Hawaiian Watercolor

For this lesson we brought a little bit of Hawaii to South Dakota. We began this lesson by learning and practicing the different techniques of water coloring. We then choose two different techniques of water coloring, and made our "masterpiece". At the time we felt rushed to get our masterpiece done, but this was to give it time to dry. The next step was to get out colorful construction paper for our flowers. We used a flower pattern and then cut out the flowers, but an older grade could make their own flowers as well. We were assigned to cut out twenty four flowers from all different colors and cut straws into twenty four one to two inch straw pieces. Then we used a bobby pin to assist us in stringing the flowers onto the string. For every flower there needed to be a straw. We learned many Hawaiian words that added to the fun, tropical feel to the assignment. For an extension activity the students could look more into Hawaiian culture and write a short research story or a story about a make believe trip to Hawaii. 

"Pau!"

Coil Pots 


For this lesson we worked with clay. The first step was to kneed the clay to eliminate air bubbles. Once that we complete we took a small portion of the clay and made it into the bottom of our pot. We scored the edges so the coils could nicely wrap around it. The next step was to roll out the coils evenly and smoothly. We could roll out each coil one by one, or have one long coil that spiraled up to form the pot. This was the most complicated part of the project, because the coils were hard to roll out evenly. Each time we added a new coil, we smoothed out the inside of the pot. We were instructed to have primary and secondary colors on our pot along with some personal design. I choose to use five different colors to represent the five people in my family and our unique personalities. I also carved the first letter of my family members names into my clay pot before it dried. My family is extremely important to me. I also painted a sun and a cloud on the inside of my pot to represent my love for summer and the out doors. An extension activity would be to go over different forms of pottery and their history. Working with clay and using a kiln would be a great option too. 

Eye Popping into "Who Ville"

   For this lesson we were inspired by Dr. Seuss! In Dr. Seuss' books, his illustrations are curvy, straight, bendy, swirly, jagged, and loopy all on one page. We created our own "villes" that resemble something that could be in Dr. Seuss' books. The first step was to back the white piece of paper because once the gluing process starts it would be hard to do so. We then reviewed various bends and folds of construction paper and reviewed how to glue them to a sheet of paper. We were instructed to have three different folds and at least seven pieces of paper in our assigned colors (warm, cool, or complimentary.)  I did a complimentary colored 3-D design entitled "Christmas Gone Wrong!" An extension activity would be to continue to make up a town. Write about who lives in this town, what  stores are located there, and how they town came about. This could incorporate many different curriculum areas such as math and history. 

Railroad Printmaking


   For this lesson we began by carving a design of our choice into a rectangular piece of styrofoam. We then used a roller to apply paint onto the rectangular piece and pressed it three times on construction paper. While the print was drying, we drew a railroad scene. We connected our railroad scene to South Dakota by having it filled with a South Dakota item such as coal or corn. The railroad was a part of our South Dakota history and we could continue with this by researching our history of the railroad even more. We could also research the progress of the railroad and how it has improved throughout history.

Spring Time Watercolor Activity

     The picture above was a fun, and creative way for students to use water color and oil pastels. First, we used the light colored oil pastel and drew flowers onto the paper. We did this by using blind drawing (we could not see the paper we were drawing on), but it could be used for younger children without the blind drawing. After we drew 3 flowers we picked the colors of the watercolors to use and painted over top of the drawings. Since the flowers were done in a light color such as white or light blue, we could see the outline of the flowers through the watercolors. 
    An extension activity could be to increase the grade level and the difficulty of the project. We could have the students study a picture of a flower or animal. After they study that picture and practice drawing that picture, they could use the same light colored pastel or white crayon and blindly draw the picture onto a white background. Then use watercolors that represent that flower or animal. I think the blind drawings is a great technique to incorporate into the older students activity. 

Hoppy For Plaid!

     During this project we focused on complimentary colors and lines. We first practice painting vertical and horizontal lines. Then we talked all about plaid and the lines that it is made up of. We read a great book that talked about all the places we could find plaid in our every day lives. Proceeding the book we used the light color (red in my case) and painted horizontal lines of all sizes on it. Then we used the other color(green) and painted vertical lines of all sizes once the red was dry. After the paint was completely dry we received a pattern of a bunny and traced in onto the back side of the paper. We then cut it out and glued the pieces onto a colored background. Then we added details such as the cotton ball tail, and the face drawn on with black marker.
    An extension activity we could do with this is incorporate this into language arts by having the students write a poem or a story about their bunny and how they got the "plaid" disease. Writing a poem would be for the younger students and the story would be for the older students. Once the poem or story is done they students could again use the horizontal and vertical lines to make a plaid background for the students to mount their language arts assignment on. 

Marbled Sightseeing 


     This weeks lesson we did some sight seeing! We were each given a famous landmark from various places around the world. My location being Great Sphinx in Giza, Egypt. We then drew our location onto a piece of white paper and traced it was a black permanent marker. Once the drawing was complete, we cut around our picture. The next step was to put shaving cream onto the bottom of a large pan and smooth it out. Then with adding drops of three adjacent onto the shaving cream. I took a wooden comb and pulled the paint droppings through the shaving cream creating a marbled look. I then placed my drawing into the shaving cream face down. Next, I pulled my drawing from the shaving cream and with a straight edge I wiped away the excess shaving cream. This left a marbled paint affect onto my picture. Once the picture was dry, I added a colored boarder and a name tag to identify my drawing. This project is a project I would love to do in my classroom. 



An extension activity would be for the students to research their landmark and write a poem based on what they find. After the poem is written, we could put that poem to a beat or a rhythm. 

Puzzle Piece

We were all given a blank white puzzle piece and asked to draw warm or cool animals. I was assigned a cool animal and decided to draw a fish. We picked a cool tints and used them on our puzzle piece. Whatever color we use on the animal we did not use in the background. We were given either geometric shapes, lines, organic shapes or texture to use in the background with the remaining colors. All the puzzle pieces would come together to create a warm and cool colored puzzle.

I would love the the puzzle piece idea because it symbolizes everyone's creative projects coming together for one uniform idea. An extension activity would be to do 26 pieces and have a student draw a 3-D letter using both warm and cool colors. In the background they can faintly write words that start with their letter. 

Macrame

   

    In class today we learned all about Macrame. We talked about the history of Macrame which I thought was very interesting. My favorite part was getting to do the knots. We were told to use a minimum of three knots and not to alternate sides.We created key chains or bracelets.  I love doing Macrame and I think it would be a great activity for students to do!

    An extension activity to do would be to possibly keep practice Macrame and make a larger project like a necklace or something of the students choice. Maybe using other colored string that is not hemp would be another choice too.  

Blind Flowers

In class we did a blind drawing of flowers. We poked a hole through a index card and used a white crayon to draw three flowers. We were given pictures of real flowers to use a reference and to make each flower different from the next. We then wet down the paper using a paint brush and water. With warm and cool colors we painted over the flowers and they appeared through the paint!

An extension activity would be to use the same concept in spelling. I would use smaller paper, and write the students spelling words on the paper. Then the student would spell the word either on a note book piece of paper or out loud. Once they spell the word, they would use paint and paint over the word to see if they spelt it write.

Hidden Picture Art

     We went on a safari! We made our own glasses from red film and construction paper that had the magic ability to see animals. Before actually creating our picture we watched a video on the lion king production on Broadway. We learned about warm and cool colors and how to make use of it in our project. We also practiced our upside down drawings. This helped us see the lines that make up the animal, and not the features. We then started drawing our animals in a cool blue. The color blue was really important, because we could distract the eye from the blue by using complement colors. We were instructed to constantly check our drawing with the red glasses just to make sure we could still see it. After we were finished with the warm pattern over top of our blue animal, we wrote three clues to see if the viewer could guess what our animal was. 

      An extension activity for this class could be still related to the safari theme. For an early childhood class or elementary classes they could go on a virtual safari. During this safari they could stop and talk about each animal they see. After this have them finger paint a picture of their favorite animal they encountered on the safari. For the older elementary students, they could write a small story about their experience in addition to the finger painting. I feel as though, students are never too old to finger paint. We could just talk about mixing colors to get different hues or shades of a primary color. 

The author Eric Carle was the inspiration of the next project.
Eric Carle is an amazing children's author and illustrator. 

This project took two parts. The first part was to take white construction paper and apply drops of paint on it. The goal was to mix primary colors to get different tints and hues throughout the paper. To apply the paint, we used a brush and pulled the paint across the paper while it blended with the other paint. After the paper was dry, we traced our design onto the painted paper of our choice. Then we cut our our design and glued it into place. 

I like this project but the entire time I was trying to think of away this project could be geared toward younger students. A way to accomplish this would be to give every student a white piece of paper. Then give each table a tray of white, black, and blue paint. Then have the student choose how light or dark they would like the blue to be. I would instruct the to cover the entire piece of paper. Then once the paper is dry, have the students think of things that are blue (examples: clouds, water, clothes, etc). I would have cut out cardboard piece of these examples. The student could trace them onto the blue paper and cut it out. This way they are working on finding different hues and tints of a certain color but also matching that color to something they know already. 

Inspired by Van Gogh


     The pictures below were inspired by the famous painter Van Gogh and his painting "A Starry Night." He paints with great expression and bold colors. In class, we did a finger painting project with "Starry Night" in mind. Finger painting would be mainly for younger students, but could be used for older students if desired. We watched a video on Van Gogh's work, then were given the instructions to use the primary colors and finger paint a picture based off of, or your interpretation of "A Starry Night". We were told to show movement in our picture. My picture was a inspired by winter. I took the blue and the white and mixed it together to make a lighter blue. I also did this with the yellow. Using lighter and darker colors gave my picture definition. I put both the blues, yellows, and a white through out the sky. Using the lighter colors then adding in darker colors. I created movement by sweeping my fingers across the paint, and also swirling my fingers in a circular motion. As the sky was drying, I began to add light blue and white into the bottom half of the paper. This was going to be the snow. I did the same techniques in the snow as I did in the sky to create movement. I also tried to give it the look of snow hills. Once the sky was dry. I mixed black and white together, so get a dark brown color. I then started adding that to the left hand side of the paper to make my tree. I then preceded to add more white and some light blue to the paper to finish it off.

My winter finger painting scene inspired by "A Starry Night" by Van Gogh

   An extension activity would be to have the students finger paint a feeling. An example would be a student finger painting a summer scene. This shows something that brings them happiness. I like this idea, because it gives them some free rain on what to do, but it can be completely different from their peers.

     The next project we did was with tissue paper.We were instructed to cut out swirls and strips of tissue paper and we then used a clear glue substance like "modge podge" to paste it down to a black piece of paper. Once that step was complete and dry. We took either a silver marker or oil pastels and added more movement into the sky. We also cut out a city scene from black paper and put it onto the bottom part of the paper. Then we again put the "modge podge" substance on top of the paper to seal it all together. One it was completed, I added final touches with the silver maker, to the buildings and the sky. Then backed it with yellow paper. This project was something that could be done with older students. It is time consuming, but was worth it in the end. It used different kinds of media, and was a great activity to incorporate all of them into one piece of art work.

Tissue Paper Project

      An extension activity would be to use other forms of media but maybe do a night scene of their town or from the window of their house. I wouldn't want them to use items that can not be pasted flat down to the paper. Magazines, pages from an old book, pictures, or items like this could be used. Instead of a night scene, maybe an outline of their face using the different kinds of media.

Examples of Elements and Principles of Art

This is a picture from Venice Beach, CA. It shows us the element of space.

This is a picture of the sun rise by my apartment. It shows us the element of color.

•  The first five pictures show principle of movement. My roommate was attempting to do the worm (a dance move), and these consecutive photos show her moving across the picture.

This Pictures is from New Orleans, LA on Bourbon Street. It shows the principle of symmetrical balance. 

This is also a picture from New Orleans, LA. It shows the principle of emphasis
by the color choice of the store.

(top) Is a picture of a blanket which shows the principle of a random pattern.
(below) Is another picture of a blanket that shows the principle of a planned pattern. 

This is a picture of my favorite blanket, and shows us the element of texture.

  Footprint Project

*This project was a great activity to have your students introduce each other. It gave them room to creatively express themselves which ever way they want. Giving them some guide lines, such as you can trace both feet or just use one and you should use three forms of media, is a great way to still have a uniform idea but unique projects*
*Extension Activity: There are so many fun and effective projects we as educators can use to introduce our students and sometimes connecting it to another class. An example would be a picnic lesson. Since "get to know each other" activities tend to occur during the first days of school having a lesson talking about summer is pretty common. The first step is to provide the picnic plates that have three separate sections (normally two small and one large section) to each child along with glue and random craft supplies (paper, stickers, markers, etc.). Then give them the instructions that in each section you are looking for certain things such as favorite food, representation of favorite subject/class, and personal interests. Using all visuals is a great way for them to show their creative side. If you could easily connect this to anther class. For younger elementary, having them make different food in each section and do it as math problem is a great activity also. In one section they could put  four purple pom poms(grapes), in another section they could put two crumpled pieces of paper (strawberries), and in the large section have six items. This shows that 4 +2 =6.

*My Project : I used construction paper, makers, stickers, and ripped magazine pieces to create this project. I used music notes in this project because music keeps me sane and I also put a heart because I am very caring person and have a passion for helping people. A pencil represents my future career as an educator and the puzzle piece, a symbol for autism, represents my hope in being a special educator. The 'F' stands for my faith, family, and friends. I also have a 'GT' which is a symbol for my home town.*

Everything that is seen on my footprint has had an impact on my life tremendously.