Middle School Christmas Ornaments in Oil Pastel - with PowerPoint and handout

This is my first year with my middle-schoolers, and I have had a rough time knowing what skills they have, and which they still really need to work on.

After our last value study project seemed like a real struggle, I thought I'd take it easy with a step-by-step guide on drawing and shading color values with Christmas ornaments.  This project is not concerned so much with the reflections of the ornaments.  We only concentrated on 3 parts: cast shadow, mid-tones, and highlight.  We also practiced building layers with our oil pastels and mixing tints and shades.  Also, I teach in a Catholic school - so Christmas ornaments are A-OKay.

I started with a handout full of stolen images from the Internet and a PowerPoint too.  We discussed the parts of light and shade that create value and the difference between grayscale and monochromatic color schemes.

The handout coincides with the slides on the PowerPoint and discusses vocabulary.
Next, I take the students step-by-step through the process of drawing and coloring and rendering their Christmas ornament in 3D. They do actually have an ornament in front of them to look at and draw.  The slides were up on the TV as the kids worked, so we mostly all stayed together, but some friends needed additional help.

      

Included in the handout is a rubric for this lesson.  Overall I am pleased with the results!  I only see my middle schoolers once a week for 45 minutes.  It was a learning process at the beginning of the year, and I felt I was never going to get through any sort of curriculum.  We've started working smaller and less independently, and that seems to work.  Here are some student works:

Victorian Architecture with Middle School - Gingerbread Houses

For my middle-schoolers architecture unit, I decided to concentrate on the Victorian era.  It's close to winter break so I've chosen our drawings to be gingerbread houses!

I've stolen some images from the Internet and put together a PowerPoint presentation to show the class.  

The PowerPoint shows images of Victorian Style gingerbread houses, and real gingerbread houses.  It also lists some of the architectural attributes of Victorian homes that I want the kids to learn.

I also made a handout with directions and key vocabulary.  It includes the rubric for this lesson as well.

Here is the first video where I show how I drew the project.  This demonstrates how they should start with simple shapes then add detail.

Here is the second video where I paint the gingerbread house with watercolor.

Do you have table artists? Free PDF and PPT download featuring artists with a Chicago Connection.

I like to hang artists' self-portraits and notable works above my classroom tables.  I sort them by color.  My six classroom tables go in rainbow order, ROY G. B(I)V.  I choose an artist to correspond to each table color, and instead of always calling "red table, go get your glue..."  I will say "Suerat's go get your glue."  This helps reinforce artists' names and gets my students familiar with many different artists.

This year I chose six artists with a a Chicago connection.  The artists in this series are:
Jonathan Green
Faith Ringgold
Georges Seurat
Pablo Picasso
Alexander Calder
and Frank Lloyd Wright.
You can download a printable pdf of their portraits and visuals here.
I print the pictures and mount them to construction paper, and laminate.   This year I also took the students through a little PowerPoint with a bit of information about each artist.  We used Visual Thinking Strategies and studied each work carefully.

After our PowerPoint presentation, we learned about how to act in a museum.  I had several other works of art by these artists printed and laminated too.

Shepard Fairey for Kids! Free PowerPoint Slideshow for Elementary use.

It is difficult to explain street art culture and graffiti to a bunch of fifth graders.  I touch on the history of graffiti, and try to carefully discuss the legalities, but it can get kind of sticky.

This is where Shepard Fairey comes in.  We are influenced by the Obama Hope poster for our project "monochromatic identity" (full lesson at the link).  I think Shepard Fairey's entire story  - from the viral Andre the Giant stickers to the appropriation battle over Obama's image- is fascinating.  My students think it's fascinating too.  They always have a ton of questions and often hung up on the whys, whats, whos, and hows. 

I put together this PowerPoint presentation on Shepard Fairey (with sources!) to teach my students a little bit about his life, street art, and activism.  Our discussion often turns to what is ethical, on top of what is legal and illegal.  It draws forth a good discussion.  I love when they see Shepard Fairey in the videos too.  They always say "he's so young!"  This makes me happy, 'cause he's older then me, AND it makes me realize how many old dead guys we learn about.

There are two short video links in the presentation.  I'm sharing them here because I think they are pretty good to show elementary kids.  The first one is a mash up of Obama's "Yes We Can!" speech with images of a HOPE mural being installed.
Barack Obama x Z-Trip x Shepard Fairey x Fresh Pressed from chumpchampion on Vimeo.
 The second is Shepard Fairey talking about influencing students to be positive.  

Glue Sponges save the day! Here is a "How to use a glue sponge" tutorial slideshow for classroom use.

I have a long twisted history with glue in my classroom.  I started to get the idea about implementing glue sponges when I saw an awesome poster about their use in my Tumblr feed.  After my last glue saga post, I had another teacher suggest glue sponges and told me to check Pinterest.

I was intrigued and decided it was time to make some glue sponges.

I am going to interject here with my own pity story about what a pain in the neck it was just to get them made.  I put in a money request from school to purchase the sponges and tubs from Target.  I thought that would be easy since I go there enough.  However, I ended up never having time to go to Target and peruse bins and sponges.  I had money to spend, and no time to spend it.  I usually have 3 kids in tow and I usually have other shopping to do, and - aint nobody got time for that...!  I wanted to just order them online, but Target does not sell sponges and Gladware online, and neither does Blick.  Finally, I had the opportunity to go solo to Target and buy my supplies.  I could not find regular 'ol cello sponges in all of Target Greatland.  I ended up buying the ones with scrubbers on one side.  Even those were hard to find and I cleared out an entire endcap.  Next, I had to find the Gladware.  I was stuck in this Corningware/green lunch box aisle and could not find regular Gladware anywhere.  I finally gave up and was just going to purchase the more heavy duty lunch box things.  Then, I stumbled upon the Gladware several aisles later with the trash bags and such.  I had to figure out all over again what size to get, and how many.  I wanted 12 for each school I teach out - for a total of 24.  Gladware is sold in packs of 5 and the sponges were packages of 6 or 2.  It's a good math problem and I screwed it up. I'm still short sponges, and that should of been the easy part. I had all my supplies finally, and I spent one morning putting glue sponges together.

I was anxious to use the glue sponges with the kids, but the Pinterest page told me to wait and let them soak overnight.  The next day I inspected my glue sponges.  I was excited, but kept thinking about how the kids are not going to know how to use these, and they wont be able to see me demonstrate how to use it properly.  Plus, they might forget key details! They might make a huge mess!!

 I spent my afternoon putting together this PowerPoint, "How to use a Glue Sponge."

I played it for the class and had it going on repeat throughout the hour.  I have had great success with it so far and the glue sponges have been fantastic!

Chicago Cityscape PowerPoint

I recently posted a lesson plan for Chicago Cityscapes.  Here is a free downloadable PowerPoint that teaches students about Chicago's cityscape, and also about how artists have interpreted it.

Monuments Around the World: Free PowerPoint/Slideshow to match my table signs

My classroom theme this year is Monuments Around the World.  I made seven signs that hang up above my tables.  They are color coded so I can call a table by color, and they each feature a famous monument...so I can also call the Eiffel Tower table.  Using something besides the color to call a table switches it up a bit, and creates teachable moments.  In the past I have used artist names, works of art, planets, sea creatures, and even zoo animals!

In conjunction with my signs - I put together this super basic PowerPoint  that displays each table color and sign, and then lists a few facts about the monument.  It has been a good introduction to the monuments and the kids have been receptive to learning about their team sign.