I will be absent for the next couple of days so I thought this was a great time to offer a fun lesson focused on the contemporary Artist EttaVee. The top video I will be sharing with my older students, 3-5 and the younger kids will be working on the Seesaw digital version in the second video.
February is the month of love, and sweet treats, and of course HEARTS!! For our youngest Artists drawing and cutting hearts is not an easy task and it needs to be broken down for our little guys. I like to start in January with these skills. Here is the video that I typically play for the kiddos.
I teach the drawing of a heart to reinforce the type of writing lessons we use in our district. They talk about rainbow curves, it's a bit of letter identification as well. I always say, 'You might know another way to do hearts and that's OK too!". I have found that if we use something they are learning like how to make letters to draw, it seems to stick in those brains just a little tighter.
Typically, I would show how to draw a heart first. I then use whiteboards to draw hearts right there after instruction while on the carpet. I might give a challenge like, "See how many hearts you can draw?" or "Can you draw hearts inside of hearts?" maybe, "Can you make your heart into something else?" or even, "Can you make a pattern using hearts and some of our other shapes?" By doing the little challenges, you are allowing your beginning Artist to practice this new skill, yet allowing your more advanced Artist the prompts to advance their skills. In whole, the heart drawing lesson is about 20 minutes long.
Then I play the heart cutting portion of the video. I always pause the video where I ask what I did wrong with the cutting. We have a rich discussion and almost everytime someone thinks I ripped the heart apart because I opened it up too fast. See... This is why we need to take a moment to let these new humans to this world infer... guess... investigate. Cutting a heart is not just that... It can be a wonderful lesson of discovery. I not only show the video but then I have them tell me how to cut a heart after the video. They walk me through it and I play forgetful and try to make mistakes so they can all say, "NOOOOOOOO, that's not how you do it?" I do have a lot of fun teaching new skills to the little's. For this portion, they have already put away their whiteboards for a movement break before the video about cutting the hearts, and now they have to get three supplies. They need scissors, a pencil, and paper (I use recycled copy paper so they have an endless supply). For the first heart, I walk them through it; fold your paper... start on the fold... draw the curved line... now the diagonal back to the fold... OK, now let's see what we get, go ahead and cut. Most students will be successful, one or two will not. You tell the students they can use all the paper they want (but only one paper at a time, this allows students to move throughout the class and keep their bodies active) For those kids that didn't get it, tell them to give it another try. Once you have identified the few that need that extra help, gather them by you and walk them through it. They need to have one good heart to feel successful. I start suggesting challenges again as well, "How many hearts can you cut out of one paper?", "Who can make the biggest/smallest heart", "Can you cut a heart inside of a heart?"... Working on challenging those more advanced students keeps them interested. I will say clean up needs about 3 more minutes than usual on a cutting day like this. I tell the kids they can pocket all the hearts they have made and EVERY scrap left needs to make it into the trash. This finishes up my hour of teaching about hearts.
Now you have laid the basis for so many lessons and you've given a skill to the kids to work on. This might allow them to share a heARTfelt message to a loved one for the month of February.
Here are some other ways that you can use HEARTS in your lessons...
Create Heart Stations:
I have two ways that I have done this in the past. First is when I created stations for K-2nd grade so I would have some upper-level challenges and some beginning options. I worked this by createing 6 stations and allowing choice at each station. (see previous post) The other is geared towards the littles. After I had the group lesson of how they can create hearts, the next week they got to choose stations to go to for more discovery (see previous post).
Reflect and Share:
Once I have taught students a simple skill, I like to have them share it with their parents on an app we use in our district called Seesaw. Check out this post to learn more and see examples.
Family Portraits:
Here is another way that I have used the skills of teaching how to create a heart. The following week we start by making a family portrait using the hearts. This is honestly one of my fav projects with the littles. In my previous post, I have more examples, tips and tricks, and even a video tutorial. And here is a little different take on this lesson (click here)
Clay Mosaic Hearts:
If you are up for a clay day, A great 'Day Two' lesson for the skill of making hearts is this clay... or maybe adapting this lesson for paper. Either way, it's awesome! Click here for the mosaic clay hearts.
Decorating for the upcoming holiday:
These hearts were done by my students a long time ago for a very good reason. I have the steps of how to create them on this previous post.
Valentine's Day Party Activities:
This idea was offered as a station idea above, but I think it's a great party lesson. Once kids know how to make hearts, let them take it to another level by adding in glue, staples, or tape to create heart sculptures (or hats).
Wax Crayon Hearts:
Someone recently commented on this old video of mine and mentioned that it reminded her of the 1980's and her childhood. I responded, "what was good for us, is good for them..." This video featured my now Middle School kids, This is yet another fun way to create hearts for decoration. (Gosh, they were cute :) )
Update: So I go to post this and share it on FB to our Art Teaching Tribe and I see Cassie Stephens has also done an amazing post on the same thing... Be sure to check out her AMAZING posts about heart-related projects that tie into Art History!
I am doing a lot of activities for the last visit to Art Class with all my students. I have one more week left and as any good Minnesotan knows, you can't count on anything as far as weather goes. I had planned on taking the kids outside for weaving and chalk drawing but one day it is raining, the next it is 90 degrees out... So I needed a backup plan.
I love the fiber looking graphics on the movie trolls and I have done some lessons revolved around trolls throughout the school year. I thought this would be a great 'backup' to any weather related changes. I also thought this would be good for next year for an 'extra' opportunity if I choose to do the troll lessons again with my students (click here for past posts).
So let me share this tracing activity with you in case you run into 15 minutes you need to keep your kids entertained with. I plan to play the music... and/or the movie when kids are working on creating their own troll on tracing paper or even copy paper. Here is my end of the year gift for you on Teachers Pay Teachers... Free download of 'Trace-a-Troll"
We are learning about designs in Kindergarten. Best practice to me is making sure kids learn the important information for the rest of their lives. How do you help students remember those big ideas (and maybe some small ones too)? You move their body, you make a rhyme or a song, you have them create using that concept. In this case, I have the kids do actions to this little saying...
Shapes and lines make the best designs.
For the k's I make it a little more fun and have them use different voices as shown in the video below.
Day 1 (one hour class)
Doing the rhyme is the first 5 minutes of class. I also like to record this to share on +Seesaw so parents know the concepts being covered in class (and get to see some fun learning as well).
After, I play this video. I stop it right after I get done talking about lines. (48 seconds)
I give each student a 6X9 inch sheet of paper. They go to their spots and draw their 5 lines. When they finish, they come right back to the carpet. Then I play the next part of the video talking about shapes. Again, I stop it (1:12). I instruct the kids that they need to put their name on the back before drawing their shapes. When finished, they come right back to the carpet again.
I play the next part of the video and stop it after the coloring instructions (2:41). Students line-up to get a sharpie. After returning the markers, they color. I have to remind them several times to ask three before they show it to me. Great practice on peer feedback.
Here are some examples of students work. I would show them the images and ask them what they would suggest to the artist if they asked them for feedback.
That is the end of class. If students finish before the end of class I let them play with blocks on the floor or create on practice paper. There usually isn't more than 10 minutes of 'extra' time for any Kindergarten student.
Day 2 (one hour class)
A quick review of what a design is, starts out the class again. You will be amazed that most (if not all) of these little sponges soaked up the saying from last time. They will be excited to share, "Shapes and lines make the best design." I practice this saying a couple more times in Robot, or in a whisper, or some other fun voice... just for fun.
I play the next part of the video (2:40-3:58). This part breaks down the idea of folding and cutting. This is VERY hard for kindergarten. I have them fold and draw the 'rainbow'. They bring it to me before they can get a pair of scissors to cut. Have a pen ready to re-draw the rainbow curve on the 'right' side (the open side).
Once all the cutting is done, I play the last portion of the video, all the way to the end. Students get the head circle and get to work. Drawing with pencil, sharpie, and color. Glue is used to finish the work. I love to share these little works of art on +Seesaw to share with parents. If students have extra time, I have small sheets of paper available for them to create other pets. They get to recreate and make mistakes... and learn. Students are proud to bring home their pattern pets.
So here it is... This one-point perspective unit is a project I have been waiting to share with you for months. I will be presenting at the AOE online conference in less than a week. One of the topics I will cover at Art Ed Now this year will be flipping the classroom as an elementary (or really any grade level) teacher. For those of you who are unfamiliar with flipping the classroom, it simply means to record your lessons ahead of time, well that's the short answer and the way I'm using it in this post. I will be talking about the 'how to' and why I flip and be introducing this amazing lesson to you during the presentation. There is still time to join in if you are interested (click here).
This spring I tried a new type of teaching. I wanted students to be able to learn at their own pace, and I also wanted to give students choice. In creating a lesson this way, I did so much more. I was able to differentiate, students who got one point perspective raced ahead and challenged themselves with a higher skilled choice lesson. Students who needed to work slower were able to do so. They were able to choose a final project that would allow them to feel successful. Best of all, I was able to give a formative assessment to EVERY student, several times during this lesson and not be overwhelmed. NO JOKE, I felt like I won the lottery with this one.
It's always good to read blog posts, but allow me to explain a little more in the video below.
In this lesson I give 5 'flipped' lessons instructing how to create one-point perspective. I have also included two choice lessons. Per design, after students have mastered the skill of one-point perspective, they can scan to learn how to create one of two lessons. I will be creating more 'extensions' so students can have more choice, but my hope is that you will be inspired to create your own. Recording your own lessons or providing other choices and perhaps project samples to your students.
In this TpT lesson I have a seven page activity packet. This is where the students will scan the lessons, do the activity, and show it to you for confirmation that they are going in the right direction. Students are learning on their own... you're not instructing. They are problem solving and finding confidence using this sheet and working towards the goal of the 'Golden Ticket'... in other words choice, and that is HIGHLY motivating to students.
Another key packet in this TpT lesson is the teacher guide. This teacher guide allow ANYONE to be able to facilitate this lesson. So why does an art teacher need this?? I have talked with Visual Art teachers who have explained that they feel comfortable teaching clay, painting, or art history, but one-point... is challenging. I get it. I find it hard to teach sculpture but perspective is something I can do, and have had lot's of practice with. I wanted to make this lesson so that ANYONE can teach it, no experience needed. This could be beneficial for home school families, homeroom teachers who want to support their math curriculum with visual arts, a substitute coming in to teach your art classroom... really anyone can use this teachers guide and know how to be the support that is required in this lesson. I also made the teacher guide to explain to a more experience teacher, what the flow is, and why. It's a critical part to this TpT lesson.
I have put my heart into this lesson and found it to be so successful that I can't wait to have others use it in their classroom. Click here to visit the TpT site.
Update! Here is an extension to this lesson... Two more one-point perspective lessons (click here)
I have a lot of outside fun planned for my last couple days of art class but mother nature has been teasing us with a chance of rain almost every day. This means that I had to come up with a back-up lesson. Thanks to my amazing online tribe (via Facebook, Blogs, and Twitter) I have a plan... a Fish Surprise. This clever drawing is magic for all age levels and it's a great make-and-take in one hour.
Ways to challenge your students after trying a fish might be to give them the following challenges or prompts.
Can you make your fish doing something other than eating something else?
Can you use this idea of expanding in a different way? A different animal or object?
No, Mr. E doesn't get a participation award. I don't believe in participation awards. He's my #Crush today because he participates... and creates ways for others to participate with him in creating Art. Ted, is the author of the ever so famous blog, Art With Mr. E. When there is a challenge put out there, E often will grab it to go!! He has participated in the #K12ArtChallenges by Arlene Shelton (@smARTisteacher) on twitter. He shares and celebrates with others. He even hosted #k12ArtChallenge one month. Ted was one of the first to sign up for the MiniMatisse Global ATC Swap. He celebrated on his blog and was very supportive of the event on social media.
He has created a challenge this month that has been a lot of fun to watch. It's called #aheartadaychallenge. Participants are creating some really spectacular work around this idea of hearts. It has been fun to watch! I loved the idea and used it for sub plans recently. The kids had a blast.
Here are some of the examples of what my 4th graders came up with. Thanks, Mr. E for allowing us to participate! And thanks for the inspiration for these sub plans.
So I've been sick... the kids have been sick.... my husband has been sick... Happy Holidays to ALL! I have had to miss a lot of school. Some reason are for sickness but I also had the opportunity to go to TIES (the best technology conference in the state of MN), and Art is up for curriculum review so there have been days out of the classroom for that. So sub plans have been very important. I have posted on this subject before and even have a label on this blog for some different ideas. (click here)
This year I have a couple of classroom iPads. It's perfect for sub plans. The first thing I had to do was purchase an iPad dongle for a VGA adapter so that my iPad could be projected. (click here to read about this piece) This allows my sub to use an iPad and me to be able to have my computer at home.
I have made a 'Sub Plan' channel on my Youtube and I leave the link in my notes. I can change them at will at home (or wherever I am) so that the videos are up to date and I can throw something together last minute. If you know my blog, you know that I flip a lot of my lessons, but I also use a lot of video's from other websites. Art for Kids hub is one of my favorite websites for sub (and teaching) inspiration.
I used his Elf on a Shelf lesson this last week while I was out. I also used it the hour before holiday break... the kids were not about to grip a new concept for the day... so we will draw Elf on the Self. I love this guy Rob! He always brings in a 'guest' artist to draw with him. I love seeing the small hand working beside his more trained hand. It gives students the courage to give it a try. I also think he is funny. Rob is always laughing and joking around with the kids. This website is a GEM people... You have to check it out.
So, Publicly... Thank you, Rob for the lessons I have place on my sub plans and for the lessons I have used for inspiration in my classroom. Keep on posting!
For this course that I am taking, Expanding the Classroom Walls, we have been asked to make a lesson. One of the lesson plan ideas that I would like to share is inspired by the piece below found at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. How cool is this? Can you guess what it is?
I wanted to see if there was more 'fantasy coffins' so I did a Google search and it brought me to, Ghanaian Coffins Website. WOW there are a ton! One can be buried in an animal, a show, a coke bottle and so on. On the National Museum of Funeral History, The coffins have been explained in this way,
"Ever seen a coffin made to resemble a chicken? How bout a Mercedes Benz? A lobster? A Life Well Lived: Fantasy Coffins- Kane Quaye displays 12 coffins,
each uniquely created to capture the essence of the departed - whether a character trait, an occupation, or a symbol of one's standing in the community.
This one-of-a-kind exhibit includes coffins of a KLM airliner, Mercedes Benz, fish, canoe, leopard, chicken, bull, crab, eagle, lobster, shallot and Yamaha outboard motor. Brightly colored and intricately designed, these wooden coffins were crafted by Ghanaian sculptor Kane Quaye (also known as Seth Kane Kwe) in his homeland of Accra, Ghana.
Quaye began crafting these Fantasy Coffins more than 30 years ago at his dying uncle's request for a special coffin. Because his uncle was a fisherman, Kane built him a coffin in the shape of a fishing canoe. The result was met with a highly favorable response from the local community, and Kane opened his own workshop to produce personalized coffins, a craft he elevated into high art. For example, the leopard coffin signifies a person with power, such as a tribal or political leader. The chicken, a frequent subject of proverbs in Akan culture, often represents a mother who is protective of her children.
To the people of Ghana, death is not an end, but a transition to the spiritual realm of the ancestors. In fact, ancestors are forever considered members of the family. It is believed that if the deceased is properly honored, such actions secure spiritual favor for the family left on earth. As a result, burial practices among the Ghanaian are often lavish, with customized coffin centerpiece. Although one of these sculpted coffins may cost an average year's salary in Ghana, families and communities often band together to make such a purchase possible. This is believed to protect the well-being of the deceased in the after-world. These fantasy coffins continue as a tradition in Ghana today and have been commissioned by people from around the world."
This would be very fun lesson for your students and could be extended to any length. I plan to use this as a sub plan.
Fansy Coffins
Objective: To design and engineer a fantasy coffin.
Ages intended for: K-12th grade.
First have students brain storm objects or animals that represents them. Perhaps fold a paper in half and write an object/animal on the left side and the reason why it represent them on the left. Get many ideas and make this a social process, allowing students to talk amongst each other.
Show one image of a coffin and allow students to guess what the picture is.
Show coffins from the MIA and Ghana, talk about the origin of these fantasy coffins (some information and links above)
Ask students to design a coffin for themselves. They can use the object/animals that they brainstormed before. They must draw their coffin from 3 angles (top view, side few and an open view) Encourage students to be detailed.
If time remains, students can color their design, create another one for friends, family members, or pets. Or their can be a pair and share for their creations.
Feel free to use the worksheet provided below (click here)
I loved visiting the Landmark Center in St. Paul this last week on my Expanding the Classroom Walls I, class. Check out my previous post about the MANY opportunities at this site. For the class we were asked to create a lesson inspired by one of the field trip experiences from the week. The music gallery's at the Landmark Center is where I found my inspiration. Here is my lesson
I started by looking into Mary Ellen Childs as an artist and I was very happy to see that she was featured on Minnesota Original. This is one of my favorite shows. This show really celebrates how much talent is right here, local to Minnesota.
The videos above would be one that I would show my students as we are learning about Mrs. Childs work. These are the pieces that were on display at the Landmark Center. It shows how they are played. The instruments are called Stringsercycle, Pipesercycle and Xylocycle.
Prompts:
How do you think Mary Ellen creates her instruments?
Where does she get her ideas for the different sounds?
How does a performance of Mrs. Childs music composition look different than other performances you have seen?
How do you think Mary Ellen came up with the names of her bike instruments?
I would love these questions to be in conjunction with a visit to the Landmark Center, but if it is not, The images and videos provided would help with the development of this lesson.
This activity is what brought my thought process to bring this into the art classroom (or science classroom for that matter). I like how the Landmark Center gave silhouettes of different instruments and examples of tracing and combining different aspects of the instruments and creating something new. It's good to have tracing paper for this portion of the assignment to give students confidence. I would have them do their brain storming with this, and remove the original silhouettes (leaving only their sketches) for the final project or drawing.
By just Googling Silhouettes of Musical Instruments, I discovered it would not be difficult to create some tracing worksheets. Some of these images are public domain but many of them are for purchase. I would imagine that my music department would be able to assist me in looking for images as well.
Think of where this could go? You could use the same process for building a hybrid animal, the student might have to write about the new animals environment, it's predators, it's prey. You could do this when talking about tools to help our environment, playground equipment, architecture... This could be a really fun lesson with lot's of spin offs. It will allow our students to be inventors, critical thinkers, story tellers, and maybe even composers.
I used his Elf on a Shelf lesson this last week while I was out. I also used it the hour before holiday break... the kids were not about to grip a new concept for the day... so we will draw Elf on the Self. I love this guy Rob! He always brings in a 'guest' artist to draw with him. I love seeing the small hand working beside his more trained hand. It gives students the courage to give it a try. I also think he is funny. Rob is always laughing and joking around with the kids. This website is a GEM people... You have to check it out.
each uniquely created to capture the essence of the departed - whether a character trait, an occupation, or a symbol of one's standing in the community.
uncle was a fisherman, Kane built him a coffin in the shape of a fishing canoe. The result was met with a highly favorable response from the local community, and Kane opened his own workshop to produce personalized coffins, a craft he elevated into high art. For example, the leopard coffin signifies a person with power, such as a tribal or political leader. The chicken, a frequent subject of proverbs in Akan culture, often represents a mother who is protective of her children.
