Skip Counting Your Way Through Art

These Skip-Counting Spiderwebs are one of my best Halloween tricks (tips?) to keep your students focused and busy on Halloween day.  Seriously.  Let's face it - the excitement in the room makes it hard to settle, so it's not the time to start a brand new concept.  A few years ago I started to do this activity in the morning on Halloween, and we get in a great skip-counting practice and create an awesome art project with lines, shape, and repetition.  It's calming and mindful, and will take around an hour to complete.  Put on some low spooky music in the background, and your students will be engaged, working, QUIET, and learning.  

Integrating math and art isn't scary on Halloween.  To start these spirographs, you need a circle divided into an even number of numbers (make a dot and write the number) around the ouside (1-18, 1-24, 1 - 30, etc.)  The higher your number of dots, the more intricate the pattern.

You have to use a ruler for this activity - if the lines aren't straight, it won't look right.  Also, I would usually get students to work first in pencil in art activities, but not on this one.  They will be drawing so many lines, they will have no desire to trace back over every line when they are done.  We use extra fine tip sharpie markers, but any extra fine pen tip will work.

Starting at 1, skip count by 1 (dot to dot style), around the whole circle.  When you get back to the top (dot 30), start over, but this time skip count by 2s (join every second dot to dot).  Continue in this pattern, skip counting all the way around the circle (until you get back to the starting dot for every time around the circle).  

You can skip count all the way up to the twelves times table, or even further for a challenge.  Cut out around the circle (cutting off the numbers) when complete and glue your spiderweb down on some contrasting paper.

To add a little extra Halloween flair to our spiderwebs, you can buy some spiders at the dollar store, or make them with pipe cleaners and googly eyes, and glue the legs down so that they are crawling across the webs.  These make an awesome Halloween display of learning!

This art project isn't limited to Halloween though - brighten up your webs by using a different color for each skip count around the circle for a bright and beautiful spirograph!  Or start with an oval instead of a circle and create a gorgeous Easter Egg!!!  (I'm going to try this one next!)   Students can even color inside the little shapes made within the spirograph.

Click on any of the pictures in this post to take a peek at this Skip-Counting Halloween art lesson in my TpT Store.

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Friday Art Feature - Snowy Birch Trees

I LOVE teaching art!  I love it even more on a Friday morning when you just know the students are exhausted and teaching something new would be an exercise in futility.  ;)

Whenever I post one of our art activities, I inevitably get asked, "How do you have the time to teach art?"  Art is part of our curriculum - which we have to assess.  My students don't have "specials" - I teach almost all their subjects, including art.  And I am so glad that get the opportunity!  :)

Today we took on snowy art trees - and as impressive as they turned out, it was a very easy art project with success for all!

We started our with a piece of plain white computer paper.  With very light pencil marks, we drew in the horizon, a large moon, and some lines for birch trees (students were free to draw as many as they wished).  We talked about perspective - how the trees closer to the bottom of the page would look larger, and the trees closer to the horizon would appear smaller.  

We then used a deep blue oil pastel to shade in the sky area.  From there, we used black and grey pastels to make the markings on the birch trees (a tree we are VERY familiar with up here).  When that was done, we added in the shadows for the trees with the grey pastel, and used the white to make a subtle ring around the moon.

The last step was to add some "snow" (white acrylic paint) by dabbing it over the whole page with the end of a paint brush.  When all was done, I laminated them (on a lower heat so the pastel didn't bleed) and posted them for all to admire.  We finished the main part (the drawing and pastel work) in about 45 minutes (some less) which gave lots of time for the paint to dry so I could get them laminated and posted at the end of the day.

Happy Friday!

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Art Feature - Line and Design Christmas Trees

This was a fun, quick, and easy art project we took on this week.  I'm definitely in the Christmas mood already, and wanted to bring a little bit of into the classroom.  I love line and design art projects - so simple, and yet so effective.

For this one, we started by drawing some simple holiday and Christmas themed shapes and words on our paper (we used plain white computer paper) and then outlined them in black sharpie.

We then divided our paper into many sections using a combination of straight and curvy lines (but we didn't let any of the lines run through the Christmas shapes we had already drawn.

We then drew in a simple Christmas tree shape, and outlined it in green sharpie.  They also used the same green sharpie to go over the previously drawn lines that ended up inside of the Christmas tree shape. (Students had the option of adding a star and a few Christmas balls to their tree).  

They then used different shades of green pencil crayons to colour in the sections within the tree (patchwork style).   

Once the tree was coloured, they went back to their black sharpies and filled in the sections around the tree with different variations of lines and designs.  I LOVE how they turned out.

This is our (very) large bulletin board that I display most of our art on (some of it makes it onto bulletin boards in the hall).  This year I've tried to keep a sample of all the art we've done in the year.  So, when we're ready to post a new art project, I take down all but one row of the previous art, and add all the new art underneath (we might have to start fresh at the beginning of second term).  I laminate all of our art projects, so that's why the pieces at the top look so shiny.  Once an art project comes off the board, we store them in our art portfolios until the end of the year when we turn them into our "Art and Writing Books" for students to take home at the end of the year.  You can read about that project HERE.

Well, that's about it.  Hope you're having a relaxing weekend!  Happy Saturday!!!

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Friday Art Feature: Name Spheres and 3D Pencil Crayons

It's my first "Friday Art Feature" of the year!  :)

I LOVE teaching art, and I LOVE displaying my students' artwork in the classroom - it adds such a personal touch.  This year I'm trying something new with our art display.  I changed bulletin boards for our art, and I now have a HUGE bulletin board for our display.   For our first finished art, I displayed all 28 pieces.  When it came time to post our second pieces, I took all but 3 down (the top row) and displayed all new pieces under that.  When it comes time to complete and post our third piece, I will leave the first row up (our name spheres), the second row up (our 3D pencil crayons), and post our third piece on the third row and below, and so on.  This way, a sample of all our art will be on display.  I will take it all down at the end of our first term, and start over again for second term.  

For our first art projects of the year, I always like to do some sort of name art.  For this project, I gave each student a piece of 8.5 x 11 white paper, with a circle already drawn on it.  They had to write their names in block or bubble letters, filling the circle as completely as they could.  Each letter had to touch the top and bottom of the circle, as well as the letters beside it.  Once students had written their names, they got to color the letters any way they wished (most went for the rainbow theme).  Students then cut out their names and glued them to a piece of black construction paper (9 x 12).

We are just finishing up our second art projects of the year right now (about half of my students had them completed by the end of the week).  For this one, we looked at lines, shading, and color to create the illusion of 3D pencil crayons.  Students started with a focal point and then had to draw an even number of lines coming out of the focal point (with even spaces between the lines).  They then drew a larger circle around the focal point, and curved lines just a little further down.

They then had to shade between the lines (we used pencil crayons for the shading).  Heavy pressure on the outside of each "cone" (making the shadow for the 3D effect), medium pressure moving in from there, and the lightest pressure down the middle of each cone.  Students had to use a different color for each cone (pencil crayon), with the same color repeated in the middle of each cone (representing the wood part of the pencil crayon.  Most of the students opted to outline their cones with a fine tip black sharpie when they were done.

You can take a peek at my full lesson for this Pencil Crayon Op-Art here.  The lesson includes a full PDF as well as PowerPoint lesson with pictures and detailed step-by-step instructions for students, as well as a rubric for assessment and student reflection sheet.

That's about it for today!  Happy Friday!!!  Have a wonderful weekend.  :)

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Friday Art Feature - Comic Book Onomatopoeia

I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains".  We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing.

How fun is that???  Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page".  They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top.  They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word).  I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too).  ;)

I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts.  Her examples are FANTASTIC!!

We also wrote simile poems this week.  I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies.  When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image.  

I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!!  (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom.

15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ...

Happy Friday!!!

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Friday Art Feature - Catching Snowflakes

Yes, I do realize it's only Thursday (even though it FEELS like Friday), but we have a PD day tomorrow, so we did a fun art activity today.  Most of my students ended up with a snow day yesterday - buses were cancelled because of the weather, and when you're in a rural area like I am, very few students actually make it to school (I only had 8 students).  So, our art today made everyone feel like it was a snow day!

I saw this fabulous idea on Artisan Des Arts last night (actually, I saw LOTS of fabulous art ideas ... can't wait to try more out).  I knew it would be quick and easy, and my students would have success with it.  Best of all, it didn't require any extra materials (just paper and pastels), so we were set!

The original version of this had a hand-drawn snowflake on the tongue, but my students wanted to make a paper snowflake for it.  Either way, they turned out SUPER CUTE!!!

LOVE them! 

Happy Thursday!  (I almost typed Friday - tomorrow's going to be a loooooooong day!)

Jen

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Friday Art Feature - I Am ...

We had our first official art class of the year this week.  I decided to start off with an easy one so everyone could feel successful with their project.  And the final results couldn't be more beautiful in our classroom!

I think I may be a tad OCD - that empty space in the bottom is driving me crazy!!!  I have 23 students this year, so with room for 24 spots on our blackboard, I also plan on making an art project each time we do one.  Unfortunately, I am STILL waiting on one student to finish his ...

I plan on turning all our art and poetry projects into books for the students to take home at the end of the year.  You can read about the books we made last year HERE.  For this reason, most of our art projects will be completed on 8.5 x 11 size paper.  I also plan on having the students write a poem to match each of our art projects this year (I didn't do this last year).  For this piece, I decided to combine the art and poetry into one.  

We started out by discussing the art principles of line and color.  We talked about how curved smooth lines draw your eye across the page and give the illusion of movement.  We also discussed choice of colors - which I ultimately left up to them.  I really like the variation of color on all our art.  Using a pencil, students drew 8 - 12 curved lines across their page.  Then, they painted each section, often mixing the paints to achieve different color effects.  We use paper plates (from the dollar store) for our paint palettes.  We let the paint dry out after each use, and then we can reuse them many times.

When the paint had dried, students use sharpie markers to outline each section - being careful to still keep that smooth curved line.  I bought sharpie brush markers this summer, and they were perfect for this project! (I included the link below so you can take a peek at these).

I asked the students to fill the spaces with adjectives that describe them.  All students started with "I am ...".  We started this project on our fifth day of school, so an "all about me" project was perfect timing.  Plus, this will be a great first page for our art/poetry books.  I am so happy with how they turned out - BEAUTIFUL!!!

You can take a peek at my full lesson for this I Am art here.  The lesson includes a full PDF as well as PowerPoint lesson with pictures and detailed step-by-step instructions for students, as well as a rubric for assessment and student reflection sheet.

Hope you had a fabulous Friday, and are getting ready for a wonderful weekend!  Happy Friday!!!

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End of the Year Poetry and Art Books

Okay - so I'm a little late in posting this ... I guess I've been enjoying the start of summer too much.  ;)

Those of you who follow regularly know how much I love doing art projects with my students.  If you click on the "Friday Art Feature" button on the right column, you can see all the fabulous art we have completed this year.  We've completed all our art on 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper this year, with one goal in mind - compiling them into a fabulous art book at the end of the year.

Do you remember these crate stools I made last summer for my classroom?  I bought the crates at Staples, and legal-size hanging files fit perfectly in them.  I use one to store some phys ed supplies, but the other two are full of student files - one for their portfolios, and one for their art projects.  By the end of the year, we had quite an impressive collection in our art folders!  But that wasn't all - because we had "published" all of our poetry in such a visual way, they became art pieces, as well.

During the last two days of school, students organized their art and poetry pieces together to make their very own books.  Each book had between 20 and 30 pages.  I had the students create their own covers for the book (we used cardstock so they would have a little more strength).  They were free to create anything on the covers of their books.  We laminated the covers, and all the art pieces had already been laminated over the year.  I pulled out my binding machine ... and voila - an impressive book the students could be proud of, and the parents would appreciate so much more than a bag full of papers and supplies brought home at the end of the year.

We tried to arrange the poetry and art in a way that "fit" for the books.  For example, our "If I Was In Charge of the World" poems went with our "Recycled Earth" pictures.

I really liked how some of our art and poetry just naturally fit together - I think I'm going to do a lot more of that next year.  Perhaps, each time we finish an art project, we'll do a poem to fit the theme of the art.

Happy Tuesday!!!

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Friday Art Feature - Mingling with Monet

YAY for Fridays!!!  This week was a CRAZY week, so I wanted to instill a little calmness into the classroom.  And what did I do to achieve that calmness, you ask?  Well, I broke out the paints, of course.  Paint used to be the one art supply I dreaded - paint meant mess.period.  However, I've been pretty impressed with how careful my students have been with the paint this year.  Yes, we still have messes ... but they have learned to take responsibility to clean up these messes, and sometimes I don't even know about the messes (even better).

With our provincial testing, year-end assessments, track meets, and everything else we squeeze into the last two months of school, I haven't spent much time on visual arts.  I missed it.  So we made up for it this week. Life is good again.

This week we were mingling with Claude Monet in art class.  I was inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest and followed it back to the cutest project at The Crafty Classroom.  I love Monet's water lily paintings with the Japanese bridge - I even have a print in my bedroom.  So, when I saw this art project months ago, I knew we had to try it.

We started off by taping a bridge across our papers (I used heavy duty card stock - I prefer to use card stock when we are painting).  We only had masking tape to use, but if I do this project again, I will use painter's tape as I found the masking tape a little too sticky (and with the horrific humidity this week it was not a good combination).

We got out our painter's palettes (a paper plate) and using plain old acrylic paint from the dollar store, we started mixing greens and blues and yellows and just about any other colour they wanted.  (I had a picture of Monet's original projected onto the Smartboard so they could see what it looked like).

I instructed the students to use a medium sized brush, and just "dab" the paint onto the paper over and over - with the dabs overlapping.  They needed to "dab" right over the fence and pretend it wasn't even there.  I told them to mix their paints in a way that the bottom of the page was darker (a greeny-blue colour for the water), moving to a lighter greeny yellow for the top of the page (the sun poking through the trees).  When the paint had dried a bit, they went back and added some water lilies at the bottom (still using the dabbing technique).

The next day, once the paint had dried, we (carefully) removed the tape ... and stood back in awe of our masterpieces!  We added a little shading with some grey paint, and stood back to admire again!  Can you believe these were made by 10 and 11 year-olds?  FANTASTIC!!!

  

I'm linking up to Teaching With Style's Art With Aloha!  She made the cutest version of these with her younger kiddos!

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