Sketching Art History: Stonehenge

Hey there! A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my third and fourth grade kids would be Sketching through Art History in their sketchbooks this year. I go into more detail on this idea, the sketchbooks and the process of making this idea work here. I'll try to give you a quick look-see here: When my students enter the room, they pass a bin of sketchbooks, taking out theirs and placing it on the floor in front of them. Kind of like this:

Once they've watched a Hot Minute of History video, they then watch another one minute drawing prompt video. Here is the one I created for Stonehenge:

The kids now know the drill: during their 5-7 minutes of sketch time, their is no talking. I want them to be mindful, engaged and drawing the entire time. When the timer goes off, they often groan and ask for more time...which is music to my ears. I often splurge and give them a few more minutes. This week, I asked students to share their drawings with their neighbor. I put two minutes on the clock and asked them to spend one minute being a good listener and another being a good explainer. I think they really enjoyed sharing their ideas with their friends. 

I have been putting our art history nuggets into song form to the tune of We Will Rock You! It's been so fun, I actually am a miserable poet but I do love writing these. Here is the PDF if you'd like a copy. 

And here is the one I wrote for Cave Art. Next up: Ancient Egypt! You can stay up to date on these by subscribing here. 

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In the Art Room: Patterned Landscapes with Houses!

So, I totally thought I shared this video lesson with y'all in a previous post but after some digging, I couldn't find it on my blog! So sorry! I oftentimes post a video to my YouTube channel without adding it here simply because I'm crazy and forgetful. However, if you subscribe, you can stay up to date on my instructional videos (along with some other stuff) that you are more than welcome to use in your art teacherin' world. 

But first, let's talk about these amazing third grade patterned landscapes!

 Forgive me but this blog post is gonna be photo heavy...I'm just in love with this project! Every single one turned out so happy, colorful and bright. Here's the video used to teach this lesson:

This did take us about three and a half art classes. While working on this project, my early finishers worked on this lesson which was a great tie-in what with the pattern review:

My students are now obsessed with drawing three dimensional houses!

 I'm going to tell you exactly what art supplies we used for this project because, let's be honest, one of the reasons these look so good is because they are so bright and colorful. Kid artists deserve to use quality art supplies just like grown folk. That's easy to say...but not always easy to afford. The supplies I'm about to share are not bananas expensive...but they aren't your bargain basements fare either.

 To start, my students used fluorescent oil pastels by Sargent. These are my favorite to use when we are creating a watercolor resist because of how bold and bright they shine through the paint.

They run about $7 a pop...and I purchase enough for two kids to share. You can find them in just about any art supply catalog. We don't use these all the time...like I said, we love them for resist. I've shared these many times before on my blog, I just love them!

 I love both liquid and watercolor paint. However, I wanted the kids to use pan watercolor paint for this project because I'm still learning the liquid watercolor paint ropes. How much water do I add to dilute? It looks black in the cup and that confuses the kids...you get the idea. I'm working on my issues with liquid. When it comes to pan watercolor tho, not all are created equal. I LOVE Crayola's Mixing Colors:

Okay...here's the deal. I didn't always love Crayola's watercolor paint until I discovered theses guys. Here's the deal: DO NOT BUY THIS SET unless you don't have any watercolor trays. Instead, by the refill colors in the set. Here's what I have: I got rid of the black, white and brown from my watercolor trays. Now I have refill pans that I simply pop out and replace of the following Crayola watercolors: red, red-orange, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, blue violet, purple and magenta. I place them in the paint pan in that order. 

 These photos have not been altered...that's truly how bright the watercolor and oil pastels are! Now you see why I love 'em so!

 For our houses, we used cereal boxes. I sent out an email at the start of the year asking for cereal boxes simply because we need that cardboard for projects like this! 

 The kids used "naked" oil pastels to do a rubbing on the house before either collaging the doors and windows on or painting them. That was a hot mess of a day, not gonna lie. We had paint, cardboard, paper, glue and puffy paint all on the tables. 

 As far as puffy paint goes, I like Tulip brand that can be purchased in most craft stores. It's expensive at about $3 a bottle...but I LIVE for puffy paint and so do my kids!

  Once the houses were dry and the background was complete, the assembly was ready to happen.

 I am the proud owner of a TON of foam core from matting and framing artwork. I simply chopped that into bits for our pop out foam.

 To really get those houses in the foreground to stand out, the kids made sure to double up the foam core. One piece was used for those in the middle ground and either one or none for the background.

 With these complete, my students are moving on...we are now onto creating self portraits for our winter art show!

 I decided to give myself a wee break and use a lesson from last year for our selfies...it was a huge hit so I'm excited to give it another go:

We'll be using my favorite chalk brand for this project: Faber-Castell!

 Alright, I did say this post was going to be photo-heavy, right?

 But, can you blame me?! Each one is just so happy!

 I definitely will be doing this project again. I can't think of anything I'd change about it.

 Even when some friends went wild with the puffy paint, it worked!

 You'll have to keep me posted if you give this project a try in your art room. Please be sure and tag me. Not only would I love to see but it also helps others find the details on the lesson.

 Just a peak at the foam core. I stressed that none should be visible from the front of the house.

 I would totally live in this colorful village!

Wouldn't you?! 

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In the Art Room: Sketching Art History

Hello, party people! I'm excited to share with y'all today some things that are goin' down in the art room...namely, just how my students are using their sketchbooks! I see my third and fourth grade students for an hour (my other classes are 30 minutes in length). For that reason, I decided to introduce them to sketchbooks this year. We created our own sketchbook covers on the very first day of art and had a big time doing so. 

Here's a blog post explaining how they are created. We did these a couple of years ago...and while the kids loved making them and sketching...I dropped the ball. I wasn't super sure how I wanted the kids to use their sketchbooks. Here was my initial thought a couple of years ago:

This time around, I decided to make some changes to how we use our books. Here's the plan:

* We will be taking a journey through art history with our sketchbooks! Every other week, my students will sketch in their books. We will do this every other week so as to not eat into regularly scheduled creative time. To make this process of distributing and collecting sketchbooks easier (because I have two classes at once and things can take a little longer/get a little hairy if I don't have a solid system), I created this video with the help of my awesome co-workers. My kids FLIPPED when they saw their teachers cutting up for the cause. Here's the Do's and Don't's of Sketchbookin':

* On sketchbook days, my students will watch two 1-minute videos. The first one will be a Hot Minute of History (which I've shared here before) and the other will be a sketchbook prompt based on that history. Here's our first installment!

* As they view the videos, students are to silently take their sketchbook from the bin and pass the bin. They did this beautifully. Here's their sketching prompt video:

I made my rules very clear: Silent Sketch Time and One Page at a Time. I then set my timer for 7 minutes and the kids went to work. I was so loving their first sketches! I thought I'd share...

 We used texture plates and fabric for the rubbing. I did end up swapping out the vine charcoal for black oil pastels as the charcoal did not work very well on the oil pastels. 

 I had one student say they had "messed up" and that they wanted to start again on another sheet. I said, "If you were a cave artist, you wouldn't ask for another cave wall...you would make that drawing work!" And they did. It was a fun lesson on beautiful oops'ing!

One of the main reasons I thought it would be good to sketch through Art History is that it is one area that I often fail to teach. There are SO MANY THINGS TO TEACH IN ART that I find I have to squeeze in as much as I can. This is one way I hope to do that. 

 I introduced A Hot Minute of Art History before (more details here) but then it was just me chatting...and I tend to be long winded. Not only that but it didn't really resonate with the kids as they didn't have a creating-connection. So, hopefully, this will help. I am showing the one minute videos to my first through second grade students...they just don't do the sketching portion. 

 I also created a song to go along with this journey. You can find the song here (it's a work in progress). Here's a clip of me teaching it to a group of third graders a couple of years ago:

We still get up and sing the song...but now we do it with a before video and a sketching intro!

 I was so excited by the sketchbook drawings and I know the kids were too. I can't wait to share our next Art History video with them!

 I also loved the variety of drawings. I did do a quick google search of cave paintings and placed a couple of simple sheets on each table for inspiration. My students are used to these Idea Sheets, as we call them. I know that I work best when I have some inspiration so I always provide that for my students. 

  As I create the lyrics to the song, I've been working on paintings myself. Here's my take on Cave Painting:

These paintings will later become posters to hold the lyrics of our Rockin' Art History song!

You can find the pdf for this here if you are interested! Feel free to use in your art room. All I ask is that you share your source when other's ask. I would rather not post what I share to TPT...I would like to continue sharing. However, it is sometimes sad to see folks not give credit where it is due...especially when they got the information for free. So I ask politely and say thank you!

 Getting back into sketchbooks with the kids meant finding a place to store them. Earlier this year, I found this great bookcase that was in an abandoned classroom. After a little bit of paint, I was happy with the result.

 My bins from Target are the perfect fit! It really helps to have the folders divided by class and gender as that makes passing the sketchbooks our much faster and easier.

 I'll be sure to share our sketchbook adventures as they continue!

Until then, have a super week!

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In the Art Room: Ten Fave Fall Projects for Kids

Happy fall, y'all! Last week I shared with you MY favorite fall crafts...today I thought I'd share my Top Ten Fave Fall Projects for kids! Let's kick it off with this weaving project because it's one of my very faves.

1. Tree Weaving Lesson I usually do this lesson with my students in third grade and up. I developed this lesson after being tired of the same old weaving projects I'd done for years. This video was created for you, as an instructor...but you could totally use it with the kiddos!

You can see more of this lesson in my first blog post right here. 

 2. Fall Landscape Collage This lesson I just recently shared and I'm really excited about it. The kids learned so stinkin' much and had a blast while doing so. I cannot wait to display these in the hall. Here's the instructional video:

My other first grade classes are wrapping these up this week. I am looking forward to seeing what they create!

 3. Positive and Negative Gelli Prints When I initially did this project, I made my own gelli-plates. You can find the recipe here. What I don't love about making these plates is that, well, you have to make them and it's labor-intensive. Not only that, but if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, you will definitely be opposed to using the gelatin that goes into the making of these plates.

The good news is that if you own GelliArts printing plates, you can get the very same effect. And it's so much fun!

 4. Sunflower Gelli Plates Prints with Puffy Paint Nothing says fall to me like Sunflowers. I loved this Andy Warhol inspired project and so did my second grade kiddos...although I think it could have easily been down with my older students as well. 

When we displayed these in a square kind of Warhol-style.

 5. Leaf Relief Another great fall project that introduces kids to texture is this leaf relief project. This is a project that I've done successfully with kids of a variety of ages from second grade on up!

 It looks really fabulous with a painted and textured canvas background!

 6. Painted Fall Landscape Landscapes are always a fave in the fall and this one is no exception. You can find a video with more details of this project right here:

Here's a little more about this landscape here as well:

These were a crowd pleaser and really introduced the kiddos to so stinkin' much that's important to art makin'.

 7. Van Gogh-inspired Haunted Mansion True facts: I LOVE Disney's Haunted Mansion and so do my students. I have a 1969 Disney CD that is the telling of the story of the Haunted Mansion. It's like riding the actual ride: it takes you thru the tale of the mansion. Last year, I had a fourth grade class that was so interested in the story that I based an art project around it! You can check out the details here and the instructional video right here:

The kids had the best time creating these Spooky Starry Nights!

8. Printed Fall Leaves Discovering the magic of marker printing was pretty much a game changer for me and this project makes it so simple and fun. Let's talk about it:

So easy! And one way to use those pesky markers (am I the only art teacher who hates markers?! UGH.)

9. Fall Trees with Warm and Cool Skies So this project was actually done during a study of Asian art...but could so easily translate to fall! You can check out more of these beauties here.

 10. Collage Landscapes of Fall My sweet second graders are getting ready to embark on this project next week. I've not done this one in a couple of years and I'm ready to bring it back...they are so beautiful! This time around, I'll be creating a video so you can stay tuned for that...or just check the blog post here. 

Wow! I'm so excited for all, these pretties have me inspired! What are your fave fall projects? LOVE to hear about them.

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