Always good to fall back to a classic

I'm throwing in one more post today about my latest endevour with my 3rd graders. They are a very challenging group to work with and sometimes I feel myself really struggling with what I feel most comfortable doing with them next.

I thought I would keep things very simple for a painting project. I fell back on a project that has a very high success rate and allows them a lot of freedom of choice. We created our own abstract pieces based on Wassily Kandinsky's Concentric Squares and Circles. I've seen this plan in multiple versions from many sources. I prefer a simple crayon drawn design (first week), then painted with tempera cake the second week to complete it.

I tend to have students draw with me. We switch up colors and draw various sizes and numbers of circles. This is an excellent opportunity to do some math while we draw.  I also had students choose 1 square to color in for variety.

Our second week involves painting. I prefer to use my all time favorite tempera cakes! I love Richeson brand. They are just splendid!

We begin with the lightest color (yellow) then work our way to the darkest (dark blue). This keeps my paints cleaner... no dirty water in my bright yellow. I allow students to choose where they want to place each color, although this is an opportunity to do some color theory.

Three cheers for simple shapes, simple lines, and simple concepts in times when we are all feeling a little burned out.

This project took two forty minute classes.
We used 12 x 18" white paper, crayons, and mutiple colors of cake tempera.

I love these. The bright colors and fun circles make me happy :)

Keith Haring Inspired Art - Lines, Movement, and Variety

I like to start off the school year discussing line.. always a good basic start to most drawings. My fifth graders are line experts so a quick review was all we needed.  I first introduced Keith Haring through a book called I Wish I Didn't Have to Sleep. Has some excellent illustrations of his work and pointers about his style. We also did a little critiquing of the work we saw.

From there, students created simplified body forms of 3 'break dancers'. We attempted to show movement with chosens positions of arms and legs. We drew with pencil and colored in with markers.  Our second day we discussed variety. Students then began drawing a variety of lines around each dancer. This actually took 2 days total on 9 x 12" paper. Students had to be very patient, but the finished products were definitely worth it!

Materials for this project: pencils and erasers, 9x12" paper, and crayola markers in a variety of colors

This project took 3 forty minute classes to complete.

I love these!

Discards = Free Crayon Mosiac Art!

At the end of the school year I will collect all sorts of odds and ends that other teachers normally throw out. Short nubby little crayons have become a large collection in my room filling two copy boxes. I've heard of people melting them in various manners to create batiks, or even new crayons, but melting isn't something I'm comfortable with. I wanted to do something safe with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders with minimal chance of bleeding and blistering.

This idea originated at a conference years ago where an expert art teacher told me how she would use marker tops to create small scale murals. I didn't have a lot of marker tops at the time, but I did have tons of nubby crayons. Hence, I would give it a try!

I assigned this project to a small group of fourth grade girls, however I think with proper guidance much younger ages could also accomplish this. We used the following materials: one side of a cardboard box, crayons, and glue-all.  I would not recommend school glue because it doesn't have the permanent quality needed.

We drew out a pencil sketch of Van Gogh's Starry Night on the cardboard, then we poured glue in lines across one section at a time, placed the corresponding color crayons on the glue, then continue forth across the entire image. I think the results are rather impressive considering all the materials used to create this work were discards.

Our interpretation of Van Gogh's Starry Night

A couple of pointers about making something like this: I recommend shaving one side of the crayon to create a flat edge that will rest parallel to the cardboard base. I've found that many will pop off easily if they remain cylindrical. This project takes a while and a lot of crayons. If you are working small then I would expect you could finish quicker, but this particular piece is over a foot and a half wide. Lastly, use a lot of glue. Pour it on seams, fill in little gaps.

So far I have a crayon mosiac started at my primary school (K - 2) of our mascot, a giraffe. I would also like to create one at my intermediate school although I'm not quite sure what we should create yet. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share them!