words with wosene.

I've been working with our littlest artists the past couple weeks and they are experimenting with chalk pastels, too. We have been mixing colors and using letters and words in our drawings. For this activity, we are looking at the work of Ethiopian artist Wosene Worke Kosrof. He uses characters from his native language, Amharic, as the basis of his compositions.

We start the activity by looking at Wosene's website, so the kids can see him and a couple of his pieces. When looking at his paintings, we notice how some of the characters different sizes- big, medium, and small. We also notice how some of the characters resemble English letters and some look right side up, others look flipped upside down, and others look they are on their side.

Now, before getting to the letters part, we prepare to do some color mixing. The kinders have already done a collage that focused on primary colors, so we review them and then break our paper up into rectangles and squares by drawing horizontal and vertical lines. I model using the point of the chalk for this. When we start to fill shapes in, we use the side of the chalk and we try to keep our elbows up, so that our drawings and arms stay as clean as possible. (The kids also can choose to wear art aprons for this- I only have one size, so it's always a little comical watching them put the aprons on and having them come down to their shins;)

After laying the primaries in to all our shapes, we experiment with mixing by adding one primary on top of another to make our secondary colors. We also add white to a couple colors, so we can see how colors get lighter and not darker when we do.

The final step requires a switch to our greasy crayon- the black oil pastel. (I pull the black chalk pastel from all my boxes because, when they get used, drawings get out of control.) I model using a letter per shape to spell a name. As I go, I turn the paper in different directions to change the orientation of some of the letters. Once we have letters in each shape, we go back and make a few of them bold by pressing harder and making the lines thicker.

This activity has brought out a lot of joy in the kids. They're excited to see the new colors that they create and they have been digging the play of letters in their drawings.

chalking and grooving.

My first graders also got into the chalk pastel action last week. They experimented with them as an extension to their color mixing unit. The week before, I read them "In My Heart- A Book of Feelings" and they used primary color crayola color sticks to make secondary colors in their drawings. Very clean!

This project was obviously a lot more messy:) We started the lesson by briefly looking at the work of Norman Lewis, an African American painter whose styled evolved into abstract expressionism over the course of his artistic career. He was strongly inspired by jazz music. On the flip side of that inspiration, musicians have actually performed pieces inspired by the shapes, colors, and composition present in his work.

We noticed how he used large and small shapes, how he added white to colors to create tints, and how he used primary and secondary colors in his work. I discussed his love of jazz. Our 1st grade classrooms are located in close proximity to our music rooms, so we connected to their experience on campus. They hear the older kids play strings and horns from their classes and they hear the instrumental music particularly at recess time.

For each stage or layer of the drawing, we worked to a different piece of instrumental music and attempted to connect our marks to the music.

Students laid down the primary color background to a mellow Miles Davis piece called "So What". They smoothed some of those parts down while continuing to listen to it. They mixed some areas to create secondary colors while listening to a calm arrangement by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Tints were mixed while listening to a faster tempo song from Horace Silver called "Blowing the Blues Away". They then got into the first portion of smaller marks and lines. They listened to a percussion heavy piece by the Incredible Bongo Band titled "Apache" that has been sampled heavily by hip hop artists over the years, most famously by Grandmaster Flash in the early 80s. When readying for this step, I encouraged them to think about the speed of the music, it's beat, and it's loudness. Some kids were more involved with dancing at first and I told them to think about how they could translate those moves into marks on their paper. The final piece of markmaking was in response to an instrumental piece by the Beastie Boys called "Pow".

I think the kids, by and large, loved this drawing and listening experiment. It was really cool to see how different kids responded to the music with color placement and mark making energy and arrangement.

cutting with kinders!

The kinders have started their second rotation with me this week and they are cutting and gluing with me for the first time... and it is going wonderfully!

So many of the kids are doing a fantastic job of holding, opening/closing, and following their drawn lines. This is not necessarily the case every year, so a big shout out to kindergarten teachers and families that have got these little ones on their way:)

I'm using the work of Marcos Roman as the inspiration for this project. I've used his work before with a couple different grade levels. He recently did a series of mask portraits for #inktober and has been posting them on instagram as he makes them. We focus on one image in particular and look at how he uses round shapes (ovals) , how he decorates them with patterns, and how one of the shapes looks like a face. We then go through and identify the various face parts in the collage Marco made.

To start the project, I actually pre-draw the oval/egg face shape. We go through and add the face parts and patterns with a pencil (or white color stick if on black paper). I encourage the kids to make choices with each step- what shape will they use for the nose? the ears? the mouth?, and so on.

The classes working on white paper then use a marker to make the lines bold and those working on black go over their lines with white once more.

Students then draw an oval as big as they can on primary color sheets of paper and add line patterns to each.

Then we are ready to cut! I model how to hold the scissors, opening & closing, and using the hand holding the paper to turn it as we cut. Once everything is cut out, we plan where the primary color shapes will go and then where the face will go. I model using a gluestick, how to raise the glue level, how to do the gluing on the paper and not the table surface, and hold to press the parts on.

When everything is done and kids have cleaned up, some classes have had enough time to collaboratively build a few sentences that explain what we did for their teachers. This has been a great way to get many kids involved in using the vocabulary of the day:)

messy mixing.

Last week, the 1st graders also dove back into school with a chalk pastel project. Nothing like getting dirty right after an extended break! Before starting, we reviewed their use of natural shapes and primary colors in previous projects. We then looked at some work of Gordon Hopkins for inspiration.

While looking at a few of his works, we identified shapes, patterns, primary colors, and secondary colors. I asked kids if they knew what colors were mixed together to mix the secondaries and I wrote these as math equations of the board for them to refer to while working later.

I introduced the kids to chalk pastels and showed them how to hold the chalk so that their drawing hand does not touch the paper as they work. We lightly drew our compositions with visual elements from Gordon's work. We drew a spikey plant, similar to agaves they may see out here, a branch with leaves that is like jade plants in San Diego, and a few flowers. We also added a couple line patterns to the background. With each step we rotated the paper. I asked students to think about where they wanted each element to go. Where did they think the best place for each was in the composition.

We then used each of the primary colors in a different spot in the composition. Students picked which natural element they wanted done in each color. After that, we added different primaries on top of those to make our secondaries. To fill the background patterns, students could use any color they wanted- this  included any of the other chalk pastels they had available. As the final step, we used a black oil pastel to make one of the main elements stand out more than the other parts. I emphasized making that outline bold and strong by pressing hard with the oil pastel.

scary symmetry.

I get to play with my kinders again this week. We are focusing on some major concepts- primary colors, geometric shapes, and symmetry. All those, while making some scary/funny creatures out of cut paper:)

The lesson starts with a quick review of how we used line to make shapes in our earlier lessons. I then introduce them to geometric shapes- I draw them on my board and they tell me what the shapes are. I draw triangles in different ways and the rectangle both vertically and horizontally and see if they still know those shapes;)

Then we look at a short video, a cool commercial really, for Stack and Scare blocks by Invisible Creature. Normally, kids can't shouldn't call out in my class, but I tell them that when they see a shape they know, to say it out loud. They kids love the video and the music, and by clocking in at just under 2 minutes, it's a sweet little hook to get them jazzed about making creatures with shapes.

For this project I have all the shapes pre-cut. Next week they are going to start working on cutting skills, but I just want them to get familiar with what they can do with these shapes this week.

When my classes come in, I already have a few cut shapes for each of them at their tables. Each of them is one of the primary colors, so I visit this right before diving in to play with our shapes. I show the classes some examples that I have done, as well as other kinders, and I emphasize that their creature can be arranged any way they like, as long as one side matches the other.

I have the students plan out/play with their shapes before doing any gluing at all. I demonstrate moving things around on mine after I have all my shapes placed. Once they are satisfied with their creature, they glue the pieces in place.

Students then add line patterns to some of their shapes, using primary color construction paper crayons.

If we have time at the end, I guide them in writing a sentence about their project.