Making Artist's Palettes

A recent assignment for the fourth graders in my art room has been sculpting clay artist's palettes.  It is of high interest since it involves using the earth clay and firing in the kiln.

The day that the project was introduced, we took notes together on the process of making the sculpture.  They knew that they had the opportunity to form the slab inside of a plastic lid that was lined with paper towel.  The towel liner was used to allow the clay to release easily from the lid.

 We formed the clay slab base and attached the paint spots in the same forty-five minute period.   The fourth graders usually had bits of clay left over from trimming the palette shape while it was in the lid to a "lake" or "pond-like" shape.  They often had a bit more if they decided to cut a thumb hole as well.   We left them to dry during the long weekend and they were fired over Easter vacation. 

Today was the big painting day!  We started by using watercolor on the bottom of the palette.  That gets them going and allows the children to realize the absorbency of the bisque clay.  It is unique that the paint dries so quickly.  It allows multiple layers to be put upon each other and the dots of color a clear and well defined. 

They could continue onto the top surface with the watercolor to make the palette look very painterly.  From there I encouraged the students to switch to the more opaque acrylic for defining the sculpted spots of paint. 

First Day of Back to School and New Tables

There was much to be moved around during the summer to be able to move in some different tables, but after trying the out with the third graders today I am now sure they will work.

grade 3 students "break in" the new tables

 

 

 

 

The sixth graders fit in well too!  The tables are for keeps!

 

 

This old photo shows the old tables.  They were from the mid-20th century and used first in the highschool home ec room for sewing!  This furniture has seen better days!

 

The janitor chopped them up, but we saved the center storage column.  More on that detail later next week...

Finishing Up the iPod Cakes

This afternoon we put the finishing touches on the iPod cakes. The control buttons are made from white marshmallow fondant with the center being colored to match the frosting. I was lucky to be able to borrow some special cake decorating markers from my good friend Debby and that made it super easy to detail the volume. The ear buds are made from Good and Plenty candies and the wires are from some trimmed sour rainbow strip chews. My mom and I are happy that they give the impression of a classic iPod.

Now I hope my 10 year old niece loves them too!

Making iPod Cakes

It is my niece's birthday this week and my mom and I are making the little cakes today in the form of classic style iPods . They are turning out very cute. I'll post pictures again when we get them assembled.

The School Year Comes to a Close

We were able to get some really nice cover stock from a printing business this year so everyone was able to have an over sized portfolio to take home 2D art. Many of the fifth graders volunteered to fold and staple the cases.

Most everyone had enough time to doodle, paint, or decorate the outside. Some clever perfectionists even discovered that by flipping the outside to the inside they'd have more surface to get creative!

The sixth graders are moving on to middle school so we made two sides pocket folders from the donated cover stock. That way we could load the set of personal art and the assigned work on separate sides.

Grandad's Bluff Scenes

We have a decent view from our schools top floor looking toward the east at Grandad's Bluff.  This year I decided to take the fifth graders up to a vacant classroom and have a first hand look at the scenery. 

Here are some of the results.  We sketched on 8.5 x 11 paper and enlarged the main lines to 12 x 18 paper in 3 class periods.  For 3-4 more class periods we were in the regular art room (out of view of the scenery).  The budding landscape artists finished out the scene by choosing a season and completed the look in charcoal, chalk, oil pastel and watercolor. 

Kaitlyn's Summer View

Grace's Winter View

Brandon's Autum Night View

 It is a project that is sure to become a tradition in our building because of the unique perspective of being so close to the real landscape feature. 

Jacob's Bluff with Abstract Rock Formations

Spring on Grandad's by Lane

Ground Level Viewpoint

photo taken from classroom and edited with i pad

Masks and Artist of the Week

I am providing a link to our school's artsonia page to see more of the sixth grade masks.



I wasn't aware of it earlier in the week, but just today I noticed one of my students was randomly chosen as an artist of the week.  If you are interested and have a minute, perhaps you could vote for his cute little self portrait in a hand mirror.  



He is such a nice boy and I think he likes art class very much. It would give him a great boost if he would happen to win! He might even decide to say something if he learned that he was this week's winner in his age group. You see, he is selectively mute and we haven't figured out how to hear his voice at school. Apparently, he talks at home, but not with us. I have his older brother in my 5th grade homeroom and he doesn't even have any suggestions on how I might encourage him to speak.