Miro-like Designs

As promised, here are the 1st and 2nd grader's take on Joan Miro. After comparing the use of straight and curved black lines between Mondrian and Miro, and the use of geometric versus organic shapes, students did their own version of a Joan Miro-like design using markers and black colored pencils. (See Animoto below)

Mondrian-Style Designs

1st and 2nd graders learned about Piet Mondrian and Joan Miro. Students participated in SMART Board sorting activities which compared Mondrian's use of line, color, and shape with Miro's. Watch for Miro-style designs in a couple of weeks. (See Animoto below)

The Eyes Have It!

3rd and 4th graders are learning about facial features and proportions. We began with eyes since they require the most detail study. Students worked with mirrors as well as other exemplars. Training a child's "eyes" is as important as training their hands and these students are beginning to "see" more than they used to. (See Animoto below)

Working on the "Beasties"

All classes will have a hand in the creation of our Beasties. The younger students got to stuff the plastic bags with softly crushed newspapers and tape the bags shut. Since it's a total waste of time to clean up for a different activity, whenever we do paper mache' it's for the entire morning or afternoon and all classes get involved. This also gives everyone a stake in the project and most students use good craftsmanship while working. It's especially important to instill a sense of craftsmanship in the younger students who are quick to point out when they see something that was not done carefully and they fix it. (See Animoto below)

Jr. High Blended Shading Designs

Junior High students spent some time learning a value scale and had to complete a multi-gray scale done in ebony or 4B pencil before starting a design. Many of the students at this age are not used to keeping their hands out of the way when they are working, and they didn't quite get into the habit of laying down a scrap sheet to protect areas previously worked. We had no windows, nor could students leave the room to go outside, so spraying was not feasible. They did their best and most did grasp the idea of value and blending, though mastery wasn't gained in their initial pieces. (See Animoto below)

I Like to Move It, Move It Final Drawing

One of the fairly recent animated movies was Madagascar and the lemurs were always dancing to the lively, "I like to Move it, Move it." I used that song to get kids to stand up and wiggle since there really was no room to move. We looked at examples of figure proportion and the artwork of Keith Haring to create stick figures in movement. This was an introduction to gesture drawing and capturing movement in drawing. (See Animoto below)

Intro to Paper Mache'

First graders got a chance to see the Chicago Cows, the Milwaukee Beasties, and the Holy Family Bears in their Prezi introduction to paper mache. We will be doing something akin to the beasties in the first and second grade classes.
Stuffing plastic grocery bags with crushed up newspaper was the first step to creating our beasties. Tactile activities are important and paper mache' is a cheap alternative to clay. (See Animoto below)

I Like to Move It, Move It!

Students pose for each other in order to practice gesture drawing. Students need to work on human proportion or they will stagnate at a stick figure/lack of movement stage in their drawings. This playful approach allows the natural growth of this skill. (See Animoto below)

First Graders Figure Drawing

I can't emphasize this enough, but children need concrete instruction in figure drawing or they will eventually struggle and give up drawing people. They need to understand the relationship of body parts and their proper proportion. They won't master this but it will give them a sense of what is correct when they see it. (See Animoto below)

Calligraphy: An Introduction to Beautiful Writing

There is a lot of debate about teaching cursive writing because of the use of computers. I do not want to see writing skills such as cursive and calligraphy be lost just because we use computers. Lettering is an important hand skill and I loved introducing it to students. Oddly, female students skewed towards Italic with its rounded strokes and the males skewed towards Old English with it's boxy strokes. (See slideshow below)

Calligraphy Stack

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