I just worked in Mrs.Spatz classroom and Miss Larrinaga's classroom.

In the sixth grade class we did wire sculpting.  I went and bought a 100 feet of wire and cut it into 3-4 foot lengths so all the students could have an equal amount.  I think they liked it.  Something that I learned was that I should have come in with a few examples.  I did make a few while I was with them.  This class was assigned to make a wire sculpture that had something to do with Halloween.  There did turn out to be some spiders that were neat and a few pumpkins.

In the third grade class I made a giant cardboard house and painted it black.  The house had 20 windows and one door cut out of it.  Each student was assigned to make one figure/sihlouette to put in the windows and doors.  I had a few extra students that were not assigned a window so I put them into designing what they wanted to put in front of the house or in the sky.  I will post a picture of how it turned out as soon as I get one.  I really liked this project.  I think the kids loved it too.  It was fun to see what a whole class made in one piece.  Thanks for the idea Mrs. Spatz!

Haunted House Shapes

In my time in the class room this month we are going to be making a haunted house with many silhouettes in the windows and in the sky.  In thinking about the design for a haunted house, I went to google images and found myself some fun examples.  We are going to use one of the class room doors to decorate, so this will be a large class contribution.  I just though I would post this if anyone would like to use it as well.
Thank you for your time today.

Simple Squares

Who is that you see in the picture above? 

If you guessed President Abraham Lincoln you are right. 

I like the idea that you can create a picture of someone with just simple squares.

You notice that the picture is all black, gray and white.

Wouldn't it be fun to divide a sheet of white paper into squares and have the children shade each square in a way to make a picture of something?  I wonder what they would decide to make.  Or maybe we could give them a picture of their teacher or an apple or a flag on a flagpole. 

Shape is something that can be so simple. 

Have fun.

Silhouettes

This lesson I found in a book I have titled Paste, Pencils, Scissors and Crayons. 

You need:

• two pieces of paper of contrasting colors (one or both of which could be black and/or white, but needn't be.)
• Scrap pieces in the same contrasting colors
• pencil
• scissors
• glue

A silhouette lesson is fun and highly decorative BUT it is not an easy lesson to present without a few sample silhouettes to use as examples.  So before you try to introduce the silhouette concept, I would highly recommend that you take the time to locate some samples or better yet, make a few yourself.

When teaching how to do a silhouette, rememer these basic ideas....

1. Silhouettes need a low groundline.

2. Some views make better silhouettes than others-with people and animals, sideviews are generally better.   Some complicated things like houses are best translated into simple views. You can't really put much detail into a silhouette.

3. Also point out to your class that silhouettes can be just as easily done with white on black as with black on white. 

4. When you have finished paving the way, turn your class loose on a silhouette of their own invention.  The results will delight you.

Halloween time is a very popular time to do silhouettes.  Just think of all the cats, bats, ghosts, haunted houses, witch profile in the moon, & jack-o-lanterns.  I think it would even be cool to do a few leaves at the end of a small branch for fall, or a side view of a turkey for thanksgiving.

Good luck!

Great Examples

The Gray Tree by Piet Mondrian

"Negative space need not be boring.  This tree is a great example of that.  Mondrian attracts our attention  to the negative areas with this brushwork, an makes these shapes as much the subject of the painting as the form of the tree."
-Design Basics

By Piet Mondrian

This piece by Piet Mondrian is a fun example of shape.  If you think your students would like to do something like this the book How to Teach Art to Children has instructions on how to do so on pages 112 & 113.

     The Violin by Juan Gris

This piece of the Violin is excellent to show what shape can do in art.  Notice the amount of rectangles.  Then just by using the one object with rounded sides (the violin) he makes that his focal point. It is the first thing your eye looks at. How simple.

These three drawings by Gorges Seurat are demonstrating three types of positive/negative shapes with shading.  If you are interested in teaching a little more on this type of an idea, I would be happy to help you out, just let me know.

Negative Space Leaves

Go to this link to find out how to do this fun leaf assignment.

Leaf Silhouettes by Robert A. Sloan

Negative Shape/Space Lesson

Today I am going to give you plenty of examples of what this is.

When I first started teaching students about negative shape I would use my hands as an example.   

After making a heart shape with my hands I asked them what they shape they could see.

Changing my hands position I asked them what they now could see.

Heart and Heart should have been the answers.

Negative shape in art is a lot like that. 

The artist works on the space around the shape that they would like you to really see.  Usually in the negative shape or space there is no drawing or coloring.  It is just a blank space.

Can you see the vase?  Now can you see the man's profile in the negative space?
The vase is the postitive space and the profiles are in the negative space.

In this example what is the negative space?  The cat or the dog?
The dog is the positive space and the cat is the negative space.

This is another example of negative shape/space.  The 2 & 3 are the negative space but they are very easy to see.  Can you see how those numbers are part of the background?  The space around any object being painted or drawn is negative space.

The black cat in this picture is in the negative space, because it part of the background.

The picture of this girl is an excellent example of positive and negative shapes.  

If you follow this link it could teach you a little more about shape.

This is a famous logo that uses negative space.  

The peacocks neck and beak are what you see as negative shape.

This chair has negative space of a very comfortable chair, but the actual sitting of the chair may be very uncomfortable.

The great challenge now is to try to get your students to use negative space in their art.  

I have posted an example of a haunted house that I did with a third grade class last year. 

Scroll down and check it out.

"Lines create the outline of shapes.  Each time a line outlines a shape, it is really creating two images: the positive one and a negative one." -How to Teach Art to Children


If you were to think about maybe what a negative shape would be, what would you see?

Resources

If you Art Moms are feeling like I am not able to give you enough resources, don't forget that in the Little Red School House at the school I have put a book to give you all more help.  I just ask one thing, Please put it back when you are through with it so that others may have the opportunity to utilize it if they need.  Thank you.  I posted a picture of it so that you may know what it looks like when you go to look for it.

         I love this book.  It has given me tons and tons of ideas of how to teach art to kids.  And everything is written so that it was easy for me to go and teach.  I also love the many, many, many pictures in it so that I can understand what they are talking about.  Good luck and have fun!

Halloween Negative Shape

 Last year I worked with a third grade class and in October we did a fun Shape activity.    First I taught the kids about positive and negative shapes (I will post a lesson on that in a bit.) then we made a haunted house using that concept.  I gave each child three pieces of  construction paper, one large black (house), one large purple (background), and 1/2 of an orange piece (accents, i.e. pumpkin, ghost, moon). I had a lot of fun seeing what each child produced and all of the pieces looked pretty scary.  I think the kids were pretty impressed with their work as well!

This was my example I showed them.

The door, sidewalk, and grass are all negative shape/space.  The moon, cat, house, ghost and pumpkin are all positive shapes/space.

Shape Assignment Ideas

This month my emphasis is the art element of Shape.  I have a couple of very simple ideas. 

#1. Give each child a white piece of construction paper and a simple shape (I used a circle).  The assignment is to incorporate the shape into a drawing.  Glue down the circle where ever they would like then draw a picture with the circle as part of the drawing. Some examples would be an eyeball, the top of an ice cream cone, the cener of a flower, a tire on a car, the head of a bird, the sun, a clock in a classroom.  I encouraged the students to try to fill the whole page as much with color as they could, usually great art doesn't have a lot of white.

The green machine

A Castle and a Happy Face.  Artist, my five-year-old daughter

 

#2. Give each child a large dark blue piece of construction paper, a large orange piece,  and a half a piece of yellow.  Have the children cut out the shapes of  a jack-o-lantern (orange the pumpkin, yellow the eyes, nose and mouth, and the blue for the background.) then glue to the blue.  Create some fun texture with line as you have the children use a crayon to draw one continuous line around the eyes, nose and mouth. They are not allowed to cross over a line, but may make a U-turn and go another direction.  Fill up the pumkin with line. 

 

#3.  Using leaves have the children create a shape like in assignment #1 and create a halloween/autumn scene. 

 

#4.  I think it would be fun with an older group of children to bring in a long piece of butcher paper and ask them to create a mural with many shapes.  Get the class divided into groups and give 2 shapes per group and an area on the butcher paper they are assigned.  Give them an over all theme to use for the mural and see what is created.  This would be fun just to see what team work can create. 

 

Remember to encourage them to think of their own ideas, not to copy their neighbor.  Art has no wrong answers so cheating would just be silly.  Also remember that if you are excited, they will be excited.  Thanks for your hard work and time.  Have fun!

 

-Camille

 

If you have any other fun ideas let me know so that we can all  share together.

Thanks again.

One Continuous Line Drawing

On Friday I had the opportunity to go into a classroom to teach some art. This class was a class of sixth graders, and I have never taught that age before. I was hoping that I could interest them and yet challenge them at the same time. I was super thankful that I went into a class with a teacher who was willing to let me use her smart board to log into the blog so that I could show some examples of line to the students.
I decided to start with a warm up activity. I gave them each a sheet of paper and had them divide it into quarters. Then I wrote six adjectives on the board and had them choose four. Then they had to draw an expressive line that felt like it was descriptive to the adjective. I think it worked pretty good, because it got their minds open and ready for the real assignment.
Getting a partner was then next step I asked them to follow. I asked them to draw their partner with one continuous line. They only had about 5-7 minutes each. Each group had one person pose first, and the other person draw then they had to switch so that the other person could draw. I was quite impressed with how wonderfully they did on this. I did have to go around and remind them not to take their pencils off the paper. Some kids I even gave them a new paper, because they were not following directions at all. Unfortunately there will always be some who decide to just not really try at all and will just be silly the whole time. I have found that the older the kids the less likely I am able to get ALL the kids to really WANT to participate. Luckily, that is just a seldom few.
Since I gave that assignment on Friday, I decided to try it out myself on Saturday. I used one of my kids as a model.
I really quite enjoyed myself. I think my son enjoyed seeing the result. Maybe one day he will let me draw him again.On Friday I had the opportunity to go into a classroom to teach some art. This class was a class of sixth graders, and I have never taught that age before. I was hoping that I could interest them and yet challenge them at the same time. I was super thankful that I went into a class with a teacher who was willing to let me use her smart board to log into the blog so that I could show some examples of line to the students.
I decided to start with a warm up activity. I gave them each a sheet of paper and had them divide it into quarters. Then I wrote six adjectives on the board and had them choose four. Then they had to draw an expressive line that felt like it was descriptive to the adjective. I think it worked pretty good, because it got their minds open and ready for the real assignment.
Getting a partner was then next step I asked them to follow. I asked them to draw their partner with one continuous line. They only had about 5-7 minutes each. Each group had one person pose first, and the other person draw then they had to switch so that the other person could draw. I was quite impressed with how wonderfully they did on this. I did have to go around and remind them not to take their pencils off the paper. Some kids I even gave them a new paper, because they were not following directions at all. Unfortunately there will always be some who decide to just not really try at all and will just be silly the whole time. I have found that the older the kids the less likely I am able to get ALL the kids to really WANT to participate. Luckily, that is just a seldom few.






Since I gave that assignment on Friday, I decided to try it out myself on Saturday. I used one of my kids as a model.
I really quite enjoyed myself. I think my son enjoyed seeing the result. Maybe one day he will let me draw him again.

Wire

A fun idea to use in the classroom that would help the students understand a bit more on how important line is, is to use wire.

.  

Artist Alexander Calder

I have personally had a lot of fun using wire in multiple projects.  When I was up at college, I was in an art class and a girl had used different colored wire to make a picture of a face.  I was so intrigued!

Artist Polly Verity

A few years later I decided that I would get the guts up to try to wire sculpt myself.  I tried not to cut my wire too much as I thought it would be much more fun to use one continuous line to design an object.  The result was so fun.  I made many animals with swirly, springy looking wire.  

Made by Stefan, a wire sculpture out of paper clips?

All you mothers out there have used pipe cleaners I am sure.  

You could simply buy a package or two of pipe cleaners and give the class an assignment of sculpting an animal, or a flower, or even their neighbor.  

How simple is that?  Can you imagine how excited they would get while working with that? I can.

If I were working with younger children I would most definately suggest using pipe cleaners, but if you are going with an older age, why not go to the hardware store and just ask for a coil of wire.  They have a variety of it and it is fairly inexpensive.  You would just need to be aware that the thicker the wire the more difficult it will be to bend, thus the use of tools (like pliers) may be needed.  If you go with the wire, just cut it into equal amounts before going into the classroom and maybe be prepared with a simple example for your pupils to get an idea from.