Finished Mural at Black Creek School

Really proud of how my first mural turned out! The students did a great job, and the finished product will be displayed at the school for many years to come! It will serve as a daily reminder of how compassion is used every day. 

Sharpie Tie Dye!

 

For my summer school "Field Day" activity we needed a quick project the kids could do in 15 minutes. We did fabric squares with sharpie tie dye! This project was a favorite so far of the summer school artists! The only materials you need are plastic cups, rubber bands, colorful sharpies, rubbing alcohol, and for the fabric I used Muslin because it was cheap and easy to cut. This project could easily be done on a T-shirt or a bandana. We cut 6 by 6 inch squares for the activity today. The students started by drawing on the fabric, we pulled the fabric tight around the cup by doubling up the rubber band. When the students are finished we dropped a few drops of rubbing alcohol and watched the magic happen! The design slowly starts to spread out and blend together, mimicking the look of actual tie dye. After the center design dried, we took the design off of the cup and some students added more designs on the edges. This was a great summer art project!

Progress on the Art Mural..

 With the help of a few of my art helpers we began the beginning process of assembling our first mural at Black Creek. A few years ago I was inspired by a large school community art project that was being done in Appleton School District. It was called the "Compassion Project". Over 10,000 students in Appleton depicted the word "compassion" on a single tile. It was amazing to see in person.

In the beginning of this school year I received some donation money and decided this would be a perfect use for it. I ordered 350 tiles for the students at Black Creek. Each grade had a different media to use for their tile--some are done in sharpie, colored pencil, glaze, paint, pastel ect. The mural will be displayed near the office and should be up before next school year. Take a look at how it is coming together!

Summer School Aboriginal Dream Paintings

What an awesome Dragon!

Aboriginal artists from Australia often make art that depicts some of their dreams. Using a limited color palate, and small dots they would create patterns that are almost "map-like". For this project you need brown paper, a few bold colors of paint, and Q-Tips. We drew out our designs lightly before getting messy with the paint. These students were really excited about this project and had excellent patience when it came to dabbing with the paint.




 

Summer School Clay Projects

 

Pinch Pot Fish, Pinch pot animals, and Gnomes..Oh my!

 

First week of summer school was a blast! I always start right away with a small clay project so it gives me the week to allow them to dry. I showed the students a few examples of pinch pot projects and they were allowed to choose their own idea. I just get a kick out of the fish with the big open mouths!

Technology in the Art Room

Students using the ChromeBooks in Art



One of my goals this year was to incorporate more technology into the art room. New technologies make teaching art and learning art a whole new experience. Students become more engaged, and feel they have more success with their art projects. I am fortunate to have a document camera and projector in my room. The days of transitioning to another table to do demonstrations have long past, instead the students may stay in their seats and watch me demonstrate on the projector in front of the classroom. I use this process every single day, and have found it to be so helpful.

Today, the IPAD has also revolutionized the learning experience. Many of my students have their own portable devices that they bring along with them to class. We also have several sets of Chromebooks that we can reserve for a class period.  Every class has different rules and expectations for these devices, however I feel it benefits their learning process. Students use the devices to search for ideas they can use, quotes, and sometimes just to listen to music quietly while they work. The addition of these technologies allows the student to become more engaged, as well as an active participant in the creative learning.

In a survey I did with my middle school students 82% of my students said that technology helped them learn better in the art room. 75% said they felt that technology made them feel more successful in their art projects. This has become my mission to incorporate new technology in the Art room and to stay up to date on what is out there. It is an exciting time for learning in the art room!

7th Grade Giacometti Sculptures

This is one of my favorite projects to do with Middle School students

 

Materials Needed:

18 Gauge Wire (cut 3 pieces total--2 pieces=18 inches, 1 piece=22 inches)

Tape

Newspaper

Plaster Gauze

Black, Green, and Teal acrylic paint

Silver, Gold, and Bronze metallic acrylic paint

Base- can be wooden, or I have used plastic lids before as well

To do this project I first have the students re-visit a lesson on proportion. We use the wooden mannequins to help the students draw out their design. We talk a lot about human proportion and the accurate measurements. The Giacometti sculptures end up being "exaggerated" proportion, but it is helpful when they are building for them to understand proper proportion.

We started by building an armature using the 18 gauge wire. We use the two 18inch pieces to create the ribcage and the legs. The 22inch piece is used to create the head, neck, and arms.  We tape the three pieces together to help add support. It is nice to build up the wire with newspaper to add form. I often tell the students the wire is like the "skeleton" of the figure, the newspaper is like the muscles, and the plaster is like the skin. We tear newspaper into long strips and wrap it around the wire form like a mummy. We add thicker newspaper into the head, torso, and hips, taping to make it stay. Once through the newspaper we can plaster. It is important that the students apply the plaster and smooth it out around the newspaper form.

I like to give these sculptures a metallic finish. I tell the students to pick an under-color to paint the whole sculpture first.

These combinations seem to work really well--

Teal-Copper
Green-Gold
Black-Silver

However, any of the combinations work GREAT with Black--black looks good with copper, silver, or gold.

They will paint the undercoat first, and then apply the metallic finish when the paint is DRY! Using a small sponge you want to sponge paint the metallic over the paint to allow that color to show through.

This is a great project that parents love too! I have one at home on my mantel that I just love. Hope you enjoy!
 

3rd Grade Animalito's

3rd Grade artists at Black Creek School created their own "Animalito's" using various supplies such as cardboard, toilet paper rolls, tape rolls, ect. We used tape to hold everything together and then plastered the final product. This was my first time using plaster for this project. The students seemed to enjoy it better than the paper mache, and loved knowing that plaster is like the plaster they use for cast's. We painted them using tempera paint, and then the next day we used Q-tips to add the dotted patterns. The dotted patterns are well known in the Oaxacan Animalito designs.

Alligator Animalito

Puppet Mania!

4th/5th Grade combined art class at St. Nicholas school created puppets. We learned about the great Jim Henson and his career as a puppet designer. We first built the head of our puppet out of clay. We used a simple pinch pot method to begin, and then pinched it at the top to create a neck. The neck is important because the body attaches to it;  make sure it is thick enough (sometimes adding extra clay is necessary). These students also learned to sew for this project to create the body for the puppet (whew, that was fun!) We had white felt for the t-shirts and I pre-cut them to make sure they were the right size. The white felt allowed for the students to color and decorate with markers after it was all put together. We added google eyes, feathers, wire, anything else we could think of to make our puppets come to life! 

 

4th/5th grade Puppets!

Cows on Parade!

http://www.cowparade.com/

5th Grade Artist's at Black Creek School learned about the Cow Parade. The Cow parade is part of an outdoor art exhibit that raises money for charities. The Cow Parade has traveled to cities all over the world, the closest and most recent to us here in Wisconsin was Chicago, Illinois. The students created these cows using Model Magic, newspaper, paper clips, tape, paper mache, acrylic paint, and of course google eyes, or anything extra they wanted to add on. Each student must come up with their own theme for their cow. They spend one day designing their idea, two days building, two days paper macheing, two days painting/adding final touches.

Cows on Display in the Library

Minion Cow

Flower Cow

Red Bull Cow

Punk Rock Cow

Adventures in Printmaking

 

6th Grade Artist's at BC have begun their first printmaking project. I have found that my students just LOVE printmaking. I think this is because it is something they have not tried before, and they love to see the process of carving to printing.

 For this project, I have students find an image online and print it off as a 5 by 7. (This is the size of linoleum we are using. I have also used 4 by 6). They then trace the picture and do a transfer onto the linoleum. I have them outline the transfer with Sharpie and fill in areas they are either carving away or keeping. We have to talk a lot about positive and negative space with this project, they decide what they want to have raised or carved away. If a part is raised then it will be ink, if it is carved away it will show up as the color of the paper it is printed on. I have students do several "test" prints to get an idea of how it will look. Often times, this shows them areas they still need to carve away. This also gives them an opportunity to practice printing. When they finish carving and test printing they are ready to make their final prints. Typically I have them do a series, either of 6 prints or 4 prints. Since we are running close to the end of the school year, I am having them do a 4 print series.

 

Welcome!

I am a Kindergarten through 8th Grade art teacher at Black Creek School and St. Nicks in Freedom, WI. I am so excited to share my love of Art with all of you in the blog world. I graduated from UW-Milwaukee with my B.S. degree in Art Education. I also have a minor in Art History. In my free time I like to paint, run, go kayaking, play tennis, and coach the Dance Team at Seymour High School. I am looking forward to sharing lesson plans, pictures, project ideas and experiences with you.