Post It Mural- 3 Stooges

 This year our League Art exhibition and competitions were held virtually. One of the options for the competition was a post-it note mural. I have a couple students who are pretty interested in pixel art so I put them in charge of coming up with a plan. It was supposed to be something "iconic" so they chose the 3 Stooges, then had to translate it to colors that we had available. I ended up having to borrow some post-its and cut some similar colored paper into squares when we started to run out but I think it turned out great! The biggest challenge was staying lined up with multiple people working at the same time. It did not work out to start at opposite sides even though we thought we measured carefully, so there was lots of revision. All in all, they were proud of their artwork and that's what counts!

Here's a time lapse video of the construction!

Group photo of some of the artists!

First Day of School Collaborative Artwork

Here is the large mural displayed above some lockers.

I teach in a really small school where everyone pretty much already knows everyone so instead of a getting to know you activity, I like to start the year with some type of collaborative project. This helps us get some artwork up in the blank hallways quickly, gives the students a chance to interact and helps establish a positive classroom culture. Do you have lots of students switching classes in the first couple days of school? This helps with that issue as well. There were no abandoned projects because of students changing classes.

Here's my room before I moved tables to hold the in-progress murals.

Our StuCo picked "Nobody rides this ship. We all row. We're all in." for a theme for the year so I drew the biggest “mural” out ahead of time based on that saying and had it stretched across 3 tables in the art room. Each class painted and we finished it before the end of the day. The students planned the colors and added more details as they worked. When it became clear that it would be finished before my last class came in, I grabbed some more butcher paper and sketched out another table sized mural. We ended up making a couple more that the students designed and I sketched out under their direction to make it quicker. Next year I may have the students work in groups to completely design and create murals I just did not expect them to finish so quickly this year so I adapted!
We used tempera sticks to sketch and outline details as well as add highlights on top of tempera paint. We’ve gotten so many positive comments on the paintings and I was even asked to send a picture for the district newsletter. This may become our first day of school tradition!

Collaborative Color Wheel

I wanted to start off the year with some low pressure collaborative activities in my high school classes. One of the activities was a refresher or introduction to the color wheel. I went over the basic primary and secondary colors and told them that intermediate colors go in between. 

Students working on organizing colors on the collaborative color wheel.

I asked the students to cut swatches of color from magazines to organize onto a color wheel. I had a big circle cut out of mat board for the base which was donated last year but you could use cardboard, poster board, or any big piece of paper.
After the students had cut some swatches to start with we talked about organizing colors. I suggested they put the "true" colors in the middle of each wedge and the colors veering toward intermediates closer to the other combining color. The students decided to put the lighter values in the middle and the shades toward the outside.

Finished color wheel.

Positive take-aways were students analyzing the colors and starting to understand the variety that is out there beyond basic colors. Hopefully when we get to our painting boot camp next month and mix colors they will remember and be inspired. Plus, we now have a big, custom color wheel for reference! 

The students also had time to start some smaller value scales, which are pretty fun. I'm looking forward to getting them put up in the classroom.

Collaborative Mascot Mural

It has been SOOOO busy getting my new classroom set up, finishing up curriculum plans, learning my new schedule and responsibilities, and everything else that goes along with switching schools.

I wanted to take a few minutes to share the project we used to kick off the year and transition into art class. I used the same process a few years ago (I use that term loosely) at one of my previous schools and thought it would work well for high school. Each high school and middle school student completed one square for each class in which they are enrolled. Some finished early and drew extras. I put the lesson up on the smARTteacher for their August challenge so you can read about the whole process there.

The small sections look cool on their own but I really like what we accomplished together.

2015 Bottle Cap Murals

2012 was the first year my Intermediate school created bottle cap "murals". Some were small, some were medium, but this year we went BIG to make two 4x8 foot bottle cap murals that were recently installed on walls in our school. Previously, we'd reused cardboard sheets or other materials donated to us for backing and hot glue. This year, I received a grant from our district's foundation and used that to purchase 2 sheets of MDF and 2 cases of DAP Alex Plus caulking to use as glue. (We had one case leftover)

I'm not sure between the caulking and hot glue which one sticks better. I thought the caulking was working fine, but several caps have had to be re-glued. I had used a caulking gun to squirt it out on cardboard and the students dipped the caps and stuck them down. I think some students just didn't get enough caulking on the back, while others got WAAAAAY too much. The maintenance crew that hung the panels suggested Spikes Special Adhesive and left me a small tube for repairs. It does seem to be sticking really well and is definitely stronger than the caulking. However, I don't know how the cost would compare. I suppose it's another option for someone to look into.
Overall, I was pleased with how things came together. In previous years, I've let the students totally design the panels. This year since I knew they would be permanent, I gave students the option of submitting plans and I had things sketched out before they came. The outer space panel was based on a student's sketch and I designed the READ mural for the library.

Students working on painting and applying caps to the space mural.

The READ mural is my favorite! I have a few caps to replace since some fell off during installation, but it already looks awesome and is a nice feature in the library.

 The space mural turned out pretty good, but has weird gaps. Students said we were out of black caps (found out later they just didn't look carefully enough) so we spaced the caps out. Now there are gaps just a tiny bit too small for me to fill them in. I hung up signs on either side reminding students not to touch but it's a high traffic area so I'm sure it will happen. One of the custodians is talking about using some small screws to secure more caps.

Peace Pole at Brown v. Board

 Last spring my 3rd grade students created a Peace Pole to represent Kansas in the Youth Art Peace Pole Project and last month on the International Day of Peace, the Peace Pole was displayed at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. It worked out for the students, now in 4th grade, to go on a field trip to the NHS during the week the Peace Pole was on display.

 Ranger Angela addressing the students before entering. She explained segregation and integration.

 Here are some of our group entering the building, formerly Monroe Elementary School.

 The students were excited to check out the Peace Pole. Many didn't get to see it totally completed since it was so close to the end of the school year.

 Each class rotated through stations. There were two galleries to explore, a video about "Fair is Fair", an activity about including others in the period Kindergarten classroom, and an art activity where students brainstormed ways they can show peace.

I hope to go back to Brown v. Board some time without 123 4th graders to help monitor!

Peace Poles

Have you heard about the Youth Art Peace Pole Project? I was introduced when I saw a post mentioning they needed a Kansas teacher to make a Peace Pole with their students in time for the 2014 International Day of Peace. I read an article in SchoolArts Magazine that explained the concept. Peace Poles are one of the most recognizable symbols of peace and can be found all over the world. The designs vary, but they always share the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in a different language on each side. My students learned about Peace Poles, proposed designs, and helped paint the collaborative project that I designed based on their proposals. This September our Peace Pole will represent Kansas and be displayed at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site before returning to school where it will permanently reside. 

I chose 3rd graders to work on this project because they are the oldest grade I see weekly. This would have been better suited to an older grade level but the schedule just wouldn't allow it! To begin our lesson, we spent a bit of time talking about "Peace". What is it? What isn't it? It didn't take long for students to think of a big non-example in schools- bullying. I hoped that they would think of bullying. We talked about examples of bullying- physical, name-calling, excluding people, etc. I really wanted to make sure that we touched on bullying because I think it will help them better understand discrimination when they learn about the Brown v. Board case that ended legal segregation in public schools. Thankfully the lovely people at the Brown v. Board site and the students' new principal (they switch schools between 3rd and 4th grade) are excited about planning a field trip to the NHS this September when the Peace Pole will be on display. I only hope it can be scheduled on a day that I'm at the intermediate school so I can attend, too!

After our Peace Is/Peace Isn't discussion and intro to Peace Poles, the students set to work on their own designs. I gave the students narrow paper to help them think of the vertical peace pole design. They also had transparencies to look at with "May Peace Prevail on Earth" translated into something like 60 different languages. When the drawings were finished, I dug through them looking for designs that stood out with interesting visualizations of peace and for common themes. I sorted the strongest designs into 4 piles that eventually became the 4 sides of our Peace Pole.

Students were invited to add thoughts to the giant paper Peace Sign brainstorming chart sometime during the first class period. It had great visual impact in the hallway and also helped to remind the students and inform others of our preparatory activities.

I drew the designs out on our Peace Pole with a sharpie and the students painted with acrylic and a bit of tempera. I called one table up at a time to let students paint. 

This is where I had to give lots of gentle reminders about not rushing!

The above pictures are two of my favorite parts of our Peace Pole. The ocean section was totally designed by one of the 3rd graders. She made the octopus' legs spell out "Peace" and the sea horse's bubbles form a heart. The next photo shows one of the languages we chose. English and Spanish were the most obvious languages as they are the most common in our area. I had asked one of our ELL teachers about languages common in our school district and I was surprised to find out that American Sign Language was toward the top. Of course I realize that someone who uses ASL can likely read English, but we still thought it would be fun to represent sign language on our Peace Pole. Our interpreting para signed "Peace on Earth" for me to photograph and I went from there.

It's hard to get a good photo of the Peace Pole since it's 7 feet tall and skinny. I merged 8 photos together to show what it would look like flattened out. Hopefully you can enlarge and see some detail. I think that a Peace Pole would be a wonderful addition to any park or garden. I'm going to see if we can get one made at my intermediate school this year!

Dream Rocket at the Franklin Institute

During the last couple weeks of school, some of my 5th graders had a chance to work on panels for the Dream Rocket Project's exhibit at the Franklin Institute. The theme is "Your Night Sky". When my students have worked on the Dream Rocket project in the past, the students have totally designed the panels. Since this was created in the very last art class of the year, I had the main part of the designs planned out before the students arrived.

 I used two different views of the Kansas State Capitol, the first showing most of the building, and the second zoomed in on the statue on top of the dome. The copper on the dome has recently been replaced so it's odd for me to see it a warm copper instead of the green I was so used to!

The metallic colored pencils came in handy for the drawing of the capitol.

White colored pencils were used to finish the rest of the building and add constellations (we weren't worried about accurate placement). A green color stick worked well for the tree.

The painting zoomed in on the statue was made with tempera paint. To save time, both panels were created on black butcher paper. It just made more sense than starting with white paper and painting it all black.

These panels will be displayed at the Franklin Institute next December and will eventually be combined with thousands Dream Rocket panels from all over the world to wrap the Saturn V Moon Rocket at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This project is a global collaborative effort and I'm so excited to see the end result! When one of my students asked why they want to put the artwork on a rocket, I explained that a rocket is a great symbol for dreaming big. Not that long ago it was thought impossible to go into space or land on the moon. The mission to the moon was a BIG DREAM that came true, through science and hard work. The Dream Rocket is trying to help turn STEM into STEAM!

Dream Rocket- Space

My 6th grade students participated in the Dream Rocket project last fall, making artwork with a "Space" theme for a show at the Cosmosphere. When I read about the exhibit, I knew I wanted to sign up my students who spend the first 9 weeks of school studying astronomy in their science class.

Since we are trying out choice based art this year, the students had the option of participating in the Dream Rocket or continuing with something of their own. I had the interested students come over to me for more details after the whole class watched a video about the Dream Rocket and discussed some space images from one of my Pinterest boards.

The interested students divided themselves into small groups and set to work brainstorming. This was really cool to watch! They had ideas from their studies earlier in the semester so I saw a good balance of imagination and "real"science.

Most of the artwork was created with regular old tempera paint but some added homemade spray paint or collage elements.

  97 cent spray bottles filled with diluted tempera paint make cool galaxies. The students above worked together to swirl the runny paint.

 My school is in the middle of a big vocabulary experiment. Each month there are 10 words that we want all 4th-6th grade students to "own". It worked out really well that in December two of the words fit perfectly with the Dream Rocket project so I used them in the hallway display. "Look What We Can ACHIEVE When We COLLABORATE". Some of the words a bit hard to read in the photo.

Now if all goes well with the final stages of planning, my students space artwork, as well as the other Dream Rocket paintings my 2nd and 3rd grade students made last year, (see them here) and others submitted from across the US and all over the world will be used to wrap the Saturn V Moon Rocket at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. How cool is that?

You can see the rest of the paintings in our Artsonia gallery and check out our short Animoto video below.

Dream Rocket