One of the perks of teaching a lesson the first time is that you can use student suggestions and input to make it way better than you intended. I luckily have a great batch of 5th graders that start my rotation out to give me really great input!
I love Mondrian, no matter how boring some people might think his work is, I see such beauty and simplicity in the basic primaries. I just can't resist sharing Mondrian and his work with my students but I do like to mix it up ergo the cubes. I did the project below with my 2nd graders and Mondrian last year.
Day 1: Intro to Mondrian. I give them a little background info about him and then we watch this seriously amazing animation of his work on YouTube.
We look carefully at a few of his works and then I introduce the project by talking about cube vs. square. The rest of the class is spent creating their template for their cube by tracing pre-cut 4x4 squares onto a 1/2 sheet of poster board and following this guide I made them :)
Day 2: Right away when they come in, I show them more SERIOUSLY awesome YouTube videos inspired by Mondrian.
The music isn't great for this one so I usually mute it...
They freak out over this one...
So here is the part where they changed my mind:
Originally on my example I only did traditional Mondrian (square/rectangles/black lines) and they were like "Lets do any geometric shapes or shapes with straight edges only." After pondering a moment I was like "THAT SOUNDS AWESOME" And tada!
Here are a few mid-process ones...
After 3-4 more work days these beautiful cubes were born and held together with tacky glue!
Hints for the cube:
I had pre-cut 6"x12" strips of each primary and 4"x12" black for them to use to limit paper waste.
Put them together last, they don't take up too much space week to week if you wait until the end
Score all of the edges and tabs with a ruler before working on the designs and re score right before putting it together... makes things A LOT easier.
Every once in awhile (and usually with older students) I have projects that cause students to work at drastically different paces and I end up with half the class needing one more day and the other being finished. When this happens instead of "free art", I come up with a one day activity that the students can take with them that usually involves simple materials like coloring. I don't asses these projects, nor do I hold on to them for any time. My students also know that if they don't finish the activity in that class they take it with them done or not.
Sounds like busy work right? From an outside perspective it usually does but I try to connect these activities to the project they just finished making it an EXTENSION of that project. I also think the students really enjoy these because they know that they can get silly and really think outside the box and not feel any pressure. Plus they get really excited when I snap a picture of it and tell them it might end up on my blog!
Here is the most recent extension I did with 6th grade after they finished their Keith Haring!
I introduced postage stamp art to them (a few were like "what are stamps?" GASP!) and watched part of this youtube video (about two minutes) of how they are made.
I showed them a few examples of famous art that has appeared on stamps and art stamp series. Then they had a choice of designing a page of stamps or a single stamp that reflected either Keith Haring or if they were famous artist, the stamps that would be designed for them. I think Keith would have loved stamps with his art on them!
Here are a few pictures! P.S. This was right before Halloween ergo the pumpkins!
Halloween week was INSANE. Squeezed in a few of these make and take pumpkins with my older classes that were ahead!
Pre-cut 9"x 2" strips of orange. Each student needed six. They designed to their liking, I encouraged Zentangles over just writing and drawing whatever. When they finished designing, we stapled together the ends in a radial burst and then the other end to form the ball. A little green scraps for the stems and paper clips to hold them until it dried and VOLIA!
Continuing the theme of an Art History project across all grades...
While introducing contemporary artists is fantastic for students because they can make more relevant connections, I still feel so passionately about teaching and sharing with students the artists and paintings so well known in art history. Many of the artworks I share with students appear in TV shows, movies, and cartoons still today! Usually when I introduce some wildly famous work of art, I get hands shooting up telling me where they have seen the work in their pop cultural lives (which makes me seriously geek out!). Vincent van Gogh is one of those artists that I share every year. I just can't help myself. Seeing The Starry Night in person and his self portrait at the NGA was an experience I will never forget! SEE!
Okay so projects! Both Kindergarten and 3rd grade looked at the classic sunflowers on the table painting...
3rd Grade!
I Can create a sunflower artwork inspired by the famous artist Vincent van Gogh.
Day 1: Intro! Just a basic who was he, what did he paint, where was he from via Google Slides. We also had a nice discussion about how he only sold one painting while he was alive and how that must have made him feel. I love getting deep! Then we watched this seriously awesome van Gogh YouTube video...
Work for Day 1 included creating the vase decorated to their choosing and gluing it to the table and background. We left the vase unglued at the top so we could actually stick the stems in. I did give them a template for the vase.
Day 2: Little van Gogh recap with my van Gogh artist poster (more on that later) and watched some sunflowers time-lapse videos! The second one isn't real but still fantastic and gives an opportunity to talk about digital art.
I do a short demo of gluing the petals to the back and details they can add for a slightly more realistic effect and then the rest of the time is theirs to work!
Day 3: van Gogh artist poster is up once again and then we went over a worksheet to prepare them for their next project. The rest of the time is theirs to complete their sunflowers and work on the worksheet.
I love how a project can be so similar but show each personality in it's completion!
Jefferson Elementary...
3rd and Kindergarten mixed together.
(ACK! Strips you make me angry every time I see you!)
McDill Elementary...
Kinderbeaners!
I Can create a sunflower made from shapes.
Day 1: Started the class with the Mati and Dada video that I showed 3rd grade at the end of their intro. Then we looked at more of his paintings and the sunflowers up close. Because this was their first real project I wanted to take it fairly slow so the only thing we did the first day was cut the grass and make the stem and leaves. I talked up the idea that we were making the flowers start to grow this art day and then they would finish growing the next art day to flow with the way to were making them. I also really tried to get them to to focus on the shapes of the different pieces but they get carried away and I'm okay with that ;)
Day 2: Had the van Gogh artist poster up when they came in as a re-fresher and then they watched just the first time lapse of the real sunflower. We had a nice chat about what other things would be good to use time-lapse for, I love listening to them think out-loud! Sometimes I wonder where and how they think of some of the things they say! For work time, I did a demo of creating the head and petals of the flower and showed them my "magic trick" of folding paper and then cutting to get more than one. Surprisingly enough finishing their flowers took almost the entire time!
Jefferson Elementary...
McDill Elementary...
Still contemplating re-visiting van Gogh later in the year to do a Starry Night project....Too much van Gogh? Thoughts?
