first art show

Last week I hosted my school's first Art Night. 

Well I called it an "Arts Showcase and Activity Night".

We are in a temporary space, not our permanent school yet- and really don't have much space. 

I wanted a way to engage the families for a longer than a five minute pop in so I organized activities around the theme of recycling. 

I will post more about it this week--- but for now wanted to show you my first grade ladybug name tags. 

I've been on a little bit of a ladybug kick lately- 

so I rounded it out with these nametags after getting the idea for the moving lady bug wings with paper plates via pinterest.

 I photocopied the lady bug shape and sentences for the students to finish on thicker paper.
The kids filled them in and cut them out, then made their wings out of 6" paper plates.
I loved that they had surprise writing inside.
(This one ironically is not the best model.)

The sentences they had to complete were:
An accomplishment in art class that I am proud of is:
and
Art helps me:

I also finally got a chance to try out the TP roll project I've had my eye on forever!

It worked awesome. 

Elmers glue and clothespins to hold them in place while the glue sets. :)

Stay tuned!

recycled paper flowers

Kindergarten Garden

featuring recycled papers (you'll notice the cereal bowl tops and scraps from previous projects)

They came out pretty well the first day so the kinder students 

got another go at it so they could take one home as well.

Recycled Paper Kente Cloth

We are working on our follow up weaving lesson. 

I just had to share a few peeks because they are so pretty and cheerful. 

We have been learning about Kente Cloth, and I happened to have studied abroad in Ghana so I have a couple cloths. We made strips of Kente Cloth using paper that we first painted patterns with tempera cakes. 

Then wove both ends using newspaper we had painted with tempera paint and I cut into strips.  

We "don't do holidays" at my school so this was a great and meaningful way for me to get some hearts and pink into the mix this week. I'm going to roll them up with a string and send them home on Monday.

 

Today I tested out the TP roll-->heart stamper trick and it worked great!

More info and pictures of the steps to come later tonight and tomorrow.

 If you teach about Kente Cloth this book is my favorite

and the information, names, places, are all very accurate.

I highly recommend it and the kids love the story!

Recycling, Weaving, & TEAR BEARS- oh my!

First grade began our recycling unit with a weaving project using making use of the previously used table craft paper coverings cut into strips.

Most of my students had never done weaving before so this was our intro lesson.

This is one of my favorite books for introducing the basic concept of 'recycling' to children. 

We turned out weavings into blankets which I mounted on backing paper.

One day was devoted to "tear bears" - a pinterest inspiration I had found- and shrunk to tiny scale. 

 Lastly, we added tiny self-portraits (with the eyes closed - so cute) 

to put to bed with teddy and two pillows.

more giraffes :)

Couldn't resist posting some more giraffes....

Giraffe in the Jungle

It was funny MaryMaking posted about her Jennifer Mercede giraffe inspired lesson today because I was about to take photos of my version! 

After that I couldn't resist to post them even though they are not quite finished. 

(These are also not my best photos...)

 We began by drawing the giraffe from the front view. The kids drew designs in the spots. They carefully colored their new best buddies in with oil pastel. 

The next part of the lesson was for the kids to learn how to make 'real' trees instead of lollipop trees. We glued craft paper on to turquoise construction paper to make the trunk and branches.

Part three the kids thought was totally separate but little did they know what I had in store!

They looked at the branching- vein design found on leaves. 

We used this as a jumping off point and then the kids added other designs using sharpie and colored them in with construction paper crayon.

The other surprise was that the kids were recycling our used table paper. They could choose to use either the painty side or the clean side. 

Then using the "batik" same process as I've posted before with crumpling craft paper/grocery bag in water, flattening, an painting with watery green tempera cake paint - we transformed our old table paper into abstract batiked paper. 

 The students traced leaf shapes onto the back of the paper, cut them out, and added them on to their trees. 

Today we began to attach it all together. 

We still have to finish some things up but here are some previews!

crumple paper Ehlert mice

My kinder students are doing a study of Lois Ehlert with me. 

We have read a few of her books and they watched the video 

"Color World" which shows how she gets her ideas and makes her art. The kids love it. 

It's pretty non-existent at this point but you can buy a used VHS cheap on Amazon. 

This year I put brown craft paper on my tables (and plastic/vinyl tablecloths over them for wet/gluey stuff). I was about to recycle the paper when another art teacher said to me that she saves them because the paint stains look cool. I'm surprised this did not occur to me a long time ago to be honest. 

So- I have been saving them. I cut the paper up into roughly 6 x 8 pieces for this lesson. 

(I usually recycle grocery bags for crumpled brown paper projects but this was also a great way to recycle and the kids felt really invested in it being their paper to begin with that they were reusing.)

The students traced the outlines of the mouse shape and ovals for the ears on one side. 

Then all together I told them to CRUMPLE up the paper- they couldn't believe it. 

They flattened it out and on the OTHER side they did a rubbing with orange, yellow, brown crayons.

Then we crumpled AGAIN -especially so they could feel the difference in the softness of the paper.  

They flattened them out and did rubbings with black crayons to emphasize the texture. 

 They thought crumpling up our papers was the funniest thing ever:

Today we reviewed what collage is how Ehlert makes her work.

The kids cut out their teardrop shape and two oval ears. 

They glued them on 6 x 6 backgrounds, and we added eyes, tails, and some cheese. 

They look just like the little mouse hiding in "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert. 

So simple but they LOVE them! (I love them...)