Punkin Time

#mwisdmatters

Doing clay with fourth-graders in thirty minute classes is problematic. I know you are thinking, “Are you nuts?”, but it can happen. This lovely lesson from Ceramic Arts Daily filled the ticket with a cute little ceramic Jack-O-Lantern.

Check out their great how-to video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnViFPenWeo

Prep

We watched a short video on where clay comes from and what it is used for in every day life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYWuAGVU8k My kids had no idea that things like sinks and toilets are made from ceramic. I portioned out the correct size balls of clay for each student before we began the project. I covered the work tables each day before they arrived.

Day 1

I demonstrated how to make a pinch pot. Students used sharpie to label a quart-sized sealable baggie with their name and class period. Whoa they were excited.

Day 2

Students made their pinch pots using a circle on their work table to measure their pot size. The idea was that it could be no bigger than the paper circle and that both pinch pots had to be approximately the same size. Both pinch pots went carefully back into the baggie until the next day.

Day 3

The students scored and slipped the edges of both pinch pots and joined them together. I gave each student a new portion of clay for the stem. They shaped and attached the stem. Using a sharpened pencil they carefully engraved their name on the bottom.

A Few Days Later

I’ll admit it, I almost waited too long. The pumpkins were pretty hard when I went to carve the faces. I carved the eyes and the mouth with an X-Acto knife for each student. The idea of X-Acto knives and fourth graders made me a little queasy and to be honest I thought they might crush the pumpkins trying to carve through them.

Air dry for at least 10 days or until bone dry and fire to bisque. Glaze and fire again.

My students were so pleased with their Jack O’ Lanterns. I wrapped each one in tissue paper and hopefully they  made it home in their backpacks in time for Halloween.

3-D Snowflakes

#mwisdmatters

It has been unusually warm here in north Texas. I’m not complaining mind you but I’m craving a little Christmas weather.

The kind of weather where a pot of chili with cornbread takes the chill off your bones. The kind of weather that makes cider and hot chocolate taste good. Sweater weather. So time for a little snow artwork.

My good friend Billie Slater used to bring her Cadets into the building singing…”Pray for snow….pray for snow….” in their best Native American chant rhythm. Well I’m not quite up to that vocally, so we are making snowflakes. Big 3-D snowflakes. I found a very clear tutorial here on the wonderful blog, One Less Headache. Add good instructions plus a sprinkling of science and math and voila, 3-D snowflakes.

 

I have my winter board done too for a little extra snow mojo.

Let’s get this straight…..not sleet…not ice..I want snow, the big fluffy kind you make snow ice cream with.

Throwback Thursday – Geckos

My Throwback Thursday art project is one from 2010, where my teaching partner Skipper Bennett and I created giant Geckos with our 6th grade advanced art group. I have a love/hate relationship with papier-mâché. Love the results. Hate the mess.This was a BIG, MESSY project, but boy it was fun. It was like a mini-science fiction movie, when the giant geckos appeared on the front of our school building. It was great to see the parents reaction as they came around to pick up their kids at the front drive. Geckos!

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Paper Collage Portraits

 

My 4th grade artists learned about proportion and practiced cutting skills while creating these inspired self-portraits. A new way to take a selfie!

Foil Embossing

 

Tooling foil is such a lovely material. Students familiar with the baked potato version of foil are always curious how this material reacts to a tool. My simplest project using tooling foil is just a straight emboss from a photo.

 

 

 

Students select a calendar photo that has a subject they like. I always have a collection of discarded calendars from teachers.

 

Tape the photo to the back of the cut sheet of tooling foil. I caution them to only put only one piece of tape at the top of the photo. That way you can lift up photo every once in a while to see how the foil is taking the embossed lines, or if you missed any lines.

1. Lay the foil with the photo attached on a thick pad of newspaper. This is important. The give of the pad of newspaper is what allows the foil to accept the embossed line.
2. Select the most important lines in the photo and trace them with a pencil. Press hard enough that you can feel the foil give a little, but not so hard that you punch through the foil. As they work, they view their progress by lifting up the photo. Here’s where they can add textural elments that are not in the original photo.
3. Color with sharpies! Sixth graders LOVE working with sharpies. Mistakes can be corrected with Germ-X and a tissue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spiders!

You are never too old for Halloween fun. Something about this holiday inspires you to be silly and creative. That is if you were raised with a Halloween like I was; where it was all about spooky stories, slightly scary but harmless costumes, hay rides, bonfires and trick or treat candy you did not have to check. Period. No other meanings implied or intended. Having said that, I broke out the pipe cleaner spider project just as a way of reminding myself that the Halloween of the past can still be recreated in my room. Yes, you can make a science curriculum connection in the study of arachnids…blah, blah, blah….I want to make slightly trembly spiders on hot glue spider webs, because they make people squeal and they are cute.

Can we just be kids in the art room for a second? Okay.

Here’s what you need for each spider.

• 4 pipe cleaners
• 16 beads

Here’s what you need for the spider web.

• adult supervision to use the hot glue gun
• a background of some kind – I like black foam board
• hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

To make the spider:

1. Get 4 pipe cleaners and bend in half.
2. Cross over half the legs. make sure that the body loop is no bigger than a quarter. Short-legged spiders are not as cute.
3. Twist the legs under the loop at least 3 times so the legs won’t come undone. Place the body of the spider on the table and bend the legs up so that you can separate 4 on each side.
4. Add 8 of the beads close to the body.
5. With the spider still on its back bend the knees in the same place on each leg and position the second bead on each leg above the knee.
6. Turn the spider over and spread the legs for balance. 4 to the front, 4 to the back. By the way this fashion maven spider sports the Mineral Wells Ram colors.

Spider webs are just hot glue applied to a black foam board. Make glue lines out from a corner and then half circles that cut across.  If you want your spider to stay put on the web, apply him while the glue is still sticky.

Making Bracelets in the Kingdom of Possums

I spent the day Thursday making hemp bracelets with sixth-graders at camp in Possum Kingdom. Now I know what you are thinking. Possum Kingdom? Two words you usually don’t see together. Remember, this is Texas and we have as big a love affair with weird geographical names as any other state. I work in a city named Mineral Wells, which I get to by driving through Cool, Texas. In the forty-seven miles I drove from Weatherford to get to Camp Grady Spruce, I did not see one possum, but the place itself is a kingdom of sorts. One of the loveliest spots I’ve seen for naturalists and growing kids.

Hell’s Gate

Gathering Place

The View Across from Main Camp

Camp Grady Spruce, nestled in the rugged country around Possum Kingdom Lake, sprawls over 860 acres of hilly, cedar-covered land, right at the edge of Possum Kingdom Lake. In the fifteen years I’ve taught at Travis Elementary, this is my first visit to the camp our sixth-graders attend each year. My loss. It was a wonderful experience. The Camp staff was friendly, attentive to our students needs, and seemed to genuinely enjoy their work with our students. My thanks to them and the parent volunteers who stay with our campers for their patience and enthusiasm.

I would be remiss here to not thank my lovely friend Patsy Medley, one of the office administrative staff at Travis, for this experience. Patsy asked me to fill in for her this year, taught me to make the bracelets, (several times) and provided everything I needed to be ready to teach (including letting me borrow her hand-painted camp T-Shirt). I was there to assist our school nurse, Sharon Huggs, who has for years doubled up taking care of our students’ medical needs at camp with teaching bracelet-making. Thank you too Sharon for putting up with me.

The groups were about fifteen sixth-graders at a time, who rotated through our bracelet making station , along with many other activities, including horse-back riding, archery, God’s Eye-weaving and candle-making. Not being a whiz at weaving of any sort, I was a little nervous about teaching this, but Patsy and Sharon came to the rescue and I think every student had a successful attempt at making a bracelet. Here’s some shots of the action. The last picture is a step-by-step of the bracelet, in case you want to try this with your students.

Our Set-Up

Examples that Patsy Made

Nurse Huggs in Action.

Short Center Strings Taped Down

Concentration

Do you think we have enough beads?

The spiral you want.

Cool Glove