Circle Paintings on a Windy Day

This was definitely "one of those days!!" Winds up to 100 miles an hour in Southern California, although we did not have the high winds that were predicted in our little corner of the land! That being said, on a day when I had about 125 drippy, wet, painted pieces (some large like these and some smaller projects) that needed drying space, a little breeze was welcome. I ran out of drying racks before lunch, so I strung some rope on the patio and hoped the winds would not kick up too much. (I was in luck!)

4th graders worked cooperatively in groups of 4 on circle paintings. They then took their color of paint and traded tables, so that each piece of work had 8 colors of paint. After a while I had them return to their original work to finish it up. Our focus was BALANCE (dark/light, primary/secondary, warm color, complementary colors).

We are displaying all the panels together as one, large mural. I told the kids that ultimately I would cut each work in fourths and they would each get one fourth of their original piece (they all put their names and room number on the back of "their" panel). Everyone seemed fine with that concept:)

There were a few considerations that helped the in the project's success:
1) Pre-mix enough paint to last through the day.

2)Set tables up without chairs so movement doesn't result in spilled paint. Having a meat tray under the portion cups of paint provided a resting spot for the brush that would support its weight.

3) Have sponges handy when brushes drop or paint spills ( have a carpeted room, so this is something I think about).
4) Model the process first, before kids get started. We had the rule that each person puts down their color once in the center before all 4 start to paint simultaneously. We also had the rule that you kept your own color throughout the painting time. Our third rule was that we worked from the center out, touching a color someone else had made.

5) Students discovered it was smarter to paint solid areas first and then add dots, designs, etc.
6) Really reinforce how much you value the kids' meaningful conversation about how color and design elements support making a balanced piece of art. We actually had groups of parents touring the school today for a visitation day, so in addition to the 30+ kids in the room there were 4 groups of between 10 and 15 adults coming through as we were painting. I was SO proud of the "art talks" kids were having in their groups. That, actually, is the most rewarding part of doing this lesson. I am so grateful to Barbara's Thought of the Day (here) where I first learned of Circle Painting sometime last year.
7) I showed my class some of the photos at http://www.circlepainting.org before we started working.

I'll add the rest of the circle paintings (that are currently drying) as soon as I have them up in our hallway display case.

Kittens' Thanksgiving

Hi, I'm Max. I know I look full grown with all my puffy fur, but I'm really still a kitten.

This is Cassie (who is far smaller and daintier than I am). She is a bit older and wiser than I am, but still a kitten, too.

We got to visit "Aunt Christie" for the first time this Thanksgiving. I heard that she put all the "valuables" away or out of my reach before I arrived. But I still found plenty of stuff to explore. For instance, there was her Thanksgiving centerpiece that she featured in her last blog post. It had all these great sprigs of hard, red, berry-like things sticking out of it.

I discovered that I could hop up on the table (which seemed to annoy everyone in itself), remove each sprig carefully (so I didn't break them) and bat them onto the floor. When they came after me saying "No, Max!" I raced away and hid in the bathtub. Aren't I just too clever?!

I am back home now, so Aunt Christie can clean up after the feast, but I am already thinking about what mischief I'll get into the next time I visit.  Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Floating Spheres/Op Art - First Results

3rd graders had one class period (50 minutes - less clean-up time) to complete this project. We did not get to the last phase (as posted here) so we just took our squares with spheres and glued them (slightly askew) on a piece of 6" X 6" illustration board. Luckily I had these 6" X 6" squares (donated and pre-cut) in my closet to whip out. I put an assortment of colors on the rug and kids chose the color they thought went best as a background for their own work. I liked the decision making conversation that took place as they accomplished this last step:)

Tints and Shades Results

3rd and 4th graders finished up their cylinder projects. Kids seemed to stick to the ideas that were originally brainstormed (snakes, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, paintbrushes), although one boy decided to try baseball bats (sorry, didn't get a photo of it). A few tried adding erasers to the other end of their pencils and tails for snakes. It was fun to see the results and I love the composition of almost all of the pieces.

An added bonus was hearing 5th graders walking down the hallway past the display, "oohing and aahing" and remembering when they used the same technique to make bamboo drawings last year. Music to an art teacher's ears:)

Floating Spheres

I have seen a lot of examples of "floating spheres" on the internet (Artsonia, blogs, Google images) and can't believe that in all my years of teaching I have never tried them with my students!! Well, this is the week!

I've played around with various versions all week-end and finally settled on one that builds on last week's lesson where we shaded cylinders and ultimately arranged them "outside the frame". Our spheres (or at least one or two of them) will be outside the parameters of the original square.

We'll start with a small square (probably 5" X 5"), make a vanishing point and then extend wavy (or straight) sections outward to color.

Next we'll make some spheres using pencil and crayon.

We'll cut them out and glue them on our initial square.

Then the real fun starts. I want the kids to place their square randomly on their larger paper and extend a few of their black rays changing the color to a color from the color wheel. Ideally, they will be able to choose colors demonstrating some knowledge of Color Theory (ie. primary, secondary, warm, cool, etc.). If there is time we will also be shading the edges of the colored sections to give them some dimension.

After gluing the original square in place, students will have the choice of cutting out and gluing the whole thing on another paper. Voila! Hope it all works in 45 minutes!:)

Cylinder Shading Progress

We are not quite finished, but I am LOVING the art that 3rd and 4th graders are making following the lesson in my last post. Here are a few works in progress:

Below are a few pieces that are finished, matted and ready to hang. This was a 3rd grade class that was making "tools we use in the art room" as their theme.

Needless to say, these boxes of pristine oil pastels no longer look like this -- they are looking WELL-USED!!!

I'll post more next week when we have finished. Have a great week-end:)