Draft Folder Clean-UP: Perfect Square by Michael Hall

This post was originally from 5/22/14

It was blank...

Perfect Square by Michael Hall is a little picture book.  The artist/illustrator takes us through a week in a square's life.. It gets torn, crumpled, poked, cut, etc.  After each manipulation, it gets turned into something wonderful, like a fountain, or a bridge.

I recently read this book to my K-2 after school art enrichment class.  We had about 20 minutes left, and this ended up being a perfect mini-lesson.  We read the book.  We each got a square piece of construction paper and cut, tore, and poked it for about 5 minutes.  Then, I asked students to "play" with their scraps like they would play with blocks.  What could you build?  After 5-10 minutes of that (clearing away after each design) students glued their final piece down.  It was kind of cute, the kids had fun, and the scraps made a huge mess.

Draft Folder Clean UP: Engaging one day projects week! Collage heads.

This post was originally started 6/14/2014

Juxtaposition is a 21st century principle of design that I LOOOOOOOOVE!

Collage heads is a fun day lesson that always gains positive results.  This lesson can be as intense or as easy as you wish.  I like to do it as a sketchbook lesson, or a super end of year project.

that's as far as a got! 

It is a great lesson!  Cut out a bunch of heads out of a magazine.  Photocopy them.  Have kids cut out the copies of the heads they like and glue them down.  Next, finish the picture.  In can be with a body, or something else!

Engaging one day projects week! Dress like an art teacher and scream!!

I declared it "dress like an art teacher" day at my school and wore my you scream, we scream, we all scream for ice cream T-shirt.

I was happy to get some students first hour that recognized the picture and agreed that it was hilarious.  I decided to turn it into a teachable moment.  We spent 15 minutes on Edvard Munch's The Scream the last day of art class, but this could very easily be presented as an hour lesson.

I pulled The Scream up on my Promethean board.  We used Visual Thinking Strategies and discussed the painting for several minutes.  It was pretty fun to hear the ideas the kids came up with.  Next we reviewed a few part of the composition.  Then I used the Promethean Board pen to show the students how the screamer's head and body are just basic shapes.  They practiced drawing the famous face on their sketch paper.  Finally, students drew their own parody.  They were charged with figuring out why that guy was screaming and show it in their picture.  It was a lot of fun!

Squidward's girlfriend broke up with him over a text.

Engaging one day projects week! Andy Warhol Part II. Uncle Andy's Cats. Red Sam and free download.

There are two books written by James Warhola that are fantastic for the art room. "Uncle Andy's" and "Uncle Andy's Cats" are both fun first account stories written by Andy Warhol's nephew.

After reading "Uncle Andy's Cats,"  We look at and discuss Warhol's picture "Red Sam."  I found a worksheet on artprojectsforkids.org that shows the students step-by-step how to draw the cat.  I pass out the red sam worksheet and students draw their own large version.  Finally, students add their own touches to their red sam, we trace, color, cut out, and mount to a piece of construction paper.

Engaging one day projects week! Andy Warhol Part I - Getting to Know the World's Great Artists

My favorite videos to show are the "Getting to Know the World's Great Artist" series from Mike Venezia. They are educational, funny, and keep my students engaged through the entire program.

My personal favorite is "Getting to Know Andy Warhol."  I usually save it for the end of the year when I have a mixed up crazy schedule.

The video is about 20 minutes long and leaves plenty of time for discussion. I show photos of Warhol's soup can paintings and we use Visual Thinking Strategies to analyze the work.  This year I showed the video in first grade.  After we looked at and discussed the paintings, I taught students how to draw a cylinder.  They practiced several times on a sketch page. Next, we talked about the brand of soup (Campbell's) versus the flavor of the soup (tomato).  I asked students to come up with creative brands and flavors for their own cans.  I thought this worked well with the 21st century skill of creativity and critical thinking.  It also fits in with Common Core and ELA standards!

Finally, when students had a finished idea, we drew our best can on a large paper, wrote our brands and flavors, added any illustrations, traced and colored.

Engaging one day projects week! Pixlr Fun on Chromebooks!

Not all my students have Chromebooks this year, so I have been reluctant to use them in the art room.  I always want one fourth grade to be doing the same as the other.  However, this time of year, I see some classes some weeks and some classes, I don't see at all!

I'm not sure how it went down, but the classroom teacher and I decided to have my Thursday morning fourth grade bring their Chromebooks to class.  I knew I could have them do something cool on Pixlr!

What a fun morning!  We spent the first 30 minutes familiarizing ourselves with the program.  I showed them some things on the Promethean Board, and they showed me some fun things too.  They got very creative with Pixlr Express Selfies!

The second half of class I had students make "Keep Calm" posters on Pixlr Editor.  I showed them my Keep Calm  powerpoint and we set up our document together.

Next year every student will have Chromebooks, and I can't wait!

Engaging one day projects week! We're making buttons now.

I love buttons and I love them in the art room.

My classes had such a great time designing buttons for Youth Art Month, that I decided to purchase more button snap packs and turn it into a great one day, end of year, super send-off project.

I was taught that learning doesn't stop til the kids' leave for summer.  It's a tough philosophy to stick to when there are so many (sooooo many) interruptions at the end of year. I'm not about to turn my room into a free-zone, but I definitely have to take it down a notch.

I began with a PowerPoint.  It briefly describes the history of buttons and why people wear or make buttons.  It opened up a lively discussion and gave the kids some ideas.

Next, I passed out a Button Design Worksheet.  It is simply six circles the students designed in pencil, traced in Sharpie, and colored with markers.  Their favorite gets cut out and made into a button.

I didn't instill a theme, and they only had to follow a few rules; no text based buttons, and images must be colorful.

Most students were engaged the entire hour, and were proud to show off their button!