Birdhouse Art

I've got STUFF! Stuff I want my students to use to create art. Stuff I want to use up to make some shelve space in the art room.

There are these really nice foam rectangles, that in a previous life were packing material. And the blue tube thingies from a parent that is a nurse. A shout out to Mrs. Mendonca & Mrs. Rogers!

Turns out that the foam pieces are thick enough to stand up on it's side.

 

The idea of being able to stand the foam on it's side and display the art standing up got me thinking about what kind of a project I could do with it.  Continuing with my functional art unit I decided to do birdhouses with my 2nd & 3rd graders. The blue thingies would work well as a perch.

I shared with students some photos off the internet of creative style birdhouses-and believe me there are plenty. Tea kettles, airplanes, animals......  It really sparked their imagination!

 

 I had paper available in both 4 1/2" x 12" and 6" x 9" in white. Then it occurred to me, do I want them coloring in the whole piece of paper or should they just use colored paper?  I then cut up an assortment of colored paper for them to use. Also had lots of scraps available.

 

 Students made a basketball, donuts, ice cream (with a spoon for a perch), soft ball and a boot.

 

 Originally I had them use white liquid glue to join their birdhouse to the foam, but it bled through and faded out the color. So we switched to glue sticks.

 

 Pencils, more ice cream (seriously started to crave ice cream and went out for some after school).
Trucks, dinosaur, dress, hamburger with a fork for a perch!

 

And what's a birdhouse without the bird? I have a lot of white Model Magic by Crayola in which students made birds.

 

Not many students wanted a white bird so we colored the stuff. There are a few different ways to color Model Magic. The easiest is with a marker. Color with marker and fold the color inward, to keep your fingers from getting dirty. Continue to color, fold and mix the Model Magic together until you have the color you want.

 

 Make a small and a large sphere and stick them together. Pinch out a beak, a tail and poke eyes in with a pencil. Adding feathers is optional and of course pretty cool! The beauty of Model Magic is that it is not clay and the stuff sticks without a problem AND air dries. Now to get the bird to stay on a perch, we used pipe cleaners to make legs.

 

 I demonstrated how to wrapped half of a pipe cleaner around the perch (there were an assortment of items being used as perches) 4 times.

 

 Twisted the ends together, trimmed it if necessary and then I sat the bird unto it's legs.

 Then I inserted the perch under the fake hole of the birdhouse.

Students were excited to be making the birdhouses. They were hoping to make actual houses to hang up in their yards. Soooo I explained about making a prototype or a model of a birdhouse. I connected it to traveling salesmen 200 years ago. Do you think they would travel with a potbelly stove to sell or bring a prototype with them? As an craftsmen would you make a hundred of the same thing to sell or make one and take orders? Which is a better way to spend your time and money?

 Many of my students never experienced Model Magic and couldn't wait to work with it. That was the most expensive part of this project. I did buy the class pack and each individual package made 3 birds so maybe consider writing a grant for the stuff if your budget can't handle it.

Have you tried Model Magic with your Students??

Thanks for reading!!

P.S. Who is planning on attending the National Conference in New York City next month?? I WILL be there, please say hello and introduce yourself!

Agamographs-Fun Kinetic Art

I made this years ago.

So long ago I don't remember where I got the idea from, I only know it's not something I thought up. I also had no idea that it was most likely inspired by the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, until I attended a Park West Gallery art auction with my friend last summer and saw these.

     

Yaacov Agam sells his art through Park West Galleries.

Now back when I made my sample, I didn't really connect artists to the projects I did with students. I referenced optical and kinetic art.  I was new to teaching art and didn't have the resources or support groups that are available today. Many of my lessons came from what I saw when I subbed in art rooms.

Having found the connection to an artist from this long ago project that I did, I was really excited to share this lesson with my students. I choose to do it with my 5th graders and it was a big hit!

To introduce the lesson I showed a very brief Power Point about Yaacov Agam along with photos of his work from the internet. There are also many You Tube videos with him and his art that you can include in this lesson.

 Students were given 9"x12" white drawing paper. They were instructed to fold it in half and create a separate design on each half.

 

When they were done I did a whole group, directed lesson on assembling the Agamograph.

On the back of their paper, they were directed to measure and mark the top and bottom edge at 1" intervals. Basically they made nine 1" wide columns. 

                                           I    H    G    F    E    D   C   B   A

 

                                         9     8    7    6     5    4    3     2     1

 Next from right to left on the top of each column they assigned an alphabet letter to it. On the bottom of each column again from right to left they numbered the columns. 

 Now it was time to cut and assemble. Knowing that everyone finishes at a different rate of time I tried to stress that they should cut ONLY one column at a time starting on the right side.

 Cut off a column, cut it in half at the fold line and then glue down on black paper (18"x 6") starting on the left side. They can start with either the alphabet letter or the number. If they start with the alphabet then this is the order in which they would glue down the strips:

A, 1, B, 2, C, 3, D, 4, E, 5, F, 6, G, 7, H, 8, I, 9

 You gotta love it when a take away from a conference is that you have been using glue sticks incorrectly for years.......... So with my new found knowledge I directed students to use the glue stick to completely cover the back of the paper. AND to have scrap paper underneath it to keep the glue from getting all over the table. (Thank you Journal Junkies!)

   

 

 

When gluing down the strips butt them up against each other, you can even leave a little space between the strips-JUST DON'T OVERLAP THEM! When all the strips have been glued down fold them as you would if you were making a fan. This student was one of the first to finish.

I am planning to mount them on 9"x 6" boards and display some at the county fair in February. They came out great, sorry I don't have more photos of the finished ones...... just didn't get to it.

Have any of you done this project with your students?? Anyone gonna try it now that they read this??

Thanks for reading!!

 

Creativity Outside the Art Room

In the busy world of education where I generally hit the floor running and my classes are back to back, I really, REALLY appreciate getting recognition from administration.  And the fact that I am at one school ONLY on Mondays and they remember to give me that recognition really, REALLY makes me feel appreciated. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Small gestures go a really long way with me!

Check out the creativity displayed by admin on the days leading up to winter break.

The only things I didn't find in my mailbox was the hot chocolate and pancakes..... Which I totally understood.

Anyway there are many resources available to get really, REALLY great ideas from. And believe me, I do understand all the demands placed on administration these days........... But just remember, teachers do need to know, that between the parents, students, standards AND testing that there is someone who cares how hard WE are working!

And maybe it's silly but I also loved getting these certificates!!

What does your admin do to make you feel appreciated?

Thanks for reading!!