08 April - Branch Weaving - Kindergarten

materials

tree branch with at least three smaller branches shooting out

yarn in many colors and textures

wool

nature items such as long grasses, weeds, feathers or corn husks

strips of fabric, ribbon and other strings or cords

discussion:

1. Talk to the kids about weaving

- ask them if they know what it means

- what is made by weaving

- tell them t-shirts were woven

Then read them the book "A Goat in a Rug" which is about a Native American girl weaving a rug.

2. Then demonstrate what they would be doing. They should tie the beginning of the string to the stick (plan on having adults help with this) then they can either

- wrap the string between several branches and "weave" feathers or grasses into it or

- just wrap the string around the twig and stick feathers and stuff into it.

Process

1. adults helps the student start at the top or bottom of one small branch by looping some yarn around the branch to get the project started.

(Keep the yarn about 2 feet in length so it doesn't get out of control. More yarn can always be added as each piece is used up.)

2. Have kids wrap yarn around smaller branches to make a base of yarn moving up or down the branches.

3. Weave other yarn, wool, grasses, fabric strips or any intriguing items into the yarn base. Random weaving and wrapping is also effective.

4. Wrap and weave until the branch weaving is complete

5. Ask kids to come up with names for their sculptures.

6. If some kids are finished before others, you can read “Very Busy Spider”

April - Garden Observational Drawing - kindergarten

Description: Students learn about observational drawing techniques

materials

paper

pencil

clipboards

1. With the kids on the rug talk about how there are different types of drawing. One type is "free drawing" this is when we draw things however we what. We can give a dog 6 legs, we can draw ourselves with hands bigger than our heads. Another type of drawing is "observational drawing" Does anyone know what it means to observe something? to look at closely. The most important part of observational drawing is to look at the thing we are drawing very closely before we draw it. When we draw it, we try to include all the details we noticed while we were observing.

2. At this point you can tell the kids that they will be observing and then drawing some plastic flowers and then they will get clipboards and walk to the garden and they will be drawing flowers and plants they see in the garden.

Project:

1. Dismiss kids to tables

(Optional)Give each table one flower (no paper or pencils yet) and tell them to spend some time observing the flower. You can play a game with them by then collecting the flowers and asking the tables if they remember certain things about their flowers. For example: How many leaves does your flower have? How would you describe the color of the petals?

2. Then pass out paper and colored pencils (you can give each table more than one flower) and have them draw a flower per page. If you want to you can walk around and label the flowers or ask the kids to.

3. The kids can draw a couple of flowers if they'd like. When you feel ready you can pass out clip boards and pencils. I'd have the clipboards ready with a few piece of paper in each. Remind them they will be drawing what they see. They won't be using erasers and its ok to make mistakes. Its more important to look closely. If they want to they can even draw the flowers without looking at the page. They can do as many drawing as they have time for.

4. Walk with them to the garden and have them quietly draw flowers or plants.

May - Germ Sculptures

Germ Sculptures

materials

about 6x6 piece of corrugated cardboard

a handful of salt dough

pipe cleaners

beads, buttons, jewels

dry pasta

Book: Germs

Salt Dough Optionals

You can either mix the salt dough yourself ( allow enough time for set up) OR have kids make the salt dough as part of the lesson.

Here is the recipe. You will need at least 4 times this amount:

Salt Dough

2 cups plain flour

1 cup salt

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tsp vegetable oil

Mix water and salt until salt is dissolved. Add flour and vegetable oil. Stir then knead dough.

Optional: food color

1. Tell the students that they will be making germs. Talk about germs. Ask them what they think germs might look like. What are they, how big are they, what color are they? You can have kids come up and draw what they think germs look like on the board. We have a few books on germs that you can read to them or look at pictures of either real or artistic renditions of germs. Here's some info on germs, you may want to include some of it in your discussion.

Germs are tiny organisms, or living things, that sometimes but not always cause disease. Germs are so small and sneaky that they creep into our bodies without being noticed. In fact, germs are so tiny that you need to use a microscope to see them. When they get in our bodies, we don't know what hit us until we have symptoms that say we've been attacked!

What Types of Germs Are There? Germs are found all over the world, in all kinds of places. The four major types of germs are: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. They can invade plants, animals, and people, and sometimes they make us sick.

Bacteria (say: back-teer-ee-uh) are tiny, one-celled creatures that get nutrients from their environments in order to live. In some cases that environment is a human body. Bacteria can reproduce outside of the body or within the body as they cause infections. Some infections bacteria cause include sore throats (tonsillitis or strep throat), ear infections, cavities, and pneumonia (say: new-mo-nyuh).

But not all bacteria are bad. Some bacteria are good for our bodies — they help keep things in balance. Good bacteria live in our intestines and help us use the nutrients in the food we eat and make waste from what's left over. We couldn't make the most of a healthy meal without these important helper germs! Some bacteria are also used by scientists in labs to produce medicines and vaccines (say: vak-seens).

Viruses (say: vy-rus-iz) need to be inside living cells to grow and reproduce. Most viruses can't survive very long if they're not inside a living thing like a plant, animal, or person. Whatever a virus lives in is called its host. When viruses get inside people's bodies, they can spread and make people sick. Viruses cause chickenpox, measles, flu, and many other diseases. Because some viruses can live for a while on something like a doorknob or countertop, be sure to wash your hands regularly!

Fungi (say: fun-guy) are multi-celled (made of many cells), plant-like organisms. Unlike other plants, fungi cannot make their own food from soil, water, and air. Instead, fungi get their nutrition from plants, people, and animals. They love to live in damp, warm places, and many fungi are not dangerous in healthy people. An example of something caused by fungi is athlete's foot, that itchy rash that teens and adults sometimes get between their toes.

Protozoa (say: pro-toh-zoh-uh) are one-cell organisms that love moisture and often spread diseases through water. Some protozoa cause intestinal infections that lead to diarrhea, nausea, and belly pain.

2. Pass out salt dough or make salt dough with kids.Pass out cardboard. Let the kids squeeze and manipulate the clay and then place it on top of the cardboard. While they are making the germs, they can be thinking about what kind of germs they are, what they do and what their name could be.

3. Let the students add pipe cleaners, buttons, pasta, googly eyes etc. by pushing them into the clay. Show them how to bend or curl the pipe cleaners or even put buttons onto them.

4. Have the kids give their germs names

5. If there is time, give the kids paper and have them draw their germs. They can label the parts (eyes, arms...) and add the names.

6. When the kids are done a few of them can present their sculptures to the rest of the class.

01 November - Graph Paper Patterns

Objectives

• Students will use the pre-printed lines on a sheet of graph paper as a template for creating their own patterns, therefore following a simple pre-defined structure

• Students will use a ruler as an art tool (straightedge) and also as a measuring tool

• Students will apply the design elements of color, shape and repetition to create patterns

• Students will apply geometry and simple chart making skills to produce visually intriguing pieces, connecting mathematic principles of patterning with visual patterning

Materials

Graph Paper, size 8.5" x 11", grid size 4 squares per inch

Ruler

Markers

Pencils

Markers

Process

1.Have students use rulers to divide a sheet of graph paper into nine sections with a graphite pencil. They should draw two vertical lines and two horizontal lines, placing them wherever they wish.

2. Have students choose one section at a time and make their own color selections. Assign one pattern at a time either by drawing an enlarged example of it on the board or showing a pre-drawn piece of paper. Examples:

Small Checks: Line 1: 1 square color, skip a square. Line 2: skip a square, 1 square color. Repeat.

Medium Checks: Line 1: 2 squares color, skip 2 square squares. Line 2: same. Line 3: skip 2 squares, 2 squares color. Repeat.

Small Stripes: Line 1: all squares color. Line 2: all squares another color. Repeat.

Varied Stripes: Line 1, 2 and 3 all squares color. Line 4: all squares another color. Repeat.

3. Instruct the students with pre-defined patterns for the first six sections. For the remaining three areas, have students try to make up their own patterns and invite them to describe how they created it line by line, square by square.

4. Mount the finished drawings on black matboard to display.

02 October - Hieroglyph Printing

Hieroglyphs are part of a system of picture writing called hieroglyphics. When picture writing first began, the pictures represented the actual object they depicted. These were called pictograms. For example, a picture of a sun within a family scene signified that the sun was part of that scene. Later, pictures came to represent ideas, so that if you saw a sun in a scene, it might symbolize not only the sun, but also daytime, warmth, or light. These were known as ideograms.

Finally, the pictures began to represent not only the appearance of an object and related ideas, but also the sound of a spoken word used to it describe it. Sun, then, might also mean son, or be part of the word Sunday. So each picture took on a unique sound that could be used to form thoughts and ideas.

Objective: To make printing tools

To practice printmaking process

To reinforce cross-curriculum learning about the importance of tool making and the development of written language on ancient cultures

materials:

foam sheets acrylic paint foam or paint brushes tacky glue

brown craft paper thin cardboard or tag board strips rulers pencils

process:

-introduce lesson with discussion on hieroglyphics

- see included background material. Explain that they will be creating hieroglyphs which are pictograms or ideograms with tools that they will create themselves.

- students will wrinkle and tear edges of craft paper to make them appear aged.Can use sponged on light brown paint on edges to further distress.

- Students will make vertical lines on paper with pencil and ruler to form columns for hieroglyphs.

-students will create hieroglyph stamps by cutting shapes out of foam and affixing them with glue to folded strips of cardboard as shown below:

-students will create at least 4 hieroglyphs

-students will print these on their craft paper in vertical columns by painting stamp with acrylic paint and pressing down on paper. Will alternate symbols to give appearance of being hieroglyphic message

-wrap up and clean up

03 December - Typography Collage

6th Grade 

Objectives:

Introduce collage as a means of visual expression.

Incorporate elements and principles of design

Students will create an original artwork incorporating typography,or the use of images to create words

2.4 Create increasingly complex original works of art reflecting personal choices and increased technical skill.

2.5 Select specific media and processes to express moods, feelings, themes, or ideas.

4.1 Construct and describe plausible interpretations of what they perceive in works of art.

4.2 Identify and describe ways in which their culture is being reflected in current works of art.

Materials: 

magazines 

scissors 

glue

glue brushes if using glue in tubs 

black and white construction paper 

black sharpies 

samples of typographic collage

Procedure: 

-introduce topic of typography

definition:

a. The art and technique of printing with movable type.

b. The composition of printed material from movable type. 

c. The arrangement and appearance of printed matter. 

- discuss interaction between text and art (books, art posters, advertisements, work by artists such as Jasper Johns) 

-show samples of typography collages and ask them to describe what they see, what they think the artist was trying to express, how and why they think the artist used type, What the artwork is reflecting about our culture,etc. 

-instruct students to think about what they want to convey in their work. Then students should plan and execute a collage by using cut images , words, and letters from magazines, which they will arrange and glue onto black or white construction paper to create an original artwork. Students may also use black sharpie if desired to add to their piece.

-Students who are willing should share completed work and discuss their vision

January- Chalk Fruit Drawing

objective: to learn to create illusion of dimensionality using color and shading. To learn techniques of working with colored chalk pastels

materials:

-variety of fruit, at least a few pieces per table

-black construction paper, 8 1⁄2 by 11” or similar

- pencils (optional)

-chalk pastels

-paper towels for blending

- art prints depicting fruit

Process:

- begin by discussing displayed prints: ask what colors they see in a given piece of fruit,ask them to look at the work close up and see if they find any surprising colors, ask them to describe how artists made the fruit look 3-d

-look at real fruit on table, put fruit on colored paper to best show shadow: discuss light source, and how this forms a highlight and a shadow on each object

- discuss creating tints and shades with chalk

-demonstrate how to sketch first with light color chalk ( they can use pencil if they are not comfortable with not being able to erase, but chalk is preferable,) how to build up layers of color, how to blend, how to create highlight and shadow. Also talk about complementary colors, and that when shading with chalk, blending in a little of the complementary color is very effective.

- each student will then choose one piece of fruit to sketch, and begin sketching. Encourage them to make the fruit larger than life, filling a large portion of their page. They can color the rest of the paper the color of their choice, but should leave a thin line of black showing around their fruit to make it pop.

-display work on board gallery style, and if you have time discuss how they felt about process, and have positive critique of work.