Self Portraits

I did this project a few years ago with Grade 5 and I love it because it combines art and ICT together. However, there is a significant amount of prep work that goes into it so if you are dealing with a large number of students make sure that you are prepping for it way in advance. For me, I had only 18 students at the time.

Materials required:
- laptops for students
- photographs of students
- A3 paper
- oil pastels

Duration: 2 lessons of 60 minutes each

Prep work for first lesson: take photos of students with different facial expressions as this would add variety to the finished piece. Do this at least a week in advance so that you have time to take pictures of any students who are absent. Upload all student photos in a folder onto the laptops that they will be using and check the internet connection in the classroom.

1. The lesson objective was to learn how to manipulate photos online. As soon as my students received their laptops, I asked them to locate their own photo and rename it with their first and last name.
2. Students open up a browser, in my case it was Google Chrome and log onto www.fotoflexer.com 
3. Experiment with the different photo effects and apply a black and white effect to their picture.
4. Save picture to desktop and this is the end of the first lesson.

Prep work for second lesson: Print all student manipulated photos on A3 paper.

1. Students will use oil pastels to colour in their photos so demonstrate to students how they can use tones of colour and how they can create a patterned background.
What do you think of the results?

Food for thought - could this lesson tie in with colour theory? Perhaps we could have students relate their expressions to warm and cool colours? I'd be happy to hear your thoughts!

Aboriginal Art

During their unit on Australia, Kinders learned about a variety of Australian animals and their habitats. For any teacher, this is a great opportunity to link art and social studies together. 

Materials required: 
- small, square shaped sponges 
- Q tips
- laminated animal templates 
- blu tac
- paint in shades of brown & earth tones
- A3 black cardstock
- A3 beige coloured construction paper

Duration: 1 class of 80 minutes

1. I started off the lesson by questioning students about what they already knew about Australia. Then I briefly explained to them that the local people of Australia create a special kind of art called Aboriginal art. I showed them many visual examples of Aboriginal paintings and got them to pick out the similarities between them all. They came up with the intended answers such as they all have dots, patterns, animals & signs.
2. Next,  I gave them all a demonstration. Take piece of A3 and tear off any two sides. Some students might struggle with this but the idea here is just to give the overall painting a more rugged, handmade look. the more uneven the tearing, the better. Now take some blu tac and stick down the laminated animal template on the paper. I had already stuck small balls of blu tac on each template which saved time in the classroom. Of course students are free to choose where they want to stick it and in which direction.
3. Dip a sponge into brown paint and stamp around the template. Keep the stamping lighter as you move out toward the edges.
4. Carefully remove the template off the paper (make sure your hands are clean for this!). With a Q-tip, make dots in various colours inside the animal. I kept out orange, white, red and ochre.
5. Stick onto black cardstock.

Two examples of the finished pieces

Extension: If I had more time, I would have liked the students to include signs and symbols in their work; and the high abilities could also write a story about their animals and use symbols to visually depict it. Perhaps this could be done if it was a higher grade level?

Some symbols that students could work from

How has your Aboriginal art project turned out?

Solar System

Grade 2 students were learning about the solar system in Science so I decided to do a large group mural based on the sun & moon. This project required a significant amount of prep work on my behalf but the results were all worth it.

My prep work before the lesson was to put students into groups of 3 or 4 according to ability levels, personalities and friendships. Since there are approximately 300 students in Grade 2, you can well imagine that this was quite a task! I also had to arrange for each group to receive one canvas of 60cm x 60cm which meant securing a budget from the finance department. Always lovely working with them :)

Materials required
- A5 paper
- colour pencils or markers
- acrylic paints, brushes
- a large assortment of craft items such as beads, sequins, fabric, glitter, etc.
- white glue
- hot glue gun (to be used only by the teacher)

Duration: 4 lessons of 80 minutes each

1. First I had the students get into their groups and as a starter activity, had them brainstorm 5 rules that their group would follow. They all came up with rules like respect each other, be kind, help one another, etc. All valid answers.
2. Next, in their groups I gave each student an A5 paper and asked them to draw an abstract sun or moon. I had images on the board to give them ideas of how to make a simple, circular sun abstract. For example, they could draw concentric circles for the sun and triangles for the rays. They came up with pretty good ideas, here are a few.

3. Now it was time for each group to look at each other's drawings and vote on whose drawing was the best. The drawing with the most votes would get selected and drawn onto the canvas for the final piece. You might witness a few disappointed faces but as long as you tell them that this is a team effort, it's all good! This was the end of the first lesson.
4. After making the final drawing on canvas, it is time to start painting. The students work as a team so each student is painting different areas of the canvas. This process took me about 2 lessons as I had to tell the kids over and over to keep their colours vibrant and paint a flat tone of colour.
5. In the fourth lesson, students added embellishments such as beads, sequins, fabric, glitter, etc. Those items that were not sticking well with white glue such as pearls, I stuck down with a hot glue gun.

Enjoy the results!

Each 'square' is 60cm x 60cm. Can you guess how big it is?

Mixed Media Chameleons

Perhaps this is my favourite Grade 3 art project because the results are always stunning and the kids LOVE chameleons! This is a great cross-curricular project that ties science into art since the students talk about key characteristics of chameleons. The end result is an ink/oil pastel resist technique.

Materials required:
- A3 paper
- pencils, erasers
- oil pastels
- inks (can use watercolours as well but I prefer the vibrancy of ink)

Duration: 3-4 lessons of 80 minutes each

1. I show students a finished example of the project so that they get an idea of what is expected. We began by talking about chameleons, where they live, why they change colour, how their eyes move. More importantly, we discussed what basic shapes can be used to draw their body such as triangle for the head, oval for body, etc. When they start to draw, I emphasized two points: (a) draw big & (b) draw light. I asked the students why they were supposed to draw big and light and they all came up with reasons like "so we can see it clearly, we have enough space to add colours and patterns, so that we can erase it easily, etc." I love how their logical minds work!
2. For the low ability students I had a step-by-step drawing guide. As for my high abilities, they used photographs as a reference and could draw a chameleon from different angles.

Step-by-step drawing guide

3. After the chameleon drawing was complete, students had to draw patterns on the body and develop a background. I displayed an image on the board with different kinds of leaves, flowers, etc. Of course students were not limited to this and were welcome to use their own ideas as well. This was the end of the first lesson. 

4. As a starter for the second lesson, we watched a small video clip of how chameleons change colour. The kids loved it! During this lesson, we outlined the drawing in oil pastels and coloured in a few, selected areas only. I think the key aspect here is telling them to press down hard with their pastel as you will always get some students who are rushing to finish and their outlines are too lightly done to withstand the ink which will be applied on later. What do you think of the work in progress?

5. In the third lesson, we began using inks. The kids love how the resist technique works and I think it is important to question them about why oil pastel and ink resist each other as it makes them think scientifically about the materials they use.

6. In the fourth lesson, students outlined their work with a black marker. The idea here is to tell them to outline around the oil pastel instead of over it. Don't they look gorgeous?