Ugly Dolls Finish Up...

As we worked on our ugly dolls some of my students were super seamstresses and finished up really quickly. Others took a little longer. I started by having my super seamstresses work to help others but there came a point where they need another something to do. 

Since we were creating forms by sewing our ugly dolls we decided to draw forms, using shading to make them look realistic. Students were asked to create a drawing showing their ugly doll and friend doing something. They could finish them during class time or at home. 

They did a pretty good job... especially since some were done completely on their own time. 

It was really easy for my students to understand that a shadow was needed but they struggled with making sure their was a change in value on their ugly doll to show roundness. 

Ugly Doll's Take Over

Earlier this year I decided to tackle a sewing project with my 5th graders. It was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun! We looked at Ugly Dolls. If you don't know much about these guys they are a awesome little creatures who embrace their unique looks and rock out! You can get dolls, books, video's etc. You can click here to learn more. 

We started by looking at these guys and then designing our own ugly dolls with unique abilities. Sewing was probably the hardest part of these project and when I do another sewing project we will practice on plastic cards first but that is for another post. Here are a few finished ugly dolls. 

Jojo saves lives and loves trees. He also cleans up trash.

Dribbles can bend and twist into anything. This is helpful when you are missing something.

His name is Bucket Filler he was created by Ava. He sees people with his three eyes, and makes them feel better. His favorite color is bright yellow. His home is a bright yellow and bright colors. He has a job at a children's school so he can make kids feel better at school.

This is T-bat. He likes gliding, and helping people. His friends are Tedy and Ghost. His favorite food is pizza. He once went bungee-jumping with Tedy and Ghost. He loves to do anything with his friends.

He will always check up on you if your doing your homework but he can also be fun.

This was one of those projects that I feared was never going to end but in the end it was totally worth it. One of the best things was the whole project cost me less than $10. I asked for fabric and stuffing donations and my staff supplied enough to do this project 10 times over! Gotta love that. 

You can check out all our ugly dolls on Artsonia. 

Wowzers! Perspective Review Just Got Awesome

So I had to have a sub the other day and I decided that my 6th graders could handle a simple review of perspective drawings. I left a stack of grid paper and a quick "how to draw letters." It might not have been following all the rules of perspective drawing but the images they turned in were really, really impressive.

Last Article...

Well... my last article ran this month. If you have ever thought of applying to write for the Art of Education I really suggest that you do so. It is such an amazing place to work. Jessica, Derek, Amanda and the rest of the staff are just top notch. It is a time commitment but I promise you will grow professionally and personally! 

If you haven't seen my articles, here is a list. Click on any article to read the whole thing...

• My Students are Scientists
• A Letter to My Students' Parents
• Should You Use a Theme for Your School Year?
• How to Work with Students with Autism in the Art Room
• 5 Ways to Incorporate Humor into Your Classroom
• A Better Way to Teach Radial Balance
• What Art Teachers Really Want for the Holidays
• The Best Way to Keep Your Resume Current
• How to Tell if a Project is Taking Too Long
• 5 Simple Sub Plans to Make Your Life Easier
• Make Assigning Seats More Fun with The Simple Trick
• 3 Ways Digital Portfolios Benefit your Students
• The Great Art Show Debate
• 10 TED Talks Every Art Teacher Should Watch
• 4 Ways to Sell Your Program at Parent Teacher Conferences
• 4 Ways to Re-Spark Your Creativity
• Essential Tools and Inspiration for Your Next Green Screen Project
• 7 Easy Ways to Create a Green Screen for Your Classroom
• 5 Student Friendly Photo Apps You Should Try This Year
• Is your Desk Ready for the School Year?
• 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before this School Year Starts
• Banish the Phrase "I don't know what to draw" with this Simple Trick
• 3 Addictive Projects to use when Introducing Students To Encaustic Art
• 5 Art Apps to Use this School year
• 5 Stellar Websites for Finding Artist Information
• Why You Should Ask Your Students to Rate Their Projects
• A New Kind of Book to Add to Your Reading List
• 6 Simple Ways to Breathe New Life into Tired Lessons
• Help Your Students Make a Difference By Making Art
• A Genius Way to End Your School Year
• Unplug to Become the "Summer You" All Year Round
• 2 Key Things to Know Before Diving into a Mixed Media Project
• 3 Easy Ways to Get Work Home After the Art Show
• Decoding the ABC's of Education
• Confession of a Not-So-Perfect Art Teacher
• How to Prep for Art Shows Without Losing Sleep
• How to Utilize Art History to Add More Variety to Your Lessons
• Yes! You can Make Cool Artwork with Microsoft Paint
• Keep Up with Hundreds of Blogs the Easy Way
• 7 Ways to Beat the Winter Blahs
• 4 Ways to Collect Your Students' Digital Artwork
• Push Your Student with an Art Room Challenge
• 5 Tips to Stretch Your Art Room Budget
• 8 Tips to Hosting a Student Teacher in the Art Room
• The Secret to Successful One-Day Clay Projects

Hello.... from the other side

Yes, that is a shameless Adele reference but I feel like this is an appropriate re-introduction of myself.

A little over a year ago I started writing for a little ole blog called "the Art of Education." It was an amazing experience writing for them. The idea behind the Art of Ed is to stay ridiculously relevant and that means new writers sharing new ideas. And so like they say, all good things must come to an end.

Being honest, I am a little sad about that part of my "career" being done but the good thing is I will have more time to get back to other stuff. This blog will get a little more attention (okay, a lot more attention). I might clean my art room. I will hopefully exercise a bit more.  I will read a book (or two).

This week I started class by asking students to share what they think the world would look like without art. I had some REALLY, REALLY insightful answers. Here is one of my favorites from one of my 6th graders:

Without art this room wouldn't exist. The blueprints for this building wouldn't exist. 

Bright colors would not survive. Creativity would wash out of existence. 

In small words - DULL!

Without art the subjects would be language arts, math, science and social studies. 

Drawing shapes is art, so math would be more boring than it already is.

Poetry is art with words so that gets rid of a whole unit from language arts.

History would change; beautiful, historical sights would be gone.

Life wouldn't be much without art. 

Wow - I don't think I could have said it any better! 

Someone said it better than me...

I try to stay pretty neutral about online postings because I figure it isn't worth my time to get all wrapped up and argue with people around the world.

Today I just about broke my "silence."

A friend posted an article on Facebook about a sculpture that had anti-Semitic messages on in. In all fairness you can read the article here:

For some reason his ability to tear apart an artists work without even thinking for a moment that their is more (or less) to the story than he is making was crazy to me. The people posting had me getting more and more worked up. They were ready to ruin the artists entire career and label him a hate filled Anti-Semitic based on one other persons idea. I had my response ready but didn't hit the "submit."

For some reason it was really sitting wrong with me so later I searched for the article to reread it. When I did so I found it but I also found this really great article that brings perspective to the situation much better than I ever could. You should read it here!

It just really has me thinking about everyone being a little more kind and a little less judgmental. We know there are REALLY bad things in the world that we should be upset about. However, we should probably make sure that we are upset about the "right" things.

Mural Making

For my second section of Beautifying NMS Aftershock we decided the weather was getting a bit unpredictable for doing another project outside. Instead we decided to create a mural inside our building.

We started by brainstorming our ideas and working together to create an image. We blew it up on the Smartboard and traced the images onto large sheets of white paper.  

Students traced the image with sharpies before painting the black areas. After the 5th and 6th graders finished the black I found a lot of "smears." We fixed it by painting the panther grey. 

When it was all painted, we glued the pieces together and fixed up a few spots. We installed it downstairs with a black border around it.

I think it turned out pretty good.