Wednesday, September 28, 2011

4th Grade Ceramic Bells


     For these bells, I challenged the fourth graders to create functional bells, but to also be as creative with them as possible.  I reminded them how to sculpt a simple pinch pot, flip it upside-down, and then to sculpt on top and around it.  We of course talked about adding lots of textures too.  Then the bells were bisque fired, and the students painted them with semi-moist underglazes.  After a quick coat of clear glaze from me and another firing, I assisted each student in super gluing a "ringer" into to the apex of their bells (we used glass beads that I had already super glued to jewelry cord).  Although this is a challenging project, I love it and am always surprised with the sculptures the kids create! This year was no exception.  We had baseball and football bells, various animal bells, and even a few bells memorializing the Twin Towers and the September 11th 10 year anniversary.







Friday, September 16, 2011

Leaf Print Paintings


     Last fall, my good friend Mrs. Custer did some leaf print paintings with her elementary students in Baltimore that I absolutely loved.  I waited all year long for back to school time and for fall to come again to do this lesson!  We started out by looking at some of Andy Goldsworthy's works in second grade and discussed his use of elements of nature as art materials.  We didn't use our leaves in the same way as Goldsworthy, but we combined them with printmaking to be the "stars" of our painitngs.

     The second graders created washes with Biggie Cakes on their papers to act as a base for the paintings.  They then placed leaves (from my mom's house...thanks mom!) on top of the washes with the veins up.  To make the prints, the students painted on top of the leaves and around them with LOTS of watery paint.       


     After the paintings were dry and the leaves were peeled off, we learned about the metallic color family and used metallic tempera to add details and emphasis to make the paintings look complete.






















Wednesday, September 7, 2011

We're off to a colorful start!


     I was inspired by the beautiful school portrait mural at smART Class, and thought we would give it a try here at Suffield.  During our first week of art classes, we went over art room procedures and rules, and then we got down to the joyful business of creating artwork!  We made these wonderful little portraits based in color theory in first through fifth grades.  The students drew and then colored themselves based on the color of table where they sit.  The younger grade levels colored themselves using the red, green, yellow, or blue color families and the older grade levels added an analogous color partner. 

     I love this idea and am happy with the results!









"Life is like a rainbow.  You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear."
-Author Unknown