painting with pnut.

Or Mr. Greg Galinsky:)

Many 4th graders needed more time this week to finish their Hundertwasser complementary color paintings, so I wanted to do something this week that kids could jump into at different times during class and still have success.

I came across Pnut's work earlier this month on pinterest and pinned a photo of a deck series that he had done for FTC skateboards.

I loved the simplicity of the shapes and composition. Economic and clean. Pared down shapes and colors. I thought his work would make for a perfect exploration of monochromatic color schemes.

I introduced his work to the classes via his website. I showed them the pics from his bio page and shared that he is a month older than me. It was so "nice" to hear from numerous students that Pnut looks so much younger then me! Darn you Pnut;)

We looked at some of his commercial work and a few of his paintings. I contrasted his work with the bold, many colored work of Hundertwasser. We talked about how Greg's work has a strong sense of unity because of his use of monochromatic or analogous color schemes. We also identified his use of contour lines to define the shapes in his work, both objects and background shapes. We also addressed his use of tints and shades of colors to add variety to his images.

I wanted students to use Pnut's work as inspiration, not to simply copy it, so I decided to give them a choice. They could use an instrument for their subject or they could use a music listening device instead. I projected images of an ipod, boombox, walkman, record player, and phonograph for the students to choose from.

Students started the project by shaping their board with scissors. They then did at least 2 skethces on the name side of their board. Once they had something they liked, they drew it out lightly on the front and traced it over with a black crayon to make the  contours bold and strong.

I demonstrated how to make tints by adding more water to their tempera paint and how to make shades by adding black.

It has been interesting to see the variations in subject, color, and composition that the students have come up with.

So far, not much love for green. Same goes for the phonograph:)

hmmm...

 The 5th graders wrapped up their Don Pendleton inspired unity skateboard decks this week.

The start of each class saw students at different levels of project completion. After they finished I give them the opportunity to design a different deck any way they please. The students really enjoyed this aspect of their time this week. It was interesting to see how some students stuck with the unity theme and how some really broke out from the whole repetition concept.

After all the students were done with their first deck I passed out the assessments and reflection sheets/rubrics. Generally, this was around the 50 minute mark of a 70 minute lesson.

We walked through the evaluation process together. I told them the most important aspect of this process is to be able to be honest with themselves. The assessment process is a time to identify strengths and weaknesses of how they handle the language of art. 

We looked at three things in the assessment. How they created unity, how well crafted they made their design, and how respectful they were in class. They evaluated their own work and then I evaluated theirs. So many of the kids were spot on with their assessments of their work.

Over winter break my plan is to cut plywood decks for 2 students in each class. The student designs that are selected will be based on creativity, craftsmanship, and respect.

The winners will be announced after winter break:)

symmetry skate.

Well, I couldn't let the 5th graders have all the fun with skateboards this week, could I?

Nope:)

I found these fly designs by Samuel Murdoch online last week. Samuel was born, raised, and schooled in England, but now resides in Vietnam. He did a series of deck designs for the LB Skateshop. Each of the animals he chose is native to Vietnam/Asia. I loved the tie in to native animals. The designs, themselves, are super clean and bold.

The added bonus is that the designs are a showcase for symmetry, which is what I am focusing on with the second graders this go around. Perfect:)

The classes did 3d symmetrical paper snowflakes last week, so I revisited the concept of symmetry with them when they arrived. I also did the same thing with using collage to make art. I told them we would be revisiting both things this lesson, but the end result would look a lot different than what they made last week.

Before starting the hands on activity, I told the class that we would not focus on an animal native to Vietnam, but one that was native to California. I also told them this animal was on the state flag. Yes, we would be using the grizzly bear as our focus.

1. we shaped the board
2. we folded and cut the head shape
3. we folded and cut the face shape
4. we glued both parts on to the paper decks
5. we then used leftover cuttings of the dark paper to use for locating the eyes
6. we folded, cut, and glued the mouth and nostrils
7. we folded, cut and glued the teeth and eyes
8. we added symmetrical designs to the top and bottom spaces of the deck, using leftover paper and colorsticks
9. we cleaned up
10. we let out a big growl!

I'd say the teeth were the hardest part for most of the classes. The small zigzag cuts were a bit tricky for them. Even though everybody followed the same steps, there were many interesting variations of bears and background designs. When students were adding background elements I emphasized that would be how their designs would look a lot different than their classmates'.