A look at other Art Bloggers

I've just taken a look through my blogs in my reading list...I usually head straight to Cassie Stephens...she makes me giggle...and she has this awesome guitar apron that I WANT!! However, today Olive at Olive ART caught my eye again as she hit on a subject that's at the back of my mind for the year coming up.

I think I focus on it already but I really want the children to start to automatically offer an opinion on a piece of famous art or even an artist's style. I know I encourage discussion and opinion in a structured format that leads into the lesson but would like to find another way that tells them it's OK to ask a question or offer a thought at any time. So I liked this idea from Olive and also this one too that makes up more of a lesson.

Olive ART! Do You???: Looking at Art: She has a bulldog clip with her chosen painting and her bubble whiteboard next to it with some magnetic words. And this allows the children to choose their word that they associate with the picture, whether it is something they see or something that they feel or even the mood of the painting. Whichever it may be, as she says, it encourages the children to learn to 'see' more in art.

Her other recent development I like would to see how she gets on with, has the pupil discussing the quote and the piece of art, do they like or connect with the painting, do they agree or disagree with the artist's quote, and the children concluding from this what it is to make art...it's not just about paint and pencils and making marks. I'd like to do this with my year 6s.

I would have activities like this in an area every week and for every year in which they could discuss, describe, think about a piece of art, a type of art movement or an artist. I used to do things like this with Maths or Literacy and especially Science, around the classroom, for early finishers, say.

(Having said that, I am a peripatetic...well, between the classrooms, not schools...art teacher...I have yet to have my own art room. We are having a new school built and plans were for it to be completed for the school year 2014/15 with me having a room. However...seeing as we're in the Middle East, it ain't working like that. And I will continue to lug that huge not-quite kid-proof Ace Hardware toolbox around, with it's handle and clips held on with bits of string. I'm going to see how much longer it'll last!)

Thanks Olive, you've inspired me to start collecting and creating activities like this for my fantasy classroom! In the meantime, for a plenary at least.

Lesson of the Week Part 2

This week we started to paint the sculptures. I gave the children the freedom. They could pick a theme and showed them plenty of pictures and examples for inspiration. I made one alongside them so I'll give it a go too. I think I'm going for some lovely blues and my favourites henna inspired swirly design somewhere. Anyway, more importantly, here are some of the kids'. work... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd love to have the free mind of a child again, no restrictions, no hindrances...these are just brilliant. Their own styles coming into play in year 6 ready for big school.
As Picasso said.... 

I shall miss this year 6 greatly.

Lesson of the week Part 1

I have been hanging on to do this with year 6 ALL term...I was so excited and kept promising them we'd end the term with something so cool. I made sure I kept it secret. Then I'd let little things out, possibly because I couldn't contain my excitement! I only said we were doing sculpture. This conjures up wonderful images of clay and bronze and chisels and hammers...but this was a little different...certainly a lot more accessible!
This was the wire hanger and 'pantyhose' (because I'm British I'm going to call it popsock from hereon in if you don't mind!) sculpture I'd seen on Pinterest (I <3 you) and a Google check for more instructions.

It took a LOT of prep but prep I could cope with compared to papier mache prep...ugh...

Resources:

• Enough wire coat hangers. Ask your friendly ICT teacher for his spare dry cleaning hangers
• Wooden blocks cut from some old 3x5 timber we had (it was actually from our camp fire stockpile but mum's the word...). Another option next year would be to stick the wire hanger ends into a lump of clay and mould that as a base and maybe incorporate that into the sculpture
• Cheapy popsocks. Don't go and get a pair for each child, get to the cash desk before you realise you only need one sock per child's sculpture and therefore half the number of boxes you picked up and have to put 13 pairs of pop socks back on the shelf (Advice: do this early in the morning to avoid too many funny looks)
• Base covering. Some sites suggest just white paint (likely to crack when dry especially when painted over), other's suggested spray paint (wouldn't want the smell even outside and lingering inside especially in a bulk amount of sculptures), I went for the gesso option but it is a fortune in the local art shop, for a class-worth anyway. So I made my own. I'll be posting on that next. Really glad I made it!

This is what I did. Any amendment or suggestion to better the method please throw it my way please!

Step 1 - The Frame (needs to be done days in advance for the glue to dry)

• Drill the holes in the block
• Untwist the hangers. Grab your long-suffering partner to help. Taking off the hook is an option or you could straighten it out. As long as the ends are straight to go into the drilled holes
• Fill the holes with wood glue or contact cement (that suits all materials)
• Stick in the hanger ends as far as possible and leave to dry

Step 2 - The Gesso. I made this the night before.

Step 3 - Unpack the Popsocks to save time!

Step 4 - Surprise the kids - Day of the Project. ExciiiiiiitIIIING! Even more so because this was an extra art session I had arranged with Mrs. C and we agreed to make it a surprise. I know, who said art should be fun...

Step 5 - Mould the wire frame. Encourage small, gentle movements, maybe in opposing forces and directions. Think about forward and backward movement rather than a flat plane.

Step 6 - Pop sock time. Stretch the sock over pulling down  from what would be the toe so there are no baggy, saggy bits. I got them to put the band around the block of wood so there was still a flat stable surface underneath.

Step 7 - A few tweaks to bend the frame a bit more where they needed it. They realised here that the sock will not always follow the line of the wire and may stretch from one point to another.

Step 8 - Time to coat. The room was filled with the gorgeous smell of baby powder! What a beautiful, emulsive , gloopy mixture. They worked on covering their sculpture, layering it up rather than one thick layer, keeping the layers even, covering the texture of the sock.

Step 9 - Leave to dry.

Art Lesson of the Week

This week's lesson was a good one for a few reasons.

Year 3: City of Fratsia, sketching, oil pastel and wash.

One: they learnt something new. Always good. Today was perspective and 3D work.
Two: they practised other sketching skills.
Three: they needed to delve into their imaginations to start with.
Four: it also required a bit of 'drawing what you see' whilst in that imagination. Always a tricky one, especially with the younger ones who have this ability to transpose any object regardless of what angle they view it from, to front on and draw it thus.

It was the lovely and mystical city of Fratsia that was the class topic and we just followed it in art but creating our own cities (imagination) of Fratsia. We read the book, 'Sanji and The Baker' (by Robin Tzannes and Korky Paul) and studied the city drawings and perspective (new word). We loved how the buildings towered off to the side and rose up the hill. We also loved the colour and medium that Paul had used. We thought about what we would see if we looked straight at a house? What would we see if we were sitting down on a seat in the street looking to the house to our right? (Observational drawing)

 



We worked with our basic sketching skills to plan our city and think about how the buildings we have created from our imagination would look like from an angle. This was a challenge for most of them. But once they saw what they were looking at and applied it to theirs, it flowed and clicked :-) We then worked with oil pastels and built up this beautiful city like Korky Paul did. Some chalk pastels slipped into the oil pastel box inadvertently so that became a lesson in itself as they were finding out the difference between chalks and oils, in feel, effect, the residue it makes. This was great fun, coming up with adjectives to tell the difference.

I encouraged them to use the oil pastels as we were finishing up with a wash of the colour of their choice (out of red, orange or blue). So they learned they can end with a wash, not just begin with one. I wanted them to see what happens when watery paint touches wax or oil. Those that used chalk in places had a lesson too. they predicted and observed what happened when they ran their final wash over. It did create an awesome sandstormy effect for some! Lovely! I download some of their pics soonish.

In hindsight, I would probably work on laying down more prep work for perspective and focus on observational drawing for a little while...outside of the classroom, drawing the school buildings from different angles. This could be brought in as a follow-up in perspective in year 4.

 

Art Lesson of the Week

Year 6 - charcoal

A new technique for year 6. They thoroughly enjoyed this. This was the first time they had used charcoal. I had the pencils in my room but I brought the willow charcoal along, the stuff that I used as a schoolgirl and loved it. I remember the feeling it gave me, I felt like a proper artist, using a proper tool, so I wanted and hoped they would feel the same too.

We had made clay masks based on our Maori designs we had been working on. As far as the charcoal was concerned we focused on building up the picture by tone - light, mid and dark - rather than drawing an outline and filling it in. This was a challenge for most but they did really well when it clicked what they were looking for.

I will miss this class. They embrace every technique, they try everything, they ask questions, they put their own style on the technique. They want to be there in my lesson and I love seeing them working! 

I haven't posted in a month!

I haven't even been surfing Pinterest! (well...a bit...)

I spend all my spare time planning and checking I'm ready for the next lesson. It's becoming a little more than a part-time job now so I need to rein that in a little. I do however, have so much more time for my own children, I see them every day around school and it's a lovely feeling being able to have a little Mummy minute, spying on them in the playground a little.

I'm really taking the time with the lessons as I want to make sure they complete most things so they see projects through. Lessons that are scheduled for one session have led in to two and I'm beginning to deal with that fact - it's ok, I'd rather do that than be stressed trying to rally them to speed up and complete. That's not the point. Enjoyment and a sense of completion are as important in art as is the learning. However, it's put me a bit behind so I still have a sense of worry. But I AM the Art department so as long as I'm not out of control!

That'll be the two weeks before Christmas.

So my new Maori art plans are going very well. It's been great fun! And I swear by playing relevant music in the classroom to try and encompass the whole experience. I will write with the Maori plans eventually.

I have discovered a new art teacher and website - www.paulcarneyarts.com. I found him when trying to find an interesting and different charcoal lesson for Year 6. What's appealing to me just now is his section on Assessment and levelling. Will offer comment on that in another post.

Year 4’s Monet Introduction

This was one of the lessons that I was quite nervous about...it's all well and good getting the children to practise and produce various art techniques, fun activities and creative sessions but teaching them about the great masters just squeezed a little more pressure on my newbie shoulders. 

How-EVER! This was the lesson that gave me the realisation that teaching Art is just so rewarding and as fulfilling as being a regular class teacher. I proved to myself that I do have the interest and certainly the passion for this subject and especially teaching it. I've got to know Monet through the planning of the lesson and I realised I was reading about him in the end for my own pleasure! I just hope the kids take some of my interest with them! So today was the start of their recreation of 'Poppies near Argenteuil'. 



When I built up to the announcement that they would be creating their own, they reacted how I expected. And how I wanted them to, actually! It was a unanimous "nooooooo/whaaaaaaat???/Ican'tdothat/tooooohaaaaard" etc. What I wanted to start achieving was a turn-around of their initial negative attitude. And we started to by the end of the session!

All today was was an introduction to Monet and Impressionism, how Monet and his contemporaries painted...they ended up being able to tell me how to recognise a impressionist piece, well, certainly what they'd look for. We also started our paintings with our background wash. We experimented with building up the colour, and effects 
using the sponges and the paintbrushes.

    

I've had to take pictures of the kids to make a contact sheet so I can learn their names. I do well in the lesson and then forget a few of them the following week! At least 120 names...could be worse I suppose! And it's only week 2! ************************************************************************************************************** So, week 2 and we’re working on the foreground. I really focussed on them developing and using their observation skills…how far do the field of poppies stretch? do they have stalks? can you see the lady smiling at you? where is she looking? why can you not see her legs or feet? is she really a stick figure? (seriously...) how many people can you see? etc… This was a very interesting exercise…maybe 4 or 5 children thought about the detail from the outset and this was evident in their work.

We laid the finished pieces out and pretended we were walking around a gallery. We talked about each other’s work , encouraging positive words and thoughts. This was a good exercise, I’ll do this again.

They all enjoyed it and were interested to learn more about Monet. When they learned of his eye operation and the fact that he painted with poor vision for a while, two of the girls took their glasses off (much to my panic!) to see how it would go. One girl loved it! She is probably the artist of the class so I think she enjoyed painting like one of the Masters!


   

Today's favourite Pin

My favourite pin today I have to say was the first one I clicked on! This yarn 'laser' obstacle course is so simple, it's GEEEnius! The children would love it.

Pops has been a cowboy the last few days, occasionally interspersed with sidelines as an astronaut and dinosaur trainer. Bear is just bored out of her beautiful, active mind. I'm going to set this up and see how it goes.

I OBV-iously will have to test it out for health and safety checks.