Tell me a story - story telling through art

The Widow, Botero 1997

The Getty Museum has some great resources for teachers. Here is one of their ideas- have your kids make up a story about the famous image above. You can use any image of your choice, I chose this Botero because  my kids love his style of characters.

Here are some questions to get your child started

:Where is this story taking place?
:Who is the story about?
:What is the name of the cat?

Here are some story prompts

:Ernesto always wanted to play with the kitty, but today Mama said no. They were going to the...
:Sara quietly sat on the floor next to her Mama, she was thinking about...
:Max spotted something shiny on top of the table, he moved a little closer to look at it, and then...
:Molly was a plump and fuzzy cat who loved her family very much. On Saturdays Molly would always...

image: http://rebrooksblog.com/tag/botero/

watercolor drip paintings

I think drip paintings are lovely because they remind me of rain on a window. Kids think drip paintings are nice because they get to watch the colors race to the end. Either way, it's a win win. 

happy election day!

Election Day is finally here and if you're like me, you're happy this election cycle has come to an end. We were inundated with emails, phone calls and flyers! Now we have a pile of flyers, asking us to vote for this proposition or that candidate, piled up high on our kitchen table. Usually I'd throw them in the recycle bin and forget about them, but this year, I saw potential in those flyers, potential for some projects.

Here are a few that I came up with, I'm sure you can think of even more! (Try it, it's quite therapeutic cutting up all those mailers!)

rain clouds

As Longfellow said "into each life a little rain must fall," and so begins our November. I must say, I love the rain. One thing I find the Bay Area lacks are the beautiful rain storms that come in the summer in the Southwest and the East Coast. Lightening and thunder are rare here and when it does rain, it's often quite gentle. Perhaps other Bay Area residents disagree with me, but I'd take a red sunset after a summer monsoon any day!

This morning Max and I sat down to celebrate the rain by making rain clouds. He's still a little young for most aspects of this project, so I ended up helping him with quite a bit of it. I think any four year old and up would be able complete this on their own, with some adult guidance.

After we were finished we hung it up in his room and he started to sing "rain, rain go away."  It reminded me of how magical rain can be to a young child. I had to make a mental note - get out and play in the rain while it lasts! Which we're going to do right after school today!

How do you spend your rainy days? Do you LOVE the rain or hate it?

papel picado

Do you celebrate Dia De Los Muertos? Growing up in the Southwest there were sugar skulls and papel picado everywhere around November 1st and 2nd. We even had an amazing All Souls Procession where people came dressed up as skeletons with beautiful flowers in their hair. I find Dia De Los Muertos to be a wonderful way to remember your loved ones who have passed. 

The art that goes along with this holiday is also quite colorful and fun to make. This morning Max watched as I cut out papel picado with skulls and flowers on it. We then decided to roll one long strip up and make a temporary candle decoration. Papel picado is a great project for any child who knows how to use scissors, younger children can also make some great creations, with a little help. 

Check out what we made...

standing owls

Yesterday a parent brought in some rodent skins for the kids to check out while they study mammals. 

(I should note - she works for the department of public health, so it's not terribly bizarre that she had a glass case of rodents). Those little creatures reminded me, I haven't really done any owl crafts this Halloween! (Yes, that's the connection I made). So I decided we'd lay off mummies for a while and get on to other things. 

Now shake that image of rodent skins out of your mind and focus on the craft at hand. 

This morning I made little stand up owls, that would look cute as a table centerpiece or sitting in the window. We even used tea instead of paint to try something a little different. 

Check it out!

how to draw a mummy, in eight steps

We all saw this coming right? First there was the vampire, now the mummy. My students are really loving these mini drawing booklets, especially since they're Halloween themed. Although explaining to four year olds what a mummy actually is - that can get tricky. 

Perhaps you'll have better luck when it comes to explaining ancient burial rituals. That aside, please enjoy "How to Draw a Mummy" using basic shapes. 

Halloween tissue paper cut outs

 As promised, a Halloween craft. These  cut outs are pretty easy for older kids (say 4 and up). Younger kids can still have fun, with a little adult help. 

In efforts to make our cut outs a little more decorative I used wrapping paper, you, of course, can use whatever you'd like. Check out the "how to" for more.

a vampire, in eight steps

The "How to Draw a Bear" project seemed to be a hit. So I thought I'd post a Halloween themed one as a special treat for your Friday.  Here's "How to Draw a Vampire" using basic shapes. 

PS

Please let me know if you have any problem downloading the file and I can email it to you directly.

encouraging independence through art

At work I often have a group of 8-12 kids doing an art project at once. Depending on the project, this can be a bit overwhelming at times. So I decided to make two art stations, one where I would work with the kids on the day's project and be available to help them if they needed it, and another where the children could select their own art project and work independently.

I change out this independent station on a monthly basis, to keep the projects fresh and the children interested. I really like how it encourages them to work on their own, and because each activity is different they are free to create something completely original without the "everybody draws a rainbow" effect, that occasionally happens.

Here's what our independent station is made up of this month:

Chalk art. (This cute owl chalk board was in the dollar bin at Target!)

Left over scraps of paper, glue and small pieces of cardboard. (Put a magnet on the back for some cute fridge art.)

Make your own mask. Perfect for Halloween! (Masks can be found at: Galison.com)

Watercolor painting. The children are encouraged to get their own water and rinse their brush when finished. 

painted pumpkins

I've got about a thousand and one things to do to get ready for the Mini Maker Faire this weekend. That being said, I'm committed to doing at least one art project with Max each day. He's been collecting pumpkins for the past few weeks and has quite the pile now (we buy one small one every time we go to the grocery store). 

Last night after dinner, instead of watching his one episode of Dinosaur Train before books and bed, we painted pumpkins. I was impressed at how long he worked on these (he completely forgot about Dinosaur Train and that's saying something!). When he was done, we put them up to dry and this morning gave them a nice top coat to make them shiny and weather resistant. 

What do you think? This is a pretty easy one and perfect for toddlers who like to get messy!

PS

Some really wonderful pumpkin painting ideas for slightly older children. 

And a yummy pumpkin bread recipe to go along with all the other pumpkin activities! (We made this last week and it was gone in a flash!)

a bear, in six easy steps

Drawing is one of those things that we all do as a child, and it seems that almost everyone follows the same or similar development - scribbles, shapes, more defined shapes, people (giant heads with tiny bodies) and eventually pieces with perspective. Somewhere along the way the majority of us will get left behind in this last stage while others will hone their skills and become very skilled at drawing. (My older brother is one of those who developed into an amazing artist, while I'm fairly sure my skills are somewhere in the perspective stage still - please don't ask me to draw anything beyond a cat). 

As a way to help my students continue to develop their skills, I took some basic shapes and turned them into a step by step tutorial on how to draw a bear. If this activity is well received, I think I might make a few more animals, pending my Illustrator skills. 

Well that's enough talk for today - have fun!

Halloween scratch art greetings (UPDATE)

Max and I are both off today! Which means we have all day to play and bake and make art together (and recover from our busy weekend at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass!). 

This morning Max requested that we make "abstract" art, and I'm sure he knows what that means, so as soon as breakfast ended we got to work making our own Halloween scratch art cards to send to Grandma. 

Check them out! 

update: This project worked really well at home and not as well with a different tempera paint at work. I encourage you to put a drop of dish soap into your paint before applying it to the paper. This will help it rub off easier. 

weaving paper trees

The weather report yesterday called for milder temperatures today, and yet here we are sweating it out in the 80s! And so despite the heat, I'm continuing on with our Fall themed projects. After all the leaves have started changing colors and we're promised cooler temps by this weekend. 

Since Max is still talking about our apple picking adventure that was three weeks ago, I thought we'd make some trees today. 

model magic leaf prints

I have a confession - while I am an art teacher, I don't always make my own play dough or salt dough for crafts. (Sometimes I ask the parents to help out and they always make these beautiful batches of play dough!). Truth be told, I don't always have time and I imagine many of you don't either (and that's okay!).

Cool crafts can still come from a combo of diy and store bought items. This morning Max and I played around with some leaf printing and model magic. We're going to do this craft at school today too! It's simple,  and the product is pretty cool. Check it out!

watercolor magic wands

Both the girls and boys were drooling over these wands. I made the example one a few days ago and since then they've asked me if we could make them everyday this week.

Well today is their lucky day! I thought star wands would be a nice way to wrap up our shapes week and the kids seem to agree!

geometric shapes

Yesterday I posted about animal shapes, using silhouettes and today we're breaking it down to the basics: geometric shapes.

Much like the tangram project, I cut up a bunch of different shapes, squares, triangles etc. and invited the kids to make any sort of picture they wanted. It's always interesting to see what they'll come up with, but especially fun when they have to think more abstractly.

bird feeder lollipops

Max has recently become very interested in the birds around our house. I thought we'd try to make some bird feeders and lure a few onto our patio. I scoped out some project ideas online and decided we'd try something just a tiny bit different. What we ended up with were lollipop bird feeders (two ways).

 

pretty pinwheels

Make a pinwheel from household objects...

salad spin-art

 Recently a parent at my work found a salad spinner on the street corner (where else would you find one?) and decided to bring it in to see if I could use it. She suggest making spin art. I thought it was a fabulous idea. So with a little bit of playing guess and check, I figured out an easy way to make spin art with the salad spinner and the kids LOVED it.