Starting over

Welcome to Art! 

My name is Michael Kantor, this is my 4th year as an elementary art specialist. I am excited to be starting the art program at Cedar Creek Community School! I like painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and drawing. I love all sports, and local sports teams, especially the Wild.  I enjoy going to valleyfair and being outside. I spend my summers working at Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, MN.

Summer is long gone and the school year is here! This school year will be different than any I have ever experienced before.  I have the privilege of STARTING the elementary art program at my school. (That's right, a district who is ADDING art! Woohoo!) The classroom had been a random assortment of other classes in the 6 years since our district has had elementary art, and let me tell you, cleaning the random tools, books, and supplies was a daunting task!  As the clutter turned into an organized mess, I started to see how my classroom would look.  This will be my 4th year teaching and my first time really having a feel for how I want my class to look.

We have our own display case (great for square1 display)

My rules turned from paragraphs into a simple acronym.

I am more visual with the elements and principles of art.

The paints and brushes are sorted (Rainbow order)

Table bins are sorted and labeled by color.

Drawing books are at a good elementary height.

aaaaaaand finally my drawing mannequins and Vinny found a new home.

Will my classroom look like this at year's end? Who knows, but I am confident these students will be set up for success based on my experiences!

Painting with Crayon

I decided to try something new this year and experimented with crayon painting.  This was a fun and tricky project for our fifth graders.  We collected and sorted old and broken crayons, soaked them in water and removed the paper.  (Soaking removed the paper very easy on most crayons)

Students began by drawing and adding collage elements for the base of the project (For collage we used magazine pieces and colored paper)

Heated up the crayons in tuna cans and warmed it in an old skillet from goodwill

We made sure to do the painting over the kiln where we have the ventilation hood.

The brushes held the wax of the crayon and dried within 10 seconds of dipping it in the wax.  Students became frustrated when trying to paint small areas because built up wax would prevent them from small detailed areas.  We decided to just paint the large areas with wax and smaller areas with water colors and colored pencil.  The results turned out very well!

Lego Sculptinary

When most of the class is finished with their artwork and there are 5-10 students still finishing work, I like to play my twist on Pictionary. Groups of students use legos to create the word selected.  Each team has 3 minutes to create and present their artwork, one team is selected at random to be the judges for the project.  (they complete the sculpture too and are notified after the time is up.) 

Building as a team

Putting parts together (Roller Coaster)

Shark Attack

Rocky Mountains

What the Art Teacher Wore

Everyone remembers their Elementary Art teacher, most of them wore the same shirt/dress smock combo every day...now with paint on every pair of pants I own, I understand why. Well cue Cassie Stephens ( Blog ) She creates famous artworks on many of her outfits and is currently running a best dressed contest, you might want to head on over and vote for Michael VanGogh aka Me!

VOTE HERE

Check it out and vote away! (Mobile version, scroll to the bottom and click view desktop version)

Pop Art Portraits

4th Grade is finishing up their unit in Pop Art, they took a look at the work of Roy Lichtenstein and his use of color as well as the Benday dot style he used.

Students first drew the outline of their face, they used a caricature style to keep the facial features simple.

After drawing the portrait, students outlined their face with a thin sharpie.

After outlining the face, students drew diagonal lines across the face lightly, these lines will serve as the lines in which to put the benday dots.

Students put dots on the lines in a brown, red, yellow, peach, or orange color. Most students chose a color similar to their skin color.

After finishing with the dots, students erase the pencil lines underneath, and create a different dot pattern for hair, shirt and background.

Students color with colored pencil under the dots and create an interesting background.

After finishing with the portrait and the background, students create a caption and cut it out, adding it to their portrait.