And the Winner Is...

WHAT??? How did this happen? When I found out last week that I was a finalist (for the first time ever) for Art Ed Blog of the Year from The Art of Education, I was thrilled. I hoped that I'd get enough votes to get into the top ten so I could get a rad blog badge. Never for a second did I think that I would win. I'm truly humbled. Thanks to everyone who voted for me. Wow.

There are so many amazing art ed blogs out there. Make sure to check out the rest of the winning blogs for 2013. 

Vote For Me!

I just found out this evening that this blog is a finalist for "Art Ed Blog of the Year" from The Art of Education! Huzzah!!! If you're reading this blog, it means you are obviously incredibly intelligent, creative, awesome, and super cool. Please click on the link below to vote for me! Click on the big red "VOTE NOW" button at the bottom of the page, then select "Thomas Elementary Art" and vote on the next page. Thanks so much for your support! If you're even more amazing, spread the word and ask your friends to vote for my blog. Voting is open through the end of the week. Click here to vote!

 

Got a good art sub?

Coolest sub note ever.

Demo collagraph prior to letters being flipped.

I don't miss many days of school. I probably miss fewer days than just about the entire staff at my elementary school. Writing accurate plans (just like Mr. E. blogged about earlier this week) takes hours. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get an art certified sub. I was out on Monday and I came back to a very nice full page note that was written (and cut) by someone who was obviously an art certified sub. She that saw my demo collagraph piece was a quote taken from Harry Potter. (I'm pretty nerdy.) She actually used an x-acto to cut my name out of her note to me. Sweet!

Upcoming Super Fun Time!

Stop Motion: The only project in which a 7 foot cardboard shark eats a 5th grader.

8-Bit Portraits

More stop motion hilarity.

Collagraph quotes. Awesome. 

 I'll be that first picture got your attention. What is it? Oh, just a 7' cardboard shark (complete with a hinged jaw) eating one of my 5th grade boys. This is reason I love totally opening up my stop motion project. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm in the middle of a bunch of really fun projects that aren't finished yet. I'm too excited about them, so I'm posting a few preview pictures. 

5th grade has been working on stop motion forever. (The flying cat is also from the stop motion project.) Most classes are nearly finished filming, so all there is left is to edit in iMovie and add voices. I'm excited to see how the animation turns out this year. 

4th grade is nearly finished with a new lesson I wrote. Growing up in the 80's I was totally into some of the early video games. I based a portrait/character project on the video game graphics of that era. Each student is making an 8-bit version of themselves. Very fun.

3rd grade has recently started a collagraph printmaking project that I adapted from something I saw on Pinterest. They are choosing a quote that is personally meaningful and working with foam and chipboard to create the print. This is the first time I've done the lesson and I'm thrilled with the work so far. More pictures to come!

Ancient Maps by 3rd Grade

I'm trying really hard to incorporate many new projects into my curriculum this school year. I usually add in a few new lessons, but this year I've come up with quite a few brand new project ideas. This is one of those lessons. 

I'm working on my Master's plus 30 hours, so I've been taking graduate courses. My professional development plan is pretty wide open. Other art teachers reading this know exactly why. We don't just teach art. We teach everything; it just happens to look nice. Over the summer I took a course about maps. I had originally planned to create a pirate map lesson, but I was completely inspired by the artistry of old maps in general. The lesson focus turned into old maps in general, but added in many geography terms such as landforms that my third graders will learn more about next year in their academic classroom. As a bonus, I got to use the word "cartographer" over and over. Words are cool.

Essentially, I asked my students to create a map of an imaginary place. It could be based on a fairy tale or it could have been entirely made up. My students went nuts. I saw maps of fictional lands, video game worlds, cartoon worlds, fairy tale locations and many, many more. The drawing was first done in pencil, then inked with a thin Sharpie. Watercolor washes in limited colors were then added. When the painting was finished, I allowed the students to further age their maps by crumpling them and even burning the edges. Of course I wasn't using open fire in my classroom. The "fire" was simply wet on wet watercolors on torn edges of the maps. 

Click here to see my lesson plan!
Here is the handout that I put together for this lesson. 

Wild Things Printmaking by 2nd Grade

Welcome back to a chilly Ohio art room. Classes got off to a slow start after winter break due to the dreaded "Polar Vortex." We had wind chills here near 40 degrees below zero, so school was cancelled the first two days back from break. 

This project is just too much fun. My friend and colleague, Drew Jones came up with this lesson several years back and shared it with me. I've been using it since. I feel like this is a pretty strong printmaking project and it's inspired me over the last couple of years to come up with equally strong printmaking lessons for all of my other grade levels. Printmaking is something I enjoy, so it's been fun brainstorming and pinning ideas that I'll use later in the year. 

This particular project is inspired by the Maurice Sendak classic, "Where the Wild Things Are." It really allows my students to get really creative in designing their own wild thing. From a technical standpoint, this project is a pretty big jump from first grade where the printmaking was essentially just stamping. My students love the project as well as the process. 

Check out the lesson plan here!

1st Grade Space Adventures

This project has been finished for a while, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. It's a project that I've been doing for several years and there are other examples of it on my blog. I do this one a month or two into the year because it is a great way to have students practice multiple skills. This involves design, painting, coloring, cutting, and gluing. A big part of my first several projects in first grade is simply getting the students used to tools, materials, and procedures that they'll be using in the art room. 

My favorite part of this project is the spaceships that the students make. They come up with some really unique ideas. I usually post the lesson plan, but this is so simple that I'll just list the steps here. 

1. Check out cool pictures of spaceships and watch an awesome space shuttle launch. 
2. Each student uses construction paper to create a space ship.
3. On 12x18 paper, students draw at least three planets and color them using crayons or colored pencils. 
4. The "space" part is painted with black tempera. 
5. Stars are painted on using the handle end of a paintbrush.
6. The spaceship is glued on to finish. 

5th Grade Keith Haring Style Posters

I like to collaborate with other teachers in the building in order to create lessons that encompass knowledge from multiple sources. This happens to be one of those projects, but in a somewhat strange way. The phys-ed teacher walked into my room at the beginning of the year and just gave me a look. When I asked what was up, she explained that one of her new requirements this year was for her 5th grade students to make posters about being physically active. What? I understood her look at this point. Apparently this makes total sense to Ohio lawmakers who know oh so much about building appropriate curriculum. 

Anyway, I told her that I'd be happy to help out. In the past, I've used a lesson about Keith Haring as a way for students to create a poster about social issues. I ask them to build their image in a way that does not require any words for the viewer to understand the message in the artwork. I simply adapted that lesson for physical activity. 

I think the results came out pretty nice. My students really connected with Haring's bright, simple figures. Check out my regular social issue Keith Haring lesson here!

4th Grade CD Snowflake Mosaics

4th grade has again totally rocked out these recycled CD snowflakes. This is one of those "sure thing" projects that 90% of kids totally knock out of the park. It looks spectacular on display and uses up a nice stack of ancient software CDs that I have sitting in my classroom. 

This project has even been featured by another blogger as a "Top Winter Art Project." A commenter said on that blog that she wouldn't ever have 4th graders do this project because it is FAR TOO DANGEROUS. Well, danger is my middle name. In a little place I call reality, this isn't at all a dangerous project. I have over 100 4th graders and not one of them even were cut by the CDs. It is all about teaching students how to respect the materials and use them correctly. It's just plastic after all. 

My students really enjoy this project. If you think yours will, too, feel free to use my lesson plan!

4th Grade Paul Klee Analogous Abstracts

This is a new lesson that I wrote this year. My kids absolutely love to use the mixing trays, so I thought coming up with a lesson in which they would need to rely on them would be quite a bit of fun. 

This lesson came right after the totem pole project. That project required quite a bit of mental problem solving in addition to small detail artwork. I wanted to give my students a bit of a change and this painting project worked quite well for that. 

We studied the abstract geometric work of painter Paul Klee as well as a little color theory. Each student then designed a composition inspired by Klee. The work was then painted with analogous colors. Students chose four colors that are in a row on the color wheel. Each student also had to include at least one tint and one shade in his or her work. I was pretty pleased with the variety of work my students produced and the overall quality of the painting. What really helped was the new size 2 bright brushes I purchased this year for detail work.