Irrational Fears: Chalk Pastels

I have experienced an irrational fear of chalk pastels. They are dusty. Children end up with all sorts of odd colors in their noses, mouths, ears, etc. Messy messy messy. Plus, I never used them before myself in my many years of art classes in public school or college. It was a foreign object to me.

However, I put on some big girl undies this school year and gave them a try. Chalk pastels won a student of mine a first place award in a system-wide competition and I was converted.

My students created an Native American Sunset Silhouette this year. This project was done by first graders, but could definitely work for any age upwards. 

We first watched the story The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tommie DePaola. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyaifWkUWr0[/embed]

I asked my students questions that centered around colors they saw in the sky from the story. Then we went to work on our own sunset compositions.

Native American Sunset Silhouettes - 2 forty minute classes

Day 1: I placed a selection of chalk pastels (broken in half) into a dish in the middle of the table. I chose yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, and blues. Each student was to select 1 yellow, 1 orange, then choose either pink or red, then choose blue or purple as their darkest color. (You don't have to give them a choice, but my students like to have one)

I then showed students the steps to create a gradient.

I found this demo on the The Art of Education site and this is what inspired this project. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxbGTDawzms[/embed]

Then I sprayed them with hair spray after students left for the day.

Day 2: We talked about silhouettes this day. We viewed silhouette visuals... showing both people and landscapes. We also talked about shadows and how we can see them easier when the sun is positioned just right.

I gave students a black piece of paper the length of the gradient paper. They could keep it straight or change it depending on how they wanted the ground to look. This was their horizon line.

Then we reflected on the story we heard the week before. What kinds of objects would you find in the setting of that story?

Students drew with pencil onto black paper, then cut out and glued to their objects of choice onto their horizon line. 

Many trees, bushes, and tee pees made their way into our landscapes. There were even a few horses and dogs. With the tiny students,  I found giving them a horizon line to work off of was easiest. Older students could probably create a silhouette where the black paper is all one piece. 

In all, the chalk pastels were still kind of messy. I experienced a rainbow every time I blew my nose. There was a chalk trail exiting my classroom door. However, I found that the brief mess was worth the results. I love chalk pastels now! Yahoo!

Color-full Bird Masks

I've found Artsonia to be my new favorite go-to site when at work. It has a plethora of ideas right at your finger tips. I started using it for inspiration then eventually began our own school gallery. It has been a real treat to utilize a more worldly venue that allows family from any corner of the globe to view a child's art work. This particular project was inspired from a mask I saw on Artsonia.

End of the Year Shenanigans

This end of the school year dragged until the last week where things flew by in a flash. The last couple of weeks I try to put away a lot of supplies for the summer, so the challenge becomes… what can we do that will minimize the supplies I need out?
At my primary school my all time favorite activity is Circle Paintings. I got this idea from the blog Deep Space Sparkle. I found its a great way to get my students to collaborate and work together.

Stacking Donuts

I've been really interested in exploring "food" themed art as of late. I have created hamburger collages with my students before, however I thought I'd give something new a try.  With my first graders I discussed Wayne Thiebaud and we created Stacking Donuts.

The vocabulary we learned about on this project were overlapping, realistic, texture, collage, and painting techniques.

 

We began by viewing visuals of Thiebaud's work from google images. We also looked at images from Dunkin Donuts. Then the first week students drew 5 or 6 circles on manila paper. Drew a hole in each circle. Traced with a black marker. Then colored the donuts with a brown crayon by rubbing. We rubbed with brown crayon to "cook" the donuts and even discussed the assembly line process that takes place at Krispy Kreme.

 

The second week we discussed glazes and icing. I had each table set up with one color of paint and a painting tool (brush or sponge brush). Students painted a donut then rotated to a new table and new color. Btw: spongebrushes with white paint made for excellent powdered donuts.

The third week we cut out our donuts and glued them to fill a tall 6 x 18" white paper. We could overlap some parts of the donuts. Then students rotated to different tables again for varying toppings. For example:  Yarn for icing, shredded white paper for coconut, chopped brown paper for nuts, hole-punched colors for sprinkles, etc

Hopefully I can post some finished products soon.

On another note: I learned from another art teacher about a nifty little paint tray = styrofoam egg cartons. Easy, holds well, and great way to recycle. If you notice the empty side is great to rest brushes on. I covered  with paper the parts of the tray that I didn't want paint in to keep them clean for other colors later.

 

This project took 3 forty minute sessions and each one was lots o' fun!