Angry birds pinch pots

First Graders are working on pinch pots right now; thinking about how to make pinch pots more interesting, I looked no further than the most popular "how to draw" book in my collection: Angry Birds.  I wasn't sure how it would work with the first graders adding details with very little clay experience, but I could not be more impressed with my talented artists!

Students all had a small block of clay about the size of their hand, the pounded it into a ball with me presenting how to do this step by step in the front.  After rolling the block into a ball, students pressed their thumbs into the middle, creating a small bowl shape.  They kept pinching the sides til they had a nice thickness all the way around their pinch pot.  After this step, I had students ball up a paper towel and stick it in the inside of their clay pinch pot (this helps the stability when they are adding details)

(Here a student is smoothing out the bottom of their pinch pot/top of their angry bird)

After students have their pinch pot smoothed out we come back into a big group and talk about the most important thing when making clay: Scratch and Attach! (Scratch and attach allows the clay to dry at an even rate and grips the clay together when the clay is in the kiln)

Students add details such as eyes, beak, hair, angry eyebrows using scratch and attach

student using a wooden tool to smooth out the cracks

Some pinch pots after one time through the Kiln

Students will paint them and they will go on display in the hallway.

Keith Haring

With the recent cold streak coming through Minnesota, our school had two unscheduled days off due to weather.  This becomes a nightmare for keeping the classes on the same pace; NOT ANYMORE! This is a great one day project for kids to learn the importance of movement, proportions and motor skills (cutting, gluing) This also is easy enough for a sub plan if you have paper scraps or cut construction paper.

As a class, we looked at the work of Keith Haring

Haring shows movement with his figures while also showing human proportions.

Students stood around the room and paused in a way that would look like they were moving, they looked at each other and came up with a few poses for their Haring style characters to be doing.

Students drew a stick person posing in a way that shows motion, then outlined the body to make them show up better on the construction paper.

Students cut out the figure and glued them down on two separate colors, they tried to choose colors that would make them pop out against the background.

Students added movement lines to make it look like their figure was dancing, running, jumping, and flailing their limbs!

Frank Big Bear portraits

Fourth grade students looked at the art of Minnesota native artist Frank Big Bear of the White Earth Reservation. We watched this video ( http://www.mnoriginal.org/episode/mn-original-show-206/frank-big-bear/   )and discussed his grid like style, we also looked at his use of complimentary colors to make his art bold and stand out among other artistic styles. Students practiced drawing a face with a grid pattern over the face, and around the head. 

Students used colored pencils to fill in each grid space, they outlined the facial features to make them easy to see.

White Line Print- Foam Printing

Third graders have been working on printmaking for the last few weeks, when it comes to print, it is one of my favorite subjects to teach.  I love seeing the students figure out how printing works, the image turns out backwards, the transfer of images from the printing block to the paper always is fun to watch.  Students started out with a small sheet of paper, on the paper they were to draw two images of winter activities.  Winter activities are things like snowman, snowball fights, sledding, skiing, hot cocoa, hockey, ice skating, etc.  After students draw a winter activity, they pick one and are given a piece of foam to carve their design into.  Using a pencil, students trace over the image into their foam printing block, after tracing the paper, they make their carve marks deeper using the pencil.

Students tape their carved foam plate to the table, then center a larger piece of white paper over the top, the larger piece of paper is taped to the side to create a hinge, and keep the paper in place for the printing process.

(Student centering paper over printing plate)

(Tape Hinge)

When the paper is taped, students begin by coloring on top of the foam plate with markers, it works best to do a small area at a time, (the longer the marker sits out on the foam before the transfer, the harder it is to transfer to the paper)

(Student adding marker to the printing foam)

After coloring on the foam, the student folds back the paper and pushes down to transfer the marker to the paper.

When the paper is lifted, a reverse image appears!

Prints are signed and numbered with a pencil