Aboriginal Art, ABB Pattern

Finished product above. Check out the lesson below.

Here I uploaded my ABB pattern project that I do with my K's. We talk about patterns and Aboriginal Art. I love the math kids get with this project!

Pollock Fun

Do you have a couple of minutes a the end of class? Do you have an interactive board? I have just the site for you... http://www.jacksonpollock.org/. I used this as a reward for students to get in line. If we cleaned up faster then expected I ask each student to come up by tables and make a 'Pollock mark' on my Smartboard. I explain how Pollock uses his whole body and canvas to make his art. They make a mark on the board and get in line. The kids LOVE it.

Intro to Mosaics

Intro to Mosaic making...

One of the best things about having an artist-in-residence visiting is learning new ways to teach. Lisa introduced the students to making a mosaic using paper and tile tesserae. She had them draw a circle on a sheet of paper and place the tesserae on the outline. She explained how to make a strong line with tesserae. She then talked about the negative space and how to fill in the inside. I was impressed with how she explained the technique in a way the kids could really understand it!

Mosaic Vocabulary

Mosaic By Lisa Arnold

Mosaic Vocabulary

Mosaic

Many small pieces to make a big picture.

Tessera

A piece used in a mosaic. Tessera can be any kind of mosaic material; ceramic, stone, pebbles, glass or some other substance.

Tesserae

The plural of "tessera", a name given to piece used in a mosaic.

Positive Space

The inside of a shape or form. Anything that takes up space.

Negative Space

The empty space between and surrounding shapes and forms.

Mosaisist

A person who creates a mosaic

Tip: Other mosaic terms, processes, and projects can be found at: http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/index.shtml

1st grade Home Mosaic

The 2nd through 5th grade students are working with Lisa Arnold, our artist-in-resident to create a group mosaic. I wanted to have 1st grade work on mosaics too. I choose the theme of home for the students to create an image from. We reviewed the Kindergarten shapes and use circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles to draw the house with and create design. They used construction paper crayons on dark paper on day one.

On day two, I demonstrated how to use a ruler and we drew two horizontal lines, and two vertical lines on the back of their page. They then finished coloring and cut on the lines. They placed pieces of their house back together using negative space in between.

Tip: If you are working with many classes, ask them to write their teacher code along with their name. A teacher code might look like B-1 for Mrs. Bower's 1st grade class. I often use different colors of paper for each class as well. This way if they forget to write their teacher code on the back you still know what group the art belongs too.

Radial Balance

Students worked on Radial Balance. I experimented with both 2nd and 4th grade. Both were successful. I will probably place this project in 4th in the future. The students first drew several shapes on the left side of the worksheet. Shapes were both geometric and free form. The two diagonal lines, vertical and horizontal lines were already provide. The students builded their shapes out from the center and worked their way out. It was a fun and successful drawing.

We are starting on the mosaic today!

She's HERE!

Lisa Arnold, our Artist- in -Residence, is finally here! We have started our community art project at Rogers Elementary. Lisa is using the poems that she and the students created in January to create the imagery for our mosaic. The theme of the poems was home. Please check for updates in the next few weeks.

Tactile Texture

I love this project! We talk about tactile textures vs visual texture. I use a ton of 2-D images to talk about the visual texture. The tactile is explained with the toddler texture books. I also made some tactile texture boxes... Kids place their hand in a hole in a box to feel what is inside. They 'let their hands talk to their brain'. FUN! They love it. The necklace is low-fire white clay rolled into a ball. They flatten with their hand and add texture using 'junk treasure' (combs, forks, buttons, and so on...). After being fired, they paint their clay with watercolor, this year I used liquid watercolor. They dry right away. Final step is to add the colored noodles on the string (plastic cord). When finished they bring the art work over to me. I place the tape and on put it on their head. They LOVE it. We walk down to the office and shoe the administration our wonderful, wearable art. They feel like ROCK STARS!

For my Pinch Pots!

Here you see me waxing the bottom of my pinch pots. I melt a couple of paraffin wax bars in a crock pot. You can pick up the wax in the baking department of any grocery store. I like to wax the bottoms of the kids clay project so that it resist the glaze. I think it makes a nice even line on the bottom and I don' t have to wipe glaze from the bottom before going in the kiln. The wax buns off the pot when firing. It is a extra step but I feel worth it!