Dandelion Poetry Project

The abundance of dandelions in Calgary this year has provided me with lots of inspiration.  You might remember this project.

Well.......in a similar vein I have been doing a collaborative project with my colleague Kim McCullough. ( a teacher who is a fantastic author).  She also collaborated with me on the Woven Nest.

We are trying to develop projects that combine creative writing and the visual arts.

The premise for this project is "dandelion wishes".  You can click on the picture to see larger.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolor or heavywieght sketch paper
- disk tempera
- paintbrush
- fine and heavy sharpie
- white sharpie, white gel pen, or computer/hand written text
- glue if using computer/handwritten text

We did this project with Grade 4.  Kim spent a Language Arts class with the kids discussing dreams and wishes.  By the end of the class they had typed out a poem.

We started the art portion by sketching out a silhouette profile.  After seeing the results I would advise all future classes to sketch out  the hand and/or arm. It just ties it together better.  They also sketched in the seed head and some loose seeds blowing away.

I had a few reference photos to assist them.  Next time I think I will have them pose and have a fellow student sketch out their profile.

They then painted in their backgrounds using disk tempera.  Most opted for the twilight scene.

To get that spotted texture you can see in the first picture just sprinkle on some water drops while the background is only partially dry.

Let dry.

Using black tempera they painted in the larger portions of the silhouette and then used black sharpies for the finer detailing of the seeds.

Here you can really see that spotted texture.


Next you need to add the text of your poem.

You can use white pencil crayon, white gel pens, white sharpies, or cut out typed/handwritten text which you then glue into place.

Click on photos for a closer view.

Great work Grade 4! 

Making Toy Parachutes: Creative Thinking Project

I was driving my 2 boys home yesterday and we started talking about parachutes, both literal and metaphorical.


- asking ourselves what kind of parachute would a tortoise (uugh!....no spellcheck in sketchbooks) have and why?.....an octopus...a dinosaur...you get the idea.!

The kids we coming up with such great ideas we had to try some of them out.

Of course we had to make it into an art project!

Parrots

Well maybe it's the fact Winter won't back down here in Calgary or that I'm dreaming of the Tropics as my annual Hawaii vacation is only 16 days away but I thought I'd post this Parrot project.

I have done this project for about 4 years now.  It is a favorite with the kids as they are amazed they can paint a parrot.  I typically do it with Grade 5 but it is applicable from Grade 4 up I think.

It is based on a Terry Madden lesson that was on PBS quite a few years ago.  I modified it for the kids and it works great.

March Lion or Lamb Art Project

Well I'm back....had a bit of a mid winter break over Teacher's Convention in Palm Springs.

I'm currently finishing all the Penguin projects with Grade 1 (hope to have some pictures later this week).

Grade 2 has just started this March "Lion or Lamb" project and based on our weather forecast for the next few days here is Calgary I suspect we will have a lot of Lions on that bulletin board!

For this project the kids are creating the papers to make their Lion"s mane or shaggy Lamb coat.

Painting in the style of Ted Harrison

There is a lot of Ted Harrison love at the school these days.  Both Grades 2 and 3 are completing art projects based on his work.

Ted Harrison is a well known Canadian artist famous for his use of line and color in his landscape paintings around his beloved Yukon home.

This is an easy art project based on his work.

Polar Bears Revisited

Last year I did a post on my Polar Bears but did not have many pictures of it's adaptation for the classroom. 

I completed this year's Polar Bears with Grade 1 last week and presented it as part of this weekend's workshop with Calgary teachers so I thought I would update this post for all of you out there in blogland!

Family Snowman Portraits

These Family Snowman Portraits are the Christmas project currently being done by Grade 2.

Woven Eyes - Frogs

This is a project based on "weaving in the round".

You may remember the flowers that Grade 1 did last spring using a paper plate to weave a round.

In this case we are weaving on a smaller cardboard disk creating eyes.

Here is Jeff's (age 7) frog.  He whipped this up in record speed being the master weaver of the family.

Find some stiff cardboard and trace out 2 circles for your eyes.  Cut out.

Using a knitting needle poke a hole in the middle of your circles.

Now you need to divide your circle into an odd number.  The easiest way to do this is divide it into fourths and then in one of the sections divide it into 2 and in the remaining 3 sections divide them into thirds.  This way you always end up with 11.

Take your scissors and cut a little slit at the top of each line.  Then take a piece of yarn, poke one end thru the hole and the other end you feed thru the slit and tie it to the ends in a knot around the back.  Trim ends.  Repeat this for each slit until you have yarn marking all sections.     UPDATE: Just take 1 piece of yarn and do all the slits and then tie off in the back.  I was taught to do each one separate but you don't need to, can't believe I wasted all that time the last few years doing each string separate!

Take the end of the yarn you want to weave with and push thru the hole in the middle from the front.

Tie the end to one of the other pieces of yarn in the back and knot off.

Measure out a arm's length or so of yarn, cut, and then feed thru a plastic needle.

I usually tie the short end that's thru the needle into a knot on the other long end, close to the needle.  This stops the kids from pulling it out and having to re thread it all the time.

Start weaving.  Alternate under and over and don't pull to tight as you want it to lie flat and not bunch up in the middle.

When you want to change colors just knot them together.

When you are finished weaving feed the end thru the next slit to the back.

Knot onto a piece of yarn in the back.

Now you can paint the ends of the cardboard where the weaving stopped.

On some watercolor paper or heavy sketch paper paint the body of your frog.  We marked out where the eyes will go.

Cut out and glue to background paper.  You may have to put a book or 2 on top to have it dry flat just make sure to put a layer of wax paper on top of your creation first so your books don't get all gluey.

Of course my son Ryan couldn't resist making an one eyed cyclops.

See you next week.

Painted and Embroidered Mini's

I wanted to use that paint embroidery combo again but this time on framed canvas.

These are my Autumn leaves.....

 I painted the canvas first and then embroidered on the detail.

The kids wanted to get in on the act so yesterday we spent a great afternoon creating our little masterpieces.

I bought little framed canvases at the dollar store...I think it was $2 for a pack of 3.  They measure 6 x 6 inches square.

We lightly sketched out our design in pencil...as you can see my son uses a heavy hand like most kids with the pencil, the paint covers most of it.

We then began painting our background in.

Make sure to paint the sides as well as we won't be framing these guys.

We used acrylic paints for good coverage.

When you are finished let dry.

Then we started to embroider....you can go over outlines, add texture stitching, or even add extra embellishment.

  The frames made it very easy for the kids to embroider as it is much like having a hoop.  I was surprised that the canvas was quite durable and we had no rips due to pulling too hard.

I think the boys did a great job.....my daughter is still embroidering her starfish..she's adding lots of detail.

and I'm quite pleased with the leaves.

We also had a family birthday over the weekend and I thought I show you how we wrap presents.  I place the item to be wrapped in a leftover plastic shopping bag and the wrap it in plain kraft paper.     I then paint it.  I try to involve the kids but this time they were too busy embroidering.

That's it.....we'll see you next time.