CLAY!!!!!!!

 I have many clay pieces to show and I am hoping I can get to all of them tonight. I am so excited about all of the work my students have been creating.The owls slabs are a first for me. Students created a clay relief slab/tile by carving away the clay. I first had students draw out their owl on paper. They were to use their drawing as a reference for their clay drawing. Students are very familiar with drawing owls. I had the students first sketch their drawing into the clay with a needle. The students used bottle caps for the eyes and a loop tool to add the texture for feather. These are not finished. I am going to have the students stain the clay pieces. I also made it a point to not have perfect rectangle slabs. It gives a look of the piece being worn. I can't wait until these are finished.

FuNnY BIRDS

TEACHER EXAMPLE

I have seen many bird lessons on blogs and Pinterest. One blog that really inspired this lesson was Deep Space Sparkle. I had the students use very little water when using the watercolors. I called the lesson funny birds because of the long legs and large eyeballs.

More Birch Trees

The students did such an amazing job I wanted to show more examples.

Birch Trees

I had been inspired to create a project on birch trees. I pinned many examples of birch trees on Pinterest. My students used black construction paper, liquid glue, and oil pastels. The first day I showed pictures of birch trees and the class dicussed the characteristics of this tree. Students then created 4 to 5 trees using a pencil and then liquid glue was used to trace over the pencil lines.

The next day the students used shapes and color to create the knotches on the birch trees. Once all the color was added with oil pastels the last color that was used was white. Students did have to touch up the shapes of color after the white pastel. I am very pleased with the outcome of the project. A pre-school teacher loved the project so much she asked me to create a version of it for her students. I had the preschoolers just make 2 trees and no branches. The students used a white crayon to color the tree. The colorful knotches used where pre-cut construction paper that the students just glued onto the tree.

Self-Portraits

                                                    Another PINTEREST inspired project.
For this lesson I got out the mirrors and a handout for students to look at. The handout showed examples of different shaped heads. I also went over where to draw the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.  I had students look at the shape of their head and try to determine which shape on the handout matched the shape of their head. I did a step by step approach. Once all of the facial features, neck, and shirt were drawn, students then went over the lines with liquid glue. Students used chalk to add the color. Next time I do this I think I will have the students put a design in the background.

Hearts and Hand

 I saw this beautiful inspiration on Pinterest. You can link the website here. I had extra cardboard which is the base for the students painting. Tissue paper  (white) and glue act as the texture for the background. Students used tempera to paint the background. I traced the students hand onto newspaper and the students use watercolor to paint their hand. Scraps were used for the hearts.

Jim Dine Inspired Artwork

This lesson is so much fun because the primary students get so excited experimenting and working a variety of painting techniques. I have the class experiment with the straw technique, the students use colored bubbles to paint, crayon resist, epson salt, and rubbing alcohol. I also added chalk, glue, and oil pastels to the mix.