Over and Above Portraits

 In a search for a lesson for fifth grade that involved an American artist, portraits, and personal voice I found this one about the artist Clarence Carter (1904-2000). http://learn.michenerartmuseum.org/2011/02/an-over-and-above-lesson-for-students/

I had never heard of Clarence Carter (the watercolor artist) and thought his over and above paintings where interesting.

Over and Above by Clarence Carter

 I used the lesson from the above website and changed it a bit. We first looked at a few of his Over and Above paintings on the smart board and discussed. I later revealed his inspiration for these.  More info about Carter look here, http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/clarence_carter.html

 Each student was to draw a self portrait of themselves peering over a wall. We used mirrors, pencils and sharpies. For the color I gave them a choice, oil pastel, marker, color pencils, watercolor, crayons or a combination of several. 

First however we discussed the pro and cons of each. I wrote those on the board. 

• Ex, oil pastels are bright and colorful and resist water color. However not a lot of color choices with those and they smear. 
• Markers are also bright and colorful, but they bleed when used with watercolor. 
• Color pencils can be used different ways, light or dark. However they involve a lot of sharpening. 

So with this they made there own choices for color. They loved this!

On a separate day we looked quickly at the work of Fred Babb and how he uses words for inspiration and his own voice in his work. Student were to use their own personal voice and write a quote about art, music, life, etc. I had a sheet with several examples of my favorite quotes, and of course they could write their own (which several did) 

 This lesson was a total success and involved so many objectives from my fifth grade art curriculum.
Next time I will encourage them to draw their heads bigger, write bigger and bolder, and keep the bottom of the paper cleaner. However it was hard to do with pastels and water color.

 I love her background!

Second grade Impressionistic Painting

 Second Graders had fun learning about the life and work of Claude Monet and looked at several of "Japanese Bridge" paintings. We discussed En Plein Air, and how to paint like an impressionistic artists. Student's looked one of his paintings on the smart board, and mixed and used similar colors (blue, green, light blue,yellow) by quickly dabbing the colors. Bridges were made first with painters tape. See pics below.

 The next class time tape came off and we studied what water lilies looked like in real life and how differently Monet painted them. They were carefully painted with a palette of red, purple, pink and green. The last thing was to add a shadow on bridge with gray paint.

Adaptive Art: Clay Wind Chimes

 I found a lesson in an art book on how to create clay wind chimes. The lesson was about pressing found objects into the clay to create texture prints. I wanted my Lifeskills class to make these, but I wanted these to be apart of themselves. Almost like the Kindergarten clay pendants are, with the student's pressing their shoe print into the clay. 

So therefore we used their wheelchairs for the printing. Myself and their teachers pressed the clay onto the wheels and anything else we could find on the chair that we thought would print, and also printed their shoes.  One teacher assistant actually printed a student's fingers into the clay. We also used objects and with hand over hand pressed designs into the clay. 

I think they turned out beautiful! I was very proud of these and excited when they took them home to share with their families. 

The clay is white and was fires at cone 04. Myself and teacher helpers glazed with a low fire glaze with one good coat, and with a wet sponge wiped surface off to give a nice contrast. Textures really popped! I glazed fired at cone 05. 

Thick jute cord was used to connect all clay pieces. 

 Great tire print

 I hung all up in the display case at school with photos of what we did. 

QR Me!

 This year I did a technology project with one fifth grade class that was participating in pilot program with Chrome Books. This particular class had books for everyone in the class to use all year long. each student had their very own Weebly site where they upload classroom projects, pictures etc. 

 I became very interested in creating an art lesson using QR codes, and asked my technology facilitator to help me out. 

Day 1: Was to take photos using IPads of all their art projects that they had finished so far. I borrowed eight IPads from the lab and each table shared one. They immediately emailed these photos to themselves (each student also has an email address) This took the entire class

Day 2: Students brought in their Chrome Books and students (under instruction from our tech facilitator) was to create an art page on their Weebly site. They could call it anything, "My Art", "Art By Me", "My Art Portfolio", etc. Their choice. Next they uploaded their photos on to their sites on this art page. This took entire class. 

 Artist Statement. using Chrome Books again, they were to also include an artist statement on their art page. I had instructions on board on how to do so. See below for instructions. This took forever!

Day 4: Finish artist statement and create an QR code. We used a free website for this. They basically cut and pasted their URL and a code was generated for them. I later printed these for the following week. 

Day 5: Self portrait. I did a real quick lesson on bodies and figure drawing and student drew themselves with the code as their heads. They could either use crayons, markers, or colored pencils for color. They were to be cut out by end of class. A lot had to stay over time and finish. 

I took these home and literally scanned these on my IPhone and a free barcode app and graded on back. About 4 out of class never worked out (they did not copy and paste the correct URL when created the code) 

Nevertheless I hung all up and the staff and students had a kick out of looking at them. A few staff members and parents scanned to see what they were all about. I wish with time and resources I would have picked some classes and checked out the IPads for a little field trip down the halls. But I ran out of time. Next time I will!

 Artist Statement instructions

 Reflection: Of course I learned a lot about this lesson. It was hard. We ran into a lot of issues, ex. two students were mainstreamed in that class and did not have Chrome Books. So they took their photos and I uploaded those onto my school website. Their QR was directed to my site where I uploaded their photos.

 I hope next year to do this again, but to make it easier just create a code their weebly site and skip the art page and art photos. Just create the QR code in art class and portrait?????