Attempt at Puppet making

To conclude my recycling unit with third grade (which I will post the rest of today) I wanted to do a clothing/fabric recycling project. 

I thought my third graders would get a lot out of three dimensional project and enjoy making puppets. 

It has taken a lot of patience and lugging around of materials but the kids are psyched and have learned a lot. 

Day 1: We began with a tongue depresser and styrofoam ball. 

I have very limited clay & model magic. The styrofoam let me use the least amount of clay and kept the head light. The only tools I gave them were a popsicle stick and a small pikey one side/flat on the other stick. The kids rolled a ball with the model magic then flattened it like a tortilla. They wrapped the flat clay around the head and covered a bit of the neck. They PINCHED to pull out the nose.

Then holding the popsicle stick horizontally they wedged open the mouth by wiggling it up and down a little bit and then pinching the corners of the mouth. 

Each student stuck on two google eyes and then smooshed the clay over a little to create eyelids and keep the eyes stuck. They could also pinch out two ears and push them back a bit. 

No hair was allowed.

Day 2: Each student masking taped a popsicle stick to create arms. Then cut out hands out of manilla colored paper and glue sticked them to the ends of the popsicle sticke.

Each student also received a rectangle piece of white fabric/muslin. They cut it in half and cut out a circle from the middle. Then we put some elmers glue on the tongue depresser and popsicle stick and wrapped some cotton around them for the puppet's "insides". And finally covered the puppet body in the fabric and glued it together.

The conclusion was what my students refer to as the "scary grandpa ghosts" BUT it gave us a good giggle and they truly comprehended the idea of building something from the inside out. 

Day 3: HAIR! 

We talked a lot about hair... how it grows out of the head, how it covers the back and sides of the head (even on boys), different types of hair, how bangs and ponytails work, etc. 

I had a variety of yarns available for the children to use and encouraged them to really experiment with unraveling it, cutting it, etc. 

(In my opinion this is one of the most fun parts of the puppet process!)

To glue: I had then dip the top of the head into the puddle of craft and spread it out with a popsicle stick like frosting a cupcake. It worked very well. 

Day 4 ( possibly 5 + 6....): Clothes! Oh my!

We are still working this out by the way. 

This was a big part of the recycling. 

Some of my students brought in clothes to recycle/transform into clothing. 

I cut up the garments to show them how much fabric there was. 

I pretty much gave the kids a few suggestions for strategies and then let them experiment, plan, and problem solve on their own here. 

We are still working out some kinks. But the kids are SO excited about them. 

Chihuly-inspired Sculptures, Split Complements

Thank you Mr. E for all of your Chihuly inspiration and resources!
I love your students' collaborative sculptures, they are amazing- hopefully next year I will not have the crazy short & traveling class schedule and will be able to go further with your inspirations and lessons!

But for now.... my fifth grade classes have been attempting to create sculptures from coffee filters, egg cartons, pipe cleaners, straws, and beads after viewing slideshows of Chihuly's macchias and installations.

First the students delved into color theory and we identified what Split Complementary colors are.
Each student painted three coffee filters with watercolors- painting a primary color circle in the center.
1- Yellow w/ blue-violet, red-violet
2- Red w/ blue-green, yellow-green
3- Blue w/ yellow-orange, red-orange

My first class went right to the sculpture part (and then had to paint the egg carton around it)- but my second group of kids painted the egg cartons with green paint first- much better idea. ;)

To introduce the idea of working 3-dimensionally and the process of creating a sculpture we talked about what a BASE is and why it is important. For this project the egg cartons were our bases. I had a variety of sizes and shapes available for the kids (the sous chef at the restaurant I work at saves the 12x12 egg cartons for me).

I gave each student a push pin (stuck into a scrap of cardboard so it doesn't roll away on their desk) as their tiny-hole-making-tool. They created garden like sculptures with the straws, pipe cleaners, and the painted circles. I only gave them tape to enforce the flowers as a last resort. I also painted a little acrylic medium on the flowers after class to give the blossoms a little more stiffness. The kids really really enjoyed this process.

The creations made it over to the case but I have not had a chance to work on the display. Pictures should be up of it next week but here's a sneak peak. (I apologize these are not the best shots but I should be able to get some good ones up soon.)

I can't access youtube while I'm at school. I was able to show my students this 5 minute video about glassblowing through "5 minute videos" that was great! (It was recent, fun, accurate, and short and the kids totally got a sense of what glassblowing is.)

And to boot--- I realized a Chihuly exhibition opens at the MFA in Boston in April!

Symmetry Unit

I am concluding my Symmetry unit with second grade right now. I am loving the final project we're working on. It isn't finished yet but I thought I would share where we're at. 

Lesson 1: This goes with along with the fun book "Flyaway Katie" by Polly Dunbar. It has fantastic illustrations and inspired this lesson for me. 

Each student folded their paper in half and drew a person or creature in the middle with pencil. 

I came around and dotted everyone's paper with yellow, orange, and red tempera- which also doubled as a color mixing experiement. Then everyone squished their paper together to create paint blot symmetry.

Day two students drew around the dried paint to create wing shapes. Using marker we added lots of details inspired by the book illustrations.

Lesson 2: Symmetrical masks with Tiki inspiration

Students drew with white and black crayon to begin with. 

I did this as a verbal follow-along lesson to begin with. 

I would say "Add two wavy lines to one side, so four lines total.", 

"Add three squares, 6 squares total.", etc.

Then the students folded the paper in half, cut out a mouth shape, cut around the face, and added marker. 

Lesson 3: Symmetrical Vase collages ... soon to hold DAFFODILS!

Students used their expertise in symmetry to cut vase shapes. 

(sidenote: I found a ton of great picture examples of symmetrical vase/lamp/bowl objects in the 

Anthropologie catalog that is currently out.)

I decided this would be a great project to make use of all the painted scraps I hoard when they are too pretty to toss in the recycle bin. The students collaged the vases with horizontal strips of scrap painted papers. 

Next week- Daffodils will be added! Stay tuned!

ESL in the art room

Last week I presented with Leah Richardson, a fabulous English as a Second Language teacher at my school. We presented (to the M.A.T. art education grad students at Tufts/School of the Museum of Fine arts) an introduction to teaching English Language Learners and specifically as an art teacher who works with many students.
The powerpoint has been posted on Patty Bode's teaching tools website via Tufts University. Please feel free to contact me if you'd like any related information. Patty is an incredible art educator and pioneer in multicultural education. She has other great powerpoints and teaching tools on this link. If you ever have the opportunity to see her present I highly recommend it!

Mola-inspiration: Clay coil birds and yarn painting

My friends went to Panama this winter and brought me back two molas!

I used them as inspiration for my fourth grade project. We just finished them up and it went really well. I was inspired by the use of lines and wanted to teach the kids how they could apply their understanding of coils in a new way (other than making a coil pot).

After our class getting snowed out three weeks in a row we finally got started!
The students first did practice drawings of the birds and how they would create the shapes out of coils.
We used model magic to make the birds, when they dried I glued them to mat board.

The next week we painted the birds with tempera paint mixed with acrylic gloss.
We re-examined the use of continuous lines and spirals in the molas.

Then we painted lines on to the mat board and then began to glue down yarn designs. I wasn't sure how much yarn we were going to glue down but after one day of work on them I decided to encourage  the students to really fill in the spaces with yarn as much as possible.

The textural result of this project is fantastic. The clay becomes three-dimensional in a new way and the feel of the yarn is such a strong contrast to it. The class took a few minutes to experience how you can actually feel the pictures and the use of lines when you touch the pieces with your eyes closed.

*Due to my traveling to the classroom and wanting to glue the bird down to the board we used model magic.
I think this would be a cool lesson to do with regular clay though- creating an animal or design out of coils.  Especially if you were to attach the coil creation to a slab tile or some kind of base.