Being Yourself

Inspired by the book A Bad Case Of Stripes

by David Shannon

The story of Camilla Cream is a really strange one. All of her friends in school hated lima beans and she wanted to fit in so she never ate them. Camilla was always worried about fitting in and what people thought of her. In fact, she gets so worried that she breaks out in a bad case of stripes!

I really love this book and remember reading it to my daughter. I read it to my class and the whole time their eyes grew bigger with excitment to see what would happen next. The colorful pictures in the book make it fun to read. It's great for imaginative thinking and teaching children that's it's ok to be yourself.

Crayon Resist Paintings

-White Paper, Crayons, Oil Pastels and Watercolors

After reading the book A Bad Case Of Stripes I asked my class to use their imagination and draw a picture about what they could possibly turn into if they had a bad case of stripes. I encouraged them to use lines, pocka dots and patterns. They drew in crayons and oil pastels. And then I had them paint freely with watercolors.

Leo turned into a strange planet

Allison broke out in pocka dots and attracted butterflies

Valerie drew flowers on her face

Oliver turned into a Green Monster because he loves to eat green beans.

 

And other pictures of a box headed girl and boy with a belly full of jelly beans.

Vibrant Portrait Painting

-Large White Paper, Pencils, Colored pencils, Crayons/ Oil Pastels and Watercolors

This was my last class before winter vacation. I wanted to have a free drawing class with a mix of everything we learned in last 4 months. I had them draw portraits of themselves or a classmate. And encouraged them to use the mirror in the room. We practiced drawing mouths, noses, eyes and tried to pay attention to detail.

This is an afterschool class ages 5-8. Some of the portraits are very detailed while others reminded me of artist Jean Micheal Baquiat.

Crayon Resist

I had them draw in pencils and colored pencils. Fill in with crayon and the option of finishing in watercolor.

 

This one is my favorite it reminded me of the artist Jean Micheal Basquiat

A Mix Of Everything

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Everything and anything is possible. Believe in yourself and if you keep an open heart you can achieve anything! Love, Luck and Happiness.

Everything Gingerbread

- Paper/Cardstock, Colored felt, Crayons, Markers, Buttons, Stickers, Glue any Leftover Scraps

What do you do with scraps? Collage! Collage! Collage!!!! Haha

I precut Gingerbread men and me and the girls got creative. I let them design their own outfits cut their own designs and just have fun with this project.  I also enjoy watching them use the materials in different ways. It's a good way of learning about them individually. Lot's of fun and very silly.

Snowy Days

The holidays are keeping me really busy. Seems like every which way I turn there's something to do. Lot's of rushing, cooking, planning, shopping and not enough sleep! I'm thankful for the snowy days, the cozy moments at home and warm hugs from my daughter and kids in my class. It helps you remember what is really important about the holiday season.

This month in December we worked on so many great projects. These are a few of my favorites.

Tissue Paper Ornaments

-Black construction paper, tissue paper, glue sticks, scissors and ribbon/ yarn.

You can find this project on TeachKidsArt: December 2009

I was amazed at how easy it was and I just loved watching the kids use the materials on their own. I gave them the idea but they added small things to their ornaments and had alot of fun. I did precut this. You fold your paper and make a stencil or frame and the kids glue tissue paper to the back. So easy and the finished product is so pretty. You can also hang these as suncatchers.

Another idea I had was to use contact paper. Have the kids make a Christmas collage with scraps or confetti.

Drawing Nutcrackers

-Large White Paper, Colored Pencils, Markers and Crayons.

Drawing Nutcrackers is really great for kids to practice on their drawing skills. At first they were really excited to see me bring in my nutcracker but were upset to have to draw one. I had the kids first fold their paper on half that was the middle ( the nutcrakers belt). And made it fun having them pick out all the different shapes they could find. We used lot's of squares and retangles to help and viola they were learning how to draw a nutcracker.

I found it interesting and really cute all the different types. We had an irish nutrcracker, police, clown and a princess nutcracker. The kids really used their imagination.

 Orange you glad it's December

- Large White Paper, Yellow, Red Or Orange Tempera Paint, Construction Paper and Paintbrushes.

I did a similar project with masking tape. This time I used construction paper. It's really simple. I had the kids paint there paper and keep adding layers of construction paper. I cut out squares and retangles in different colors. It was a process they painted and added layer orver layer. At the end they peeled their blocks away to see the imprint left.

 

So another way of making abstract paintings. The kids loved watching me pull the blocks of paper away they were really bright. It was really fun to work with orange in December.

HAPPY HOLIDAY'S Everyone!

Dont Forget About The Chalk

Playful Penguins

- Construction Paper, Labels, Anything White to Stick On- Like Cotton or Tissue Paper, Chalk, Googly Eyes, Glue and Glitter.

I found this project on preschool daze I'm a big fan and love their playful classroom. They did a project called I is for Igloo and tried it with my class.

 I precut igloos which was pretty easy you just have to play around a bit and sketch it out to get a good shape but it's pretty easy. The other thing that I did which was pretty cool is I measured how big the doorway was of the igloo. I knew that these igloos needed penguins but I wanted to think of a new and creative way to make them. I drew a penguin and divided the black from white.

So I basically made a puzzle piece. I wanted to keep their belly's white. So that the kids had the fun of decorating them with chalk and adding the eye. And when they were finished chalking I glued the second piece. I thought that I was pretty cool for a few days figuring that out. Haha. Dont worry my head is back to normal size.

The kids peeled lables, stuck cotton and cut tissue paper to get their igloo white. And of course they had a blast sprinkling snowy glitter on top.

Really pretty and these penguins have personality! I'm pretty sure I'll find some other's ways of using chalk this winter.

Lessons From The Past

Pollack And Friends

Swing Painting or ( Fishing)

Large Butcher Paper, Tempera Paint, Paintbrushes and String.

The last two classes were inspired by my favorite artist Jackson Pollack. I brought in some books and pictures of his artwork and we discussed his process. How Mr. Pollack made his lines, splats and dots. This was a group project so I had the kids stand over the paper and swing their paintbrushes over the paper. After a while we sat on our knees and just had fun.

I cut string and taped it to the end of the paintbrush making it almost like a fishing rod. Oh My! Was this project messy. But the kids had so much fun. First they swung, then they dotted, some would drop their brush in the paint swing it out to the paper and drag it in. It was hard to keep track it was amazing watching the kids each develop their own technique. Amazing what a kids will do if you just give them a paintbrush on string. Haha

As you can imagine I definitely had to direct this project more then the others. But when all was said and done. Wow it was a real masterpiece! It really was a Pollack inspired painting. Jackson would be proud!

More Splatting!

We did some marble rolling. Placing marbles in cups of paint, scooping them out with spoons and rolling them in cardboard boxes.

What's great is that your always learning. I had to take a step back and remember that with every great artist, once the creative juices get flowing there is no holding back. Sometimes you have to let go and at the end you'll be surprised at the beauty you behold.