Clay Project- Gnomes!

I have to thank my art teacher friend Mike for this one! A clay project for elementary students that combines; slab-making, molds, slip and score, additive sculpture, and glazing. My fourth grade students are making clay gnomes, although some have decided to turn them into wizards, which is perfectly okay with me being a wizard fan myself.
During the first class, we discussed air pockets and the clay drying process. Then we wedged out the clay and threw it to make a slab. The students then wrapped that slab around a paper-towel covered cone and smudged the edges together. Then a small amount of water could be used to pull the top of the clay out so that it created a steep point that will eventually be the hat of the gnome/wizard.

During the next two classes, students were able to add whatever details they liked to their creations. We simply reviewed how to score and slip to attach pieces of clay together. Students also had to use facial features on their gnome/wizard to demonstrate a mood. We talked about that a little bit, and the kids got started creating some of the most interesting creatures!

On a more personal note, some of my art teacher friends came over to my house to paint wallets. Apparently, you can paint with acrylic paint on leather or faux-leather wallets. I purchased mine at the thrift store. I finished this one just yesterday, sadly I only have two pictures of it, not many in-progress. I hope to create another one as well. This one just needs to be sealed with a clear acrylic sealer.

Learning about Asian Art

All my classes are venturing in to the realm of art from other cultures. It's so interesting to hear the dialogue and have discussions about student's thoughts on this art. Some art from other places in the world is so different than what we typically think of as art. It's fun to learn the differences and also to learn about what art looked like in ancient times.

First grade students learn about art from ancient Asian and we are smack dab in the middle of all that learning. We talked first about the art of ancient Japan and we learned about Gyotaku which is the art of fish printing. There's a great video here that talks about where the tradition came from. We used rubber fish and painted on them with tempera paint. Then placed paper of top and rubbed them. During the next class, students glued their piece to a colorful background and decorated the border. Then we learned how to write our names in Japanese and the students signed their name with red paint, just like a traditional Han or Hanko stamp.

To explore the ancient art of Asian even further, we moved into talking about China. We talked about the emperors and how their families would rule for years and their last names were very famous. We talked specifically about the Ming family and all the contributions they made to China, including the Great Wall and Ming Vases. Our project was to draw, color and decorate three Ming Vases. Students drew a small, medium, and large vase. Then we colored them in using only blue oil pastel and then painted over them using white tempera paint. Because of course, Ming Vases are all blue and white! Then students used pointy sticks to etch out designs through the white paint, down to the blue oil pastel. They cut out their finished vases and glued them onto pink paper. During our last class, we painted black bamboo shoots coming out of the Ming Vases and then they wrote their names in Chinese using Sharpie markers. The results are awesome! We loved learning about Asian art!

The Art of Ancient Africa- African Masks

Part of the fourth grade curriculum in my district, is to learn about the art of Africa. This year we did that in the form of masks. At first I thought about using paper mache, but let me tell you, that is the my least favorite of mediums. Also I had other classes working with clay at the same time and those two materials mix only with deadly consequences so I opted for paper masks.
We began the discussion with some student-led research on African art and African masks, then we discussed what the students had found. After establishing some basic facts about African art and African masks, we took a look at images of many different kids of African masks. My challenge to the students was to see what the found in common with all the masks.

As a class, we made a list of the similarities between all African masks, here is what they came up with that they all seemed to have:

- basic line designs.
- earth tones
- exaggerated facial features
- yarn/twine used for beard and facial hair
- animal and human features mixed together

Students had to choose at least two of these items to show in their interpretation of an African mask.

During the next class, I show the students how to fold and tape their paper to make a more three dimensional paper mask. For the rest of the class, they used only scissors and paper to cut out and add details of the face.

During the second class, I introduced pipe cleaners, feathers, twine and yarn, as well as paper, for the students to use to create details on their mask.

On the last day, they were able to use paint to complete the look, making sure they included two of the items from our list about what is usually seen in African masks. The results are very striking and each has a different personality and theme to it.

A Peek Into my Portfolio

Some of you might remember that I painted a red panda for my brother, who is an animal enthusiast, over the summer. He asked me to to do one of a one-horned rhino right after he got the red panda. Of course, it has taken me from the summer until this week to finish it. Getting married and beginning at a new school put a stop to extra creative projects for a little bit. Anyway, it's done and I love it. What's better, my brother loves it too! Here is the progression of my one-horned rhino painting in oil paints:

These are obviously just in the beginning stages, laying down a lean layer of paint to block out where I want the basic shapes, and then beginning to fill in darks and lights.

I finished filling in the large areas of dark and light and begin on the background. I used a metal palette knife for the background to give it some texture and suggest foliage.

Then I added texture. As you might imagine, there is a ton of texture on a rhino. In a lot of places, I only hinted at the texture.

Then I decided that I didn't like the muzzle portion so I painted over that area, re-doing the darks and lights and then blending them together and re-adding texture. I also redid the horn.

And here is the finished piece! Thanks for taking a peek inside my portfolio!

Cupcake Containers- Kindergarten

In Kindergarten, our curriculum calls for teaching the students how pinch and roll clay to make a piece of artwork. We decided to make clay cupcake containers! The kinders were so excited!
First we had a day where we just got comfortable with the clay. Students smushed and smashed and made all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, they had to give the clay back.

During the next class, we talked about how air bubbles can form in the clay and how we need to get rid of those so our pieces don't explode in the kiln. We all wedged our clay and then rolled into a ball. Using thumbs and then pinching, students made a hole and then enlarged it. This created a small pinch pot. I showed everyone how to use their fingers to smooth the top edge. Then using a small wooden tool, students created a cupcake holder texture on the outside of their pinch pot by lightly etching vertical lines into the clay.

For our third class, students rolled out a looooong 'snake' of clay. A lot of students had trouble doing this at first, but after a kick start from the teacher, they got along just fine. Then the clay was laid on the edge of the cupcake bottom (which is by now dry so it's more sturdy!) and coiled around until it came to a point. I did a quick demo on how to lightly smudge the clay together so that the coiled 'snake' would stick. ( I also went back after the kids had left and made sure they were all secure, mostly on the inside of the coil so as not to ruin the frosting effect.) The kids then rolled out small balls of clay to attach to the top as cherries!

Out last class was painting/glazing the cupcakes. Since I have a limited amount of glaze, the students got to select a glaze for the icing and then we painted the cherries red. We're still waiting to do the last step, which is to paint the cupcake holder or the bottom of our cupcake container. We will be using tempera paint for this so that the kids have a wider variety of colors to choose from. They are so cute and charming. For the record, I borrowed the idea from a picture I saw on Artsonia, found here. I modified it a bit for kinders and I simply used this project to teach clay techniques, we didn't talk about Wayne T. It was so fun to do this project, the littles love clay!

Feelings and Color

In our art curriculum, we are required to talk about showing feeling through color. I love this concept! The kids really latch onto it and it makes sense to them. For this project, we had a conversation about how different colors can make you feel or how we associated different colors with different feelings. We made sure to talk about how people can think about colors differently and perhaps some colors can show more than one feeling. Then I showed them examples of paintings of musical instruments. We followed that up with some good old graphite drawing! Pictures of musical instruments were passed out and students picked one to use as inspiration for their drawing.

As you can see, we have some amazing artists in our fourth grade classes! Then we moved on to the part of the project that I think makes it so interesting and exciting for kids. The students had to pick out a song, any song as long as it was school appropriate. Then they listened to it and decided what feelings the song made them feel. I had the kids do this as homework, I didn't want to have to listen to all those songs!

The kids came back with songs and the feelings that those songs inspired and we worked through what colors they should use. They loved this process, they were so geeked to choose a song and decided how to represent the feelings with color.

We broke out the watercolor paints and got to work after a brief talk about where to place color so that they instrument didn't become part of the background and it was really the focal point, and stood out, etc...

Most students finished the background in the first class, some even finished the background and the instrument. For those that had both done, the next step was to highlight the instrument even more. We used oil pastels on the instrument only, to make it pop out of the background. We talked about many ways to do that (coloring it all in, using designs and patterns, outlining etc..) 

What I like most about the finished products is that the effects are so varied, but you can tell that there is real feeling behind the colors and the way these pieces were painted.

Grading and Showing Growth in the Art Room

Showing growth in our students has become a huge part of my job as a teacher. Sometimes in an art classroom environment, it's hard to show a student's growth. In other classes a before and after test is done, and I have done that in the past. It shows a student's understanding of concepts or facts, but it doesn't measure their growth in relation to the skills that they are learning. Another age-old debate is how to grade artwork, especially at an elementary level.

This year I decided to do things a little bit differently. Last year, I received a lot of confrontation from parents when grade cards came out. And because I didn't have specific documentation of how I graded the students artwork, I ran into some problems. So this year, I decided to be very specific and very proactive.

In order to show growth, I selected a sampling of students to monitor for the entire year. Basically I made a Digital Portfolio for each student, with images of each project they did throughout the year, in order. This way I can see if the student's skills are improving and if they're using more skills as they progress. To keep a Digital Portfolio for every single student I teach, would be just crazy. So I selected two students from each grade; a high performing student and a low performing student. Each student has a folder on my Google drive in which I keep their artwork photos, in order of completion. I photograph them immediately when they're done.

I also wanted to show growth in my student's thought process when it came to creating artwork. I decided to have my kids write artist or process statements for some of their work throughout the year. I'm only doing this with the upper grades (3-5). Again, I chose a high performer and low performer for each grade and I am documenting their progress by keep photographs of their writing and artwork that they are writing about. An example would look like this:

Lastly, I have to give grades for each student three times a year in their report cards. I give grades based on skills or concepts learned, participation and effort, and behavior in my classroom. The skills and concepts grade I give based on how I grade their artwork. I grade each piece of artwork using a little code that I made up; each student receives a number and then a letter code to remind me why I gave them that particular number. These grades are just for my records, I keep them in a spread sheet on Google docs. I don't publish them to parents, but they are there if I have a parent call and I need to back up the grade I gave their child. Here's the code I use:

1	Demonstrates complete understanding of concept, work is neat and completely finished.
2	Demonstrates partial understanding of concept/work is mostly neat and/or completely finished.
3	Does not demonstrate understanding of concept, and/or work is sloppy, and/or unfinished.
UF	Unfinished
S	Sloppy
ND	Not demonstrating concept
M	Misuse materials

To grade a student's participation and behavior, I use an online program called Class Charts. It's similar to Class Dojo, but it's free. Every day I log on and make a positive comment or a negative comment for each child's behavior for that class. Every couple of weeks, I read through the data and contact the parents of students that are getting a lot of negative marks. When I sit down to make report cards, this program is really nice because it provides you with graphs and charts to show you how a student's behavior has been through the term. Check it out here!

So that's what I'm doing this year, I like the amount of information I have to use. However, I think the system might be a bit clunky. I hope to streamline it in the years to come. I've looked into Artsonia, as a great way to keep digital portfolios for every student and show parents artwork as well. But I just don't have time to take everyone's picture right.

Does anyone else have a system they'd like to share? Ideas? Thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think!