Thomas Elementary Art

Amazing what I can get done with a little time...

2012-02-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

Four years of art school come in handy when making glaze charts! If
only my digital camera didn't make everything look slightly fish-eyed!

I have been teaching for six years now, four of them at my current school. For the first time ever, I have a student teacher! Mrs. Heimlich is from The Ohio State University and is in the middle of ten weeks working with me. It has been a great experience so far. It is a whole different form of teaching- one that I really enjoy. For one thing, it is incredibly nice to have another adult in the room. Getting additional lesson ideas is another big plus. I love seeing what other teachers do in their classrooms, so I'm getting that experience in my own room. If you're a regular blog follower, you know I post examples of each project I teach. I'll be posting Mrs. Heimlich's lessons as she finishes them.

Another aspect of having a student teacher that I'm really enjoying is having a little more time during the day to catch up on lesson planning, blogging, and projects around the classroom. What you see above is my new glaze chart! The chart I had before was just on plain plywood with tiny tiles and colors written in Sharpie. Some of the colors were essentially duplicates and a couple of the colors had bee discontinued. I had been wanting to make a new chart for several years.

For those of you who have had a student teacher, what is your favorite part of the experience? Do you have any fun suggestions or stories?

Machine Brains by 3rd Grade

2012-02-09T15:29:00.003-05:00

This is an example of the artist statement I have my students do after each project.
This one is unusually long due the fact that I have each student write an explanation
for how their machines work. It goes along with the image above it.

This project is probably one of my favorites among everything I teach. Part of the third grade science curriculum involves the study of simple machines. I take that idea and make it way more rad than a science textbook.

I start by introducing Rube Goldberg with a Keynote presentation. I'll put a link to that presentation at the bottom by the lesson plan link. For those of you who may not be familiar with Rube Goldberg, he was a cartoonist who had also been trained as an engineer. He was famous for creating drawings of complicated machines that did really simple tasks. My students absolutely love looking at these machines.

We then talk about the six different kinds of simple machines (inclined plane, wheel & axel, wedge, pulley, screw, lever) and look at examples of each. The best part of the presentation comes next when I show videos that people have posted on YouTube of Rube Goldberg style machines that they have made at home. The best example is a music video by OK GO. Check it out-->

Each student then designs a machine using at least four of the simple machines to replace their brain. The machine is supposed to do something that happens in their head (blinking, yawning, remembering, making boogers, etc.). I really emphasize using logic in their machines. We go through several sketches in order to make sure the machines make sense. The rest of the project is dedicated to the kids using construction paper scraps (it's a great way to use up scraps) to create their machine on final paper. My students love the project and it really gets them to use their brains (pun intended)!

See the lesson plan here!

See the presentation here!
**I don't usually upload the presentations I do because the files are often pretty big. This file is a .mov file that can be downloaded from google docs and navigated with the arrow buttons on the computer. It includes the Goldberg images, simple machines, and three videos. If you look at it directly from google docs, the slides at the beginning go really fast. You need to download it in order to have control of the speed of the slides. If it doesn't work for some reason, let me know and I'll try to troubleshoot and come up with a solution that works.

5th Grade Chuck Close Style Self Portraits

2012-02-07T12:43:00.002-05:00

During the filming portion of the claymation project, I have one table at a time film. Because of that, I run another project at the same time in order to give the rest of the class something fun to work on. For the last several years, I have had my 5th graders create self portraits in the style of Chuck Close.

I take pictures (way too close up for comfort) of each student. I then take the picture files home and process them in Photoshop in order to convert them to the correct size and add a grid over the top. You can use actions in Photoshop to have it convert the images quickly. I did all 100 pictures in about 10 minutes.

The kids then use their gridded photographs as a guide for a slightly larger self portrait. I USED MATH (!!!!!!!) to make sure the final grid for the artwork would be exactly one inch by one inch so it would be relatively easy for kids to make their grid. I make sure to tell the math teacher that we're working with rulers and measurement in art. I'm out to impress.

It takes quite a while to complete the project, but the results are worthwhile. I have seen many drawings with this project that are by far the best that I have ever seen from several students. I give the option to use pencil to render the picture with pencil, use colored pencils, or use oil pastels.

Find the full lesson plan here!

2nd Grade Wild Things - Special Display!

2012-02-03T15:21:00.001-05:00

Here are a few of the pieces displayed at the Dublin branch of the public library!

I would like to start this post by thanking Loren Scully from the Dublin branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She specifically sought me out because of her desire to display artwork from students in Dublin City Schools. I dropped off over 100 pieces of artwork from this project on Monday afternoon and they will be hanging in the children's area of the library through the end of February. Thanks Loren! Your efforts are greatly appreciated by my students, their parents, and me!

This is a project that I've done for a few years now and I really like it. It is similar in artistic concept to a fourth grade project that I posted recently. I'm looking forward to changing that project next year to make it a little more difficult.

I start by reading Where the Wild Things Are and having the students discuss how Maurice Sendak created his wild things. We also talk about how Sendak is the author and the illustrator of the book. These are important concepts for this grade level and this is a great time to reinforce those ideas. Students discovered that Sendak's wild things are made up of lots of different animal parts. They had a great time creating several of their own wild things. On the second day of the project, the 2nd graders chose their favorite wild thing to press into a 4x6 piece of printing foam.

We took 2 class periods to print. Each student made two prints each day. I'm working with 45 minute class periods with zero time in between classes, so having plenty of time for cleanup is pretty important with a messier project like this. My kids absolutely love to clean anything in the art room, so it's easy to find helpers to clean brayers and plexiglass. I'm sure parents are super jealous of how helpful their children are here. I'm not so sure that enthusiasm for cleaning translates to the home!

The last day is spent writing artist statements, cutting out the prints, mounting them to construction paper, and using construction paper crayons (they are super bright even on dark paper) to write "Wild Things." This project is absolutely loved by the students and comes out well every year.

Check out my lesson plan here! It's free!!!

1st Grade Talented Squid

2012-01-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

This is another project inspired by pinterest.com. If you haven't been to the site yet, it is pretty spectacular and worth taking the time to check out.

I spotted a pin about a book called I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. The front cover illustration was hilarious, so I decided to design a project around the book. The book is about a squid who is a very talented artist, but a little oblivious of his surroundings. Sound familiar?!? At one point he paints a mustache on himself as he is traveling around the ocean making art. The book isn't the best I've ever read, but the concept is a lot of fun.

For the art project, each students drew their own version of the squid doing something that they are best at. My example showed me eating Chipotle burritos. Each student drew their squid and colored it with colored pencils. The following class, they created a watercolor background using liquid watercolors and some magic crystals (salt) to create cool textures. The students then cut out their squid. My big observation here is that too many students drew their tentacles too thin. I had to do a lot of helping with the cutting. If I do this project again, I'll definitely make sure the tentacles are thicker and easier to cut. Students then made a speech bubble for their squid and wrote about what they were best at. Additional underwater friends were added with some extra time. This was definitely a fun project for my 1st graders and a great way to get to know them a little better. One of my students is best at eating bananas. I wouldn't have ever known that if not for this project!

Check out my lesson plan here!!!

4th Grade Pop Art Prints

2012-01-24T14:54:00.000-05:00

4th grade students recently finished a study of pop artists, specifically Andy Warhol. I do a very similar (a little too similar from a printmaking perspective I think) project with 2nd grade, so I think I'll be changing this one around a bit next year. I've seen some techniques on Pinterest lately that show how to change the foam by cutting parts out, then doing multiple color prints. I think that is the way of the future for me!

Students drew several sketches of items found in popular culture and chose one for their print. Several students used words, so we got to talk about how printmaking reverses images and how we could work around that to make the words come out the right way. After pressing their drawings into the foam printing material, students then made four prints over the course of two classes, then cut them out and mounted them on black construction paper. This is usually a very successful project and this year was no different. Feel free to check out the lesson plan by clicking the link below!

Click here to see the lesson plan!

2nd Grade Egyptian Cats & Dogs

2012-01-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

This project has become a favorite among 2nd grade students here at Thomas. We study ancient Egypt, which is always enthralling for the students. It is one of the ancient cultures that kids are more exposed to and therefor are more interested in. This year I allowed the kids to draw either cats or dogs.

The most favorite part of this project is writing their names in hieroglyphics. I have a (rough) letter by letter translation of the alphabet that the students use and they absolutely love it. I always have the kids who finish early write secret messages to their friends using hieroglyphics.

See the lesson plan for this project here!

4th Grade Paper Weaving

2011-12-16T13:57:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I never got around to photographing this project while it was hanging in the hallway. The fourth graders have moved on to two different projects since they finished this one. I suppose the images will be strikingly similar to those I have posted from previous years of this project. That isn't a bad thing in this case. This project produces some of the most consistent results of any of the projects I do during the entire year. I find it's pretty rare to have a project that is nearly 100% successful, but this is one of those projects.

After studying the work of Jackson Pollock and watching a short video of Pollock actually working in his studio, each 4th grader got to make two paintings in his style. Honestly, for me, this is the best and the worst part of this project. My art room is almost obsessively organized. I think that it sets a good precedent for my students if I keep the room clean and organized. Allowing 24 4th graders to make splatter paintings takes me a little out of my comfort zone. The flip side is that the kids absolutely love it. This year I condensed it to just one day of painting. It worked better and was a little less stressful for me!

The paintings were then cut up on the second day and woven together. The results are always very impressive. As always, feel free to use my lesson plans and presentations.

Click here for a link to my lesson plans and presentation files!

5th Grade Claymation

2011-12-15T11:51:00.002-05:00

A basement.

A caveman's home.

Really nice city sidewalk set.

A cave woman and an evil bunny!

A minion!

It's high time for a claymation update! I usually start my claymation project about this time of the year, but we're just a few classes from being finished with it this year. I'm very excited to have my first ever student teacher coming in at the beginning of January, so I moved claymation up to an earlier slot in order to accommodate the change of schedule a little better.

What you see above are several sets and characters from the upcoming claymation. 5th grade students are working on making four commercials this year for their project. Each of my four classes breaks up into smaller groups to complete all of the tasks that are necessary for creating a stop motion animation. The groups include writers/storyboard artists, set designers, and character designers. It allows each student to join a group in which they will be most successful. We have just begun filming this week and I'm excited to see the finished animation. I'll post that with full lesson plans when the project is finished.

Recycled CD Snowflake Mosaics by 4th Grade

2011-12-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Recycling is really important to me. Honestly, I think it would be difficult to find an art teacher who wouldn't feel the same way. I try to incorporate recycling into many of my projects and I'm particularly proud of this one.

A couple of years ago, I had two big boxes of old computer software CDs. They had been donated over the course of a couple of years and I had no idea what to do with them. Every once in a while I would look for ideas online, but I would usually come away empty handed. In the meantime, I had been doing a project with 4th grade that used paper mosaic pieces to create snowflakes. Last year the light bulb (CFL of course) finally popped on. I would break the CDs and use them to create the mosaics.

The first problem was how to break them. I tried just about everything including smashing them with a hammer and even freezing them to make them more brittle. Nothing worked the way I wanted it to and I finally went to the old standby- the paper cutter. My paper cutter is probably older than me and that means it's awesome. The new paper cutters always disappoint me. They're just not as heavy or sturdy. I simply slice up the CDs on the paper cutter. From there, the kids can either snap them apart into smaller pieces or cut them with scissors. These pieces are glued onto a snowflake that has been cut out and glued onto a piece of silver chip board. They turn out great and end up making a nice piece to take home before winter break.

Find my lesson plan here!

3rd Grade Winter Cardinals

2011-12-01T15:46:00.001-05:00

If you live in Ohio or any other Northern state, winter is a pretty big deal. Some people love it and others can't stop complaining about it. I personally enjoy big snows on school nights!

The music teacher at Thomas always puts on a winter program at the beginning of December. I'm in charge of the set and making sure there is winter themed artwork hanging in the halls around the commons. This is one of those projects this year.

I got the idea for this project from browsing pinterest.com. As per usual with blog ideas, I changed it around and added to it to make it work with my students. For this project, we talked about landscapes in art. Students learned about foreground, middleground, and background and where to find each level in a landscape. We took the idea of a landscape and condensed it for this project. Since we are in Ohio, we used the image of the cardinal, our state bird. Cardinals do not migrate. Since they are bright red, they are easy to find during the winter months. Students used step sheets and other visual images to draw a cardinal sitting on a branch. Other overlapping branches of varying thickness were added to show multiple levels of depth in the picture. The final product is a multi-media piece that includes tempera and oil pastel. These turned out very well and I've gotten a plethora of compliments from the staff here at Thomas. Feel free to download the lesson plan below!

Find my lesson plan here!

Lesson Plans!?!

2011-11-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

At the beginning of this school year, I started posting links to my lesson plans when I post images of a new project. I'm more than happy to do that because I think the spirit of art teacher blogs is sharing ideas and making all of our lives easier. I want to know if having the actual plans posted is helpful for anyone. Has anyone been able to go to the Google Docs page and download them? Click on the link below to see all of the lesson plans/presentations that I've uploaded so far. You can also scroll down to projects I've updated recently to link directly to those lesson plans. These are all totally free. No strings attached! I'm not that kind of art teacher!

Art Lesson Plans!

Once you open one of the lesson plans, you can go to the Google Docs navigation where it reads File, etc. Click on file, scroll down, and you can download as multiple file types.

1st Grade Rockets in Space

2011-11-15T13:57:00.001-05:00

Notice that all of the planets are included (in the proper order and size relationship) in this one.
Wow! This artist has an amazing knowledge of science even as a first grader!

This project has become a favorite for me for 1st grade. We start out with a pretty simple overview of space, planets, and space travel. I also show the kids a video of the space shuttle launching. They are always super psyched to see that. Most haven't seen a shuttle launch before. We like to listen for the NASA guy telling how fast the shuttle is traveling. The acceleration is unbelievable.

I then have students draw 4-5 planets on a 12"x18" white piece of paper. They color the planets using crayon, but pushing down very hard so the color is vibrant. The next day is spent painting "space" with black tempera. I suppose I could have the kids cut out their planets and glue them on black paper, but I want to give them as much practice painting as possible. They love painting, so I try to give them every opportunity to practice. The rockets are made on the third day and all of the paper comes from my scrap box. The fourth day of the project is spent finishing any coloring or rocket assembly that is necessary before gluing the rocket onto the background and making stars. The stars are simply made using the back of a brush. The results are alway great and my students love this project.

Here is the link to the lesson plan!

100 Followers?!?

2011-11-12T20:04:00.001-05:00

100 followers?!? It's funny. When I started this blog a couple of years ago, I was just looking for a place to share lessons and art with parents and other art teachers in my district. I really never thought that I would actually have so many people commenting and following this blog. I appreciate everyone's feedback and I hope to continue to make the blog interesting to read. Thanks!

3rd Grade Day of the Dead Calaveras

2011-11-08T11:55:00.001-05:00

Third graders just finished a project about Day of the Dead. I'm trying to have at least a couple of new projects per grade level this year and this is one of those new projects. I've got to say that I was really pleased with how this one turned out.

We started out by discussing the Mexican celebration of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Students compared and contrasted it with our holiday of Halloween. There are some similarities, but Day of the Dead is much more involved. Essentially, it involves honoring, celebrating, and remembering friends and family members who have died.

The calavera (skull) is one of the major symbols of Day of the Dead. Each third grade student drew a large calavera that included many patterns inside. They worked to make their drawings symmetrical as well. I hate to use markers, so these were colored with colored pencils. The kids were so impressed with how bright they could color with the pencils when they pressed down a little harder than usual. They then cut out the skulls and glued them on a piece of construction paper with a simple "frame" made of strips of paper. We kept the background simple in order to make the skull stand out as the star of the work.

In addition to the usual lesson plan link below, I'm putting up the artist statement I have the students complete after they finish their work. They just tape it on the back of their art and I use it to more accurately assess their knowledge.

Download the lesson plan!!!

Download the artist statement I use for grading this project!

2nd Grade Scarecrows

2011-11-04T08:40:00.002-04:00

2nd grade students at Thomas just finished a project based on the book Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown. After reading the book, we discussed how farmers and farming are important in Ohio. Next, each student drew a simple farm landscape with oil pastels. Each hill in the landscape included a different pattern. The hills and sky were then painted with watercolor. Finally, each student made their own scarecrow. Many of the scarecrows had one of the six super silly faces made by the scarecrow boy in the book. Overall, this was a very successful project.

Click here for the lesson plan!

Having too much fun during conferences...

2011-10-27T14:08:00.000-04:00

So....last night was the 2nd night of parent teacher conferences. At my school, parents schedule time to speak to classroom teachers, but I usually don't have too many that stop by the art room. I usually will work on getting caught up on grading work and do other little things that I get behind on during the course of the year. Yesterday I decided to do something a little more fun. You're seeing the results of my not working on grades! Carving like this is done almost entirely with loop tools that are traditionally used for clay. It was a great way to spend my extra hours at school!

5th Grade Keith Haring Social Cause Posters

2011-10-13T09:18:00.001-04:00

This is another project that I enjoy beginning the year with. In 5th grade, I design projects to push the boundaries of what students have done in art before. My lessons for 5th grade are increasingly complex, either technically or intellectually. This particular project is inspired by the work of Keith Haring.

Instead of starting out with a Keynote presentation, I start this one old school. I break out a class set of Scholastic Art magazines from 1998. We start the project by reading a couple of short articles about Haring's life and artwork. After talking about Haring's style, I focus the class on major themes in Haring's work. We talk about major social causes that Haring addresses with his work. Each student chooses an important social cause to make artwork about using Haring's style. It takes a whole different thought process than most students are used to using. I have them focus on boiling down all of their ideas into just a few key images that will get their point across without the use of any text. It is a challenge, but most students end up with very powerful work.

Download this lesson plan!!!

4th Grade Totem Poles

2011-10-12T16:16:00.000-04:00

4th graders just finished a lesson about totem poles. Students learned about the significance of totem poles and that they were (and still are) made by native tribes who lived in the Pacific Northwest region of North America.

The big word for this project was stylize. We learned that some artists stylize their work by changing shapes, colors, etc. in order to give their work their own personal touch. Each student created one stylized animal in the style of a real totem pole. (There are some great resources on totem pole parts online here. Unfortunately, I didn't find this until we were almost done with the project!) In the past, I had kids paint the finished product, but I decided to try collage this year after seeing an example from another blog last year. I really like how clean the collage is. More importantly, the students were more successful using collage.

My lesson plan can be found here.
My keynote for this lesson is here.
A PDF version of my keynote can be downloaded here.
Feel free to use or modify for your own room!

3rd Grade Aboriginal Animals

2011-10-11T14:06:00.001-04:00

For some reason, I really enjoy beginning the year with this project for 3rd grade. It is a nice combination of drawing, pastel, collage, and painting so it gets the students back into the swing of things. For this project, we study the art of the Aboriginal people of Australia. Each student chooses an Australian animal and begins by doing an "x-ray" drawing of the animal on construction paper. These drawings are colored using oil pastels. Next, backgrounds are designed using a different color of construction paper. This really makes the animals pop. Usually, the simpler the design, the better the background comes out. Finally, students used q-tips and a limited range of colors to paint the background.

The lesson plan can be found here.
My keynote is here.
Please feel free to use these in your classroom!

2011-09-23T12:54:00.001-04:00

I like to start the year with at least a few projects that don't have a whole lot of guidelines. For second grade, I have begun with an expanded images project I found a while back. Essentially, each student finds a unique, funny, or interesting picture in a magazine. That picture is cut out around the image with no background showing. The challenge for the students is to come up with a background. I like to make it really fun by suggesting absolutely crazy things that could be going on. The kids get a really big kick out of it. It is finished with watercolors so it allows me to review painting procedures with my second graders. Look for the example where fruits and veggies are fighting over junk food!

The lesson plan is from Blick and can be found here!

2011-09-09T11:02:00.001-04:00

Aaaaaah....the first project of first grade. For the past few years, I have done these texture caterpillars. I really like this project because it is a fun, simple, one day project that helps me get a feel for my six new first grade groups. I like to start off first grade gradually and help the kids learn how I like to run things in the art room. Yes, it is OK to raise your hand if you REALLY need to use the restroom. No, you don't need to sharpen your pencil seven times a class. This is one of those projects that every student is successful with!

Pinterest!

2011-08-29T09:14:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy checking out a lot of the other art teacher blogs that are out there. There are a ton of really talented and dedicated teachers who post some amazing projects. I'll see a project I really like and I'll drag the link into a folder I keep on my computer labeled "Project Ideas." Unfortunately, I get so busy sometimes that I don't go back to check that folder often enough. Another art teacher in my district told me about Pinterest earlier this fall. My wife, a graphic designer, had been using Pinterest for several months, so I was familiar with how it worked. What I didn't realize is how many cool art projects are on there!

If you aren't familiar with how Pinterest works, here is a quick rundown of the site. Anyone can "pin" images on the internet. If I find a really cool project on somebody's blog, I can pin it on a board in Pinterest. The image is saved in a visual file essentially. It is super easy to scroll through and find particular images which are also linked back to the original web page they were found on. People can also "re-pin" images already on Pinterest. There are quite a few art teachers already pinning, so I am able to search for art lessons and re-pin them to my elementary art board. I highly recommend checking out the site.

The room is ready!

2011-08-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

The time has come. School starts bright and early tomorrow morning. I think pretty much everything is in place for another school year. I always enjoy seeing pictures of other teacher's rooms when I look at their blogs, so I'm going to put up a few pictures from my room. If nothing else, I can look back fondly in a few weeks and reminisce about how clean and shiny everything is.

I made a few changes to my room this year. I dedicated my main bulletin board wall to information about what each grade level is studying. In the past, I have always put up prints and changed out a few as the year went along. I purchased a bunch of vocabulary cards at the end of the year last year that I think will work really well on new bulletin board.

Another change this year has to do with this blog. I'm going to try my best to attach lesson plan files to each new post. Hopefully this is helpful to people who read the blog. If there are any other requests for things you'd like to see on here, comment and let me know! Happy 2011-2012 everyone!

Newest Bottle Cap Art Installed!

2011-08-24T11:44:00.002-04:00

When we do bottle cap art at Thomas, we go big. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may recall that my 4th Grade students created a new bottle cap mural last year specifically for the library. Here is a link to the original post. The mural was installed over the summer and it looks great! I thought I would post a few pictures of the finished piece.

5th Grade Tiki Mugs

2011-05-27T10:34:00.000-04:00

I think this will be the last official post of the school year! Today is the last day of the year! I feel like I've done a pretty good job of posting examples of almost every single project that my students have worked on this year. This last project was fun, if not a little rushed. My 5th grade students created mugs in a Tiki style. Some kids decided to add handles, but many just decided to carve their tiki faces into the clay. This was a fun project and my 5th graders absolutely love the fact that they can actually use their mugs to drink out of.

I hope everyone has a great summer. I'm planning a few upgrades to the blog over the summer that I think will be pretty successful. I'm going to try to actually post my lesson plans for each project along with images. Hopefully that is helpful to those of you out there who get ideas from this blog.

What a cool handle!

4th Grade Flip Books

2011-05-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

I have found that doing flip books at the end of the year with 4th grade is absolutely perfect. The kids really love the project and it is something that can be lengthened or shortened based on the crazy schedule at the end of the year. It is a good introduction to animation and I have found it helps my 5th graders better understand animation concepts when they film their claymation.

Thomas Elementary Art Show

2011-05-20T16:33:00.002-04:00

The art show! The event we have been working hard the entire year for! The art show this year was incredibly successful. Each student had at least one piece of artwork in the show, but most had 2 or even 3. The art show is the official unveiling of the new bottle cap mural as well as the premier of the 5th grade claymation film. I am lucky to have such supportive parents and staff at Thomas. The show was very well attended and everyone had a great time. Thanks to PTO parents and volunteers for helping out and providing cookies and punch. I also want to thank my wife, Heather, for taking a vacation day from work to spend the day helping me out!

1st Grade Clay Turtles

2011-05-20T16:25:00.000-04:00

1st graders recently finished making clay turtles. This is the first clay project most of them have worked on, so it is relatively simple. I have kids make them in two days, although it would potentially be possible to finish them in one. The first day, students make a simple pinch pot. On day two, they add legs, a head, and a tail. Once they are fired, the turtles are painted with watercolor. A few legs and heads tend to fall off, but it isn't something a little hot glue can't fix!

4th Grade Bottle Cap Mural

2011-05-20T16:21:00.000-04:00

This project seems to be a favorite among students, parents, and blog readers. This is the third year in a row the 4th grade has created a bottle cap mural for permanent display in the school. The previous two have gone in separate stairwells, but this mural will be placed in four side-by-side windows in the library. This year, students decided to make Dr. Seuss characters and spell out the word 'READ' on the mural.

In the past, I've gotten a many questions about how this process is done, so I'll describe it in more detail this year. Of course, if anyone has questions, please feel free to post a question in the comments area or email me directly. The work is all inspired by Michelle Stitzlein, a local artist who works with school groups and has quite an impressive collection of her own fine art work. She focuses on the use of recycled materials in her art.

First, the boards are primed with a latex primer. The design is then drawn out with sharpie and the whole mural is painted with either latex or acrylic paints. This gives the mural a base color and allows for some spaces to stand alone without caps if need be. Sharpie is again used to clean up edges and define colors. The next part can be done a couple of different ways. I know some people like to do all the caps at one time and bring in parent volunteers with cordless drills to help out. I like working on it gradually. I just have the kids carefully hot glue the caps on the boards then I put screws into the caps later on. I use these screws. To give an idea of how many to buy, I used right around 2000 screws for the mural this year.

4th Grade Chinese Dragons

2011-05-20T15:18:00.000-04:00

This project was a new one for this school year. We studied dragons and their significance in China. Students learned that, in China, dragons are not feared. Chinese people believe that dragons represent wisdom, power, and luck. Chinese dragons are typically long and thin and do not have wings. Each student drew their own dragon and painted it with watercolors. These were then carefully cut out and mounted on a piece of construction paper. These were then cut out again, leaving a border of the color their dragon was just glued on. The dragons were then mounted onto another color of construction paper. The project was finished by students writing descriptions of their dragons in actual Chinese characters.

5th Grade Claymation

2011-05-20T15:07:00.000-04:00

This is the giant, culminating project for 5th graders. Claymation! It takes about one third of the year to complete, but the students absolutely love making it. This year, we chose to animate many of the art room rules. Feel free to use the video in your classrooms if you'd like.

My students write the scripts (can you tell?), create the characters, build the sets, and voice the characters. All students chose one job and then work with their specific group for many art classes in order to get the claymation ready to film. Once filming is ready, I have one table film each day while the other classes work on a separate project. Each table gets to film one day. Once all of the filming is done, I edit it all together in iMovie and have the students do voices for the characters. I always post the final video on YouTube so the students can watch it at home whenever they want. Note: If YouTube is blocked at your school, the video will not work.

1st Grade Dancing Giraffes

2011-05-20T14:58:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite first grade projects. It is based on the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae. After reading the book, each student draws a dancing giraffe. I had some kids come up with some pretty smooth dance moves this year. The giraffes are colored with colored pencil. On another paper, kids paint either a blue or purple night sky with a nice glowing moon (using white for the moon while the sky is still wet). The grass is first painted entirely yellow. Once the yellow drys, I have the kids paint green over the yellow. When I'm demonstrating this step, I get a lot of puzzled looks from the kids. I then immediately flip the brush over and use the handle to scrape away some of the wet green paint to reveal the "grass." Finally the giraffe is cut out and glued onto the background. This is a project that is nearly 100% successful.

For the lesson plan for this project, click here!

5th Grade Self Portraits

2011-05-20T14:31:00.000-04:00

During the filming process of claymation, I need another project going on at the same time in order to give the groups who are not filming something to work on. For this project, we studied the work of Chuck Close. We discuss Close's portrait work and talk about how his work has changed throughout the course of his career. I take close-up digital photographs of each student that I then put a grid on in Photoshop and print out in black and white. Each student creates a grid on a larger piece of paper and, like Close, works box by box in order to draw their face. Many students are surprised at how realistic their work can be. This year, I gave students the option of shading with a pencil, using colored pencil, or using oil pastel to finish their work.

2nd Grade Inventions

2011-05-20T11:48:00.000-04:00

I have had my third graders do a simple machine brain project for the last several years. I spoke to a second grade teacher early this school year to find out if I could create some projects that would align with their classroom curriculum. The first thing she thought of was information about inventions that they never have quite enough time to fully complete at the end of the year. I immediately thought that creating an invention project would be a great project to get 2nd graders ready for the 3rd grade machine brain project.

After talking about Ohio inventors and their inventions, we discussed how inventors come up with ideas. Each student created several sketches of potential inventions. The best sketch was chosen and drawn on a huge 18"x18" paper. They were traced with sharpie and painted with watercolors. This was a fun end of the year project for 2nd grade.

3rd Grade Recycled Magazine Bowls

2011-05-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

This is the second time I have done this project. It is one that I have seen on other blogs around the internet and I really like it. I get it started by cutting a bunch of 3/4" strips of chip board. The kids wrap single pages of recycled magazine pages very tightly around the chip board. I tried 1/2" strips last year, but it ended up being a little too difficult for some students. After many strips are rolled, the pages are then connected end to end to make a large disk. At the end of the project, we pushed out the bottom of the disk to make a bowl and painted over it with Mod Podge. This is a great way to talk about recycling in the art room and use up some old donated magazines!

3rd Grade Ceramic Animals and Habitat

2011-05-20T11:23:00.000-04:00

Wow. It has been a while since I have updated the blog. As many of you who have your art shows in the spring know, it is a busy time of the year. I'm going to post a massive barrage of projects that have been neglected in the past month.

The 3rd graders worked on creating clay animals. They learn about animal adaptations in their classroom curriculum, so it is a great starting point for a project. We study many kinds of adaptations in animals and look more specifically at camouflage. Each student studies one animal and creates that animal out of clay. While the clay is drying and being fired, we spend two classes making habitats for the clay animals. This is a great time to use up some construction paper scraps and cardboard boxes.

2nd Grade Clay Dinosaurs

2011-04-12T08:53:00.000-04:00

In recent years, 2nd graders have made clay insects. As other art teachers know, it is nice to change up projects relatively often to keep things interesting. This year, 2nd grade students made clay dinosaurs instead! From a ceramic standpoint, this project focuses on scoring and attaching pieces of clay. This project took four classes total. On the first day, I showed a Keynote presentation with pictures of dinosaurs and even a short video. Each student then chose one dinosaur from a big collection of books and drew that dinosaur. On day two, I demonstrated how to make the dinosaurs out of clay. Students took two 45 minute classes to create their clay dinosaurs. On the fourth and final day, each student painted their dinosaur with tempera paints. Those who finished early made landscape elements out of scrap construction paper for our display. I really love how these turned out!

4th Grade Clay Castles

2011-04-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

4th graders just finished one of the favorite projects in all of elementary art at Thomas. Clay castles have become legendary in the hallways. Each student starts by studying castles from all over the world before designing their own. Students use slab building techniques in order to create their clay castles. The variety of shapes and details always amaze me. While they are waiting on the castles to dry and be fired, students create a coat of arms that is placed behind their castles. Finally, the castles are glazed and set on display shelves to be marveled at by the entire school. Huzzah!

2nd Grade Bugs in Their Habitat

2011-04-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

2nd graders learned about insects and arachnids for this project. Each student chose one particular bug to study and draw in order to create these multi-media pieces Students first drew a very detailed drawing of their bug on heavy stock. The bugs were colored with colored pencil. Next, the habitat was drawn, thinking about scale, and painted with tempera paint. Finally, the bugs were attached using 3D O's. This makes them look like they are popping right out at you!

1st Grade Owls

2011-04-11T17:19:00.000-04:00

1st grade students recently finished a project based on the book "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen. I like to use literature as a step into first and some second grade projects. I find it is an interesting way to get the kids engaged with a new project. It is easy to create a project from just about any book.

For this particular project, after reading the book to my students, each child drew an owl. They went over their pencil lines with sharpie and then used watercolor to add color. The owls were cut out and glued on to black construction paper along with a couple of branches and a moon. It is a simple and very successful project. My favorite part is seeing how each owl has its own unique personality.

5th Grade Claymation Update

2011-03-24T12:25:00.000-04:00

The 5th grade students are doing claymation again! Claymation is by far the biggest, longest, and most involved project that I do during the entire year. (Even bigger than the bottle cap project!) It takes at lest two to three months to complete. At this point, each class has broken up into different groups to complete various tasks. Students can choose to be character designers, set designers, or writers/storyboard artists.

This year, the 5th graders are animating the art room rules. Mrs. Burton, our phys-ed teacher, put together a playground rules video that we show to every single student on the first day of school each year. It is informative and hilarious, so I thought doing something similar for the art room would be awesome. I've included a few pictures of work in process. Many of the sets are miniatures of the art room and you will see an eraser and a sponge among the characters. The students have just begun filming, so the final product will be finished in a little over a month. I'll definitely post the finished video on here when it is finished.

1st Grade Penguins

2011-03-24T12:16:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the complete and utter lack of updates recently. The countdown to my art show has started and I've decided to do multiple new projects on a big deadline before the May 12th show. I'm pretty sure everything will be done in time, but there are a lot of high-intensity projects going on. It will be fantastic to take a big breath after the art show and realize there are only a couple more weeks of school left!

This project is another that Drew Jones, another art teacher in my district and all-around good guy, from Riverside Elementary Art shared with me. I took some time to talk about penguins with my 1st graders and showed them how to do a basic drawing of a penguin. I encouraged everyone to use their own imagination and make their penguins as cool as possible. The penguins were eventually cut out and glued on to a wet on wet watercolor background that the kids had done early in the project. The "ice" is wax paper that has been crumpled and carefully uncrumpled and the mountains are just standard drawing paper cut by the kids.

3rd Grade Machine Brains

2011-02-15T14:32:00.001-05:00

This is now the third time that I've done this project and it continues to be one of my favorites. For this third grade project, I start out by showing the students the work of the cartoonist Rube Goldberg. We discuss his hilariously complicated machines. Next, we look at the six kinds of simple machines and check out examples of each. Finally, I have been able to find all kinds of fantastic videos of chain reaction "machines" that people have built. One that is particularly good is a music video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" by OK Go. Definitely check it out if you have a chance.

The students must then design a machine that fits inside their head that will do something that their head actually does. Kids have chosen everything from coming up with an idea or blinking to machines that make boogers. I require that their machines have at least eight steps and include four of the six simple machines. It takes a couple of weeks for the kids to refine their sketches, but the end products end up looking really cool. I have the kids use construction paper scraps to make the machine parts. After the artwork is finished, I have each student write about how their machine works on their artist statement.

In the images above, I included full student examples as well as an excellent example of the artist statement. That particular statement goes along with the first artwork example. I also included a few close-ups of specific machine parts that I thought were extra cool. Enjoy!

4th Grade Warhol Prints

2011-02-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

These are examples from a 4th grade printmaking project. 4th grade students learned about Andy Warhol and other important artists in the Pop Art movement. Students learned that Pop Artists usually take ordinary objects and turn them into art. Each student chose something from their everyday life and pressed their image into foam printmaking sheets. They then learned about using ink and brayers to create a total of four prints.

5th Grade One Point Perspective

2011-01-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

I've always struggled with teaching perspective to 5th graders. I actually enjoy perspective drawing in part because of Pat Welch, a fantastic instructor at CCAD. I have found that teaching perspective to drawing to 5th grade kids can be a little dry at times. Some kids really dive into it, but there are always those who really struggle.

I went about teaching it a little differently this year. I broke down the steps even more than I have in previous years and opened up the project to be what each student wanted it to be. My only requirement was that there needed to be at least eight shapes drawn in correct one point perspective. The project could be painted, outlined in sharpie, colored with colored pencils, or just left as plain pencil. The students really dove into it this year. I ended up with the best results I've ever had out of this project. In addition I had a little contest for kids to draw the most difficult shape they could outside of class. Blick Art Materials donated a bunch of sketchbooks to me last summer. Four 5th graders were chosen as contest winners and get to take home a sketchbook with a drawing from me inside of it.

2nd Grade Wild Things

2011-01-14T14:43:00.000-05:00

2nd Graders were inspired by Maurice Sendak's book "Where the Wild Things Are." Each student designed his or her own wild thing by combining parts of many animals together. They then pressed their wild thing into a foam printing material. Each student printed their wild thing in four different colors before mounting the finished prints on black paper. We used construction paper crayons to add creative text at the bottom of the page. Interesting fact: construction paper crayons can be erased!

1st Grade Rockets in Space

2011-01-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

1st grade recently finished a project in which they learned all about rockets and space. We started out by talking about NASA and the various ways people can go to space. Next, we looked at pictures of space shuttles, rockets, and many planets. We even got to watch a video of the space shuttle launch.

The kids start out by drawing several large planets on a piece of white paper. They are colored using crayons. Space is painted black next. You could cut out the planets and glue them onto black paper, but my kids love to paint and I want to give them extra practice. Finally, we used recycled construction paper scraps to build rockets. These turn out really cool and it is a pretty successful project all around.

5th Grade Adinkra Printmaking

2010-12-20T15:55:00.001-05:00

This is my third year at Thomas and I'm gradually purchasing more tools and materials to use in the art room. This fall, I bought gauges and "soft-cut" linoleum to use for printmaking. 5th grade was excited to get to do a printmaking project and be the first group to use the new tools.

This particular project was inspired by Adinkra symbols. Each of the symbols have a unique meaning and are used by the Asante people of Ghana. Each student chose one symbol that they felt represented their own personality. The symbol was drawn in both a positive and negative form. Next, the symbols were drawn on 3"x3" squares of the soft-cut linoleum. Gauges were used to carve away the linoleum. The positive image was carved on one side and the negative image was carved on the other side. When carving was finished, students printed using black block printing ink. Borders were done using oil pastels. I'm really happy with how these came out. I'm definitely keeping them for the art show this spring! Thanks to my friend and colleague Drew Jones over at www.riversideelementaryart.blogspot.com for the lesson idea!

Eric Style Collage by 2nd Grade

2010-12-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

2nd graders are in the middle of a two project series that focuses on illustration. This project is inspired by the work of Eric Carle. The kids get to first make random designs and textures on colorful paper using all sorts of creative mark making tools. They absolutely loved this part. Next, they drew an illustration of an animal. Using their textured papers, the students then created a collage version of their illustration. I had done this project with first graders a couple of years ago and then decided it would work better with an older age group. This is one of those projects that can grow increasingly complex if done by older kids. The results are really cool either way.

Winter Landscapes by 3rd Grade

2010-12-09T13:34:00.001-05:00

3rd grade just finished a project in which they learned all about landscapes. We started out by stating that a landscape in art has nothing to do with planting bushes and trees around a house! We studied photographs and paintings of various landscape artists. 3rd graders learned that there are three distinct levels of distance in landscapes. Those include the foreground, middleground, and background. We then talked about the horizon line and the use of overlapping to make a landscape look like it has more depth. Students also learned about the use of size variation to help add even more depth. Finally, each student drew and painted a winter landscape that included a bear. The bears were special landscape guests this year because the artwork hung as decoration for the 2nd grade musical, A Beary Merry Holiday.

Amazed by a Stapler!

2010-12-05T14:44:00.003-05:00

As an elementary art teacher, I spend a pretty fair amount of time hanging artwork in the hallways. It is pretty time consuming, but is worth it. One day after school, I was hanging a project. I have what I considered to be a pretty good stapler. It was a Swingline after all. Even with a nice quality stapler, it would jam relatively often. As I was fumbling with trying to get a jammed and bent staple out of the stapler, a teacher walked by and mentioned that a colleague had a new kind of stapler that was stronger and didn't jam.

After doing a bit of research, I found that it was a Paper Pro stapler. I immediately ordered one and have loved having it. It staples easily into cork boards as well as directly into walls. It also doesn't jam! The mechanism is designed differently than ordinary staplers and almost feels like a staple gun. I thought I'd share with everyone. Here is a link to the stapler on Amazon --> http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Pro-1110-PaperPro-Prodigy/dp/B000GGY9LY/ref=pd_sbs_op_1

4th Grade Recycled CD Snowflake Mosaic

2010-11-26T14:01:00.002-05:00

I'm incredibly excited about this project. Each year, I am asked to do a couple of winter themed projects that will hang during a couple school events that are geared toward the holidays. I always seem to have a tougher time coming up with this kind of project. I've done snowflake mosaics before with 4th grade, but I've always had the kids use little paper squares. I always love to include recycled materials in my projects and I've been trying to figure out what to do with two large boxes of old computer CDs. I finally came to this project.

In class, we talk about snowflakes. I like to bring in a discussion of geometry while looking at examples of the six sided flakes. I showed students how to fold and cut construction paper to make a six sided paper snowflake. The paper snowflakes were then glued onto chipboard that had been painted silver. The excess chipboard is trimmed off next. Finally, the CDs are added. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to break up the CDs. I tried all kinds of suggestions, but none worked very well. I eventually decided to cut the CDs into strips with my big paper cutter. The strips could then be easily broken into smaller pieces by students. The CD pieces were glued onto the snowflakes with the shiny bottom side facing up. I love the way this project turned out and the kids loved making it.

1st Grade Wax Resist Fish

2010-11-26T13:48:00.000-05:00

1st grade recently learned about fish that live around the habitat of the coral reef. Each student drew a fish as well as some of its surroundings. The fish were colored with oil pastel. Before I demonstrated how to use the oil pastels, I drew a picture with white pastels. Once class started, I showed the kids a couple techniques before talking about how the oil pastels resist watercolor. My white drawing on white paper suddenly turned into magic when I painted over it. I love how easily impressed 1st graders are.

2nd Grade Egyptian Cats

2010-11-26T13:40:00.001-05:00

This has become a favorite project among 2nd grade students. We study ancient Egyptian culture and artwork before creating these masterpieces. Kids love anything to do with Egypt and also love using gold paint for the border of this artwork. Each student draws and paints a cat and then writes their names in hieroglyphics. These always come out great!

4th Grade Paper Pollock Weaving

2010-11-26T13:34:00.001-05:00

4th Grade recently finished a study of abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock. Each student made two paintings in the splatter style of Pollock. One used all warm colors and the other used all cool colors. This is one of the most nerve-racking projects that I do. You can only imagine having 24 4th graders splattering paint for two consecutive class meetings. I like to try to have each class compete to see which out of my four groups can be the least messy. Yeah, I like to keep my room clean. After the paintings are dry, they are cut in a specific way to allow strips from one painting to be woven into the other painting. This is an extremely successful project and the kids love it.

1st Grade Primary Mondrian

2010-11-26T13:26:00.000-05:00

1st grade students are more excited than you can believe about painting. Almost every single time a 1st grade class walks into my room, some asks, "Are we going to paint today?" For this project, they got to do a lot of painting. We started the project by talking about the work of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. We have already talked about geometric shapes earlier in the year, so the kids were excited to see some of those shapes in famous artwork. Another big emphasis with this project was talking about primary colors. Students started out by drawing out several shapes and painted them with primary colors. Later, they later glued on strips of black paper to finish the project.

4th Grade Totem Poles

2010-10-18T09:02:00.000-04:00

4th graders started out the year with a project based on artwork of Native American people of the Pacific Northwest. We learned about stylization. Stylization is how an artist changes how something looks in order to make it look different than it does in real life. Students looked specifically at totem poles. Each student picked an animal to stylize and then paint. The finished paintings were hung in stacks to simulate real totem poles. Many are over 8 feet tall!

3rd Grade Aboriginal Animals

2010-10-18T08:52:00.000-04:00

3rd grade students recently finished their first big project of the school year! They learned about the Aboriginal culture from Australia. Aboriginal artists have been around for hundreds of years, often making their own paint and painting on everything from stone walls to bark and paper. Each 3rd grader chose an Australian animal and drew it in the typical "x-ray" style of the Aboriginal people. The backgrounds are painted with q-tips in order to make a dot pattern. Great work, 3rd grade!

5th Grade Keith Haring Social Cause Posters

2010-10-18T08:37:00.004-04:00

5th grade students just finished a project in which they studied the work of Keith Haring. Haring was an artist who used simple figures and symbols in his artwork. Much of his work dealt with important topics from the time when he was alive. Each 5th grade student picked an important social cause to make a poster about in the style of Keith Haring. This project really pushed students to think and come up with images to support their ideas.

1st Grade Free Form Creatures

2010-09-29T15:09:00.003-04:00

This is another beginning of the year project for first grade. They have already learned about geometric shapes in a previous project and now they have learned about free form shapes. I use the beginning of the year in first grade to introduce many different media as well as art room procedures. With this project, watercolor painting was introduced. On day two of the project, students turned each of their shapes into something new. Many, many creative solutions popped up. I've seen everything from silly monsters to a very nice boomerang.

2nd Grade Imaginary Backgrounds

2010-09-27T14:13:00.005-04:00

I like to start 2nd grade out with a project that will allow them to really get their imaginations going. They start out by cutting out one image from a magazine. It is glued to a large white paper. Students then must make up a background. The imaginary backgrounds range from incredibly strange and hilarious to very nice expansions of the original magazine picture. This is a fun project to get the year started with.

1st Grade Caterpillars

2010-09-27T14:06:00.004-04:00

The first project of first grade is about texture. Students learn that texture is how something feels. We spent time examining many textures in class. Each student made one circle with crayons and texture rubbing plates. When everyone was done, the texture circles were attached to each other to make a giant caterpillar!

4th Grade Bottle Cap Mural

2010-08-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

The bottlecap mural completed last spring has been hung in the stairwell over the summer. It looks fantastic! Here are a couple views of the finished product. The mural is the same size as the one done last year, 16' x 4'. Great job 4th grade!

Makeover

2010-07-21T12:51:00.004-04:00

The blog has gone through a bit of a makeover today. It still has all of the same awesome content, but has gotten an updated look. I also added a feature that allows readers to re-post blog entries to other sites. Hopefully it is still easy to read and navigate. If you have any comments or suggestions, just let me know.

4th Grade Flip Books

2010-05-27T15:14:00.004-04:00

As an introduction to animation and the concepts used with the 5th grade claymation project, 4th graders learned how to make flip books this year. Each student came up with something simple to animate. Flip books were at least 25 pages and many even included full color. This was a fun project and a great learning experience!

4th Grade Bottle Cap Mural

2010-05-21T15:38:00.001-04:00

For the 2nd consecutive year, the fourth grade classes have created a mural that will be on permanent display at our school. This mural is inspired by an Ohio artist named Michelle Stitzlein. Michelle's work includes mostly recycled materials. Keeping with the recycled art theme, the mural was made out of plastic bottle caps. The theme for this mural is bugs. Each class created a 4'x4' panel with one bug on it. The pictures above show each panel as a separate piece as well as an image of what the mural will look like when it is put together. I will post more pictures once the mural is put up over the summer.

1st Grade Clay Turtles

2010-05-21T15:17:00.001-04:00

1st grade recently finished their first clay project. For this project, they learned that clay comes from the earth and that there are many different kinds of clay. Students started by learning how to make a pinch pot, one of the simplest clay forms. Legs and a head were then added to the upside down pinch pot to create a turtle. They were painted with watercolor paints after they had been fired.

The Thomas Art Show!

2010-05-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

The 2nd annual Thomas Art Show was a huge success. Approximately 250 people came out to see nearly 900 pieces of artwork on display. Each student had at least two pieces of work. The 5th grade claymation film also premiered. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out!

5th Grade Self Portraits

2010-05-19T11:46:00.000-04:00

5th grade just finished a project based on the work of Chuck Close. Close creates huge portraits that show all details of the subject. Students also learned that Chuck Close is now paralyzed and does not have full use of his arms. He has overcome many challenges, but still makes incredible artwork. Each 5th grade student worked from a digital photograph in order to make realistic self portraits.

5th Grade Claymation

2010-05-19T11:38:00.002-04:00

5th grade students recently finished a lengthy claymation project. Students split up into groups to complete various parts of the project. Groups included writers and storyboard artists, set designers, and character designers. This project takes a ton of time to complete, but has a big payoff at the end. If you cannot view the video, it is probably because youtube is blocked on your school or work computer. This year, students came up with the idea of "Clay Idol." It is a spoof on "American Idol" done entirely with stop motion. Enjoy!

3rd Grade Ceramic Animals and Habitat

2010-05-04T08:47:00.000-04:00

3rd grade recently finished a pretty intense study of animal adaptation and camouflage. In art, students built on knowledge of animals and adaptation gained in the regular classroom by choosing an animal to sculpt out of clay. Students began by looking at many animals that show the ability to camouflage in their habitat. Each student chose an animal to sketch and then create out of clay. As the clay was drying and being fired, each student created a habitat out of cardboard and construction paper. This was a very successful project. It will be on display in the commons for the Thomas Art Show on May 13th!

Electronically Popular

2010-04-25T14:07:00.001-04:00

I originally started this blog over a year ago to showcase the excellent artwork created by the students here at Thomas Elementary and allow parents to have a closer look at exactly what is going on in the art room. I had been following other art room blogs and I know they are great resources for teachers. I hoped that other teachers might also check out the artwork on the blog and use it as inspiration for projects in their own classrooms.

The nerd in me has always been interested in knowing if people actually visit this blog. I have a hit counter on the main page, and I'm proud to say that in the past year, 8,495 people have visited. Just over a month ago, I came across something called Google Analytics. It is a free website tracking software that counts visits and much, much more. The artwork of Thomas students has been viewed in 48 states in the US and 49 countries overall. The map below shows where blog visitors have come from. The darker green the country is, the more visits have come from that country. I want to thank everyone who has visited and helped make the blog a successful part of my classroom. Continue to stop by to see the fantastic work done by the kids here at Thomas. They are excited to share their work with the world!

5th Grade Claymation

2010-04-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

5th graders have been hard at work for what seems like months in preparation for their claymation project. Students break up into three groups that include writers, set designers, and character designers. Each class creates unique characters as well as two sets to be used in the animation. All four classes are currently filming, but I haven't posted any 5th grade work for a while, so I will put up some images of characters and sets that are being used. Look for a post later in the spring of the finished animation.

2nd Grade Ceramic Bugs

2010-04-20T11:54:00.001-04:00

After recently finishing a bug project with an emphasis on habitat, 2nd graders dove into making clay bugs. This has become a favorite project for 2nd grade students. Ceramic vocabulary such as scoring and wedging were learned as 2nd graders are beginning to make increasingly complex sculptures. The legs and wings are made out of wire and were glued in after the bugs had been fired and painted. They are on display in the commons and will be there until the spring Art Show on May 13th!

1st Grade Color Mixing with Kandinsky

2010-03-23T15:54:00.001-04:00

First grade has been learning all about painting this year. We have been building on each lesson and we have just finished a very exciting project. First graders discussed a famous painting by Vassily Kandinsky. We learned about secondary colors and how they are made by mixing primary colors. Each first grader was able to mix colors in order to paint their projects. It was a lot of fun for everyone!

4th Grade Clay Castles

2010-03-23T15:40:00.000-04:00

4th grade just finished their ceramic project for the year. It has become a tradition to build castles in 4th grade. After learning about the Middle Ages and seeing castles from all over the world, each student designs their own castle. Students use a slab building technique to construct their castles. After a bisque firing, castles are glazed and glaze fired. Each students also designed a coat of arms to be displayed with their castles. These turned out fantastic this year!

1st Grade Dancing Giraffes

2010-03-23T15:32:00.000-04:00

This first grade project is based a fantastic book entitled Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. The book teaches kids that everyone has their own way of doing things, and that we should all embrace each other's differences. The main character of the book is a Giraffe who eventually becomes the best dancer in the jungle. First graders each created a dancing giraffe and were able to experiment with some really cool techniques for making the moon in the background glow and making the grass look very real! They had a great time with this project!

Kids can constantly amaze!

2010-03-16T16:01:00.003-04:00

Toward the end of the day today, I had a first grade class quietly working on some free drawing after they had finished another project. I'm used to seeing great drawings from the Thomas students, but I saw one today that was especially impressive. Trisha, a first grade student was working from a "How to draw Lion King" book. Some younger kids want to trace or will diligently work on each small step from the book. Trisha wouldn't ever think about tracing and completely skipped the steps. She loves to draw an is obviously very good at it. It is these types of things that really make my day as an art teacher.

3rd Grade Recycled Magazine Bowls

2010-03-09T15:08:00.001-05:00

Third grade just finished one of the coolest projects of the entire year. Continuing our effort to be green this year, we made bowls out of magazine pages! Each student rolled page after page around a chip board strip. The individual pages were taped together and rolled into one giant spiral. The bottom was then pushed down and the entire bowl was given a coat of clear medium to give it strength. We had great discussions of how artists can use recycled materials. It must have been a great project because other grade levels are begging me to let them do this project, too!

4th Grade Playing Card Portraits

2010-03-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

4th grade recently finished a self portrait project. After studying playing cards, each student created a playing card with their own face on it. Emphasis was placed on the use of pattern throughout the card as well as including items that represent the artist making the card (instead of swords, etc. that are usually on face cards). The cards look great!

Art Can Be Green

2010-03-08T17:41:00.003-05:00

I know that quite a few of the people who check out this blog are art teachers. This is a post for you. I have been working this year to increase environmental awareness of students in my classroom. I've been doing this through various art lessons, quite a bit of discussion, and signs and reminders in my room.

As part of my master's thesis, I created a web site that is all about being green in the art room. It has some pretty useful information to check out. If you go there, please feel free to join the green art discussion group. I'd be happy to hear any feedback about the site. I'm always looking to add additional information. Here is the link ---> The Green Art Room

2nd Grade Bugs in Their Habitat

2010-02-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

I have recently witnessed the best painting by second grade students that I have ever seen. Boy, we have some talented students here at Thomas! I have done a ceramic insect project for the last couple of years. Kids love bugs, so this year I added an introduction project for the clay bugs. After learning about body segments (head, thorax & abdomen), exoskeletons, insects, and arachnids, each student used books to research and draw their favorite bug. We then drew and painted habitats for the bug. The habitats are drawn very large in order to show the bugs in the correct scale. The really cool part of the project came next. The kids all drew their bugs on a piece of tag board. Once they were colored and cut out, they were able to attach them to the habitat painting using 3D O's. 3D O's are small pieces of foam with adhesive on each side. It makes the bugs pop right off of the background. This was the first time I've used that product, and it was a huge it.

3rd Grade Machine Brains

2010-02-03T16:34:00.000-05:00

3rd grade just finished a project that incorporated science into the art room. We learned about the six different kinds of simple machines. They include the wedge, inclined plane, pulley, screw, lever, and wheel and axel. After studying the fantastic machines by artist Rube Goldberg, students designed a complex machine using multiple simple machines. Their machines do something that usually happens inside their heads. After finishing the artwork, students each wrote an explanation of their machine that is hanging below the finished art. This project is currently hanging in the hallway by the art room.

5th Grade Yearbook Covers

2010-02-03T16:26:00.001-05:00

5th Grade recently finished a project based in graphic design. I was asked to have students submit designs to potentially be on the cover of the yearbook this year. Students worked in groups and were given the open ended assignment of creating a yearbook using whatever materials they thought were appropriate. The winning submission was done by Nari J, Sara P, and Tori B.

1st Grade Rockets in Space

2010-01-15T15:35:00.001-05:00

1st grade just finished a project that took them to the final frontier. After studying space and space travel, each student made a small rocket using construction paper and colored pencils. They then made up their own planets and used black tempera paint to create the blackness of space. The rockets were glued down and stars were added to finish the project. This project is currently on display by the kindergarten classrooms!

2nd Grade Egyptian Cats

2010-01-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

2nd grade just finished a project based on Egyptian culture and design. Each student made an Egyptian cat with many patterns. In addition to the cat, each student wrote their names in hieroglyphics. These projects came out very well and are currently on display in the commons.

5th Grade African Inspired Masks

2010-01-13T09:08:00.001-05:00

5th graders just finished a project inspired by African masks. Each student created a ceramic mask based on a combination of an African animal and a human face. The results were quite stunning. Thomas students love working with clay, and it certainly showed with this project. After the masks were fired, students painted them with acrylic paints, then later used a thin layer of brown tempera over the top to give their masks an aged look.

Going Green in the Art Room

2009-12-08T15:04:00.002-05:00

A big point of emphasis this year in art is going green. We are trying to be as environmentally responsible as possible. Students are learning that there are many simple changes they can make to our daily routine that will make a big impact on the amount of waste we produce. The year began by discussing what we could do in the art room to be more green. Signs and reminders are posted around the room to help everyone remember to be as green as possible! I have already noticed a huge reduction in the amount of trash from the art room. Keep it up, everybody!

4th Grade Snowflake Mosaics

2009-12-08T10:47:00.000-05:00

4th grade students recently finished a winter project. We studied real snowflakes and the shapes they are made up of. Each student used paper mosaic squares to create several snowflakes using cool colors. The snowflakes that were made are as unique as real snowflakes. Great job 4th grade!

3rd Grade Winter Landscapes

2009-12-08T10:39:00.001-05:00

3rd Grade students just finished a winter themed project. They learned about the fold artist, Grandma Moses. Grandma Moses is famous for her landscape paintings that told a story through images. Every student painted a winter landscape that told a story about what they like to do outside during the winter. The project was finished by having students write a paragraph describing their work.

2nd Grade Wild Things

2009-11-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

2nd Grade students just finished an exciting printmaking project. We started out by reading Maurice Sendak's classic book, "Where the Wild Things Are." We discussed the features of the creatures in the book and each student designed their own unique wild thing. The designs were then pressed into a foam printing plate and used to print multiple copies of the wild thing. What you see above is the fantastic result of the project. Way to go, 2nd Grade!

4th Grade Paper Pollock Weaving

2009-11-17T09:15:00.001-05:00

4th grade students just finished an extremely fun project. We started out by learning about the artwork of Jackson Pollock. Pollock is famous for his "splatter" paintings in the abstract expressionist style. Students got their turn to do two splatter paintings of their own. These paintings were eventually cut up and woven together to achieve the end result you see here.

2nd Grade Leaf Printmaking

2009-11-17T08:49:00.000-05:00

2nd Grade students recently finished a project that introduced them to printmaking. We used leaves from trees around the school to make a fall themed image. Students painted colors associated with fall leaves onto the back of real leaves. When pressed onto the paper, the leaves create a very realistic image. Students made up a design to use with their leaf printmaking.

1st Grade Primary Mondrian

2009-11-17T08:43:00.000-05:00

1st grade students recently learned about the artist Piet Mondrian. They learned that Mondrian used geometric shapes and lines in his artwork and that he mainly used primary colors. 1st graders used Mondrian's work as inspiration in their own primary color paintings.

3rd Grade Aboriginal Animals

2009-10-29T09:03:00.001-04:00

3rd grade students just finished a project involving art from Australia. We studied artwork from the Aboriginal people and learned about many kinds of Australian animals. Each student chose a native animal to draw in the "x-ray style," which is somewhat typical of aboriginal artwork. The background of the works is made entirely of dots. This was a fun and extremely successful project!

5th Grade Keith Haring Social Cause Posters

2009-10-19T14:19:00.000-04:00

5th graders recently finished a project based on the work of Keith Haring. Haring is famous for his use of simplistic shapes and bold colors. Haring's work often dealt with important social causes or topics. Each 5th grade student completed a painting in the style of Keith Haring. Students picked a social cause that was important to them and based their work on their chosen topic. Recycling was a popular topic, but work was based on everything from anti-smoking and anti-war to one poster that encourages viewers to eat healthy food. The project was finished with a short writing project that each student completed in order to explain their artwork. These paintings are currently hanging in the art room hallway and will be up for the next couple of weeks.

4th Grade Totem Poles

2009-10-19T14:11:00.001-04:00

4th grade students started out the year by learning about totem poles made by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Students learned about stylization- a way of drawing an object in which an artist adds his or her own style to what is being drawn. Each student painted a specific animal and worked together with other people at their table in order to create a two dimensional totem pole. The finished totem poles are now on display in the commons. Most are at least six feet tall!

1st Grade Geometric Robots

2009-09-30T14:25:00.000-04:00

The second project of the year for 1st grade focused on geometric shapes. Students learned that a geometric shape is often made from straight lines and these shapes usually have names such as triangle, square, or hexagon. Students used geometric shapes to create all kinds of super cool robots. These turned out really well.

1st Grade Caterpillars

2009-09-30T14:12:00.001-04:00

Having new first grade students is always exciting. They always look forward to coming to art and learning so much! While their first questions is always, "When are we going to paint?", I always start out with something a little less demanding for their first project. For this lesson, students learned that textures are something that you can feel with your hands. 1st graders used texture plates in order to create individual segments for a collaborative caterpillar project. When all of the pieces were finished, they were hung in the commons to look like huge, colorful caterpillars. This project got us off to a great start to the year.