Rainbow Weaving

As many of you know, I have been home for medical leave. I have been using Art as therapy and really excited to discover some new methods of weaving.  One of the lessons I experimented with was this Rainbow Weaving. (click here to go to TPT store) I thought it would really fit in nicely for a middle school.  I couldn't wait to share it with you.

If this lesson looks interesting to you, be sure to watch this video first to make sure you have what you need or are willing to get what you need to create the Rainbow Weaving.

I would also like to mention that this is NOT a beginner project. This project is perfect for an Artist who has a basic understanding of weaving. Fine motor skills and patients will make this lesson more successful. I would suggest this for grades 5th and up. It would be perfect for small group activity like an Art Club, Homeschoolers, or Scout Groups.

In this lesson, I have 3 videos explaining the whole process of this weaving. This allows the viewer to break down the steps, watch it over and over as needed, and pause to create a self-guided lesson that fits them well. The slideshow can be placed on Schoology or shared with students, or it can be presented in group format under the teachers' instruction using projection in the classroom.

There are also step by step images of the project in process. So this lesson has both video and image to support the weaving process.

If you are interested in looking at this weaving for your classroom. I encourage you to visit my Teacher Pay Teacher website. 

Family Portrait Lesson Plan

Today I am presenting at The Art of Education, #ArtEdNow, an online conference for Art Educators featuring Artist and Art Educators. It's specific PD for Arts Education. That is why I love it, it's presenting to my TRIBE!! 

This conference I will be presenting on family portraits.  This lesson is an opening for a big question, What is Family?  It became more than just a pretty picture and more of a conversation between my students identifying the fact that EVERY family looks different. It was a powerful lesson.

If you are attending the conference today, I'm sure your head is swimming with ideas from all the amazing presenters.  I gave you lot's of tips and tricks that worked well in my classroom for this lesson. Most often when I present, teachers want to get ahold of the resources I used.  In this case, one resource is the Hair Reference Sheet. Because we were drawing Dad's in some of the family portraits, we had to talk about how to draw beards. Also, there are so many more hairstyles than what we see in the classroom, so I designed a sheet focused on different ways to create hair. I also spent a lot of time customizing my instruction to individual instruction with this lesson. I have provided this resource sheet on Teachers Pay Teacher if you are interested, click here for the Hair Reference Sheets. 

I also created the lesson itself. Take a look at the following video to get a short overview of what this lesson looks like.

Most of my lessons are in slide format so you are ready to present this via projection. In this case, I have some slides for students and others for teachers. The blue slides are tips, tricks, and things to consider when you are preparing and teaching this lesson. The white slides are instructions for students, prompts for them, students samples to discuss and the steps to create this final product. I took the time to make this lesson great because it's one that I will be teaching over and over for many years to come... it's that powerful.  I don't often repeat lessons, but I will need to for this one. It's a treasure. If you are interested in this lesson plan, please click here for the Family Portrait Lesson Plan.

If you want both, I have created my very first bundle. This is both the Family Portrait Lesson Plan and Hair Reference Sheets for a reduced price. Click here to go to the bundle. 

Composition Game- Inspired by Lisa Congdon

I love following Lisa Congdon on Instagram (@lisacongdon). Her work is so bright and bold. Her work influences my own personal sketchbook, but with this post, she inspires a lesson for my students. 

I love how Congdon plays with composition using different objects. She is practicing her skills in such a public way when she posts images like the one above.  I see the influence of these exercises in her paintings and drawings. I thought this exercise would be a great one to bring into my classroom as well. 

First I started by introducing my students to Lisa's work and explaining what composition is. I only choose to concentrate on 3 ways to create a composition; Balance, Emphasis, and Pattern.  The following Google Slide shows the introduction to Lisa Congdon's work and a beginner lesson of composition.

Now it was time for students to practice. Here is a video introducing the Composition Game that I wanted them to play. One word that I needed to cover for this video was what substrate is. I gave the simple definition of the place we put the art. If I'm a painter, the substrate might be a canvas. If I draw, the substrate might be paper. 

Students worked in small groups to create 6 different compositions as a group.

I encouraged students to make sure that each hand had a part of this activity. They could either have a person 'in charge' for each composition and switch who that person was, or they could all be actively involved with every composition.

Students documented their work by taking a picture with an iPad.

Students then posted their images to a Media Album in their Schoology class. They were asked to label each image. This was a good formative assessment for me to see if I needed to cover the concept again, or if we were ready to use the concept of composition for their own design work.  

Graphite Collagraph

The Art Ed Now is a week away and I'm excited once again be part of this amazing event. This year I'm presenting on how to create and teach a Graphite Collagraph.  Art Ed Now is always one of my favorite ways to get Professional Development. It's quick, easy, and high quality. There is no travel needed. The best part of this conference is that you have access to the sessions after the day... in something they call an 'after pass'. This allows you to revisit the sessions as many times as you need or more importantly WHEN you need the information. Let me tell you, it's a ton of information so having access after is important. Hope to 'see' many of my Art Education friends at the conference. 

Many things came together for me at the same time to inspire the Graphite Collagraph. First, my music teacher coworker asked if I could work with her on the 4th-grade upcoming performance. I was excited to say yes when she showed me what book she was using for her inspiration. You Belong Here, by M. H. Clark, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault was the book selected. The book is lovely, such beautiful poetry. The thing that got me so excited however was Isabelle Arsenault illustrations. WOW!! Her work speaks to me. I wanted to create something in her style and I felt that graphite is the perfect medium. 

If you were one of the first 1500 people signed up for the AOE conference you received a graphite kits from Derwent. This kit was perfect because it has both the graphite sticks as well as pencils. I used both in this collagraph. 

For the collagraph, I used a heavyweight drawing paper. I drew my design and cut with both scissors and an Exacto knife. I did some negative and some positive shapes in my composition as shown below.

I taped the collagraph to the table and then taped a lightweight paper over the collagraph. I used the side of the graphite sticks by rubbing across the paper adjusting the pressure to the area I was working on. This gave me an outline of the images created.

After the outline of the collagraph rubbing is complete, I remove the lightweight paper. I placed the paper with the outlined rubbing on top of a variety of rubbing plates.  I tried a bunch, all pictured below. I used some heavy duty clay texture plates from Fiskars, some lightweight plastic stencils from WalMart, and a cardboard stencil pack from Target.  I have linked all of these options but I don't know how long the links will be good. Any texture plates could be used I would imagine. This might be a fun place to experiment. 

The final result was so interesting.  I think I could use this same collagraph again and again and have a somewhat different result every time.  This whole lesson and more explanation will be explained at the Art Ed Now conference on the 3rd. I also show some different ways to approach this lesson using watercolor colored pencils and exploring some different materials when creating the collagraph. 

Bird Sculptures

I have been trying hard to create a beautiful lesson that you can present to your students. After practicing this sculpture with several students in multiple sessions, I'm proud to say I have a lesson ready to share with you.  I have been posting these amazing bird sculptures on Instagram (@MiniMatisse) the last month or so and people want to know... HOW??!! Here it is my friends! 

Before you decide this is the lesson for you, make sure that you have these materials and tools.  You could also plan on an alternative such as tinfoil instead of paper and masking tape for the armature or a different type of air dry clay instead of CelluClay. I just want you to be sure you are ready to take on this amazing lesson plan before purchase.

Another caution I have for you before taking on this lesson is making sure that you have the time.  This lesson takes no less than 2 weeks to complete (some of those days are drying time for the clay). Just make sure that you can budget enough time... Quality needs time!! 

If you are sure this is the lesson for you, 

Click Here

If you are not sure, continue reading to see what is all included in this lesson.

All of the steps of this lesson are supported with visual images and most sections have a video support as well.

So here is the break down of the lesson plan.  I have tried to cover some major standards in our National Visual Artist Standards. I, of course, have the standard CREATE. Students are making a bird. REFLECT and CONNECT is found throughout the lesson. Students reflect during their preplanning, when they are giving feedback (activity included), and in an optional digital portfolio.  Students PRESENT by displaying the work or sharing the digital portfolio with parents or on social media. 

This lesson is beefy, no dought! It covers our standards, CHALLENGES our students, and gives an opportunity for voice and choice.  Check out some of the amazing works that my students created this last quarter! 

If you would like to learn how to obtain this lesson, please visit my Teacher Pay Teachers store.

Alphabet Snowflakes

These snowflakes are my saving grace this week.  It's the week before Holiday break and some of my classes are at a spot where they need to start a new lesson.  I don't want to start something new and expect them to remember the concepts over two weeks later so this is my fall back.  I have found this concept to be successful with all my students Kindergarten through 6th grade. The snowflakes just become more advanced the more skilled and practiced the Artist is.

For my littles, I often have them watch the video in parts and have them practice on their whiteboard. My 3rd grade and up have sketchbooks, so most of their snowflake exploration happens in the sketchbook.

Some classes were done a week ago and for them, I have added onto the lesson by creating a landscape.  We can cover horizon line and the illusions of depth with this simple finishing process.

I have also offered snowflake exploration in a more choice-based atmosphere. Check out this previous post about snowflake stations.

 

Designing Paper Lesson

I am so excited to post this lesson today because it's something I have been working hard on in the past month.  I'm also excited to see this lesson used in other classrooms because it has been one of the most engaging lessons I have ever done with my students. Allow me to introduce to you, 'Paper Design'!

I share 8 different ways to design paper. Each lesson is clearly marked with a title page and preview of the end result. 

Each lesson also has a supply list. This supply list identifies what was used in the specific process. Each supply list also gives alternative supplies.  When I was listing alternative supplies, I tried to think about what most (if not all) classrooms would have access to. These supplies are common to an Art classroom as well as homeroom classrooms in most cases. 

Then, each lesson has a well lit, close up video of hands in action creating the designed paper. These lessons are ready to show students. Of course they can be viewed as Professional Development and can teach a teacher how to present these lessons to students, however, I have made these lessons to be ready to use in the classroom. I use student-friendly language appropriate for 2nd grade up to high school learners. Each video is 2 minutes to 4 minutes long. These are designed to give students a small amount of information to all students to retain and perform the process independently.

Using this lesson allows students to explore several processes or you can present it to your class to simply try one process instead. This lesson also provides student examples as well as suggestions of how to use the designer paper for a more project-based lesson.  Designed paper can be used for everything from Artist Trading Card Design to collage work.

This lesson can be shared with your students in two ways.  The way I shared this lesson with my class is whole group learning. So I projected the lessons using a computer to my class. I have also designed this so you can share the link with your students and set up stations. This will allow for self -paced learning. Students would need a way to view the lesson at each station via a device such as iPad or Chromebook. This lesson is a Google Slide so you would need an internet connection as well. 

I'm so excited to share this lesson with you today.  Please visit my TPT store for more information! 

To celebrate the release of this new lesson I'm running a sale on my Teacher Pay Teachers Store. ALL self-paced lessons are 20% off through Monday, Nov. 20th 2017. Enjoy!