Footprint Introduction

The footprint projects that we did were to introduce ourselves to the class to get to know each other better and to start the class off. On the footprint, we had to use at least three different types of media to create things that represent us and describe us. The entire footprint was supposed to be filled, so it was very cool to see what each person is like in our class.

This project was very fun to do and it reminds me of all the things that I love, my hobbies, and favorite foods! On my footprint, I included a basketball as well as a #32 NSU jersey because I play basketball at Northern and love that! I have two hearts on there to represent my love for my family/friends as well as to represent Valentine’s Day/February because my birthday is the day after Valentine’s Day. There is a cupcake and donuts on my footprint because I love sweets and baking them! I put a “TC” logo for my favorite team: the Minnesota Twins. There is also an airplane on my foot because I love to travel and go on vacations. Finally, I put waves and a swimsuit to represent my love for summer and going to the lake/beach. My footprint describes me perfectly and I loved creating it!

This footprint introduction is something I will definitely do in my classroom. It’s such a great way for people to get to know each other, especially when they will be together for a whole year. An extension activity for this would be to not only create your footprint of yourself but to write a story in Language Arts to explain what is on your footprint, rather than just saying it to the class; I think that would be fun, so students can describe each element they included about themselves even further!

Beadwork-lesson #9

For Hayley and Rachael’s lesson, it was called beadwork. Each student had either a red or pink piece of construction paper. We used that paper to cut out a heart. They explained to us that we were going to be making bracelets for our moms for Mother’s Day, using beads. We would be making the beads out of strips of magazine. There were four different ways to make the beads and we had to make sure we had a certain pattern with the beads. I chose a color/white pattern to use.

After we created the bead, by folding it over a wooden dowel, we put a little bit of glue on to hold it together. Then, we put the beads on a piece of string. We continued that process until our piece of string was filled up, and then we tied it to complete our bracelet. We used our hearts that we cut out to write why we love our moms and then we signed our name. I wrote I love my mom because she encourages me and always supports me and comes to my basketball games.

An extension activity would be to create a friendship bracelet for another student maybe at a different class in the same town or out of town; kind of like a pen pal. Each student can be paired up with a student from a different class and they can make bracelets for each other and even write letters to tell about themselves and explain their bracelets.

Modern Art-lesson #8

For Charlie and Shannon’s lesson, it was for fourth grade and titled Modern Art. We started off by rolling clay into a flat slab using a rolling pin. We could then cut any face shape out of that clay that we wanted to. We used a clay tool or a pencil to make four separate sections in our clay face. After we sectioned the face off into four parts, we had to make different textures in each of those parts. After that, we then used our extra clay from cutting out the face shape to make any eyes, nose, and mouth that we wanted to for our face.

After creating the eyes, nose, and mouth, we had to keep each of those things on the face. To do this, we used a technique called scoring and slipping. Scoring is making different texture marks on the face and back of the eyes, nose, and mouth. Slipping is taking a little bit of water on your finger and placing that on both scored areas, so the two pieces of clay stick together. We put the eyes, nose, and mouth on by those two techniques. After that, we painted the entire face with black paint. When the paint and clay dried (after a few days), we could paint our faces using whatever colors we wanted. For my face, I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple!

An extension activity would be for students to create a story in Language Arts class about their mask; almost like it is a real face/alive! This would be cool because everyone’s faces are different and the students could be really creative with it!

Science in Art: Seasons-lesson #7

For Kara and Kelsey’s lesson, it was for 2^nd grade titled Science in Art: Seasons. We started off the lesson by taking half of a brown piece of paper and traced part of our arm and hand on the paper. This piece will be our tree trunk for either a winter or fall tree that we are creating. We then cut out our tree trunk. After that, we took our background piece of colored paper and put our name on the back. I chose a light blue piece of paper to do a winter tree.

We took our tree trunk and crumpled it up a little bit to create a textured look and then glued it onto our piece of paper. Kara and Kelsey did a great job of modeling how you can create your tree; either using tissue paper or cotton balls. They showed us how we could gently pull apart the cotton balls to create snow or clouds as well as using a pencil eraser to create leaves using the tissue paper. We then were allowed to go ahead and create either our winter or fall trees using those techniques that they demonstrated. When we were done with our trees, we had to add a background. We finally could put finishing touches on our trees such as: glitter, a landscape, snowmen, leaves, snow, etc. For my winter tree, I used cotton balls to make the tree and also used cotton balls on the bottom of the page to create snow. I also used dark blue glitter to make snowflakes and silver to make some snow on the ground.

An extension activity for this could be in a science lesson about trees. Maybe you are learning about different trees and the students can create projects like this one. After they create their tree, they could write a story about the tree and how they created it.

A box of crayons-lesson #6

For Ellen and Megan’s lesson, it was for first grade titled a box of crayons. We started off by playing a game called trading places. The teachers had different questions that they asked and if it applied to us, we had to switch places with someone else in the room. We did this multiple times; the idea of this was to explain about diversity and that everyone is different and it’s good to be different, otherwise things would be boring.

Then, we took a big piece of white construction paper and folded it into thirds hamburger style. For the first part at the top, we had to be creative and draw a crazy/fun head. It was cool to not have to worry about drawing a human head; you could come up with anything you wanted! After that, we passed our papers to the right and the next person had to draw a body. They couldn’t look at what the head looked like. For the third section, which was at the bottom, we passed our papers again to the right and that person had to draw some legs. Then, we turned our papers in and the teachers held each one up. They looked like crazy creatures but it was funny to see what everyone came up with! Finally, we took a piece of paper that had a big crayon on it and colored it and designed it as something to represent us. I used all of the colors that are my favorite on there and I also drew a picture of myself with a big smile because I love to smile and be happy! I also wrote NSU and drew a basketball on my crayon because that’s where I go to school and play basketball.

For an extension activity, students could write a story about their crayon that they drew of themselves. They could also write a story of the “creature” that they drew. If they did a story about the creature that they drew, they could come up with a fun name for it and where it lives, etc.

Crayon Engraving and Scratchboard "Scratch Art"-Mother's Day-lesson #5

For Ashley and Whitney’s lesson, it was for 4^th grade and called crayon engraving and scratchboard “Scratch Art”-Mother’s Day. This was a great lesson and a very fun activity! Each student started off by coloring a piece of sturdy cardstock with crayons. The teachers really emphasized how important it was to press down very hard with the crayons. After we had our whole piece of cardstock colored with crayon, we used black tempera paint and detergent mixture to coat the whole piece of cardstock and the crayon. We then let our cardstock dry as we listened to the PowerPoint the teachers had for us.

After that, we had an unscramble worksheet about Mother’s Day that we worked on. After that, we took a piece of regular paper the same size as our cardstock and folded it in half the hamburger way to create a card. We practiced drawing things on that card, to create one for our moms for Mother’s Day. After we drew our card sketches, we turned the paper over and shaded where our words/pictures were on the other side. Then, we traced over our words/pictures again with a hard pencil onto the scratchboard that had the paint on it. As long as we pressed down hard enough, you could see where our pencil marks were. We then used a sharpened wood stick to go over those pencil marks and the paint scratched off. It was so cool to see the colors from the crayon show up under the black paint. It was really pretty. We finally folded the cardstock in half hamburger style and that was our card! We also put a piece of paper glued inside the card and wrote a nice message to our moms.

An extension activity for this would be to do this project for any holiday. You can use this method to make any cards or even invitations. I think it would be cool to use as a way to make invitations for parents for a school concert, science fair, conferences, track & field day, etc!

Masks-lesson #4

For Hannah and Justin’s lesson, it was for 3^rd grade and titled masks. Each student received a paper plate with two hole punches on each side. Then, we picked a color out of about four different colors and painted the entire back of the paper plate with that color. We let them dry as we listened to a PowerPoint presented by the teachers. The rest of the time, we were allowed to decorate our masks after they dried. The teachers did a great job modeling how to make different things such as a nose and hair as well as multiple examples of what you could do and use to decorate your mask. I liked using the glitter on my mask because I love sparkly things such as glitter! The main color of my mask was orange. Finally, we used string and put it through the two punch holes, so if we wanted to wear the masks, they would stay on!

An extension activity would be that students could make these masks and talk about a certain tribe and write about what that tribe uses masks for or what they represent in their social studies class. Some tribes decorate them certain ways and have really interesting stories behind what these masks represent and stand for. It would be cool for the students to wear their masks as they present their information that they found!

 

Holiday Printmaking-lesson #3

For Jessica and Rebecca’s lesson, it was for 2^nd grade and it was called Holiday Printmaking. Each student selected five pieces of construction paper. We practiced drawing different holiday scenes on pieces of paper. Then, we chose one of our scenes and drew it on a foam tray with our pencil. We had to use the whole area of the tray but had to make sure we emphasized one part of the scene. On the other foam tray, we drew a design using different shapes. After that, we went over to the paint area. We used rollers to roll paint onto the tray design. We flipped the design, paint side down, onto the middle of one of the pieces of construction paper “frames” and pressed down the tray to make sure the design transferred. Then we peeled off the foam tray and placed the print on the drying rack to dry. We did this five times and picked out our three favorite pieces.

The three that I chose to keep were two of my Halloween scenes and one of my scenes that had shapes and lines on it. An extension activity for this would be to make cards for a certain day (Mother’s/Father’s day, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Birthday, etc.). The students could take their time and make sure they have a really good idea, especially if it is a card for someone special.

 

Using Your Imagination-lesson #2

For Tristen and Lauren’s lesson, it was for 4^th graders and it was called Using Your Imagination. We partnered up and both partners drew a line on our paper then traced that line in permanent marker. We switched papers then decided what we could create that line into. After we made that main object, we had to sketch a background using shapes, a landscape, or a scene. We did this twice with our partner and had to decide which sketch we liked the best to use as our final project. We finished coloring the one that we liked best and we had to use three types of medium to finish our final project. Finally, we created a background and put our name on the front.

I used my line to create a volcanic eruption and thought of it as being one that took place in Hawaii with all of the melting rock and lava. An extension activity would be that you could be in a social studies or science class and have the students do the same thing with drawing the line and trying to figure out a picture to go with it. For this one though, you could give them a specific theme: for example in science, maybe they have to create a piece of lab equipment or an insect with their line and add a background/scene.

Easter Egg Painting-My group's lesson-lesson #1

For my group’s peer taught lesson, we had painting as our topic. Everything turned out great and it was very fun to teach with two other people! Our lesson was titled Easter Egg Painting and was for Kindergarteners. We started off having the students go on an Easter Egg Hunt throughout the classroom to find one plastic egg each. After that, we each explained the elements of design and information on our PowerPoint. We explained to the students that they would each be painting three Easter eggs. Then, we demonstrated different lines, shapes, and patterns that they could use to create their eggs.

The students used a scratch piece of paper to practice eggs that have lines, shapes, and colors as well as patterns on them. When the students used their egg templates to cut out three eggs, they drew different lines, shapes, and patterns on them for their final designs before they painted their eggs. In each plastic egg that the students found during the egg hunt, there was a colored piece of paper in each. They had to use that color on each of their three eggs as well as other warm/cool colors. One egg had to be created using lines, one using shapes, and the other using color.

Finally at the end, the students used a notecard to write which color they had inside of their plastic egg and what other colors they used and why they chose them. We used the lettering “Have an egg-cellent Easter” on our bulletin board and put all of the student’s eggs on the board inside a big basket and around it!

An extension activity would be that students could use the Easter theme that we did with the painted eggs and egg hunt to write a story in Language Arts and tell about their Easter plans or experiences.

Hidden Safari Picture

For our hidden safari picture, we started off by using a light blue pencil to draw any safari animal on a white piece of paper. We chose our safari animal from a packet that we received from our teacher. When we drew the animal, we drew it upside down and didn’t press very hard with the pencil. After we drew the animal, we took crayons using warm colors to draw different patterns over the animal drawing. I used yellow, orange, red, and magenta to draw four different patterns over the animal. After that, we mounted our white piece of paper onto a colored piece of paper.

 

The idea of drawing different patterns using warm colors over the animal drawing was because when you hold the picture up an arms length away, you didn’t want to be able to tell what animal that you drew or be able to see the picture. That’s why we also made red goggles/glasses using grafix clear lay film. We used these glasses to look at the pictures; we were able to see the animal clearly through the patterns when we used the glasses. It was really neat and fun!

 

An extension activity for this project could be to use this when talking about animals or life cycles of an animal during a science class. The students could pick a certain animal to draw as well as include some more information depending on what they are learning about them in science class. It’s a fun activity, especially when you get to use the glasses; kids really get into it and they think the glasses are “magical”.

Eric Karle Inspired Collages

For our Eric Karle Inspired Collages, we had to create a layout for a storybook that was based on the artwork by Eric Karle. We first had to choose a certain character and decide on the scene of a story. Then, we sketched the scene and character on a piece of 12x18 scratch paper.  

We created paste paper by taking a piece of white construction paper and mixing different colors and designs/textures on the piece of paper until the whole thing was covered. We let those colored paste papers dry. We used different colored paste papers to cut out the shapes of the character/scene from our scratch paper.

When all the shapes were cut out, we then laid them all down on a piece of construction paper and assembled our collage. After that, we had to glue all the pieces down. Finally, along with the character and scene on the piece of construction paper, we had to write a caption that would be on that page of the storybook!

I think a good extension activity for this would be to do something similar with the character and the scene. You could have your students choose any scene and character just like we did with this project. I do like the idea of doing a layout based on an artist but something different could be that the students could use pieces or strips from a magazine to put over the shapes of the character and scene. That would be really different and cool to see all of the colors and designs that you could come up with!

Van Gogh Inspired Collage

 

        This project is a landscape collage that I created using tissue paper. This project was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night painting. For this project, I first picked out different sizes, shapes, and colors of tissue paper. I laid those pieces on a black piece of construction paper. After that, I took a gel medium and painted that over the whole paper to help the tissue paper stick. This gave it a glossy finish. After that, I used blue construction paper and cut out buildings that looked like a city landscape. Then, I used a silver sharpie marker to create many different lines on the gel medium and on the buildings. These lines with movement represented Van Gogh's style!

 

        An extension activity that you could do with something like this is have each student pick an artist and do a project similar to this one; such as using lines with movement to represent the artist's style. Also, students could share their project they created based on their artist then give a few facts or a short presentation on why they used the specific lines, colors, patterns, etc. that they did, based on their artist.

 

CHAPTERS 20-22 ART HISTORY:

        After reading chapters 20-22 on art history, I think there are alot of great ideas that you could use in your classroom to incorporate art history. One of the ideas that I really liked when I read about it was in chapter 21 when it talked about presentations on an Artist's life. I think these would be fun to do; students could even do them with partners. They would be interesting because then the students could create a piece of artwork, that resembles their artist's style to help explain them to the class. Also, chapter 21 has alot of art history vocabulary words. Students could each take a word; define/explain it and then create artwork based on that word or that represents that word. This gives students the opportunity to learn different words or about artists that they may not have known about before!

5 pictures of elements/principles of design

This picture is an example of the element lines. It is of a track. The lines on the track are white and some are straight, curved, or dashed.



This picture shows the principle pattern. It is of wallpaper. You can see the pattern of the different colored moons and stars that repeat eachother on the wallpaper.

This picture represents the principle of balance. It is a photo of a picture frame that hangs on a wall. The picture shows balance because if you would cut the picture frame in half either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, both sides would be the exact same and would represent symmetrical balance.

This is an example of the element texture. It is taken of the tiles on the floor of a bathroom. The texture is mainly smooth; the cracks of the tiles make it bumpy.

This picture is an example of the element value. It is taken of one of my purses. This picture has different lights and darks and it’s easy to see the value change on the purse between the white and black colors.