Stomp Out Bullying!

Welcome back my friends!

I'm so glad to be back in the swing of things... our first art class was a collaboration between the guidance counselor and myself. Our school system has started a new campaign called, "Stomp Out Bullying" and we decided to work together to create fantastic footprints to incorporate this theme into the art class.

 

Fourth and Fifth Grade used rulers to create parallel and intersecting lines (sound familiar?) and added their name to the footprint.

 

 

Second and Third Graders drew an abstract organic design and colored it in using warm or cool colors (lots of vocabulary, right?)

 

 

 

And my brand new kindergarteners and first graders practiced their cutting skills and used tissue paper squares to fill their footprints with color.

 

All the footprints will be hung around the school as reminders of our zero-tolerance policy for bullying. I love the way every footprint, just like every child, is different and special. and I love the was the lesson teaches children how art can symbolize a big idea or movement... pretty big abstract thinking for such little minds. Amazing what art can teach.

 

Thanks Zoe's Kitchen!

 

A big Blossomwood "THANK YOU" to Zoe's Kitchen on Whitesburg drive for our school fundraiser!

Zoe's provided our school with canvases and paint, and in turn, we provided them with beautiful artwork to display during the Summer season.

With the money raised from the sale of our artwork and Zoe's Blossomwood Spirit Night, we are creating a Blossomwood Student Art Gallery!

 

Be sure to visit our Gallery soon!

Camping, anyone?

This is a classic...."hmmmm what do I need to get rid of?"..... lesson.

Over run by matboard scraps, construction paper scraps, and random craft materials, we came up with this campground lesson. I say, "we" because literally that's what happened. I started teaching them to make an organic, abstract design with construction paper scraps and it turned into these adorable campgrounds.

 

 

Students, folded, crimped, cut and glued paper to make their own campsites, complete with tents, cots, blue cellophane "fishing holes," campfires from orange party streamers and tree and bushes galore.

 

Well done, campers! You are ready for Summer!

 

Panda-monium!

Okay, go ahead and laugh... but I couldn't help including that pun!

With our new building at Blossomwood came the return of clay projects.... which I know are my students' absolute favorites.

 

Beginning with a pinch pot, the students added paws, head and tail with tiny details. Then came my students second favorite part: PAINTING!

 

 

 

 

And here is the end result... absolute cuteness.

 

So when you put this precious little piece in your china cabinet, just remember all of the CHEMISTRY and SCIENCE your child learned in art class while working on these...Trust me, there have been many "kiln explosions" that have taught me how to become a better art teacher.

Ceramics isn't easy. Your kids earned these guys.

 

**Special thanks to my super art assistant, Danica, who helped me load and unload the kiln without a single broken piece!

 

 

 



 

Art That Makes You Go "YUM!"

 

Hello Friends! Welcome back to Tiny Talent!

 

After a brief maternity leave, I'm back and ready to show you guys the wonderful artwork by my students.

Our Pop Art Hamburger lesson is always a winner with the kids. We begin by discussing Claus Oldenburg's Two Cheeseburgers Sculpture, then using construction paper and several different cutting techniques, create our own cheeseburger and fries. Some of the kids got really creative and added onion rings, bacon, grill marks and even toothpick frills!

Cool Little Birdies!

With the Alabama weather finally dipping lower than 60, I was inclined to make some "cold weather art."
My pre K, Kindergarten and first grade classes started by using round container lids (recycle those sour cream and yogurt tops, y'all!) to make four different sized circles. We then added beaks, eyes, wings and long skinny bird legs.
Next, we traced over the lines with black Sharpie markers, an art teacher's best friend, and colored in with crayon. To make a great crayon resist, you have to be sure the kids color in darkly, and make a good shiny surface to repell the watercolor. After we finished coloring the birds we used a "magic" white crayon to color scribble-scrabbly lines around the birds to be our snow clouds..
The second art class is when the magic happens. By painting on top of the negative space with blue watercolor, the white snow clouds "magically appear..." causing lots of oohs and aahs from my little ones.

Painterly Lions

The number one question I hear from my little ones, is when are we going to paint!??!
So, this week we pulled out the temperas and got started!

We began by looking at photos of the play, The Lion King. Some of students had actually been to the play, so it was very familiar to them. Others enjoyed seeing the elaborate costumes for the first time and making connections to the Disney movie.
We drew the lion's face with pencil, traced with sharpie, and colored with crayon. Then, the fun begins.... using cake temperas (which look like bigger versions of watercolor, but with more pigment) added a mane around the face with black, brown and white paint.

 

Pretty ferocious, aren't they?