Egg-A-Day Challenge

It's so important for us to create. I have done many monthly challenges in the past to assist me in this goal.  In the month of April, I decided to do a challenge on my own. I designed an Egg-a-Day. My family eats lots of eggs so we always have lots of supply.  I didn't hard boil all of them, so I was able to use the eggs for all of our cooking needs. And why not... this mini canvas goes to waste if I don't decorate it before using it.

It was fun to figure out not only what I was going to be designing the eggs with, but also what media, and how I would take the photo to document the adventure. I'll share a couple of eggs here, but feel free to visit MiniMatisseArt on Instagram to see the whole group.

I started the series with some of my more regular used themes in my drawings such as hands and eyes.  These are subjects that I use in a lot of my sketchbook designs. 

Many of my designs were created with Posca Pens. I love these things! I used them in my sketchbook all the time.  I don't have it in my budget yet to order them for my classroom, but I hope to have them someday for my students to use as well. I used many mediums to create my eggs. One of the most popular was these 'Tissue Paper Bleed Eggs'. For these eggs, I used the traditional egg dye kit to soaked the eggs in. Then when I removed them and they were still wet, I wrapped bleeding tissue paper on the egg and let it sit for a few minutes. After removing the paper, the ink would stay on the egg and you would end up with this tie-dye effect. Really simple and an awesome result! 

I created some very cutesy eggs just for fun! Again, half of the fun was taking the pictures so finding props and the right setting was important to me.

Some eggs were not even my idea... My sister came up with the corn idea. My husband came up with the 'title of the eggs'. I was inspired by my dear friend Ashley McKee (@Ashcanworks) for the 'U Matter' egg. She and her husband have developed this symbol and sell buttons on their Etsy shop. 

Sometimes I was inspired by my environment. The shell eggs and the colorful insides of eggs were both inspired by a visit to Florida over spring break. The open eggs were inspired by a piece of Artwork I saw while visiting Busch Gardens and the shells were inspired by our visit to the beach.  My husband just rolled his eyes when I said we needed to stop at a store on our vacation to pick up eggs... but he did it... he gets me :) The strawberries were inspired by prepping lunches for the week for my family. They just looked so pretty in the berry bowl my Aunt made our family. The proper lobster was inspired by a sketchbook drawing I did of a still life while out with my family at a restaurant called Grand Catch in St. Paul.

Other eggs were inspired by books. My daughter was doing research for her upcoming 'Wax Museum Project' on Julia Child. She got this book by Lisa Congdon about a variety of Bad Ass women that changed the world, illustrated beautifully might I add. The butterflies on the cover were perfect for me to draw on eggs. Then 'The Good Egg' by Jory John and Pete Oswald was introduced to me by Hassan's Media Specialist, Meagan Harapat. A-MAZ-ING book. Great illustrations and perfect to emulate for this project. 

Some of the eggs were inspired by Artist I admire. I admire the simplicity of Melissa Doty's work. She was perfect inspiration to the egg with the colorful half circle and bold black line. On my spring break experience, I spent some time in St. Petersberg, a city filled with Street Art. I was introduced to the work of @Kosharekart. I made the stacking doll eggs inspired by her work. The sweet garden and frog image above was inspired by Lauren Lowen's work. She is such a wonderful illustrator and after using her for inspiration for one of my lessons, I discovered she's a really good person too. She sent my class a letter encouraging them to continue creating! Below you see the Notorious RGB (Ruth Bader Ginsberg)... not an Artist, but certainly an inspiration. 

And other days, I just drew a bunny on an egg... and that was OK too. 

I really did have a fun time with this project over the month of April. If I'm feeling it next year, I might just do it again. But for this year, I'll kiss this project goodbye and start on another focus... Yep, That is right, I'm already working on another 'challenge' for myself. Start watching Instagram (@MiniMatisseArt) for my 'Wearable Art' project for the month of May. 

Making It Challenge Update

To celebrate the arrival of our Visiting Artist Billy Kheel from the hit show 'Making It' on NBC... The students of Hassan had two "challenges" (if they so chose to except them) to do over the holiday break. First, they could watch 'Making It' to get to know Billy and his creative ways. The second, they could enter into a Making it Challenge of their own. The details are in a previous post.

I had lots of students participate. I should mention that we had several snow days and on those snow days I would often send out a little reminder of the project to help parents out at home with their kids... I would say... 'And remember... your student could be working on an optional 'Making It Challenge'. In response, I did get back Thank You emails for the reminder and the opportunity to 'make' on this day.

We had about 80 students participate K-5th grade.  That is just a fraction of our 750 students, but I would say the right fraction of kids who are passionate about Art outside of the classroom. I found the kids who participated where kids who love coming to my classroom, the kids who never follow my directions (because they have better ideas). The kids who always blow me away with their work.

When all was said and done, the judges had a tough job of selecting the winners but 12 where named the top. Each student was awarded a 'recycled' apron (in the spirit of the theme, Recycled Art). They were featured in a display case. They were also celebrated on morning announcements. The rest of the students who participated received a button for this years 'Making It' Challenge.

Minnesota Youth Art Month Flag Contest Winners

As always, my 6th grade students were excited to create a submission for the Youth Art Month Flag contest. Art Educators of Minnesota wrote me today to share that two of the winners from the three age groups were from ISD 728. 

In the Middle Level our very own Lauren Freeberg, from Prairie View Elementary and Middle School took 2nd Place. Her image is below. 

At Elk River High School, Rana Nesterud's student Donna Johnson takes the first place for the high school division. Amazing image Donna! 

Exciting News for over the Holiday Break here! Happy to celebrate with these talented artists. 

Tic Toc- An Artist Trading Card Game

This game was developed to help students learn to discover the importance of putting time into their Art Work in the Art Studio.  Throughout this process, students also learn that by drawing the same subject multiple times, ideas can develop and evolve. 

Here is how you play:

The time increases for each new card. Students learn that with more time, they can create more details. They learn that their cards improve and evolve when practiced over and over.  They also work really hard throughout the hour. This game really keeps students focused.

To print out the hand out above, please visit my Teacher Pay Teachers store.

Collaborative Art Warm-Up Activity.

The best thing about having kids going through the education system is that they learn from the village. They then come home and teach me what they have learned.  This year my son is in middle school and I'm teaching 6th grade for the first time.  I have taught 7th and 8th grade... 9 through 12... and P-5. But this is the first time to teach 11/12 year-olds.  My coworker Mark Pederson has had lot's of years with this age group and is now teaching my son.  I'm learning so much from this man!

My son explained a warm-up game to encourage teamwork and collaboration. I had to give it a try in my classroom too. It was a blast for my students and I thought it might be great for yours as well. Thanks so much to Mr. Pederson for being an inspiration for this post.


Here is how I did this game in my class:

First I gave each table-group a sheet of paper with a circle (or two) and a line on it. I told them they had two minutes to discuss how they would take these shapes and lines and make them into a monster.

When the 2 minutes were complete I showed them the tool they would be using to create the monster. This is a marker with four strings taped to it. The strings are roughly two to three feet long.

The rules of the monster making were that they can not touch the marker after the cap was removed. Each person in the group must have a hand on one of the strings the whole time. I set the timer for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, I asked them what tips and tricks they have to offer others that made this task more successful.  Suggestions such as holding the string closer to the marker, moving the paper rather than the marker, communication... were all mentioned.

Then I asked them to trade markers and draw a second 5 minutes to complete their monster face.

This was a fun 15 minute 'Friday Fun' activity for my 6th graders. Again, thanks to Mr. Pederson for reminding me that middle schoolers need to have a little fun.