Fall Primary Color Pumpkin Project

One thing I have learned as an art teacher, is that kids love to mix their own paint colors.  While this could easily become a wasteful, messy nightmare at the elementary level, I have a few strategies to avoid an explosion of paint in the art room while allowing the students to experience color mixing.

My first graders learned about the primary and secondary colors this fall to make some mixed media pumpkin art.  In the first session of this project, they began with drawing by looking at real pumpkins purchased for my still life set up that changes monthly.  Students were encouraged to look for the different shapes and lines they could use to draw a pumpkin instead of just starting with a generic circle or oval.

In the second class period of this project, we talked about primary and secondary colors.  Many students already knew what the primary colors were and some were able to tell us what colors to mix together to make secondary colors.  I also showed them a great music video about primary colors by Ok Go that was aired on Sesame Street.  Some of them still sing the song!

To keep the paint mess to a minimum, I poured out puddles of yellow, red and blue paint onto community trays that would be shared by 3-4 students.  I also modeled how to start with yellow since its the lightest color and then how to mix a little bit of red to make orange using a wet into wet painting technique. I explained how to work quickly but neatly, slathering down a layer of yellow paint on my pumpkin drawing and then, without washing my brush, I touched it into the red paint and mixed it right on the paper.  In first grade, color mixing is like magic, and the kids were so excited when they saw the colors change.

The students washed their brushes in ice cream buckets on their tables between making orange and making green.  They then painted their pumpkin leaves with yellow and then dipped the brush into a tiny bit of blue, and voila! they made green.  The community trays of paint, two on each table was easily and cleanly used by two classes of first grade students to mix colors. Using trays to share between students and pouring the paints out as they are needed has helped to prevent wasting paint and keeps clean up quick and easy.

Students finished this pumpkin project in a third class period by cutting out their pumpkins and leaves and gluing them onto purple paper.  Using chalk, they drew stars to show a night sky in the pumpkin patch and completed it with green cut paper for grass.

Hispanic Heritage Celebration

September is a busy month at ALBA school.  My art students from K4-5th grade have been very busy creating wearable art as we learn about the Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, and Tainos from Pre-Colombian times. This is the first art unit of the year and it culminates in a parade and performance as well as games, make and take tables, and exhibition tables that the students make in their classes.  The whole school collaborates together to put on a fantastic event that many of our parents come and enjoy.  This event is also very special because ALBA is a bilingual, public, teacher-lead charter school with a 99% Latino population of students.  Our mission is to help students achieve proficiency in both Spanish and English while retaining Hispanic heritage and cultural traditions. Fine Arts at ALBA is a very integrative program that relies on building curriculum through teacher and classroom collaboration.

For this unit on wearable art, I researched many sources for images of traditional Inca, Aztec, Taino, and Maya clothing.  I made tagboard and cardboard templates for many of the headdresses, shields and necklaces.  Students could then trace the templates and create their own wearable art.  A large part of this unit for all students is practice with pattern making and using simple shapes and colors for overall visual composition of their wearable art. I was also able to tie in some standards from social studies and Language Arts classes to make this a meaningful art unit.

K4 and 3rd graders study the Aztecs in their classrooms and in art as they made headdresses and Aztec warrior shields. In K4 we are still learning how to use scissors and glue and practice coloring skills, so thanks to ALBA parents, some of our supplies were ready made for such little hands.  The two classes of 3rd graders were represented by owls and jaguars which the teachers chose to represent them as a tribal group.  Students cut their own paper feathers and constructed wearable shields from tagboard, construction paper and paint.  They also created patterns for their headdresses.

 K3 and 2nd graders learned about the Tainos, the indigenous group of people from Puerto Rico and nearby islands that Christopher Columbus first encountered.  It is difficult to find historical information on the Tainos, but their best known legacy is the petroglyphs they carved into and drew on rocks.  My 2nd graders made aprons or loin cloths, which was the traditional clothing for both men and women in a tropical climate. The aprons included a petroglyph design and pattern created on paper with oil pastels. I showed students how they could mix colors and smudge the oil pastels together to make their designs look older and have more texture.  We also made beads from model magic clay so the students could carve a petroglyph into the clay. Using toothpicks we also made holes in the beads and put them onto brown string to create necklaces as Tainos made jewelry from natural materials.

1st and 5th grade students studied the Inca Empire. 5th graders made headdresses and gold necklaces and 1st graders made gold headdresses and belts.  Students learned about Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca and how important llamas are for the Inca Empire. Besides wearable art, 1st and 5th graders also made the llama projects from my last blog entry.  Both groups also learned about how wool is made into yarn that is dyed and made into textiles.  We saw some videos of how many craftsmen in Peru are still well known for their beautiful weavings and the colorful patterns of their clothing and textiles. 1st graders also performed an Inca dance to traditional pan flute music. 5th graders did their research too, the writing that accompanied the exhibition for the Inca table was impressive!

 K5 and 4th grade students represented the Mayas for our Hispanic Heritage Celebration. K5 students created solar calendars by tracing circular templates, drawing a sun face and creating patterns around the sun.  We learned that the Mayas developed the most accurate and complex calendars of ancient cultures. We used the solar calendars as a big necklace and part of the Maya costume for K5. Students used oil pastels and watercolor to create the solar calendar with warm and cool colors. They also made a construction paper headdress complete with feathers and a pattern.  4th grade students created the biggest headdresses and made the most feathers out of all the groups.  They were an impressive bunch at the end of the parade.  They also created a Mayan collar that a priest or scholar would have worn.  To decorate the collar, students needed to write their names using the Mayan syllabary.

 The Hispanic Heritage Celebration was fun for all!  Parents and teachers alike were impressed by how well all of our learning experiences came together this year for our first big event.  I am so proud of all the hard work and learning my students engaged in to make this event such a success.  As it is now October, we are beginning to learn about Los Dias de los Muertos or Days of the Dead.  I will be sharing project ideas in my next blog.

Yo Llama!

I am three weeks in to teaching at a bilingual elementary, teacher-lead charter school.  Many of our students speak Spanish at home and we work to help our students gain English proficiency while retaining their Latino/Hispanic heritage.  The first quarter of school has a theme of Hispanic heritage with two grade levels of students learning about the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, or Tainos.  My first graders and fifth graders are learning about the ancient Inca Empire. Both grades are engaged in llama art projects that are very different, but fit well with the age range and skills the students should be acquiring in art.


The first graders are making a llama collage that involves several stages to help them with drawing shapes, cutting, painting, and creating patterns.  While looking at pictures of llamas in Machu Picchu, we discussed the characteristics of llamas and decided what kinds of shapes we could use to draw them.  Next students were given brown, white, and black paints and discovered how dipping your brush into some of each coloring will help mix the paint on the paper.  We also painted mountains using images of Machu Picchu.  Once the llamas were dry, we cut them out and glued them onto the mountain background.

The students then learned about Machu Picchu and Peruvian textiles on a short video I shared with them. We talked about what kinds of shapes to use to draw some of the Inca houses on the mountains we had painted.  We decided to include roads too, which the Incas made many miles of to travel the mountain sides with their llamas.

To finish the llama collage art, students were asked to choose a large piece of contruction paper and glue the llama picture in the middle.  We observed Peruvian textile making and what kinds of patterns and shapes are often used.  Students then practiced making a pattern and are just finishing up adding the final pattern to the larger paper border.  This week they will be writing a learning log to review all the information they have learned about the Inca Empire through art.

At the same time, the fifth grade students are also making a llama project, this time in the form of a llama sculpture.  We started the project by learning a little about how important llamas are to the Inca Empire. We also drew a llama in our sketchbooks to help us observe and realize the qualities llamas have that should be shown in our sculptures.  Next, each student used pipe cleaners to build an armature for the llama sculpture.  Then we used newspaper and tape to crumple and sculpt onto the armature to add "meat to the bones."

Students are now beginning to wrap their armatures in natural colors of yarn.  As we started this process, we talked about where the yarn comes from and that llamas have woolly fur like sheep that can be made into yarn and then dyed and woven into beautiful, functional works of art.  Students were impressed with the colorful patterns and designs that are woven into Peruvian textiles and its an art form that is still carried on and created today.

To finish the project, we will be making little blankets for the llamas on fabric and designing our own colorful patterns on them with fabric markers.  The finished llamas will be part of a display for our Hispanic heritage celebration later this month.

Art Room Overload

For those of you teachers who have had the experience of moving to a new room or new school, you probably know all too well how overwhelming it can feel to make a new art room your own.  I find myself in that very situation this year.  While I am excited to begin my school year at a new school and closer to my home, I must admit I felt very overwhelmed walking into an overly cluttered, disorganized art room this summer. (Not that I expected anything else, I have been through this before.)

My first thoughts were, "Where am I going to fit the kids? Where did the last art teacher make room for them?" Looking around the room, I could tell there was no room for a gathering and group discussion space and that became a top priority for me.  Next, all the wall space for hanging visual aids and hanging artwork were filled instead with cabinets half full of random junk!  I rolled up my sleeves and started emptying three cabinets that I found to be excessive and taking up too much kid space.  We need space to move around and make things in people! After hours of sweaty labor, emptying, piling, moving things, I managed to haul all the extra furniture items into the hallway for storage.  Satisfied with my first few hours there, I went home.

Upon my return two days later, I arrive to find all the tables covered in boxes of supplies for the year! While I love opening all the supplies and imagining what they will become, I simply wasn't ready for it this time.  All the built in cabinets needed to be rearranged and organized in a way that suits my teaching style and also to take stock of what I already have available.  Not to mention that I hadn't decided the best way to arrange the tables that were now piled high in dozens of boxes.  There was not much else to do, but roll up my sleeves again.

Trying to ignore the boxes on the tables,  I rearranged the tables about five times until I was satisfied with the work space layout. Next I took everything out of every cabinet and set it on the counters.  I reorganized all the supplies into categories: Drawing Tools, Painting, Printmaking, Fiber Art/Weaving, Sculpture/Collage, all clay went into the little kiln room.  Then I started opening and unpacking all the boxes and putting them into their categories before attempting to fit all the supplies back into the cabinets.

I just started to hang up my expectations and an art room word wall on the afternoon of our open house. The room is not quite finished yet, but it is starting to feel more my own.  My husband even came in and helped me set up my technology cart so that I could move it around easily and make sure everything works before the first day of school.  All this work is well worth the effort though, since in the end I am trying to create an inviting space to learn and create in.  On open house, I didn't see many students, but one girl stopped in and was so happy about how the art room looked and told me she couldn't wait to come and make art here!  Its going to be a good school year and it all starts for me on Monday!

Under-Glaze-A-Thon

Yesterday I finished teaching a four day summer camp of ceramics for kids in Door County, Wisconsin.  While the temperature rose to 92 degrees, we lethargically had a glaze-a-thon for the slump mold bowls, the monster mugs, and our gnome homes.  Since the ceramics summer camp was only Monday through Thursday afternoons, there was not enough time to allow our stoneware projects to dry before firing them.  What we do then, is use underglazes to add color to the clay.  Students and families then have the option to pick up the finished artwork next week, or the Peninsula Art School will ship the projects home to the art students who will no longer be in Door County. What's nice about this set up is I don't need to stay later to fire the student projects, but that also means I don't get to see the final results.

As I started class with the students, I explained to them that we would be glazing our stoneware projects, the slump mold bowls, monster mugs, and gnome homes.  We talked about how painting and glazing are different and the students had all heard of a kiln before too.  I tried to emphasize to students that there should be no clay spots showing through the colored underglazes they chose to use on each project.

We started with the slump mold bowls first.  I showed students how to get the glaze into the designs they carved into the surface of the bowl.  We then took a sponge and cleaned off the extra glaze on the higher surface areas of the bowl and glazed that with a different color. After getting some practice on the bowls, which we did first, since it was the simplest surface area to paint, we started on the monster mugs and then moved to the gnome homes which also make great candle holders.  For students who finished early, we used some of the air dry clay to make some inhabitants for the gnome homes.  Since it was the last thing we did, I gave parents and students some tips for painting air dry clay at home with a variety of paints.  Parents were appreciative of the activities we had engaged in during the week.  For a total of 10 hours of art this week, students made mobiles, bowls, mugs, and gnome homes and were good workers all week.  It was a treat to work with motivated young artists throughout the week and I can't wait to return next year.

Tricky Knots

Today was day three of my four day summer ceramics class in Door County.  My students and I worked on our mobiles.  We started crafting the mobile pieces on Monday using air-dry clay. This afternoon, I showed my class how to use washes of watercolor to bring out the textures in their clay pieces.  Once they were dry, we used paper towels to add a thin layer of metallic acrylic paint.  The acrylic paint adds a nice sheen and also makes the pieces a bit more waterproof.

Since the Peninsula Art School is situated in a wooded area, we went stick hunting to find bases to hang our clay beads from while the paint was drying.  We used some natural color string to bind the sticks together to create a triangle or square shape.  Then came the trickiest part, and something I had forgotten since I have been teaching older, middle school kids for the last three years; tying knots!  My class is made up of 6-8 year olds, and I had forgotten how tricky it can be for this age group to tie knots.

I showed students several times how to tie a basic knot and gave individual demonstrations too.  At this point in the project, students were directed to tie clay pieces to the bottom portion of a string and then add a pattern of beads by tying knots to keep the beads spaced. I encouraged them to use a pattern of beads that would match the watercolor layers on the beads. I didn't have enough hands to reteach knot tying quickly enough. But some students were starting to figure it out and were even helping their neighbors and using teamwork. Luckily, several of the parents came a little early and were willing to lend a hand in class to help tie knots.  Some of them even stayed later to help finish the mobiles. It was nice to see parents and students engaged in art making together.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our ceramics summer camp.  The time has gone too fast, and unfortunately, with timing, I won't get to see finished projects.  We will be working on adding underglazes to our monster mugs, slump mold bowls, and gnome homes tomorrow.  Then the staff at the Peninsula Art School will be firing the pieces so families can pick them up or ship them if the students won't be in town long enough to retrieve their works of art.  The time has gone entirely too quickly, but the important part is that the students had fun and learned or practiced hand building techniques in clay.

Gnome Homes and Monster Mugs

Today was the second day of a four day ceramics art class for 6-8 year olds.  At the end of class yesterday, I asked students to draw several monsters on a piece of paper after we had cleaned the studio of our clay projects.  Without much prompting, I did see several sketches of Monsters Inc. characters. Normally, I encourage students to deviate from popular imagery and try to steer them toward a more original idea.  I usually help students accomplish this by asking them to change or modify something on their drawing that represents their own ideas. We practiced coil and pinch pot hand building techniques today to construct our monster mugs and gnome homes.


In starting the monster mugs, students used the pinch pot method to form the basic structure of a mug.  Next, I showed them how to "weld" additive clay pieces on from all angles to make sure they don't fall off or break as they dry.  Students were then encouraged to add monster facial features like eyes, nose, mouth, ears, horns, teeth, etc.  Most students departed from their original plans on paper to create more unique pieces.



After a short break and hunting for hidden gnomes in the garden, my class and I made sketches and discussed what kinds of natural materials would make good homes for gnomes.  Students were able to think of tree stumps, mushrooms, rock piles and woven grass as potential house structures for a small creature.  Using what we learned from our monster mugs, students began coiling a basic clay structure for the walls of the house.  Next they cut out windows and doors and needed to decide on the best way to construct a roof.  I showed students how to roll out a slab and then cut it into natural, organic shapes, like leaves to sculpt a roof for their gnome homes. After roofs were built students could then add any other details to their homes, such as chimneys, mailboxes, sidewalks, etc.

For tomorrow's class we will be painting some air-dry clay pieces to construct mobiles and necklaces.  The weather in Door county right now is very hot and humid, so I am worried about students' clay pieces being dried and fired on time.  Have only a few hours and four classes does not give us as much time as we would like, but that's how art teachers learn to be resourceful, inventive, and flexible.