Southwest Pots

I found this project on Artsonia, I thought they were so beautiful! I just had to try them with my fifth graders. I first showed them images of southwest pottery design and made handouts for each table for reference. The students then created templates out of oaktag and shared them with the entire class so everyone would have three different pieces of pottery. The designs were sketched in pencil first then colored with markers. After the design was complete one half of the pottery was shaded with black pastel( or the side of a black crayon). The students arranged their work on the construction paper of their choice and glued them down. They look great when displayed together!

Bluebirds of Happiness!

These first grade ceramic birds are so sweet! We started with two balls of clay, one large,one small. We attached the clay pieces with the "scratch to attach" method using a little water to create a slip. We pulled a tail by stretching the clay with our fingers, and a little beak by pinching the clay! A little scratch stick was used for texture and eyes. After firing, we painted our little birds blue

hoping to spread a little happiness to those that see them!

Glue Batik

This was a small group project for a local museum on Long Island.The museum has an exhibit "The Colors of Long Island" that showcases children's art across the island.  Our two entries were of our town dock and lighthouse.  The batik panels were created on a light cotton muslin and painted in acrylic paint.  I had one student do the actual design and sketch it lightly with pencil on the muslin.  The lead artist then had a group of three or four friends outline the design with white glue (the muslin was laid out on large sheets of parchment paper so it would not stick!).  After the glue was completely dry, the entire panel was painted by the group with acrylic paints ( I used Createx acrylics).  When painting, make sure you go right over the dried glue for complete paint coverage.  After paint is dry, soak panel completely in a water bucket overnight, the glue will start to slough off and the results are amazing!!! I ironed the piece and had my school nurse (who was a quilter) sew a beautiful fabric frame around it.

Calder Circus Project

My fourth and fifth grade love group lessons.  This is a great lesson on Alexander Calder, I used the book "Sandy's Circus" as a motivator.  My classroom has six tables so each table was considered a group, each group was given a large brightly colored circle or "ring".  The rest is up to the students to figure out how to create a circus out of various materials.  I made sure there was plenty of materials such as cardboard tubes,pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, wood bits, wire, etc.  After the initial "storming" of ideas, the children used their imaginations and ingenuity to create fanciful circus creations.  We displayed our circus at our public library and other community art exhibits...they were a hit!!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi, I'm a K-5 elementary art teacher in Long Island, NY.  I love my job! It's been fun and rewarding for 25 years.  I  hope to share my best tried and true lessons as well as new ideas found in the blogging community!