Happy Easter

Taking a small break for the Easter Holiday and to get caught up on some graduate classwork.



Have a great break everyone!

Wednesday Works - Ceramic Masks - 5th grade

I like working on mask projects as far away from October as possible.  My theory is to stray away from the Halloween masks and onto a more multicultural approach when we look at traditional masks resources from various cultures. 

After looking at our examples and sketching out some ideas, student had two class periods to work with clay slabs which they draped over Styrofoam face forms.   We've found with past experience, the face forms as best used if they are inside a plastic bag.  That way we can unwrap the bag and pop the mask out of the clay when it's getting to the leather-hard stage and it won't cause any (hopefully) damage to the clay mask.  

While day one was for the basic face shapes and feature details, day two was all about textures!  Carving into clay is much easier when it has a bit of time to set up.  Even though our masks had been stored in plastic bags for a week until the students had art class again, the clay was at just the right stage to allow some very fine detail carvings.

Drying and firing until the students returned on day three and we began glazing. 

 I find these trays come in handy in so many different ways in my room.  For this lesson, the students place ready to be fired projects on the trays, while unfinished pieces are returned to the storage shelves.   I only place things in the kiln that are sitting on the trays. 

A finishing step for our masks is often the favorite (especially when I pull out bottles of glitter).   Decorative details are added with students choice of various crafting materials.  Pom-poms, glitter, buttons, beads, feathers, yarn, and pipe cleaners just to name a few.

I haven't been posting detailed lesson plans along with our Wednesday Works series this year, I've been working through my binder and rewriting and revamping different parts of each lesson we use.   Mainly to add working facts (for a substitute to follow along more easily, as a reminder to me for when I need to add info or materials, etc.), but also to put on paper my adaptations and enrichment steps for different case scenarios. 

It's getting to the crazy days now.  The 4th marking period always seems to be the most confusing (with schedule changes), the most inspiring, and definitely most messy part of the school year.  I try to just hang on and worry about the clean up steps when it's all over!

Monday Motivations (Tuesday edition)- Lisa Rodden- 26 March

Lisa Rodden 

Our Monday Motivation this week is the lovely paper work by Lisa Rodden

Friday Photos - 22 March 2013

Wednesday Works - 1st grade Mosaic Butterflies

Spring is here finally and this lesson is a good reminder for the students to review their seasons of the year.  It is also a good review for the progress working on their fine motor skills. 

We start our lesson talking about the seasons and the things we see during each of them that really exemplify those times during the calendar year.  For example, winter and snowmen or summer and pool time.

  
Then we talked about butterflies a bit.   Facts and fun parts from anyone who wanted to talk about something.  I stressed "symmetrical" and the word of the day and we were off!

To begin making our butterflies, students folded a piece of white paper and traced one hand.   Holding the paper together while cutting gave us two hands to work with. 

Glued to a background color of their choice with the thumbs crossing for the body of the butterfly.

 Students used bits from the scrap box to fill in the wings symmetrically, each piece torn and no larger than their thumbnails.

Elmer's glue was spread in a small section at a time to allow for the placement of several pieces before it dried out.

Final touches included adding a bit of "fuzzy" paper to the body sections and drawing a head if they were so inclined. 

Monday Motivations -18 March 2013 - Herb Williams

Is there anything better than a brand new box of crayons??  I don't think so!

How about this MONDAY Motivations for us then?   Herb Williams (the artists, not to be confused with the basketball player)  creates sculptures out of crayons!

a detail close up

You really should go to the gallery link here and see the car from other angles.

Friday Photos - 15 March

calm before the storm of the 4th marking period

Wednesday Works - The Riddle of the Honkabeast - 2nd grade

I posted this riddle earlier in the month so now let's update with some of the drawing our 2nd grade came up with.

This riddle lesson originally came from my elementary art teacher Mrs. Bonwitt.   (Hope you're enjoying your retirement!!)

Have you solved the riddle for yourself?