Hello,
My name is Adrienne Mapps I am a Pre-K4 teacher who loves to do art projects with my littles. My hope is that they develop an appreciation for art and to see how wonderful art can be.
So a pretty big deal to me is teaching students how to appreciate art. Whether it be art made by a famous artist or a classmate, students should value art. So during Spring Break we did a fun little exercise to show our appreciation for each others' work.
The supplies we used were:
Strathmore drawing paper roll
colored pencils
crayons
painter's tape
I wanted to keep the assignment loose and fun for the students, so I gave them an open ended prompt: Draw what's on your mind today. Using painter's tape, I taped large pieces of the drawing paper onto the tables and let the students use crayons and colored pencils to let their creativity flow. I am always excited to see the different things that students try to draw. While one student drew volcanoes, another drew their family (including the pets), another drew butterflies and others drew vehicles and abstract art that we had learned about before.
When they all finished, I asked them to push in their chairs and walk around the room and observe what their classmates created. They were thrilled to tell each other which drawings were theirs and what they liked about each others' works.
I think this is a fun, easy assignment to do for kids during or around the holidays/breaks just to get the students to relax and enjoy art again.
So a really fun activity that the kids and I did in class was using tape resist to learn our letter of the week. I laid down "x's" with blue painter's tape and then let the kids paint all over their canvas.
The supplies we used were:
blue painter's tape
painting paper (or canvas)
tempura paint
paintbrushes
cup of water
egg carton (optional)
I decided to let the students work on this project either individually or in pairs. Since I have new students, I wanted to be able to clearly explain to them how to use the brushes, how to mix colors and how to switch colors. It was great review for the older students and it was a fun new thing to learn for the younger students.
I first demonstrated how to hold the brush and what kind of strokes they could make. After they understood and practiced making strokes, I showed them how to clean the brush before switching colors and how to dip the brushes into the paint. They responded very well in this setting since there were no other students to distract them. I was very pleased that some students already knew basic color theory and surprised that some students had never used paint before. Even though, I've never felt that I was a great painter, I could never deny the soothing nature of painting. Several students innocently asked if we could paint in class everyday. It was so sweet to hear them enjoying painting and it inspired me to incorporate more art in the classroom especially projects cross curricular projects such as this.
Here are some process photos:
I think taking off the tape was very satisfying for the kids because it revealed their letter and the white made a great contrast to the bursts of colors on their canvas.
Here are some finished examples:
I liked working one-on-one with most of the kids and I wish that I did with all of them but for the sake of time, I had to pair a couple of kids together. One student decided that she didn't want to fill the entire space of the canvas. She like packing the color on top of the tape and seeing how that look. One student tried to put a border around his paper and several enjoyed mixing the colors with the brush on their canvases. Overall it was cute seeing the different thought processes that they all had toward approaching this assignment.
Last summer, I had a wonderful opportunity to make an animation with some kids ages 5- 10. They were bored and needed a fun project to do so I taught some basic principles of animation. We had a lot of fun watching animated examples of these principles and we learned so much. After we learned some of the basics, we put what we learned to use and made a short stop motion film.
The supplies we used were:
foam core board (2' x 3' is good)
colored cardstock paper
markers
colored pencils
scissors
double-sided tape
smart phone
Most of the supplies we used were found at the Dollar Store. We also used an app called Stop Motion on an iPhone to capture the film. The app is free so need to worry about that.
I decided to teach the kids about using a pipeline to make the work go by quickly and smoothly. On day one, we started with the pre-production work. We wrote the script as a class and discussed which elements we wanted to keep or discard. If your kids are in middle school or higher, I would recommend allowing them to make a storyboard. You can either have them make the storyboard as a class or in groups.
After we made the screenplay, we started making the background, props and characters using the colored cardstock. I let them use their choice of markers or colored pencils each student was assigned a particular element to draw. One student drew the stars, another made planets, another made a spaceship and so on. We finished this in about two days since everyone was working together.
After the pre-production work was finished, we moved onto production. This was the really fun part for the kids because they had the chance to animate. I briefly demonstrated how they were to capture the motions and how it would look on the software. We then elected the oldest students to man the camera while the younger students animated the characters and props. This is where the double-sided tape comes in handy. It allows the students to move the elements without damaging the set. As we animated, we read off the script what the next scene should be.
I was pretty hands off with the the production because I wanted them to look back and remember that this was their work. After they finished the production, we watched some more stop motion examples. I did the post-production work simply because it was too advanced for this group of students. I used After Effects to make sure the frames were not upside down and to stabilize the shaky cam. If you don't know how or don't have access to After Effects, I would recommend using a tripod to hold the phone and keeping the orientation locked, so frames do not get flipped around and this will help prevent shaky cam. Also there are plenty of free editing software out there like, Lightworks or apps like iMovie. I added a title and some music from NewGrounds just to jazz up their work. NewGrounds has plenty of free music if you don't want to make your own. Just make sure you credit the artist.
So here is the video that these precious kiddos made:
P.S. I put this video on my other blog: aamarisart.blogspot.com earlier on and gave more insight on how I felt and how the kids felt during this process. This blog is used to show how I taught this art project and others like it.
So when I was younger I liked sketching maps and imagining different realms, so I thought it would be a fun project for my littles to draw jungle maps as we learned the letter "J."
I showed them some examples of jungle maps and what the different symbols represented. They were thrilled to make their own maps so I got our supplies ready.
The supplies we used were:
brown paper bags
colored pencils
charcoal (optional)
Here are some references that we looked at:
They loved the dead fish in this pic.
I wanted them to see both complex and simple examples of jungle maps just to get them inspired. I never want my students to feel like they can't do something just because it's complex, so I took this assignment as an opportunity to teach them that everything can be broken down into chunks so you can better manage the problem. So after we broke down the more complex drawings to their main components, I let them get started.
For their canvases, I cut out squares from the brown paper bags. I used the really big ones from the grocery store just because they were a little sturdier than the smaller bags. I felt like using colored pencils would give them a better experience than crayons or markers because with the colored pencils, they could be really precise. They loved being able to use their white colored pencils since the canvas wasn't white.
They greatly enjoyed looking at the reference images and looking back at their own works and comparing the two. They worked very hard to make their own lakes, mountains and some students even drew people on their maps. At any age, it's good to teach students to use references as they build their visual libraries.
Here are some of the finished products that the students made:
You could use charcoal to darken the edges and give the maps a burned, antique look and if your students are older, you can have them crumble the paper and then un-crumble to emphasize that antique look. Another fun activity to try is when the students finish their maps, have them draw dashes that lead to an "X" on their map. Then have them go on a "treasure hunt" later on that day and see what they find.
So for this art project, I wanted the kids to try abstract art. I gave a brief overview of what abstract art is and why it's important. We then focused on Kandinsky's art. The kids loved the idea of emulating the work of a famous artist so we looked at some examples of his work and got started.
Here's a couple of the examples of Kandinsky's work that we used as references.
The supplies we used are:
markers
crayons
colored pencils
cardstock paper
You could use regular printer paper but I didn't want the kids to have any holes in their work from using markers.
I decided to move the tables together and I put everything they needed in the middle of the tables.
The kids liked being able to work so closely with everyone and of course they loved collaborating across the table.
I decided that with this project I would act as more of the facilitator than the teacher. I kept the Kandinsky examples nearby, but I noticed that they enjoyed gaining inspiration more from each other more than Kandinsky. They were so proud to share their work with each other and it was refreshing to hear them complimenting each other so freely. They bounced ideas off of each other and remained enthusiastic.
Watching them work helped me remember to always be inspired by your peers and encourage them as much as I can.
Here's the finished products. Looking back at them, I'm so glad they didn't just copy Kandinsky's work exactly. The students had fun being inspired and trying something different. Each one had so much character and they experimented with different strokes, line weights, and color. I am very proud of they work they did and the effort they put into it. I think next time I'll allow them to use thinned out acrylic paint or watercolors as well.
A very cool concept to teach was how paint interacts with different things. This also helps students remember scientific concepts such as action/reaction and physical property changes. Since we were learning about the ocean and sea, we made seashells.
The supplies we used were:
paper plates
washable paint
salt
baby oil
I cutout seashell shapes from paper plates and let them begin to paint their seashells any color they'd like. Before the paint dried, I had them pour salt onto the seashells and I dripped some baby oil onto the shells.
Their faces lit up when they saw how the salt made the paint spread out a little bit. The baby oil was fun because they noticed how the texture of the paint changed slightly. After the paint dried, I let them try to sprinkle the salt on the shells again, and they quickly noticed that the salt did not adhere to the shells the way it did when the paint was wet.
I love when you can integrate core subjects with art.
One of the things I love about art is that sometimes the process is just as enjoyable (if not more) than the end results. So I decided to teach my students about mark making. At first, they thought that we would be just painting with paint brushes but I encouraged them to use non-traditional tools. We went outside and gathered leaves, grass, flowers, weeds, and rocks. Indoors we found plastic cutlery and tape to use as well.
I figured it would be fun to do all of our mark making on the floor so I taped some drawing paper onto the floor. I didn't use butcher paper because of its thin quality.
I demonstrated to them how to dip their tool(s) into the paint and onto the paper. Using thinned out paint or ink will make this easier for the kids.
They were eager to jump in and use their very own mark making devices, so I let them join in. I let them lay down pieces of painter's tape so when they finished painting they could pull up the tape and see the cool effect it makes.
I really enjoyed seeing them collaborating and sharing the mark making devices they found.
It was amazing to see how calm the students became while working on mark making. They really enjoyed the process of mark making and were so proud of the marks that they made.
