Friday Favorites: Summertime Sailing.

Okay, so far we're 2 for 2 in an effort to blog more regularly.  Here's a glimpse into an end of the year project that was the result of a morning drive to work and realizing I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM TEACHING MY FIRST CLASS...IN 45 MINUTES (because I am running late...always).

We used a limited palette for this one because it was the end of the year and I wanted to use up what we had. So the Third Graders used the primary colors and a tint of white and a shade of black to create these beautiful boats.

Before diving into the project though, we did check out many examples of Monet's paintings featuring sailboats and the kids made some pretty astute observations about the colors he used and how his paintings changed as his eyesight changed.  One kiddo even remarked, "Monet didn't give up painting. He PERSEVERED."  Darn tootin', my friend.

We painted in the following order to make sure we got a good reflection of our boats in the water: water, boat outlines, sky, and finally the insides of the boats and sails (or as one student said, "the boats' guts").

After painting the boats' guts, we folded our papers in half to capture a reflection and BAM, smooooooth sailing!

Magritte-a-licious Moon Trees.

Recently, I blogged about my Third Graders' WIPs (works in progress) here, which are inspired by Rene Magritte's 1956 painting Sixteenth of September.

Well, I know you've been waiting with bated breath, so here we go.  Our beautiful Moon Trees are below...

I have been on a major painted paper kick and we painted the heck out of our papers for these 3rd grade masterpieces.

We added a little salt to our backgrounds to experiment with a salty resist texture too.

Our moons were cut out from leftover papers from our Sochi and Suminagashi Lesson.  We have gotten a LOT of use out of these leftovers.  Not like my food leftovers that sit in my fridge foreverrrrr.

Speaking of leftovers, I have a big decision to make tonight: Thai or Pizza for dinner.  Decisions, decisions...

Thiebaud Takes the Cake.

In a previous post here, I blogged a bit about my Kinders' gumballs based on Wayne Thiebaud, our previous artist of the month.

I was just trying to clean up my camera and up popped some Second Grade Cakes and Third Grade Ice Cream Sundaes based on Thiebaud's works.  These bad boys look delish!

Second grade cakes were done with pencil and chalk on gray or blue paper...

The Third Grade ice cream sundaes used a mix of watercolor paints, chalk, and modge podge.  It's hard to photograph the modge podge, but each sundae was painted with a coat to give it a "glassy" bowl effect.

Gosh, after all those sweet treats, I am off to eat my remaining box of Girl Scout cookies.  Goodbye New Year's resolution of eating healthy.  It's fine though, I taught Kindergarten Art today, so I totally earned these cookies.

Dia de los Muertos.

Been to World Market lately?  Or how 'bout Pinterest?  Dia de los Muertos and skeleton images are everywhere.  I love Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead as we call it here in the states. This traditional Mexican holiday is a celebration taking place October 31, November 1, and November 2.  The holiday focuses on families gathering together to remember loved ones who have passed away.  Celebrations involve music, costumes, ofrendas or private altars, calaveras de azucar (sugar skulls), marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed as gifts left on graves.  I think the holiday is such a neat idea and a wonderful way to remember those who have passed away.

I have a large population of students in my building who are enrolled in the district's dual language program.  Many of the students have familial connections to Mexico and still celebrate Dia de los Muertos here.  When I started my Art position a few years ago, I was so excited to learn more about this celebration as there are many inspiring art connections.

Here a few examples of projects and the texts I have used:

1) Marigolds of Dia de los Muertos with 2nd Grade

I read aloud Maria Molina and the Days of the Dead by Kathleen Krull.  Students and I analyzed each illustration of this wonderful text looking at the symbols of Dia de los Muertos.  I also brought in some marigolds in a pot and added a spotlight next to it, so that we could study the lights and darks created by the light.  Here are some of the 2nd graders' marvelous marigolds.  I LOVED this project and so did the kids.  But, be prepared for a whole lot of chalk EVERYWHERE.  Seriously, I was finding chalk remnants around my room for weeks afterwards.

In case you were wondering, YES, this is what a tired art teacher looks like at the day's end.
Lucky for you, I made a pit stop at the bathroom to remove the purple paint from my face pre-picture.  Don't ask.

 2) Calaveras de azúcar with 4th Grade

My 4th graders created these from clay.  We used acrylics and modge podge instead of glaze so that students could paint in details successfully.  Final gemstones were added for a bedazzled effect.

3) Calacas with 3rd Grade

Calacas are the skeleton images seen frequently during Dia de los Muertos, often on the skeleton puppets sold at the local markets.  We read Clatter Bash: A Day of the Dead Celebration.  Students practiced drawing a skeleton step by step while following a guided drawing of mine on the Promethean Board.  This lesson is a great tie-in with the PE teachers who do a unit on bones in our body at this time too!  After lots of practice, the next class students painted their skeleton pieces step by step using only black paint.  At our third art session, students cut out each piece, hole punched the pieces, and assembled them using brass fasteners.  I've done this project a few years in a row and always love how much personality each skellie has.

 

4) La Calavera Catrina with 5th Grade

The text used for this lesson is Day of the Dead by Linda Lowery.  This text is more of a factual description of the Mexican celebration.  For this particular project, we also studied the history behind "La Calavera Catrina," a skeletal woman made popular by the artist Jose Guadalupe Posada.  I put together a flipchart showing images of Catrina in works such as those by Diego Rivera.

This is just a portion of the mural Diego Rivera painted, which measures about 15 meters long.

The 5th graders used all recycled objects to create their own Calavera Catrina Dolls.

Dancing Catrina Dolls

Feliz día de los muertos to all and to all a good night!