March Comes in Like a Lion...

March seems like a fine time to create Lions, in paintings, drawings and clay figurines. My 2nd graders love to learn about lions and have much of their own information about them to share via the many wildlfe shows on cable. I let them know that when I was a kid we had one show: Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. As great as it was, that was it. Marlin Perkins, now there's a gem. There are plenty of great video clips of lions in the wild to show students to get them prepared - altho it doesn't take much-kids are naturally fascinated by the beauty, power, grace and pride of lions already!

Starting in Kindergarten we learn how to draw figures of people and animals by putting shapes together. So by 2nd grade most of my students are pretty comfortable trying their hand at a drawing of a lion in sharpie & crayon, and then painting in watercolors.

I always like to add a literature connection to most of my lessons especially with the lower grades (K-3). I have a couple of fun vintage stories about lions I like to share with my kids. One I especially like is called LION by William Pene DuBois which won the Caldecott Medal in 1957.  It's a charming, quirky story that is great as a read-aloud (I love to do funny voices when I read it). It is a fantasy "origin story" about an angelic artist in some sort of celestial workshop of designers responsible for the different characteristics of animals. It's pretty hilarious, the illustrations are fantastic and in the end it's really about celebrating the beauty of art and design in nature.

After the drawing and painting, we are very comfortable with the form of a lion in 2-D and can move on to creating one of our own in clay.

I use the pinching technique with this age-group--pinching out the head, legs, tail-instead of attaching- but I do discuss how to successfully add and attach pieces of clay, as well. Sometimes we use air-dry clay (above, below) with watercolor paint and gloss medium glaze. If my kiln seems cooperative, we'll make them with kiln-fire clay and glaze. They are all beloved by the kids. As they move on to older grades they always reminisce about the lion they made in 2nd grade.

The Lion: King & Queen of the Art Studio! We're all "lion-arted" now!

Stone Soup: An Old School Feast

Just in time for the 2 and a half days of school before Thanksgiving...here's a lesson that adds the nuanced magic of a Mort Schindel's Weston Wood's production and collage art lesson about the joy of sharing a meal with family and friends, new and old.

If you don't know about Weston Woods productions & you adore vintage children's picture books as I do, look them up.  Here's a good place to start. I had the great fortune many years ago, of working for and learning from Mort who lives the next town over from me. This is a man who truly, truly understands, appreciates and reveres the essence of a great picture book. This reverence & insight allowed him to produce an amazing catalogue of animated picture books, working with some very talented animators and artists.

Anyway, back to the classic folktale retold by Marcia Brown, Stone Soup, which you can watch here. After years and years of teaching with this book, it never loses it charm and the kids are riveted. This is amazing to me since it seriously only has like two colors in the illustrations plus white and black. See? But good story-telling & illustration doesn't need bells & whistles to capture the imaginations of children.

The Weston Woods animated version is "old school"no major FX, no CGI. Not one kid budges though out, though. There is a special quality to the narrator's voice that makes the ingredients that the villagers add to The Stone Soup sound so delicious. My kids are always so hungry and excited to create their paper sculpture feast after watching.

We discuss how the soldiers "tricked" the villagers into sharing their food, but in the end everyone benefitted. Yay! Then we chat about our own families and the ways we all celebrate Thanksgiving. My school is a melting pot of many cultures, so my students like to share about the foods that come from what they refer to as "my country".

Like maybe enchiladas?

or "dirty rice"?

Even without a holiday connection, this lesson invites students in grades K-5 to transform flat paper into 3 dimensions, creating delicious sculptural objects of art, while engaging the fine motor skills of gluing, cutting folding and curling paper. And we all know by now that children use higher order thinking skills in fine arts class, as well. Bon Appetit!

1st Graders Connect the Dots and Come Full Circle

All kids love (and need) to make their mark. In 1st grade we read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. A simple story...but it illustrates so perfectly important things I always hope to achieve with my kids in the Art Studio. Encouragement, creativity, acknowledgment, self-motivation and reflection, ingenuity...all these ideas can be drawn from The Dot.

The dot is such a simple thing, but it means a lot. And it has inspired many artists. I highlight one artist, Wassily Kandinsky's work because he is so accessible to kids. His work is playful, whimsical and easy to take in.

Starting small and working our way out...we use water soluble oil pastels. They go on slippery and smooth.

                                Inspiration comes from many sources! Why not fingernails?

                    When we paint with pastels we learn to be careful of "unintentional smudgery".

                                           Dipping and drawing and dipping and drawing....

                                     Once we start there's plenty of room for Dot Innovation...

                                                                 and Dot Variation...

                                                    Now...make your mark...get set... GO!
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/wassily_kandinsky_captured_in_the_act_of_creation_1926.html