Using Books to Inspire

Having taught art for over 10 years, there are many lessons I enjoy doing with my students. I will do those lessons every couple of years. My Tightrope Walker is one of them. I usually read them the book which is about a little boy who walks around the world on a tightrope. We get to talk about landscapes, perspective and what IS a tight rope?

I've done this lesson using crayon resist, which means I get to read them another cool book the second week of this lesson.

Here are the results!

 

   

Along with the tried and true lessons, it's always fun to try something NEW! It was towards the end of the last school year, when I realize I hadn't taught the little ones how to mix the color green or the color brown.

Browsing through Pinterest I saw many projects that used a hand to create a tree. Trees are brown and they have green leaves. OH YEAH! 

I had students trace their hand and part of their arm, they added curvy lines to create the sense of lots of leaves at the tops of their tree. Then, I had the students mix the color green and paint the leaves. Next, we added red paint to magically turn the green paint into brown.

The second week I read them-

And ..... the students used scrap paper to make houses in their trees!

 

 

 

 This covered many of our Elements of Art, was made with mixed media and was a lot of fun!

These two examples of using literature in my art room gives me something to think about. The first lesson was inspired by the book The Tightrope Walker and in the second lesson the book was just an after thought.  To me, The Tightrope Walker was very interesting and a good example to show students.

In my opinion, the book Froggy Builds a Tree House, was just a little silly. But, sometimes I need to find a book that will match what I'm doing, and not always be the greatest find. Let me know it you have a favorite tree house book.

I enjoy using books with my primary students, it breaks up the time and works with their attention span. However, should the book always inspire the lesson? Or would grabbing any book work?
What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Theme: Country Boots!

The county fair is next month and there is a group of people that are responsible for putting together this awesome event. And, of course there is always a theme. This year the theme is Country Roots & Country Boots! Art teachers are encouraged to participate by displaying student work. Besides, advocating for our art programs, in my opinion, is VERY important.

Lucky me! I have the perfect book, to share with my students, to introduce this lesson.

   

AND a calendar from 2004 to further inspire the kiddos.

For my kindergarteners and 1st graders, I decided to do crayon resist-it's just so magical for them! They love when the white crayon marks appear when painted over with water color paint.

Students use a template to draw their boot. And then create their theme or pattern and use crayons to color it in.

 

 And then use water color to paint over the crayon.

   

 I believe in helping to build confidence in my students and that is why on occasion they use templates. Two weeks after using a template to make his boot a little kindergartener showed me what he did on his own time-

For my 4th and 5th graders, they were shown a power point with photos of boots to inspire them. The focus for the lesson was composition. When viewing the power point we discussed not only the variety of subject matter, but, how the photographer placed the boots for the photo. I also, demonstrated a variety of ways they could position their boots.

   

My plan for them was to use water color paint on the boots and the background, then use markers, colored pencils or gel sticks to add details the following week.

 

 

                  

                                             

The really hard part of this, is to decide which ones to display!! I am allowed to send a total of 8-12 pieces for the school exhibit. There is also an art exhibit, where I will be able to showcase the work they have been doing all year. 

Oh, in case you are wondering about my 3rd and 4th graders, they did landscapes which I will cover in another post.

How do you decide which art work to display, when you are limited by space? I'd really like to know!

Thanks for reading!

 

Museum Activity: You Be the Critic!

In preparation for our 4th grade museum trip I wanted to do an activity, with my students, that I learned about last summer through NAEA's Summer Vision, DC.  This program gave me the opportunity to visit different museums and learn how to use art to teach art.

 

 

 I pulled out a variety of art posters and put them out on the tables. Photocopied the form, which I had redone, gathered up the tokens I had made and laminated and gathered up clip boards. Ready or not here they come.............

You can see icons in the column on the left side of the form, and the explanation in the right column.  I made a class set of each icon into a token using different colored paper, you will see them further down in this post. 

Before students entered the room, I explained what we were doing and handed out the sheets. Students were told to walk around, look at the art and fill in the boxes.

 

 

Then I gathered up the students, gave them tokens that matched the worksheet, and instructed them to leave them by the posters.

 

 Next, we walked around to all the tables and discussed our findings. Renoir's painting of Monet Painting In His Garden didn't go over quite as well as The Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella.

 

Students were not wild about Paul Klee's Head of a Man, some thought it was scary. They really disliked Orange and Yellow by Marc Rothko because of the lack of details.             
 George Seurat's Seine at the Grand-Jatte didn't generate many tokens, however students DID believe it took a lot of time to make, but thought the whole dot thing to be weird. They LOVED the realism of Albert Bierstadt's In the Mountains and the marvelous texture in Young Hare by Albrecht Durer. The last one Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw by Augustus Saint-Gardens confused them, they based their opinion on the photography of the art and not the art in the photo.

The last part of this activity was for the students to draw one of the artworks in their sketchbook.

   

It was funny to see how many students decided to copy the Rothko, which they didn't like, but acknowledged would be the easiest.
One of the reasons I signed up for Summer Vision last year was to bring more historical and global connections to my students through the arts. It was a wonderful experience and I know my students really enjoyed this activity.

The variety of art posters were chosen based on what I have in the art room and the different styles of the artists. Anything that will generate a conversation will work.

I have downloaded a copy of the You be the Critic form and sheets with all the icons to my resource page.

Thanks for reading!