4th Grade: Gyotaku Prints

We have been learning about the ancient Japanese art form of fish printing, Gyotaku.  After watching a short clip (which the students thought was hilarious) here, we used printing ink, rubber fish, and large paint brushes.  Students were able to choose 2 colors of ink, plus a touch of silver ink.  They kept the fish flat on the table and painted the ink on with the brush.  Then we used thin white paper (not construction paper) and placed the paper on top of the fish.  After gently massaging the fish and covering all parts with their fingers, they pulled the paper off to reveal their print.  Second day, we learned how to write our name in Japanese, and added that a the bottom.

Art Club: Sharpie Tie-Dye T-Shirts

*image and instructions found here

here is another set of instructions that explains how to set the colors so you can wash in a normal load of laundry.

I'm running an Art Club during lunch this year, which only gives me about a half hour extra with the kids, so I need to come up with some quick and fun activities that are not too difficult to clean up, since I have my regular classes coming in right after.  I found this tutorial on making t-shirts with sharpies, and I'm definitely going to give it a try!  I will post my own kids photos of their shirts as soon as we try it.

100 Followers!, Pinterest, and Blogger Frustration

I finally made it to 100 followers on this ol' blog! Woo Hoo! Thank you to everyone who follows- I love reading comments and most likely I follow you too and get inspired by you every day!  Now, for my obsession with pinterest.  I have to be peeled from my computer every night because it is just so darn addicting.  When I first started looking I was amazed to see how many pics had been pulled from my blog, kind of cool, but also kind of strange! Here is my pinterest account if you're interested in following: http://pinterest.com/kmissavage/

Last but not least- I have been so frustrated with blogger lately because it won't let me comment back on people's comments.  I just seriously spent about a half hour typing comments back to art project girl and phyl about my room set-up and when I went to post it, it was deleted and told me I needed to sign in.  I lost my whole comment! So as soon as I figure that out, and when I have more patience I will get back to your comments!

Classroom Setup

I'm setting up my room this week and thought I'd share a few pics- these ones are from last year.  This year I walked into my room and the whole bulletin board above was taken down and replaced with cabinets!  I LOVE the extra storage space, but now I have to reconfigure my room set-up quite a bit- I have only one bulletin board left!  Anyways, hopes this helps someone who is struggling to come up with ideas for their art room!

Summer, it's been fun...come back soon!!!

School is right around the corner, and I'm trying to hang onto every last second of summer.  For some reason it went by faster than ever this year.  Man, do I live for summers. :) I had so much fun these last couple months spending time with my pooch, going on long walks, laying in the sun on the deck, and planting some new perennials in the garden.  The ones above are some of my faves. 

 I'll be back in my classroom setting up next week, and will be posting some new exciting art lessons as soon as we get going!  To all you teachers out there- good luck to you with the start of your year!!!!

Happy art-making...

3rd Grade: Australian Dot Painting

Pretty simple project, and students get really into it!  First we talk a little about the history of Australian dreamtime painting and Aboriginal art.  Next we talk about how we could make it our own.  Students trace their hand with pencil onto black 8x8 paper.  They begin by choosing 3 colors of paint and use those for the hand.  We dot paint with the back of a paintbrush.  Next day when the hands are dry, students draw a simple background design with pencil and use white tempera for the designs dots.  Finally they choose a background color, that is different from their other colors, and fill in the rest of the space.  This was a nice end of the year project- the students were very quiet and determined while concentrating on their dotting! And the phrase I always love hearing...as other grade levels spotted these on my drying rack, "When do WE get to do that?!?!" :)

3rd Grade: Recycled Daisies & Dragonflies

For this project, we talked about being resourceful artists by using things that would normally be thrown out or recycled to make art.  I have boxes of painted paper (from past projects and the entire year's placemats we use) and stacks of magazines from my school's library.  We began by tracing the shapes for either a daisy or dragonfly.  I tell them that about half of their shapes should be painted paper, and the other half magazine paper.  Then students glue these shapes onto a bright springy colored construction paper and cut them out, leaving  a border.  Finally, they glue those shapes onto large black construction paper (18x24") and cut around the whole object.  There is something really interesting about the mix of the magazine graphics and the random painted paper.  These are very large pieces and look really cool scattered around our school walls.