He did it!

Ashton did it...He is Artsonia's Artist of the Week for his age group.  Thank you to everyone who voted for him!

Block Printing

I posted about doing reduction printing this year.  I tackled that project with my 75 "Monday" kids because I would see them on Mondays and Wednesday during printmaking   The rest of the kiddo's did a standard block printing assignment.   They were assigned a landscape, seascape or cityscape based on their day of the week.  We talked about the different ways to carve our image (see this old post) and the got to work.

It ended up that I was gone for a funeral on a printing day for just about every single class (three funeral this year is ENOUGH) but we got them done.  Here are a few of them!

You can check the rest of them out on Artsonia.

Artist of the week...

I just got an email that a student of mine is in the running for Artsonia's Artist of the Week.... AWESOME!

If you have some time and want to help him (us) out feel free to stop on over and cast your vote!

CD Case Design

When Rina over at K-6 Art posted this neat post about drawing portraits on CD cases I knew I found the conclusion to our 5th grade portrait unit.  It gave me a lot of freedom based on how many days each group had (track meets, music contest, random Friday off... all those things that impact the end of the year).

Day 1 and 2
We drew our faces on front using sharpies and then opened the CD case to paint our faces... we made them bright, bold and beautiful.  (painting on the inside prevents the paint from scratching off).  Then we used one 4 3/4" x 5" paper for writing words that describe us.  These words went behind our portraits.  The CD cases are then completely usable (would be an awesome way to send home a digital portfolio).

 

this kiddo painted his whole cover so his solution was to put his lettering in "backwards"

Day 3

These kiddo's never miss so their job was to make their CD Case into a "book."  These kiddo's used the thicker CD cases.  They did the same painting but we finished them with a 20" x 4 3/4" paper accordion folded into the back.  They then completed them by writing a story, creating a cartoon, designing the pages, creating collages, etc...

Day 4

These kiddo's were stuck missing out... but those that finished early could do one "just for fun."  These were some of my fav's.  They really got into this project! 

You may not be able to tell but on the first two they painted everything BUT the face on the front of the case.  They then painted the background.  This created an awesome sense of depth to their images.  The first one is in the window "glowing," the other is inside. 

painting right to the edge

 These are the same picture... the first one has a light shinning through it, the second is plain.  Pretty neat... (would make an awesome window display)

You can check out all the images on Artsonia.

Golden Frames

In the wonderful story "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds the art teacher hangs Vashti's dot in a golden frame... 

...and that is where we put our 5th grade portraits.  We created these half and half drawings by finishing our photographs with a pencil drawing (drawing 1/2 a face is a lot less intimidating than drawing a whole face).  When that was done, we painted the background black to unify the photo/non photo sides. 

 Our final step was to frame them in "Gold"en paper.  

Too Much...

I have one class that can be a bit too much on most days.  There a lots of "extra needs" kids in one section.  Many days when they leave I am tired... However the same kids are some of the funniest kids around (if only they could work and be funny).

We are  currently making candid collages and they are finding "parts" to make their people out of.  Towards the end of class I handed out their plastic bags to store their collage paper in.  One of my kiddo's said... and I quote...

"Did you hear what she said... she wants us to put body parts in a plastic bag.  Dude, she better not be calling the cops."

I love my job!                                       

     ...and no I am not calling cops!

Quick Printmaking Project...

I LOVE using the Nasco Safety-Kut with my kiddos.  I can get 30 4 x 6 blocks out of each sheet so it costs me about $350.00 for every student to get to do printmaking (you could use the front and back of each block so they could do two prints each or share).  When I do my cutting, I end up with a 6"x 2" scrap from each block.  Over the last 2 years I have accumulated quite a stockpile of scraps so this year I decided to give my "bonus Wednesday class" an assignment that would use them up.

We talked about radial design and how they are created.  They were given a 2"x 2" paper to work out their design.  When they had their drawings ready to go, they were each given a 2"x 2" block to transfer to.  (Another thing I love about Safety-Kut is that pencil drawings are EASILY transferred by laying the paper upside down onto the block and rubbing the back with a ruler.)

pencil transfer~carved~post printing.

After students transferred and carved their image, they printed.  For this assignment I just put out trays of acrylic paint and allowed them to brush the color onto their block.  It took concentration to make sure they were turning the blocks the right direction when printing.  But I think they turned out pretty awesome!  

more in the "BIG" picture at the top