Colorful Notans

In cleaning up more and more folders, I have found a lot of things I photographed but seem to have failed to share. This is one such project.

Students created Notan designs and each class was given a different color of background paper.

 when they were done, we put them all together to make a color gradation. It was one of my favorite displays that year.

Shape Collages

Last year when I saw Tatjana Knudsen's Post "Meet the Creative Part of Me" I fell in love.  These simple shapes, bright colors and creative idea sparked something.  While my project is a pretty close copy I made a few changes...

A triangle dinosaur playing basketball

Students started by defining the element of Shape.  Then they selected 3 numbers between 1 and 9.  The first number was the shape they would have to use.  The second number was the animal they would have to make.  The third number was the action the animal had to be doing.  After they found out what they had to create I gave them some time to plan.

a circle cat texting

While they were planning we also painted our background papers.  We looked at the images by Karin Olsen and agreed that the backgrounds were filled with colors and not details.  Students worked hard to finish their colorful backgrounds before tackling the collage the following week.

a circle cat walking

As students entered the room they were given back their background paper and they worked really hard to finish their images.  Our last steps were to add sharpie details as needed and to write a short story about what was happening in the images.  The stories were pretty awesome!

You can see more at ARTSONIA.

Paint Samples= Value City

My husband is runs his own painting company so he spends a lot of time at our local Diamond Vogel store.  At the end of last school year Diane (from the paint store) gave him a LARGE BOX of discontinued color paint samples.

I started thinking about what to do... value scales for sure.  sorting by color game?  perfect cartoon squares?  bulletin board borders? 

What I came up for the first round (yes there was that many) are these value scale cities.

As students finished an assignment they choose 5 paint samples and started drawing their city information on them.  I didn't even tell them what we were going to do until the next week.  

The next week we started class talking about value.  In every class but one, a student blurted out "were those papers we drew on last week a value scale?"  Yes! Yes, they were.  The students were also given the challenge of creating a changing value background.  That means their sky area needed to go from light to dark or dark to light.

 They did a great job and I loved the stories they wrote out about what is happening in their city.

Check out the grade sheet here. 

You can check out more images at Artsonia.

Finally...

I was feeling a little (okay... completely) overwhelmed at school.
So.... 14 hours later, life is better!  The room is cleaned up, the stuff is put away, the markers are sorted, the next projects are ready to go.  Now I can breath!

So to update you on something I mentioned a LONG time ago... Collage Bugs!

My 6th graders first assignment was to create a watercolor and collage bug image that reflected the knowledge of the elements of art.  In my previous post I talked about my frustrations with the assignment but in the end there were some really AWESOME solutions.

Some of my favorite parts are:

a giant locust

a human bug

3-D Butterfly

See through wasp wings

this bee is amazing!

I love the tree's texture!

check out more at Artsonia.com

Shape Monsters on Facebook

One of our earlier projects was to create monster collages using a minimum of 3 geometric shapes and 5 organic shapes.  The kids had a lot of fun designing these creative creatures. I was proud of how hard they worked on their collages.

They did some really great things...

I love how this monster has only one arm... just like the student who created it!

I love that they used tracing paper to make their monster look like it was under water.

this is a close up.. had to share the fringe detail on this coat!  

and one flying  a 3-d plane!

When they were done talking about shapes we moved onto forms.  I had them redraw their monster as form... focusing on using shading.  They did this by creating a facebook profile for their monster.  I loved reading all about their monsters facts. 

Here are some side by sides...

An Awesome Idea and an Epic Fail

So for my first official 6th grade project I had this WONDERFUL idea ...

that went KABOOM! during my first class!

But I think I have saved it!

My original idea was to have the students start the year with a review project that would allow them a lot of freedom.  We started with quick review of watercolor and collage.  I then gave them the assignment, "create a project that uses a bug as your subject matter and shows your ability to use watercolor and collage."  They had a week to think about it and plan.  

They came in on Thursday ready to work and IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!  Their ideas weren't very well developed.  They weren't sure how to start with their ideas.  They were just grabbing papers, paint and glue and going to town.  At the end of class I was tired and sad and worried.  

Then came lunch and some massive brainstorming.

I realized that their struggles came from my shortcomings.  While they had ideas, I had to help them work out their ideas better.  So for the next few classes we started with a sketch critique where the students had to work out an official sketch and then share it with a class partner.  They were then able to tell me if they were starting with watercolor or collage as every student had to start with their background.  

We aren't finished yet but I really like the way things are going!  PHEW!

Also... I am planning on being able to use this project for my students to discuss unity and variety.  

a NO GLUE sort of day...

So today we started working on our surrealism collages.  Each day of the week is doing a different project because I will see each of them for different time frames (track meets, field trips, music contest, etc...).  Today they started their collages and I would NOT allow them glue.  I am making them find all their "color" first.

You would have thought I was punishing them...

Almost everyone wanted to get started and the few I did allow to start during 6th hour did exactly what I DIDN'T want them to do.  They started with their "focal point" and then got frustrated when they couldn't get their background to fit in.  sssiiiiggghhhh

sketching out the image...

Today's students are creating monochromatic background environments using magazine paper.  Next week they will create a COLORFUL focal point image using construction paper.  Today's goals were to draw out/plan their idea and complete their color search.

watching the values...

storing our "colors"

Luckily I have a TON of these plastic folders a mom donated a few years ago.  The fit into the art folders and velcro shut.  This way they can collect all the value paper they want and it won't (or shouldn't) go missing by the next class time!  

Collage is one of my least fav. projects (SO VERY MESSY) and I am tackling 3 different ways of doing it,  so feel free to say some extra prayers for me. 

Gotta Love Sub Lessons...

My 6th graders werefinishing up their still life projects and I had to be gone for a Relay for Life commitment.  So that meant I had to have a sub during a super important step.  I knew they sub but I was still NERVOUS.  

Mrs. Hahn at Mini Matisse to the rescue.  

I was writing out my lessons when her blog post "I'm in LOVE with notans" came through my reader.  I just knew it would solve my problems... The kids would still get to do a fun project but I don't have to worry about them "messing" up an important step on their still-life drawings.  Thank you Mrs. Hahn for the idea and Mrs. Couch for teaching a great lesson... I love how they turned out.

The students were given the task of using one 6x6 piece of red paper and one 9x12 piece of white paper.  They had to cut out hearts, reversing the paper in and out (like you do with notans) BUT their goal was to create a graphic image and not a "valentiney looking" image.  I think they did a great job!

White out...

We have probably all heard the joke about the art student turning in a white paper and telling the teacher "it's a white cow in a snowstorm."  Well I challenged my 6th graders to solve that problem.

Assignment:

• You get 3 pieces of white computer paper to make a snowstorm collage.  
• You may use a "dusting" of grey chalk to show edges
• You are graded on creative thinking (not just snowmen) and craftsmanship

It was definitely challenging but some of them turned out super cute...

of course they don't photograph exceptionally well.  

Now if only we could get some snow around here!