8th Grade Animal Collages

Last fall was a doozy. Groups of students in and out of quarantine. My two older kids in school were both quarantined at different times so I taught remotely more than once. I had a large 8th grade class for the size of my room which made social distancing impossible though we did our best with sneeze guards, assigned seats, sanitization of tables, and individual supply bags. Students did a lot of drawing because I was never able to get an order of watercolor in and my trays were given to the high school students. Finally at the end of the semester we did a collage project, which the students finished while I was once again teaching remotely!

I found that students needed more structured choices than in previous years so we went with the theme of animals since everyone loves animals! This is the slides presentation I made to introduce collage and show different styles.

The students had a lot of different papers to utilize in their projects. There were construction paper and painted paper scraps, magazines, and a big stack of scrapbook paper that was donated. The scrapbook paper had lots of texture and patterns so it was a nice addition.

I was so pleased with how the animal collages turned out, and though I didn't get to interact with the students a lot while they were finishing up, I'm sure they had to be proud of their work too!

8th Grade Space- a Choice Based Art Lesson

 I have struggled this year with not being able to find a way to give my middle school class as much choice as I usually do. The class is big for my classroom so social distancing is tricky plus supplies I wanted for their personal art supply kits were back ordered so they’ve mostly used drawing media. I wanted to cover a topic while at least allowing them to choose their direction so after observing the need in their independenent drawings, I picked the concept of space! 

We did some warm up activities and skill builders like practicing one and two point linear perspective, a simple landscape with atmospheric perspective, and a design using negative space. When it was time to plan their project, students could choose from suggestions or come up with their own idea as long as they used space!

I needed to modify a lesson for a student so she directed what shapes she wanted and where she wanted them. I printed out the design on card stock so she could connect the edges to the vanishing point. 

Creative Reuse: Art from Scrap Textiles

It all started with a KAEA conference workshop. A workshop description mentioned recycling textiles into art. I thought "I like recycling. I have lots of fabric scraps at school." So I signed up.

I didn't even notice that the presenter was the wonderful Liz Kowalchuk when I chose the workshop. The presentation was inspiring and we all enjoyed making pendants out of old clothing. I couldn't wait to get started with my 8th grade students.

I started with a discussion to introduce the assignment. A slides presentation kept me organized.

Challenge 1: Create a pendant

In the workshop, Liz provided us with templates. I found a bunch of small wooden shapes that had been donated to my classroom and scraps of mat board. They were all different sizes so I showed students how to make their own template on thin paper by tracing around their base and leaving enough of a border that it could wrap around onto the back. The students cut scraps of fabric from our collection- some quilting scraps and some cut from worn out clothing, glued them in place on their templates, and trimmed the corners before wrapping. When the wrapping was done, the pieces could either be turned into pendants to wear as a necklace, attached to a ring to use as a keychain, or turned into a broach by pulling one end of the fabric through a large safety pin when wrapping.

Challenge 2: Create an original work of art out of textile scraps

I am more confident working in 2D so I pushed myself to make a sculpture for my example. I formed the bird out of denim and wire, used netting from a produce bag and other scraps to form a nest, and perched it in the crook of a piece of hedge left from prom decorations last year.

I was also excited to have the excuse to pull out some of my cool fibers/textiles/mixed media books and magazines for inspiration!

I was able to purchase an inexpensive sewing machine with a grant a couple of years ago and I wish I had room for more than one because it was popular! Probably 3/4s of the students utilized the sewing machine in some way during construction.

The students didn't have many limits for what to make. Many made pillows, bandanas, or more jewelry. A couple went much bigger, working at home to add to their resources but still focusing on repurposing items.

This student found some old wire at her house and brought in burlap from her mom's wedding decorations to make a giant dream catcher which got a ton of attention hanging in the hallway.

This student was so excited that she finished her sculpture at home over the weekend right after it was introduced. Her mom and grandma gave her some help with papier mache. She used an old doll for the torso, a tomato cage for the rest of the body, an old coat for the fur, curtains for the skirt, and scrap fabric from her quilter grandma's stash.

A few students worked together in a group on a Batman costume that they stitched by hand and an armature to model it. Other students helped teach their classmates how to use the sewing machine or helped them problem solve.

Challenge 3: Plan the display

I explained to the students that they were going to be in charge of preparing their work for the display case including artist statements and a sign to explain the display so people could learn about our topic. I ended up home with a sick kid on the day they set up the display so it was really all them!

I couldn't have been more proud of the students' work on this project. They all learned new skills even though the skills were not the same across the board and they all communicated their ideas.

8th grade Hand Observations

Teaching 8th graders to draw their hands from observation is one of my favorite growth measures. There are a lot of connections to art history like Leonardo's studies and the Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, plus we know that learning to observe and really look at something is a skill that carries over into other non-art areas. Hands are something that most kids assume they "can't" draw and avoid, so teaching them that with practice they CAN learn these drawing skills help them to see that you can grow and improve in art- it's not just something you're born with or not.

I am always blown away from the growth we see in this unit. I start by asking the students to draw their hands from observation with no help as a pre-assessment. Next, we spend a couple of days doing "drawing on the right side of the brain" exercises like blind contour, continuous line, and non-dominant hand drawings to get the students to slow down and look carefully. Truthfully, those drawings stress some students out so I always emphasize that it's not about it how the drawing looks, it's about how YOU are looking.

After that, I draw my hand to demonstrate different techniques for measurement and comparison to get proportions correctly. I talk about what I'm looking at as I draw. The students spend a day or sometimes two working on a contour line drawing of one of their hands, however they would like to pose it, before I demonstrate rendering techniques. 

This year the students were especially into their drawings and wanted to really push the creativity so we updated the rubric for the growth measure to include creativity.

When the hand drawings are complete, we switch gears and observe our hands in three dimensions by sculpting them out of clay. The technique we use is 1:1, starting with a slab of clay about as thick as your hand, tracing, and then carving away to match what you observe.

Most students chose to stain their hands with red iron oxide but they were also free to use glaze or oil pastels and India Ink.

Here are the 2D and 3D hands in the display case!