The 3rd graders paid a visit to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends last week, so they could see how shape and value could be used to make 3d space in an image.

I love both the humor and style of that cartoon. The style aspect was shaped by animation and background designer Carol Wyatt. I love her color palette and use of implied lines throughout these images.

To start the lesson, I introduced foreground, middleground, and background and the kids and I defined them together- front, middle, and back. We then look closely at the setting below and determine what is in the front... and why. What is in the back... and why. The kids notice that the foreground in big and bold while things in the middle and back get lighter and smaller. One other element kids pick up on is that the front is more detailed then the other 2 layers.

We then look at another image from Foster's and we use this as the inspiration for the hands on portion of the lesson.

It's always fun to use contemporary art as a focus and it's even more fun and engaging for the kids when you can use pop culture elements. They look at cartoons all the time, but they don't look at them closely and analyze how the scenes are put together to get them to focus on certain aspects. As educators, we can turn them on to this and they can start to see and appreciate how the skills and concepts they learn about in class are applied by artists that entertain them on a regular basis.

Anywho...

The students created landscapes inspired by Carol's work on Foster's. They used 3 different value papers and different sizes to create 3 layers of space. They started with the background first, then middle, and then foreground.

Students measured 4 fingers down from the top of their paper to start their background layer. The rule was keep it small and simple. They cut that layer out and moved on to the middle. On that sheet, they measured 4 fingers up from the bottom and drew things a little bigger and with more detail. On the foreground layer, they measured 2 fingers up and drew even bigger and with more detail. Once all 3 layers were cut, they assembled them. Before gluing things down, I asked students to look and see if they needed to adjust anything, so that they could create the most interesting composition. If they needed to edit, they could cut parts off along the ground lines and slide them to the left or right.

When I see the classes again after Thanksgiving break, we will reflect on this project in a writing and presentation activity.

 making adjustments.

 adding details to the foreground.

off and rubbing!

We're back! After 4 weeks of spring break, it feels real good to get back in the class and working with our kiddos:)

All grade levels will be focusing on texture as their next unit of study, so I was able to tie in our visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West for the project. Hello, tax write off! ;)

I've been sharing photos of my family's spring break trip with the kids and then getting into the focus of the lesson. I think it's always good to give students a peek into what we do when we don't have our teaching hats on.

The inspiration for the project is the above mosaic done by Clare Boothe Luce (who was a fascinating trailblazer on so many levels in her lifetime). It hangs in FLW's living room space. We look at the different materials that she used to create the artwork- stones, wood, saguaro and chollas cacti ribbing, deer antler and how these were materials that were native to the location of the house. I ask them to describe what this piece would feel like if they were able to touch it. Then we talk about how other things around us feel.

With this project I want students to experience texture and see how it can create patterns in art. Each class starts with 5 sheets of colored paper (I'm having classes use different sets of analogous colors to create variety in visual displays later on. Since I see half classes, each class will have 2 different color schemes to hang in their classrooms and I'll have a nice range to display elsewhere.) They use colorsticks to rub the texture patterns onto their paper- the textures loosely represent our San Diego climate/landscape- flowers, palm tree leaves, ocean waves, tree bark, and desert rocks. 

The energy is quite palpable during class, as the kids "discover" the patterns created by the texture plates. This aspect of texture rubbings never gets old for me to witness and listen too:)

Once they have colored all 5 sheets, I give them a backing paper to arrange their pieces on. At this point, they can cut and rearrange the color shapes to create a unique composition. We have been sticking mostly with geometric shapes in the designs.

I don't give the kids any glue until they have their entire composition laid out. I do this to encourage play- moving pieces around and trying out different arrangements.

This one is so elegant in terms of color shifts and line quality:)

I just love the energy of this one. How the student broke from the frame to give it 

a more sculptural feel.

 Really digging the way the triangles float over the cloud like forms below them.

being banksy.

This week, my 5th grade rotation was interesting... Let me just say that when classes are cancelled due to illness, you meet with 2 different classes for each lesson, and groups get switched for one reason or other, it can pose lesson planning challenges.

That said, a few groups of 5th graders continued their study of analogous colors to create unity and mood in art with a project that was inspired by a stained glass painting on wood by Banksy and students from Los Angeles along with a stained glass window from Riems Cathedral in France.

We started the lesson by reviewing/introducing analogous colors. I shared the 2 pieces side by side and shared some background info about each. Then students worked in small groups to compare and contrast the two works. They documented their findings in a graphic organizer and each group shared out, so that we could create a complete list on my whiteboard of similarities and differences together. One of the cool things about creating the master list, is it reaffirms the idea that art can be read in a lot of different ways. I encouraged students to add to their personal organizers when another group shared a response that they thought was strong. (This addressed a couple ELA standards. Reading- comparing and contrasting works of similar genres. Speaking & listening- participating in collaborative discussions on grade level appropriate content.) 

The students got a kick out of seeing the graffiti element in the Banksy work. There was some interesting discussion around what the piece meant- why combine graffiti with a form that is traditionally associated with spirituality?

After the compare and contrast activity was complete, students were to create a stained glass drawing inspired by either of the source images. I encouraged them to draw anything they wanted. For the color work there were only 2 requirements- they had to only use one analogous family and they needed to fill the entire paper with color shapes, lines, and/or patterns.

The next step was to create the black frame for the stained glass. The only requirement with this step was that they must create symmetry. We talked about how, even though Banksy did something different in the window part of his painting, he still worked with a traditional composition for stained glass windows in spiritual buildings. Students made a coupe sketches on the back of their organizers and then created the black lines with oil pastels.