fire away!

6 classes down, 3 more in the kiln, and 1 more class to glaze. I'm loving these little creatures. The students are having a blast painting them. I can't wait to show them what their pieces look like after they come out of the kilns:)

uh oh...

I thought all the 2nd grade classes would be glazing their pinch pots this week, but I ran into some kiln issues... grrr!

Half the pots for my first class today were at the bottom of a hot kiln load this morning. Such poor planning by someone who shall not be named;) 

Anywho, I needed a project to do and remembered the work of Japanese artist Miroco Machiko that I had pinned earlier in the year. Mrs. Knight also did a project based on Miroco's work with her students this year, so I pulled up both Miroco's website and Mrs. Knight's blog post to share with my class. 

I like to share the work of other students as well as our focus artists because it allows kids to see how other kids have approached the project. I have found that it makes the work a bit less intimidating for them.

Like Mrs. Knight, I talked about the still life as subject in art. We also realized that Miroco's shapes of fruits and veggies did not look 3d and round. She doesn't worry about using light and dark colors to make things look 3d. Flat is good with her:)

Before jumping into the project, I had students give me names of some fruits and veggies. As they told them to me, I drew them out on my front board, so they would have some references for their shapes. 

I had the students shoot for at least 9 shapes on their paper. I emphasized using a variety of sizes in their drawing. I also stressed trying to use the whole paper. Once they were done drawing, students traced their shapes with some fancy metallic crayons. In hindsight, I wish I had them make these lines a little thicker, but the kids LOVED using these crayons. 

After that, I quickly demonstrated how to blend two watercolor colors together inside a shape. Another crowd pleasing moment:) Students could use any color except black.

Once students finished painting in their shapes they moved onto painting the background with black. I was a bit nervous about this step. I was picturing a big mess, but the kids showed great control with the black and the amount of water and color they used to fill the background.

Thanks for getting me through my morning Miroco and Mrs. Knight:)

glazing away on a rainy day.

The first 4 2nd grade classes got to glaze their Lisa Farris inspired pinch pot creatures today. They were, shall I say, just a little excited about it:)

Instead of coming in and finding their pre-placed nametags, I had students sit at table that had the main color they wanted to use on their pots. When students finished applying at least 2 coats of that color, they could move to another glaze table to apply more. The students repeated this until they were done glazing and then they brought their pieces to me, so I could sponge the bottom and place it on a kiln shelf.

This set up has worked very well. I remember seeing Rina from k6art pin it earlier in the year:) It saves on brush cleanup and glaze waste.

I'm looking forward to cracking the kiln tomorrow and seeing what we got!

space. messy, messy space:)

This week the 5th graders are diving into chalk pastels. So, instead of clay dust left behind from the 2nd grade pinch pots, I have very colorful dust kicking about my room after each class.

The project we are working on was inspired by a project I found on the art blog Make It... a Wonderful Life.

I introduced students to the Hubble telescope, it's history, and what it does. We looked at a number of photos from the Hubble website and we talked about how many of the images looked abstract in nature. Kids saw different things in the pics like we do when looking at clouds in the sky. I pointed out how some formations looked 3d due to the presence of light and dark on them.

At each table I had 7-8 different images for students to refer to during the project. I emphasized that they did not have to copy one image. They could combine them, they could add to them, they could use them for inspiration to create new and different scenes.

Like Make It... a Wonderful Life, I demonstrated how to work the pastels in a variety of ways. As students worked on their own creations, I worked on a drawing in the back of the room on a vertical easel, so students could see how I was handling things. I left the technique demo up on my projector screen, to serve as a visual reminder, too.

The students are quite enjoying the photos from the telescope and they are having success with their pastel drawings. Next week I plan on doing another one  with them, but the shapes will be much more concrete, so they will handle the materials differently.

writng about crayons and color.

Before spring break I did a drawing project inspired by an illustration by Philip Tseng with my first graders.

One of our fantastic 1st grade teachers, Ms. Kitchin, did an English langauge arts activity with her class afterwards.

She shared the story, The Crayon Box that Talked, with her class and then they wrote a story or about how colors made them feel.

Wonderful.

Below are just a few of the great writing pieces that were prompted by the art project:)