Tinting white grout with acrylics - sooo easy!

 I sooo want to use colored grout in the art room this year for the kids mosaic lesson - I'm usually  hooked on black...use it all the time and lament the fact that I lost all contrast with the tiles - so I tried tinting the grout with acrylic paint - AND IT WAS AWESOME!

 I used some premixed grout - put a 'smidge' of acrylic and mixed with a paintbrush -
used the paintbrush to 'sniggle' it (all technical artist terms) in the nooks and crannies
TIP : the paint thins the grout so the set up time is a bit longer
the grout needs to 'rest' for a bit longer - so 10 minutes or so
then you can do the first wipe off of the colored grout with a super dry sponge - always use a clean part of sponge or you'll just smudge the grout instead of removing it -and clean your sponge A LOT in-between!  then let it 'rest' again - 15 minutes - then polish each tile....

student references in the art room

i find the most bestest organization ideas on pinterest - i've used many and have a zillion on my pinterest board - teach art -for elements and principles. found these great examples here:

one of my mantras in class is "use your resources!" so what i will say as a prompt is something like "where in the room can you find an example of_____ or a definition of_______ ". great support and habit foryoung artists to access for themselves information around the room.

 when studying any style or artist i will put examples up - for landscapes or still life or abstract - you get the idea - as artists it is great to have a starting point - any example - in pointalism or fauvism or cubism - seeing the art helps us create the style!

 yes i painted a color wheel - at the beginning of the year i did a huge color theory series - and i found my young artists had difficulty with warm and cool - complimentary etc.

i labeled the colors 1,2,3 - primary, secondary, tertiary. and guess what? 1+1 = 2 ) primary + primary = secondary - cool huh!

we also use it for sorting games for the littles and my older artists reference the table wheel often! do it and see! or better yet - have the kiddos do it!  

after we study an artists - i put the artists on the artist wall - and organize information by a picture - birth/death - iconic examples and then supportive literacy format by listing facts with 'main idea' and 'details' labels. works like a charm and artists reference this whenever i am referencing a style or artist.

some organizing trick i do in the art room

 organization.....always a struggle but always worth it!
remember ....failure to plan is plan to fail. - art of ed quote i adore and has saved me and she has awesome organizing ideas.
i have 80 students pre-k to 8 so a wide range but not overwhelming.
i share the space with the other creative specials - music and yoga - and meeting space!
so quick set up and quick tear down really is important!

 here's a couple little things i do:
1)- i ordered tent mirrors for selfies - and these have been a class saver! i posts lists - examples - references - and of course awesome for self portraits!
2) - oil pastels - soft pastels - crayons - chalk - erasers -  so yummy and crazy to organize! blick has some awesome organizers - but my budget is more the dollar store - i used silverware drawer bins and makeup trays - perfect!
3) - for classes over 10 - i'll often put the supplies in plastic cups already sorted for each artists ! less time gathering = more time creating!

 4) DISPOSABLE MUFFIN TINS-they come with plastic covers - 3 to a pack - use them over and over!!! beside paint i have had drawing stubs - glitter - used them as mixing pallets you get the idea

 5) little cups - you know these - for water, samples - think costco or drinking fountains...i got mine at starbucks - for free - because starbucks rocks!
 i like using these for supplying small amounts of paint - it is a sanity creator! not nearly as much wasted paint or glue and small size for small hands - yay!

 6) one bin for one item - grab and go - no hunting - i have many labeled so tables or groups or individual student can be self-directed and get supplies themselves

7) and since i share with teachers - easy to retrieve! these supplies aren't just for art - if i need something for a special project i'll put a note on it - but my small private school allowed me to order paint and paper for the whole site -

8) and sometimes things end up like this and it's just ok....just cannot achieve perfection in all these - flexibility is ok - some disarray just happens...so laugh about it and take a picture and send it to me!!!!

2nd grade fantasy treehouses

 i have an amazing bunch of 2nd grade artists! they loooove to build and construct - they love to stand - i call them my stand up class!

so we decided to build fantasy treehouses. here's what we did:
DAY 1
1) we looked at a bunch of awesome pictures of treehouses both for adults and kids. i just found pics online and made a little slideshow.

2) then we made a GIANT list on the board of all the things we wanted in our very own tree house if we could build it our selves....what a great list!
some ideas were: ladders, zip-line, jacuzzi, slide, swings....soo fun!

3) i had already purchased birdhouses at michael's for a dollar a piece. my husband used some of our tree trimmings and left over square wood scraps to make platforms.

here's why i did this = i believe that often young artists benefit greatly from copious examples to see, some direct teaching, and often a beginning place. supported instruction like this increases success in other skills i wanted to focus on as well as shorten the number of classes it will take to complete some projects. for example clay lessons i'm all about young artists exploring and problem solving and doing the entire process.

DAY 2
4) after putting up our list on the board of awesome tree house ideas - i brought out the box of finished  and mounted houses as well as a big fun box of straws and caps and blocks and paper towel tubes and string and ....you get it!

5) i handed out numbers - oh yes - to make it fair - and pulled numbers for who got to pick first.

6) then i had stations where each type of fun material was out and artists were allowed to pick one of each type (they got more later as needed but one to start)

7) after laying out the supplies the problem solving began - how do i make a swing, a slide, a zip line.....and we picked acrylic paint colors i had put in tiny starbucks cups donated to the art room!

8) we painted - and placed the house where was best for 1)-not tipping over (kind of hard) 2 ) allowing for design ideas on and around house
DAY 3
9) GLUE DAY - omg the glee of assembling - i manned the glue gun - and we had those houses assembled! next we added moss - sooo makes it real -

10) final stage is going on now - writing about our art...

artist writing

naming our house

some guided writing example

more to come!

cooperative 7th / 8th slatter canvas

 as a cooperative piece for the art show - 7th and 8th graders had fun doing our first layer of a canvas - the splatter paint phase - splatterpaint needs to be a standard - because it is the funnest technique!
what we did:
1.) rules! no splattering anything but the canvas
2.) get low and think about composition and space
3.) splatter with creativity

yup - we did the positive/negative space lesson! as a standard  for my upper elementary artists- and focused on robert indiana and his iconic love art and stamp. i started with keynote show - always a hit - that i found here.

here's what we did:
1. we watched the awesome powerpoint - i have keynote - and discussed typography and fonts - they loved this discussion and these art talks are just so valuable - to see a thing is different than to speak of a thing or create a thing - all are important!

2. we looked at many examples of positive/negative space and identified them - and many examples of robert indiana art and bio info.

3. then i did 2 or 3 examples of the cut paper method = two colors - contrasting or complimentary - on top of each other - and then cut! directions were to cut either an abstract, tesselation, or object.

4. then they had to pick a different color to mount,  results rocked!

follow up was a robert indiana word lesson....upcoming!

kinder pop art portraits

what a oh-so-fun project this was!

our amazing pre-k / kinder teacher had taken great pics of her class to make silhouette pieces out of black paper for president's day.

she had the pics left - i made black and white copies and brought pastels to class.

together we looked at many pictures of pop art - warhol portraits and photoshop examples of people with fun colors.

what we did:

1) we looked at each black and white photo and discussed where a big area of color could be drawn.
2) then we had an art talk about 'normal' colors for things and 'crazy' colors like skin color and hair color. it was a blast to hear them draw from prior experience and point out 'oompa-loompas' and 'grinch'!

3) after picking face and hair color - we picked background colors - it had to be a complimentary color (previous lesson) and blend it in without diluting (good word) the color

this is my favorite kinder lesson so far!