Day Four At Home Learning

Hello my wonderful artists and welcome to another official learn at home day! I have another video to share with you about today's activities.

Today's focus is collage. What is collage you may ask? Collage, from the French verb coller, meaning 'to glue,' is the artistic process of gluing and assembling various materials together to make a picture.  According to today's chart, you have two choices; 

Cut or tear magazines, newspapers and scrap papers to make a landscape

OR 

Create a flower or insect using magazines, newspapers, and any other items around your house such as buttons or pasta.

Many illustrators of children's books use collage to create their pictures. One example of an illustrator who uses collage is Eric Carle. You may recognize his art in books like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", "The Grouchy Ladybug", and "Brown Bear Brown Bear". Eric Carle likes to paint, cut, and overlap tissue paper to create his animals and characters. Watch the video below to watch the artist create his collage style illustrations for the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

If you would like to listen to Eric Carle, author and illustrator, read his book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", watch the video below.

Collage artist and illustrator Chris Haughton makes lots of different things from books to puppets to rugs to apps. Check out the film at Tate Kids to see how he makes his art work using collage and where he gets his ideas for art.

https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/kids-view/meet-illustrator

When you are creating your collage at home, feel free to use any junk mail or newspapers you have around the house. In my art making, a cereal box was used to hold my paper shapes and I found lots of color in ads and the shopper weekly. At the end of your art making, don't forget to upload your art to Artsonia and tell me about your collage art.

Have fun creating and using your skills in imagination!

Day Two at Home Learning

Hello my wonderful artists and welcome to the second official learn at home day! I have another video to share with you about today's activities.

Today's focus is drawing. According to the chart, you have three choices; 

Look closely at a family member and draw his or her portrait 

OR 

Look in a mirror and draw your self-portrait 

OR

Find three items around your house and arrange them together. Draw what you see.

Many jobs, including doctors, scientists, detectives, and artists, require us to look closely at objects or people. Today, as you are drawing, remember to use your detective eyes and look closely at the objects or people you are drawing. Take your time when you look and walk your eyes back and forth over the surface like you were a tiny ant so you see everything.

One of my favorite portrait artists is Vincent Van Gogh. He is most famous for his self-portraits. He used self-portraits as a way of practicing portraits without having to pay models to sit for him. If you wish to learn more about Vincent Van Gogh, watch the following videos below.

If you wish to practice your skills in observation, the Tate Kids website has an online quiz "Spot the Difference". This is a fun way to practice using your detective eyes by examining famous works of art and spotting the differences.

www.tate.org.uk/kids/games-quizzes/spot-difference

At the end of your art making, reflect and tell me if you had any problems today while drawing from observation. You can share your reflection in Artsonia when you type your artist statement within the app.

Have fun creating and using your skills in OBSERVATION!

Art Resources:

www.Artsonia.com

www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/paint-draw/create-art-van-gogh

www.tate.org.uk/kids/games-quizzes/spot-difference

Day One Learning at Home

Hello my wonderful artists and welcome to our first official learn at home day! I have a video to share with you about today's activities shared at the end of this post. We are using our home as our art studio. My family's favorite place to work and create is the dining room table. Unless you are my daughter, she prefers the quiet of the floor or desk in her bedroom. Anywhere in your home can become your art studio with parent's permission.

Today's focus is 3-dimensional art (3D). According to the chart, you have two choices; 

Build a tall structure from blocks, legos, or Lincoln Logs 

OR

Sculpt your favorite animal from no cook play dough.

Today's activity will help us prepare to open our architecture and 3D station when you return to school. As you're creating today, remember, to engage and persist. Even if your structure falls down or your animal does not turn out as you expected, don't give up! Keep trying!

If you wish to make the play-dough, here is the recipe and directions. You will need the following ingredients, hopefully things you already have around your house;

1 cup flour

2 Tbsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

1/4 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients together (flour and salt). Stir together. 

Then, add the wet ingredients (oil and water) and stir together. 

If the mixture is too wet, add more flour gradually until you have the right texture. Once you have the right consistency, pinch and mold into your animal shape.

At the end of your art making (either blocks, play-dough, or both), reflect and tell me if you had any problems today while sculpting with the homemade play dough or building with blocks. You can share your reflection in Artsonia when you type your artist statement within the app.

Have fun creating and using your imagination!

Art Resources:

www.Artsonia.com

www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/sculpture/make-play-dough-sculpture

Henry Moore is one of my favorite sculpture artists. Here is a link to Tate Kids about this artist. www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-henry-moore

Artsonia and Baseline Portfolio Drawings

The first two to three weeks of school for all grades allows for much practice of the art room rules and procedures. Each day students come to the art room, we quickly review the art room rules, procedures, and expectations, how to receive punches in individual Art "buck" punch cards and gain points for Rainbow Club as a class. A new activity I created to make the explanation of procedures and rules more exciting was an art room scavenger hunt. Second grade students, working with their table groups, were given a list of items to seek and find in the art room ranging from Art Jobs and Staplers to scrap paper drawers and sign language signs. First and kindergarten students were shown pictures from the art room in a keynote presentation and together as a class pointed to the found items in the room.

The first two weeks also allow me to gain valuable information about students' current skill levels in drawing and name writing. I call these drawings baseline portfolio drawings. Each year kindergarten through second grade, students will draw a self portrait and "My House" drawing without guidance on 9”x12” drawing paper and with a #2 pencil. These drawings usually take 2-3 days and students will add color with crayons (kindergarten) or colored pencils (first and second grades). For those students who finish early, we talk about adding "details" to give the viewer more information. For example, within the background of their self portraits, I tell them to draw items that tell me more about their hobbies and interests.

Artsonia, West Central K12 digital portfolio for Art.

Once students complete their self portrait and house drawings, the images are photographed and uploaded to our Artsonia accounts. Each child has an Artsonia account that follows him or her from building to building within our district. This is our K12 digital portfolio for the art room. It's a free, safe, educational program designed to connect parents and families with their child's creative activities at West Central School grades K-12. Kindergarten parents and new students have already received their permission forms to participate in this program. If you have any questions about Artsonia, please, feel free to contact me through email at brenda.sosa@k12.sd.us or call 528-3215 x1333 for more information.

Second grade students this week will also list items to add to this year's Rainbow Club Chart and as a group VOTE FOR the ACTIVITIES they like best TO ADD to the RAINBOW CLUB chart.

Anchor Standard 1 (K-2): Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 2 (K-2): Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Anchor Standard 10 (K-2): Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to create art.

Jim Dine Inspired Hearts

This kindergarten art project is inspired by the American pop artist, Jim Dine.  We viewed a few examples of similar heart paintings by this artist. Then, we recreated our own hearts using oil pastels and tempera paints on paper.

Jim Dine 2008 Merry Snow

We want to give this heart as a gift, so to make it extra fancy, we taped the outside edge with masking tape to create a white frame. When we are finished painting, the masking tape will be removed and a white frame will be revealed.  I like to tape to newspaper.  Not only does it keep the table clean while painting, but we can also glue our name label to the outside edge of the newspaper and see immediately whose painting belongs to whom in the drying rack.

Oil pastels used to free hand draw hearts on paper.

Once painting is complete, remove tape and see a white frame.

Our finished hearts will be uploaded to Artsonia, and we will use our handmade heart creations for a digital art project in the near future.

Splatter Paint, Norman Rockwell and Green Screen!

When reading the title to this post, you are probably wondering what any of these things have in common! Last week, students examined Norman Rockwell and his illustrations using VTS. In a previous class, a Venn Diagram was used to compare Norman Rockwell's art and Modern Artist Jackson Pollock's art (born only a few years apart). Of course, students had a difficult time finding any similarities, but recognized many differences between the two artists. After examining both artists, first grade students then took a closer look at "The Connoisseur" by Norman Rockwell and noticed an amazing combination of both art forms.

"The Connoisseur" by Norman Rockwell 1962

This week, first grade students created their own splatter paint project on small 4.5" x 6" pieces of white or colored paper. Next week, students will be photographing their splatter paint project and using a green screen to put themselves in an image examining their own art. Do Ink offers a great app to create this kind of art idea. Students are very excited to use the iPads to embellish their handmade creations.

After photographing their art and asking a friend to photograph themselves facing the green screen with the camera app on the iPad, students will have the opportunity to choose from the following five backgrounds to add to the middle layer within the green screen app.

 

Once in the app, students will create a new project by selecting the plus sign in the top right corner and choosing "Create a New Project". This will open a new project. In the picture below, you can see students will be using all three layers within the app to create their image. By selecting the plus sign in the middle layer at the bottom of the screen, students can pick one of five frame images from above for their project.

The very bottom layer will be used for their splatter paint image. The image can be cropped and the size changed as long as students have selected that image at the bottom of the screen. We will know the image is selected when there is a red box around that layer's picture. The splatter painting should fit within the frame without any background showing.

The last image added is the photo of themselves facing the green screen. This image will be the very top of our final image. Students are most amazed with this step, because the green screen magically disappears and is replaced with the wall and frame backdrop. While the layer with the photo of themselves is selected (red box around layer), students can alter their size and location as well as reduce and increase the sensitivity of the green screen to prevent a green halo haze around their body.

To export their images, students will select "Image" next to "Save" and select "Save" to export image to the Camera Library on the iPad. These final images will be uploaded to Artsonia for their family to see. Click here to see the student created images.

Drawing from Memory

Two simple drawings from memory I consistently assign after break include student's favorite Christmas gift and favorite Christmas break activity. These drawings give us an opportunity to practice grabbing art supplies using our Art Supply Inspectors, placing unfinished projects in our colored table drawers (Drawer Inspectors), putting supplies away at the end of class, quietly working without talking during "Quiet Working Time" and sharing our art during "Share Time" at the end of class.

Another key word/concept that is emphasized during the drawing activity is "details". Students are encouraged to use details to help develop the visual story of their Christmas memory. Examples of details are discussed at the start of class and brainstormed together as a whole group on a sample drawing on the marker board.

This assignment is completed by all grades K-2.

This activity usually takes two 30 minute art periods and finished drawings will be placed in our "End of Year" Portfolio. Even though we are drawing from memory now, by the end of the year we may forget what this drawing was all about, so, I use Avery Address Labels to stick to one corner of the paper describing the front and back drawings. This makes it easy to remember the drawing assignment and easy for students to describe it to parents at the end of the year. If the child has forgotten the drawing assignment, they need to only read the label in the corner. I also use this same address sticker to label our baseline portfolio drawings completed at the start of the year (same label size, different description).

Avery Address Label 5260

Students in 2nd grade are also choosing one of their drawings, either "My favorite gift" or "My favorite activity", to upload to Artsonia by using Artsonia's classroom mode and scanning a QR code with the iPads to access the "Drawing from Memory" exhibit online. Students were also required to give their art a title and type a brief artist statement describing his or her drawing using complete sentences, capital letters, and punctuation.

K.VA.Cn.10.1.a
Identify art that tells a story or expresses a mood about a life experience.

1.VA.Cr.2.1
Explore safe uses of materials, tools, and procedures to create works of art or design.

2.VA.Cn.10.1.a
Create art that tells a story or expresses a mood about events in home, school or community life.

It's Raining Origami Cats and Dogs!

I love introducing Kindergarten and first grade students to the art of origami. It not only exposes them to many folds, such as side to side and corner to corner, but introduces the class to a diverse culture and country and a great discussion on shape characteristics, such as a square having four corners and four sides while a triangle only has three corners and three sides. As tradition holds in my building, kindergarten students learn step by step how to fold a simple origami cat, which is also the exact same steps for the origami dog. The first day of class we discuss that the art of origami originates in Japan and locate Japan on the map in our classroom. I show the students the steps at the demonstration table. I then hand one square origami paper to each child and we walk through the steps together as a class. I walk around and check progress through each step. Lastly, I let each child pick their own color of origami paper and try it on their own. If they need help, they only need to raise their hands. Next class, students will choose which cat or dog head is the best and take the other one home. The origami cat or dog head kept in the classroom will be glued to a 12" x 18" drawing paper and students will add the body, legs, tail and any other details necessary for their cat or dog with pencil first, then oil pastel contour lines, and finally tempera paint cakes (similar to a watercolor resist) to fill. Here are the directions below for the origami cat and dog, if you would like to try it at home.  Look to Artsonia to see gallery examples from 2013.

Start with a square paper.

Fold diagonally from corner to corner and crease.

Sometimes this fold is difficult, so I tell students to pinch the corner with one
hand and use the other hand to flatten the fold from the corner down.

Fold in half again from corner to corner and crease.

Open last fold and notice line dividing triangle in half.
Turn the paper so that it acts as an arrow and points to the belly.

To prevent over folding, I tell students to place one finger
at the top of the line and use the other to grab the top right corner.

Pull the top right corner down to the belly
leaving a nice triangle shape the ear and cheek.

Repeat on the other side. I tell students to notice that
they should now have three arrows pointing towards their belly.

I tell students that dogs or cats do not normally have pointy chins
so we need to fold the bottom point up to leave a flat chin instead.
This is the dog.

To make the cat, simply flip the paper over and upside down.

I found this great video from Ted 2008 by Robert Lang entitled "The Math and Magic of Origami". Although a little advanced for my kindergarten and first grade students, I certainly enjoyed how he uses math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful. Check out the video below.

Winter Landscapes Continued...

Parents, watch your email for the recent art upload to your child's Artsonia account in the next week. First and second graders are close to finishing their winter landscapes and I am starting to upload images to Artsonia, our online art gallery.  Last touches the students are adding to their paintings; snow falling, wind strokes with curved lines, and snow resting on the branches of their trees and mountains. A new trick that students learned today is using the brush end (handle side) to paint the snowflakes. This very much surprised the students because they never thought we could dirty the handles, but this technique makes really simple small dots, perfect size for a winter snowflake.