th: 2nd-Grade, Clay Succulents

Sunday, May 20th: 3rd-Grade, Clay Lily Pads

Tuesday, May 22nd: 4th-Grade, Underwater Clay Sculptures

Thursday, May 24th: 5th-Grade, Clay Coil Design

Watermelon Weavings

I love weaving with 1st grade! Here is the paper weaving that I did this year with my 1st grade... Watermelon Weavings! 

To start the lesson I had them weaving with their body. 

This year I taught this lesson over two days.  In the video below you can see how I broke it down. Every time you see 'Your Turn' I would send the kids to their seats to 'do' then they came back to the carpet for the next instruction! Lots of movement in this lesson. 

We went BIG with these weavings! I like doing weavings over two days so I can see who need a little extra help. As they turn in their work on day one, I put them in two piles. Day two, they watch the weaving portion again and I hand back the weavings. The 'needs help' pile, I have sit by me on the carpet until I see they are able to be successful on their own. I have found this also give the 1st-grade brain a little time to let it soak in. They always do better the second day.

As I mentioned, I LOVE weaving with kids so I have plenty of weaving lessons in past posts. 

Bears in a Bed- FREE LESSON!

I'm so excited to share this lesson, Bears in a Bed, with you today! It's a lesson that will be hanging in the halls of Prairie View Elementary and Middle School for the upcoming Spring Conferences. This lesson is a bit of a dedication, and then in return, a gift to you.

First, allow me to dedicate this lesson to my cooperating Teacher, Kim Roberts. She works at Oaklawn Elementary in Menomonie, WI. She was the cooperating teacher that I student taught under.  Well... me and about 50 other new teachers. Actually, I'm not sure what the number is that Kim is up to for student teachers, but I do know that she has dedicated her life to teaching others... Students in her classroom as well as Student Teachers in mass, and in turn they are now teaching hundreds of other students. The dedication of this Educator is tremendous. Even her daughter, who was in 2nd grade when I worked with Kim is now an Art Educator. What an influence! 

Kim taught me how to teach this checkerboard pattern with students as young as Kindergarten. I remember being in awe the way that she managed her traveling position and her hundreds of students. This is a lesson that sticks out with me. 

The second portion of this lesson is inspired by Mrs. Gallagher, known on Instagram as @2tristaartist. Her cute little bear post came just in time for this lesson. It was perfect for my students and it made the project uber cute!

  

Because this lesson was so highly inspired by others in our Art Education Tribe, I want to give it to you for free.  I have it housed on Teachers Pay Teachers, however, I will not be charging for this lesson. It's a bit of a pay it forward to the people who inspired me as well as a mini sample of what a MiniMatisse lesson looks like. 

The kids were really proud of their final projects and the bears look so cute hanging in the hallways. Thanks to my Kindergarten team for making sure that they are displayed for parents.

Teachers Pay Teachers 

FREE "Bears in a Bed" Lesson

Alphabet Soup

A few weeks ago I welcome my first guest blogger to MiniMatisse, Mark Rode. His Paper Dinosaur Sculptures are adoreable, be sure to check them out.  Today I'm honored to present you with an Art Teacher I have admired for years.  Lauralee Chambers has been an Art Educator for 25 years in Westchester, New York.  She teaches over 900 students, 6 sections a day at two different schools with a total of 36 sections in a 6 day cycle. Yep, you read that all right. This woman is a rockstar!  Lauralee not only teaches to the masses but also shares, shares, shares on her Instagram, @2art.chambers and on her Pinterest account, Lauralee Chambers.  This is how I recently saw Larualee's latest and greatest lesson, Alphabet Soup.  She was happy to share with us the process of this adoreable project right here on MiniMatisse.

Lauralee writes:

I have 6 sections of first grade and our classes are 45 minutes every 6 days. I begin this project by telling them that “I know first graders are alphabet experts” and ask them to recite the alphabet to me. I ask them if they know any alphabet books and I tell them that I have been collecting alphabet books for a very long time because I love letters! I share some books in my collection and show them my other assortment of letters objects that I have including my alphabet necklace. I also created a smart board document with many, many images of letters on things, with the last slide being a bowl of alphabet soup.


Day One:

Materials:

• 9x12 white drawing paper 90lb, or other for painting, with a pre-drawn pencil circle outline
• Oil Pastels
• Alphabet letter sheet visuals on tables to help them remember

Process:

After looking at many alphabet visuals and resources, teacher will demo how to draw letters of the alphabet in the circle (bowl) by pressing VERY HARD to put oil pastels down onto the paper. If not done thick enough, soup will cover their letters! I show students how to scatter their letters, rather than putting them in a line like they do for writing. They can go ANYWHERE, upside down, sideways, etc. Rotate the paper for each letter trying to keep them all large enough and thick enough. Colors should be repeated and if there is too much white space left after doing each letter of the alphabet, I have them hide their names in the bowl!

Day Two:

Materials:

Liquid watercolor: I mix up a batch of broth color using yellow and orange and pour into containers for each table to share. This will wash over the letters from last class. Going outside of the lines is fine because teacher will cut circles out so they stay round! This should not take long. Put these away on drying rack and start plaid background “tablecloths”.

• 12x18 white drawing paper with a larger circle, pre-drawn with sharpie. I traced these circles over to one side of the paper. (This is where they will glue down their soup in next class, as flat and centered as possible.)
• Water based markers
• Water containers
• paint brushes, I like size 10 or 12

The Process:

Add any needed letters, prep for painting, demo washing broth over letters quickly in long strokes. Put these away on drying rack and begin plaid backgrounds.

Each student has 12X18 with a sharpie circle. Gather them around to demo a plaid pattern of vertical and horizontal lines leaving spaces between lines as you wish. I ask them to choose 3 or 4 colors that work well together. Students will need directions on how to JUMP over the soup bowl and continue their line on the other side. A bit challenging for some, but the irregularities add charm! Once drawn, students take a paint brush dip, and wipe, in water and trace/drag over the marker lines. Some chose to trace only over the vertical lines, others did all. Lots of options.

Put on the drying rack. Don’t forget names on the back!

Day Three:

Materials:

• Soft black vine charcoal broken into small pieces
• Off white paper or tag board, cut to the size of a folded napkin
• Glue sticks
• Plastic metal imitation spoons
• Glue gun for teacher use
• Plastic alphabet beads, stickers (optional)-- The beads the photos are from Roylco

Process:

Everything comes together. Students glue their already cut out soup circle into the center of the larger circle and then glue down their napkin paper. Teacher demos the placement of shading. Students apply charcoal to the bottom and one side of the napkin and run along that line with a finger to soften or blur. Also apply charcoal around side and bottom half of the sharpie circle and smear with finger. Teacher will glue on spoons with hot glue.

Before the shadow is added:

After the shadow is added: 

Lauralee writes: The focus of this lesson combines literacy and letter formation/identification with an understanding of mixed media, using more than one art material in a lesson to create something that looks like real life objects.

This lesson is truely a treasure! I adore the end result. I want to thank Lauralee Chambers for sharing and celebrating on her Instagram so often.  A special thank you for being a guest blogger for MiniMatisse. It was so great to learn the process.  For more on the happenings of Chambers classroom visit her Instagram or email her at, [email protected]

Paper Dinosaur Sculptures

I'm so VERY excited to present my very first guest blogger on MiniMatisse.  I met Mark Rode a couple months back at a training and we share our social media information with each other. I have been so impressed with Mark's Instagram that I asked if he would write a blog post about this amazing project. 

Mark is an Elementary Art Teacher at Oxbow Creek Elementary in Champlin Minnesota. He explains that his inspiration came from another teacher in West Australia, Ann Farrell. I'm a fan of her work as well! Please be sure to check out her blog, Use Your Coloured Pencils. Mark maintains an amazing Instagram account, @oxbow_creek_elementary_art. He is also active on Twitter, follow him @oxbowart. Here is what Mark had to say about this captivating project.

I taught this project to my first graders to kick off their unit on form.  It took two 60 minute classes, but next year I may stretch it to three, as it was difficult for some to finish on time.  There are so many great books on dinosaurs too, and having time on the third day for reflection would be ideal.  Nevertheless, I felt like this project was a great way to begin working in three dimensions, as it let students figure out how to make something stand up and occupy real space with familiar materials and subject matter (who doesn’t like dinosaurs?).  After teaching this lesson, I had multiple students bring in other versions to share that they had made at home, as well as some other paper sculptures, which I felt was a good sign.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs.  I even wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up! There is still a big part of me that gets excited about them, so it was really fun to share this excitement with the kids.  Of course, in every first-grade class, there are always a few dinosaur experts who love to share their unique knowledge on this subject as well, so I introduced the project by displaying pictures of a variety of dinosaurs and facilitated a lively discussion.  We talked about different characteristics that we noticed, as well as compared and contrasted the different types.

I then told them that they would be making a dinosaur sculpture, and demonstrated how to begin.  I told them that they were going to get two pieces of tagboard, one wide and one narrower.  They would also get a sharpie marker and a stencil for the body shape and legs (these were made from brown tag.  I usually don’t use stencils, but I made an exception with this step, as the success of the final work was heavily contingent on getting these shapes right…).

I told the students to trace the body shape on the large sheet of tagboard, right in the middle.  After that, they added the other features (neck, head, tail, horns, designs, texture, etc.).  I then told them to trace the leg stencil on the smaller sheet.  Depending on the type of dinosaur, they would either do this once or twice (an Allosaurus walks on two legs vs. a Brachiosaurus that walks on four).  After adding details, I told them they had to cut out the dinosaur and the legs.  They then had to flip the body over and add details on the other side (it is important that they cut out first before flipping).

Finally, they added color on all sides with a marker. I told them that scientists don’t know for certain what color the dinosaurs were, so it was really up to them to color their dinosaur how they thought it would have looked.  This, I believe, gave them more creative agency, and I think, in the end, they looked more interesting because of it.

On day two, we reviewed the steps.  I then said that I would give them a piece of matboard for the base and that they had to draw the setting for their dinosaur (bird’s eye view).  They also had to make a few slits (one on the top of each leg and one or two on the bottom of the dinosaur).  I then showed how to make it stand by carefully connecting the slits together.  In order for it to be sturdy, it does require some wiggling and finessing.  When they got to this point, I told them that it was really important for them to try to get it to stand up.  This was challenging for many, but it was good for them to work through it and problem solve.  I also stressed the importance of helping each other out.  Once they got the legs on, I added hot glue to the bottom of the feet and glued the dino to the base.  Most students were able to get it to stand, but there were a few that needed some assistance from me.  At the end of the class, we all had our dinosaurs on one table and it was such a pleasure to see them all together!

This project was predominantly product based, but also gave a lot of room for creative decision-making.  The goal was to have the dinosaur three-dimensional.  The main concept was form, although we also talked a lot about shapes, lines, and textures.

Here are some of the project samples that Mark was so generous to share with us. For more images of this project and so many other amazing projects, please be sure to follow Mark on Instagram @Oxbow_creek_elementary_art.