intheartstudio-blog

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Clay Monsters!

2nd graders made these monsters out of pinch pots turned on their sides and added geometric forms (cubes, spheres, cones) to them to create their features.

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Done!

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Totems

4t graders focused on an aspect of their lives, their hobbies and character traits as a basis for the symbolic items in these totems.

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African Masks

So this project began as a wonderful idea(so I thought)  that evolved into a lesson for both teacher and students. My 3rd graders were learning about different countries in Africa. They learned all sorts of aspects of the culture of each assigned country...things like military, animals, cuisine etc. Initially I thought to have the masks that they create be representative of these individual aspects while paying homage to the traditional mask "style" of their countries. So, they could incorporate the eyes of a particular animal found in their country or the mouth could be made to look like a food found in their country.

The other big idea in this lesson was to to learn and create different types of relief ( high, bas, sunken) on a flat surface to emphasize the 3D quality of the mask.

Having them incorporate aspects of their culture was a little over their heads, but I did see some good representations and understanding of relief in their work.

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DONE!

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They are making collages too!

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Birds are coming together!

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I was looking for resources to help my 4th graders  better understand symbolism/ the use of an image to represent a concept, for their totems. I think giving them practice with use of metaphor might help them come up with deeper symbolic totems other than creating a soccer ball because they "like soccer". I was looking for resources with examples of metaphorical language or explanation of metaphor usage...something to help push their thinking outside of what is literal or concrete.

One of my colleagues, our amazing librarian, found this great video which I think will do the trick. I love it.

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Artist Jeff Herrity visits the art studio and talks to 4th graders about his totems.

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Three little birds

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Paper Mache Birds (in progress)

2nd graders are studying birds in their home room. They have been able to tie in math and science in their understanding of these creatures and I am working with them to represent their birds in 3d form. They built them with newspaper and tape, covered them with paper towels and we will be ready to paint these guys once we return from Spring break. I had a hard time trying to think of a way to represent their skinny legs so that they could stand on their own (some of the birds are quite large!) Finally the idea came to me to use dowels and slices of wood. Hope it works. Will post more pics as it comes together.

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Making stands for bird sculptures

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Look at what I found... A star!

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Visiting Artist: Jeff Herrity

So excited to have Jeff Herrity in to speak to my students about his work next week! My 4th graders will be working to create their own totems in which they choose a theme to express (family, interests, obsessions, memories) with 3D totems. Jeff works in mostly the 3D realm, shows regularly and is currently pursuing a degree in art ed at The Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Our totems will be a bit different. Although students will learn about slipcasting, (and probably beg me to let them do it)  they will hand build their totems to represent aspects of their individual themes. Once we get started I will be posting pics.