Premio Dardos: Award for Creative Bloggers

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Hello from San Diego!

I opened my computer today and found a note from Elizabeth at the wonderful Dream Painters blog. She nominated K-6 Art for a Premio Dardos.

This is a virtual award sent as a ‘gift’ from one blogger to another as “recognition for the creativity, effort and dedication” we each put into our blog. The award originated in Spain around 2008-2009 and has been sent from blogger to blogger ever since.

To accept the award, you simply

Link back to the person who nominated you
Display the award icon and
Nominate others whose blogs you admire for these qualities.

Thanks so much Elizabeth! I am a big fan of Dream Painters. Elizabeth is so positive and enthusiastic. I appreciate the gift.

It is really hard to pick just a few from all the FABULOUS art ed blogs I follow. I’m going to go with the ones I visit frequently. Here they are in alpha order:

Miss at A Faithful Attempt. Miss has taught at different school around the world, and her projects reflect her travels. Plus she has great step-by-step photos.
Ted at Art with Mr. E. Among his other great qualities, Ted is really welcoming to all the new art ed bloggers who join this community.
Tricia at Dryden Art. Tricia is a trailblazer in terms of using technology in the elementary art room, and she shares all her resources with her readers.
Mollie at Kids Art Market. This is a really well-written, straightforward blog that details the teaching process of each pre-K – 8th grade project.
Princess Artypants blogs from an international school in Saudi Arabia. Her projects are really creative, and include 3D.
Anderson at Sala de Arte. Anderson blogs from his art room in Brazil. His projects are very creative, and he puts a lot of effort into photographing them and writing them up. I don’t know of any other art ed bloggers in Brazil.
Don at shine brite zamorano. Don’s blog is unique – he creates projects based on the work of contemporary artists and illustrators. And he always emphasizes the elements of art in his projects. The man gets 5-6 year olds to include value in their work.
Phyl at There’s a Dragon in My Artroom. Phyl has a wide variety of projects on her blog, including a lot of 3D such as papier-mâché and cardboard sculpture.
Joanna at We Heart Art. I have taught several of Joanna’s art project – they were very successful. I keep returning for her cheerful, do-able projects.

Wishing all of you a relaxing end of year and happy start to 2013!

Cut Paper Snowflakes Designed on an iPad

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

It’s winter! Time for a snowflake project. Our sixth graders just finished their cut paper snowflake projects, with a special twist: all the snowflakes were designed on iPads.

Students designed snowflakes on iPads using the My Flake app, then cut paper snowflakes to match. Allow one 40-minute class.

Materials:

round coffee filters (I got a pack of 150 at my local dollar store)
protractor (optional)
scissors
pencil
iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone with FREE My Flake app
Optional: construction paper and glue stick or spray glue for mounting

Snowflakes and Symmetry:

We began class by viewing this excellent slideshow of magnified snowflakes from the book The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album by Kenneth Libbrecht.

Magnified snowflake photo by Kenneth Libbrecht.
Source: scientificamerican.com

This is a good time to discuss radial and bilateral symmetry. Just like real snowflakes, our iPad and cut paper snowflakes will have radial symmetry, with six identical branches.

Folding the Paper

Next we folded our coffee filters in sixths. Students folded the round coffee filters in half, then used a protractor to divide the semi-circle into thirds. See this post from the Heart of Wisdom blog for great directions on folding the coffee filters.

Cut paper snowflakes start with a round coffee filter folded in half, then into thirds. Then one more fold in half to create a skinny wedge.

Designing the Snowflake on the iPad

I demonstrated how to use the My Flake app, guiding my finger on the screen to make virtual cuts on the paper image.

Students spent the next five minutes exploring the My Flake app. The app allows them to test out different designs virtually by ‘cutting’ a folded paper image, then previewing the design. They can go back and undo or redo one ‘cut’ at a time, and preview the resulting changes.

Once the students settled on a final design,they copied their My Flake design on the folded paper, and finally cut the folded paper to match.

Tip: encourage students to try a simple design on their first snowflake, and draw pencil lines lightly.

Sixth grade student work:

Matching paper and iPad snowflakes

Mount cut paper snowflakes on construction paper.

Our school is 1:1 iPads in grades 4-6. However, this project can be done collaboratively in pairs or in small groups. Several students can share an iPad, each adding a virtual cut or two. Then they can all cut the group design (U.S. art teachers – collaboration is a big part of new Common Core standards).

These two students collaborated on an iPad My Flake design, then both cut to match.

On its own, the My Flake app may also be an option for an inclusion activity. Students who cannot easily manipulate scissors may be able to design virtual snowflakes on My Flake and print them out for decorations.

More resources:

If you don’t have an iPad: use the Make a Flake website.

If you are looking for a book to accompany a snowflake project: our librarian likes Snowflake Bentley, the Caldecott-winning book by Jacqueline Briggs Martin about real-life snowflake photographer Wilson Bentley.

More fun snowflake resources on my cut paper Pinterest board.

Thanks to Dryden Art and Brunswick Acres Art for sharing My Flake and other resources on their blogs. Thanks to N.T., one of our awesome sixth grade teachers, for support on this project.

Do you use iPads in the art room?

Do you have a favorite app?

K-6 Art Makes the Top Ten for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year!

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Thanks to all who voted in The Art of Education‘s annual Art Ed Blog of the Year Awards. K-6 Art placed #9!

I started this blog just one year ago, so this is a huge honor!

Lots more to come in 2013! Thanks again to the super students, teachers, and volunteers who support art at our school and throughout San Diego.

Clay Self-Portraits for First Grade

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Self-portraits are awesome. Clay is awesome. Put them together and you get a fun projects kids love and parents treasure forever.

Multi-slab cutter easily slices clay into identical tiles.

I used a multi-slab clay cutter to slice the clay into tiles. The first graders used bamboo skewers and old glue caps to draw faces on the slabs. Remind students to draw on the clay but not too deeply – don’t cut all the way through!

First graders created self-portraits using clay slabs. Allow two 40-minutes sessions plus drying time.

I let the clay dry for 12 days, then bisque fired.

Now for color!

I saw a fabulous post on no-fire glazing techniques on the Art Smudge blog. The authors used watercolor, chalk pastel, colored pencil and more to finish bisque-fired clay (note: if you work with clay, please check out this post – it is amazing!).

We used Crayola Washable Paint In Multicultural Colors for the skin, and colored pencil and construction paper crayon for other details. A few students used colored chalk for their hair (note: the chalk was messy and will have to sprayed with a fixative – I won’t use chalk next year).

After bisque firing, clay was painted with tempera, then colored with crayons and colored pencil.

We had a range of skin tones to match – the Crayola eight bottle set of skin-tone paints matched pretty well. If anyone can recommend a set of multicultural glazes/underglazes please leave a comment!

Great job first graders!

Do you use glazes or cold finishes for clay?

******Thanks for visiting! Don’t forget to please vote for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year, which you can do by clicking this link and voting for K-6 Art! Voting open through December 14, 2012.******

Printing with Modeling Clay

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Rina Vinetz

Would you like to try a creative printmaking project? Something inexpensive, that can be done quickly and easily with no fancy tools or equipment? Try printing with modeling clay. This brilliant lesson from the Filth Wizardry blog was a huge hit with our fourth graders.

Students created printed suns or sunflowers using modeling clay and stamp pads. Allow 2-3 40-minutes sessions.

Materials:

Modeling Clay, AKA plasticine clay (note: I got a pack of 24 sticks of modeling clay at my local dollar store)
black stamp pads
bamboo skewers
paper
colored pencils
pencil and eraser
circle template
paper to cover table

Class 1: Experiment with modeling clay stamp printing

Our fourth graders began their printmaking project by experimenting with the clay stamp printing. They made a variety of marks on the clay, pressed the clay onto a black stamp pad, and printed on a piece of copy paper.

They printed clay coils and spirals. One boy took an imprint of the sole of his shoe and printed that! Another created a clay pretzel. They created clay hearts and alphabet letters. After a few prints, they smooshed the clay and started again. It was fabulously fun.

Clean up is easy. Since modeling clay never dries out and is reusable, we just placed the stamp pads, clay balls and skewers in our table bins until next class. We used baby wipes to clean the clay (but not all the ink!) off hands after class, then used the wipes to scrub any clay that might have got on the table.

Class 2: Print a sun or sunflower

We began the session by viewing a brief video of sun art from CBS-TV Sunday Morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgiGKlGShY4

Student used the templates to trace a circle in the center of the paper. Then the fun began!

Begin by tracing a circle template. Then use the modeling clay to create individual facial feature stamps.

The fourth graders used the modeling clay to create facial feature stamps, sun beam stamps, petal and leaf stamps.

Fourth grade sun, printed and ready to color.

After printing, they colored their prints with colored pencils.

Coloring in a sunflower print with colored pencils.

Printed sun with colored pencil

Optional finishes:

Class 3:

Paint completed print with tempera cake:

Completed prints can be painted immediately with cake tempera.

This example is printed with ink pad, colored with colored pencil, then immediately painted with tempera cake. The sheer paint looked great over the print but did not cover stray ink fingerprints. And some had A LOT of stray fingerprints.

If you want a clean look to ALL the finished artworks, you may want to have students cut out their colored work and mount to colored paper.

Have fun! Your students are guaranteed to love printing with modeling clay!

Thanks for visiting! Don’t forget to please vote for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year, which you can do by clicking this link and voting for K-6 Art! Voting open through December 14, 2012.

K – 6 Art

Art lessons for kids ages 5-12 – fresh from the art room!

Premio Dardos: Award for Creative Bloggers

Cut Paper Snowflakes Designed on an iPad

K-6 Art Makes the Top Ten for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year!

Clay Self-Portraits for First Grade

Printing with Modeling Clay