2013 State Fish Art

Last year was the first year I offered the State Fish Art contest to students in addition to the Jr. Duck Stamp program. It was another successful year! Once again a lot of students found fish easier to draw than waterfowl. Someone suggested that maybe their experiences seeing fish are behind glass in an aquarium so they feel more comfortable translating them to 2D... Beyond the drawings, we also had success in the contest! Four of my students placed in our state taking 2nd and 3rd in both the Mighty Minnow (K-3rd) and 4th-6th grade age groups. Beyond the Mighty Minnow group, students are required to write an essay about their chosen fish species in addition to their artwork submission. (This is why few of my intermediate students actually enter the contest!)

4th-6th grade Winners:

Kansas 4th-6th grade 2nd place (6th grader)

Kansas 4th-6th grade 3rd place (5th grader)- this student drew from the mounted fish I brought to school!

 Here are some of the other 4th-6th grade drawings made by my students.

Mighty Minnow winners:

Kansas K-3rd grade 2nd place (3rd grader)

Kansas K-3rd grade 3rd place (1st grader)

The results were just posted online this week so while I haven't had a chance to congratulate my 5th and 6th grade winners, it was so much fun to go make the announcement to the classes of my 3rd and 1st grade winners. 

Jr. Duck Stamp Program

5th grade student, Honorable Mention

Ever since I took part in the Jr. Duck Stamp program in high school, I've been a big fan.  I know a lot of teachers don't do the program with their students because it takes so much time but  I had always planned to do it with my students and something the other elementary Art teachers in my district were already doing. (Check out last year's post to see a photo of wetlands in my area and photos of my high school duck stamp drawings.)

If you are not familiar with duck stamps, here's a brief summary, at least as brief as I'm capable of being (if you want a more in-depth look at duck stamps, check out the US Fish and Wildlife Service page.  Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, or "Duck Stamps," are sold by the government to raise money for wetlands conservation.  98 cents out of every dollar generated from duck stamps goes to purchase or lease wetlands.  A lot of people think it's all about hunting because those 16+ who want to hunt waterfowl are required to purchase a duck stamp but they are also bought by stamp collectors and people  who want to use them as a pass to get into National Wildlife Refuges.  Wildlife artists compete each year to try to get their paintings chosen to be printed on the duck stamp.  Jr. Duck stamps have been around since 1989 and the goal of the program is teaching "conservation through the arts." The students create a realistic drawing of an approved duck or goose to show that they have learned about the species and their habitat.  Students can enter their artwork into a contest at the state level.  In Kansas, they choose 3 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place winners and I think 12 honorable mentions in each of the 4 age groups.  All the first place winners are put together and the Best of Show is chosen to represent the state at the national level contest.  The national winner is actually printed on a Jr. Duck Stamp and the student gets scholarship opportunities.  I assume that all the states have similar processes.

The Jr. Duck Stamp program is a great way to incorporate science and observational drawing and ties into the curriculum for most grades as you can talk about the animals, their habitat, and environment.  I always start off by assessing prior knowledge of wetlands and habitats.  I then show the students some of the duck stamps my dad has saved for me and explain what they are all about.  I have lots of photos I have taken of ducks and geese printed out for the students to reference and some calendar photos that one of the teachers gave me.  This year I had created a PPT of me making an example drawing with photos of each step since I was gone on maternity leave when my 4-6th grade students had to start the project.  I showed the PPT to my younger students as well since it is a lot quicker than me demonstrating in person.  I did draw a few things up on the board like legs and feet and beaks/bills to point out that they are not stick legs and not plain triangles for the beak.  I told the students when we practice observational drawing we can pretend to be scientists and draw all the important details.  Each student chose a photo to reference when drawing but I encouraged them to change the background or something to make it their own.  I allowed three classes for each grade level to work on this project.  The first class was mostly introduction, passing out paper, labeling information on the back, and filling out an entry form.  I encouraged each student to take home an entry form for the art contest just in case they decided to enter. Some of the classes had a little time to start drawing in the first day.  I had the students draw out all the important details in pencil before starting with color.  This is a good time to talk about composition.  The students have to use 9x12 inch paper (must be horizontal) but the design needs to be appropriate for printing on a smaller stamp.  I tell the students to draw big so we can see the details and to fill the space.  Even if their reference photo has a whole flock of geese, I ask them to focus on drawing one or two.  So far I have just given the students colored pencils to work with but I may let them use paint next year.  I always preferred to use colored pencils when I entered because I felt like I had more control over the media and could be more detailed.  On the last day, I talked about ripples, reflections, and shading.  If any students finished early, I had them write a conservation message which is an additional contest.  Most of the students enjoy this project but a few complain about it being "hard".  I always tell them that just because something is hard doesn't mean they can't do it and that we learn more from challenges than doing things that are easy all the time.  Next year I may give the students a choice of Jr. Duck Stamps or the State Fish Art Contest since the goals for the project are similar.

If I remember correctly, I sent in about 300 entries between my two schools this year.  I ended up having 7 students receive Honorable Mentions and all I can say is that the drawings that placed higher must have been AMAZING because I am so proud of my students!

5th grade student

5th grade student

6th grade student

6th grade student, Honorable Mention

4th grade student, Honorable Mention

4th grade student

1st grade student, Honorable Mention

1st grade student/future Art teacher, Honorable Mention

2nd grade student

3rd grade student, Honorable Mention

2014 State Fish Art Contest

1st place oil pastel drawing of a Channel Catfish in the Mighty Minnows age group

Last school year I continued the tradition of offering the students a choice between the Jr. Duck Stamp program and the State Fish Art Contest. Both programs focus on teaching conservation through art and have a focus on habitat and observational drawing. This year I was floored when my students swept the awards for the Mighty Minnows (K-3rd grade) and 4th-6th grade age groups. If you teach in Kansas, please tell your students about this contest. They need some competition. :)

2nd and 3rd place in the Mighty Minnows age group.

 

Starting in the 4th-6th grade age group, students are judged on an essay about their fish species in addition to their artwork. My 5th grade 1st place winner made her essay more interesting by making interesting comparisons, such as the size of a bluegill to her hands.

1st place in the 4th-6th grade age group.

 2nd and 3rd place winners in the 4th-6th grade age group.

Celebrating Art

Last year I read a post on someone's blog (if it was you, thank you!) about Celebrating Art.  Celebrating Art lets you submit photos of student artwork (or students can submit their own from home) to be considered for publication in a really nice hardback book.  I submitted work for each school on their website (you have to create an account to keep track of all your information) and ended up with several students getting work accepted.  I actually had quite a few but lots did not turn in the permission form, and since we didn't get them until a few days before school got out, I didn't get the chance to remind them.  There are two deadlines a year, one in November, and one in April.  If you get enough students published, you get a free copy of the book for your classroom.  I went through and found all of my students but I haven't even had a chance to check out all the other awesome artwork yet!  I did make sure to mark pages with my students' work so my principals could find the right pages when I left the book for them to check out.

I thought I would just try the contest once to see how it went and overall, I'm very pleased with my experience!  If you have any questions, the company is very quick to respond.  I had a question about permission and they answered the same day.  *I wanted to make sure that you don't have to get permission to submit and they confirmed.  Parents only need to give permission for work to be published in the book.

Below are some photos of pages that featured my students' work with the links to posts about the project.

1st grade Bird Nests

2nd grade Tactile Paintings

Forgot to post about Kindergarten self-portraits...

...and forgot to photograph 2 more projects published in the book: one of my 3rd grade Architecture 2 Ways and 1st grade Circle Printing

4th grade Shape Paintings

6th grade Self Portraits (Their Future's So Bright...)

6th grade Aboriginal-Inspired Paintings

 Splashes of Color

5th grade Food Sculptures

5th grade True Color Self Portraits

5th Grade Clotheslines

4th Grade Piven-Inspired Self Portraits

Jr.Duck Stamp Drawings

 More 4th grade shape paintings and Aboriginal-Inspired animals

School Logo Paper Mural

Some people who see this in person can't find the picture!  I think it's easier to make out when viewed from the center and at a distance.

Yesterday I wanted to do one-day projects to try and get my classes back on the same schedule after snow days.  I got the idea for the mural from my friend Amy's blog but adapted the project for my students.  Her students had more variety of media but I stuck to my brand new Mr.Sketch markers.  I knew that I wanted to give each student a small section of the logo and show them how to create a grid to enlarge it.  I opened the logo up in Photoshop because that is always the easiest way for me to find the right size to scale the image and to add even lines.  Also, I have the file saved so I don't have to do the work again to use the project in future years.  I printed the logo in black and white so there were pretty much three values of black, gray, and white.  I haven't really done a project focused on value before so this was kind of an experiment.  I asked the students to make the black areas (pretty much just outlines) solidly colored in, fill the gray areas with line and shape designs, and either leave the white areas white or add sparse designs.  I also asked the students to use an analogous color scheme.

This project was completed by two 4th grade classes, a 6th grade class, and me.  There should have been enough students to complete every section.  But the power was out for an hour yesterday morning so the 4th class that I had planned to have work on this had to do a different project.  I figured I would complete a section in each class to demonstrate but I think I ended up finishing 16/72 pieces.  If I hadn't done that, the day would have been kind of a waste.  You can't put up a half-finished mural!  We had conferences today (and last night) so I finished my sections and one of our social workers helped me hang it.

When I do this project in the future...

I will probably stick with 6th grade.  It was tricky for some of them, the 4th graders needed LOTS of help.

I will probably tell the students what they are making.  I didn't tell the 4th grade classes what the "big picture" was going to be.  I wasn't going to tell my 6th grade class but decided to on a whim and they instantly were more interested and motivated!  I forget how much they are into anything with our school logo and it made a big difference!

I will try to figure out how to handle the REALLY simple sections.  Some pieces only had a little line down one side or a small shape in the corner.  One of my students with SUPER low motivation chose a section that was almost empty so when he finished that, I had him take over another section for a student who had to leave early.  And for once, he actually did the work!  (And with little more than a half-hearted protest!)  I was so happy!

I will have the students fold their paper "hotdog" and then "hamburger" style to make a simple grid with the creases instead of measuring.  I had the 4th grade classes use rulers to make their grids and you'd think they've never used one before!  I have vented about ruler issues before and had lots of the same problems again. I showed the students how to find the middle.  I told them that the paper was 9x12 inches.  This is what followed with the first 4th grade class.

Me: What is 9 divided by 2?

Students: 18!

Me: No, that's 9 times 2.  What is half of 9?

Students: 3!  No, 2!

*Frustration*

I decide to draw it on the board and show the students that 9 divided by 2 is 4 and a half.  I asked them what half of 12 was and thankfully they figured that one out a little quicker.  I marked the measurements on both sides and connected them with the ruler.  Simple, right?  Haha, that's what I thought.  Several used the wrong measurement, one even blamed it on me, several used the right measurement but just marked it once in the middle of the paper so it wasn't straight, several even measured correctly but tried to draw the grid lines free hand instead of with the straight edge of the ruler.

I feel a little like a quitter to give up on using rulers (I mean it's a simple but important skill the students should know) but I don't feel like I get enough class time with them to spend as much time as it would take for them to get it...

Another issue was students turning one of their pieces (either the small section or their drawing paper) horizontal and the other vertical which of course doesn't match up.  I don't think a lot of them had the visual-spatial skills yet to take on the more complicated sections.

Eric Carle

I get email updates from Eric Carle. In the latest email, there was a link to his blog! The blog is really cool, it has artwork and writing, his latest post is about his childhood Christmas memories.

http://ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/

The blog reminded me of the Eric Carle unit I did during student teaching last spring. Each grade K-6 did a wax resist painted paper collage project inspired by Eric Carle.

Kindergarten students learned about complementary colors and made fruit pictures. (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

1st grade students learned about the moon while making moon and stars pictures (Papa Please Get the Moon for Me)

2nd grade students learned about warm/cool colors and made caterpillars. (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

3rd grade students cut hearts from their painted papers (3rd grade did wax resist and tempera with texture combs) which were displayed in the hall for Valentine's day.

4th grade students drew a letter out of a hat and chose a word to illustrate for that letter.

5th grade students made imaginary animals. To get the students thinking about combining parts from different animals, they were instructed to just draw the head of an animal. Next, the drawings were rotated in their group and each student added to it (exquisite corpse style.)

K-5th grade students were in charge of painting their own papers and 6th grade students were assigned a color to create for the classmates to use

6th grade students were to tell some sort of story with three parts/three illustrations. It could be a song lyric, joke, story, nursery rhyme, or process.

6th Grade Egyptian-Inspired Animal Sculptures

I decided to look for a connection to 6th grade curriculum when planning their clay project. 6th grade studies ancient Egypt in Social Studies and I wanted to try to find some new inspiration- something I hadn't seen before. I came across this beautiful little guy below on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website and fell in love!

PLEASE pin from the original source at the Met Museum instead of from my blog! http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/100000444?img=2

"This well-formed statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") demonstrates the Egyptian artist's appreciation for the natural world. It was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath the blue-green glaze, the body was painted with the outlines of river plants, symbolizing the marshes in which the animal lived." (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/100000444?img=2)

It was so easy to make a connection to the Hippopotamus statue without cloning it. The students used clay handbuilding techniques to sculpt a favorite animal in the first class. In the second class period, they painted their sculptures with tempera cakes then either used a small brush to paint organic forms from the animal's natural habitat or an unwound paper clip to scratch the designs into the surface.

Each student was given a handful of clay (my measurements are sooo precise) with which to sculpt. Some used all of it while others went from "small scale" to "miniature" with teeny tiny sculptures. Animals are always popular and the students really seemed to enjoy the project. I have a big stack of discarded library books with animal pictures that the students could reference if they wanted and they could choose any animal as inspiration. The animals could also be painted any color- hippos are not blue in real life and that was ok with the Egyptians so it's ok with us!

Several students chose to make snakes, because they were "easy". We did talk about how a snake sculpture like the one on the left is much more interesting than the one on the right. If I saw they were making a snake, I tried to show examples of how to give their snakes a more dynamic pose.

We used toothpicks or small pieces of reed for things like antennae that would break if made of clay.

Some students spent all their time painting and didn't get to the plant shapes. It was a little tricky to figure out if they used a domesticated animal.

Here is a close up to show how this student scratched the designs into wet clay then defined with paint.

This panda is holding the bamboo instead of having it scratched into the body. Not a huge deal.

I LOVE this chameleon!

In case you ever wondered what is in a unicorn's natural habitat, the answer is flowers and rainbows.

Teeny tiny pig.

I just told the 6th graders making turtles that they better be more advanced than my 1st grade turtles!

Snake on a rock.

Somehow this student got his dinosaur to balance! We leaned his head against the wall of the shelf for support while it dried.