Wayne Thiebaud: Kindergarten Cupcakes

I taught an artist study to all of my students from Kinder through Fifth Grade. Kindergarten made oversized cupcakes with texture. They first traced a template for the bottom portion and cut it out. They then drew a cloud shape and cut it out for the frosting. After gluing it on to the base, it was time to add texture to the frosting. I helped them mix baking soda and white tempera paint. They painted this all over the frosting. Once dry, they used Dot Paint to add fun details to the cupcake wrapper. They then added small pom poms for sprinkles in various colors and a large red pom pom on top for a cherry. All of their cupcakes were displayed for Open House.

When I Grow Up...

Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders drew self portraits dressed as what career they want to have when they grow up. We mainly focused on service jobs as we did this lesson around MLK Day. We talked about his life and legacy and the need for serving others. Kindergarteners were given templates for various career hats to paint and cut out. They then extended it by drawing their face and body. The other two grade drew them with no assistance and used water colors to paint them.

 

Spirit of Service

Our district recently had their annual "Spirit of Service" Art Show and Contest honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are the three entries from my campus. One student drew a silhouette of herself with symbols of a service job, a nurse. Another drew a still life of vegetable cans to symbolize donating to a food drive. Another drew a picture of himself now with a reflection of him in the future performing a service job. I loved them!

Dale Chihuly: 3D to 2D

I challenged some of my fifth graders to create a 2D representation of some of Dale Chihuly's 3D glass work. They used liquid water colors and fabric paints for their artwork. Their pieces were hung up as a collection at our district's Education Center for a few months.

Dale Chihuly Sculptures

While looking at some pictures of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures, I got an idea on how to make some simple sculptures with my third, fourth, and fifth graders using recycled materials common household materials. The students worked together to wrap the cardboard tubes from lamination rolls and covered them in foil. They twisted the ends of the foil at one end to make a point. They then spread out sheets of tissue paper on the tables and sprayed them with Elmer's Spray Adhesive. They then rolled the foil covered tubes on them to create the color. The bases are just small pieces of scrap wood with dowel rods nailed/glued on. Our PE Coach helped me make the bases during our conference period one day. Yay for great teammates! This was super easy but cool. We still have them displayed in the back hallway where you can see them from the inside or outside.

Dale Chihuly Chandeliers

For a collaborative project my Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders created three Dale Chihuly inspired chandeliers made out of plastic. Each student was given a 3M brand lamination pouch. They opened the pouch and used two colors of permanent markers to color all over them. After they were done, I laminated them in our classroom laminator. (Fellow teachers, if you do not have one of these, get one. They are inexpensive and very useful for smaller projects. I personally think the lamination is thicker and better quality than typical laminators.)  Once they were laminated, the students learned how to cut the film into spiral shapes by starting with a large circle. They then worked together to connect five or six spirals in the middle with pipe cleaners. As they completed this, they brought them to me and we worked together to hook the pipe cleaners all together. Once completed, we originally hung them up in the windows by the art room but they were too heavy and fell. So, we ended up combining them into one large chandelier and hung them on a rolling garment rack that I previously used for a pocket chart stand.

Dale Chihuly: Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grades

As a part of our school wide artist study over Dale Chihuly, the third through fifth graders explored how heat can change an object. I try to incorporate as many general education connections into art as possible. To recreate a kid friendly, safe version of Chihuly's glass art, the students used permanent markers to design a clear plastic cup. After the students were done designing, we went to the Kindergarten kitchen to experiment. The cups were placed on parchment paper on top of cookie sheets and placed in the oven at 350 degrees. The students took turns watching the changes in the cups. Once they were cooled, the students were able to take their "glass" sculptures home.

Dale Chihuly: Kinder, First, and Second Grades

I did an artist study on Dale Chihuly with all of my students a few months ago. We looked at his various artworks, learned about the process to create glass, and then they made their own kid friendly version. Each student used washable markers to decorate a coffee filter in at least three colors. As they finished this step, they went to a station by the sink to spray their coffee filters with water. They were amazed at how the colors ran together. They then placed their coffee filters on top of a cup with a rubber band around it to hold it in place. After they dried, I sprayed them with spray starch to make the shapes hold. The students then glued them to a black cardstock base.

 

Extra Yard for Teachers Summit

In January I was fortunate to be able to attend The College Football Foundation's Extra Yard for Teachers Summit in Dallas. The keynote speaker, Dr. Condolezza Rice, spoke to a packed crowd of teachers about the importance of education and what an important role we play in our community. There were many great speakers, musicians, and artists. Below is a painting that was created on stage in about twenty minutes. Amazing! You can watch videos of all of the speakers here.

 



 

 

 

 

 



Grand Prairie ISD Experience

Our district is an open choice district where families and students can apply for a school of their choice. To showcase different options within our district, they hold Grand Prairie ISD Experience each year. As a part of the experience, each school was able to show one piece of student artwork. Below is work that one of my fifth graders created. He drew the landscape and painted it with colors he mixed himself. He added baking soda to the white tempera paint to add texture and a more realistic look to the snow scene.

Noun Neighborhhood

This is a lesson I always did when I taught first grade. Now that I'm in art, I extended it to a collaborative project for Kinder through Third Grade. Each student drew their favorite restaurant, their favorite store, and their home. They created roads, grass, trees, clouds, and various vehicles. After all classes had a chance to do this, they worked over the next few weeks to create a giant collage mural out of them. Once completed, their art project covered almost half of our back hallway which is pretty long. As they worked, we talked about what nouns were and how each thing they were creating was a noun. We talked about the role of different parts of a community to tie in Social Studies.

Empty Bowls Project

In December, my fourth and fifth graders made various small bowls made out of air-dry clay to sell for our district's Empty Bowls Project. The money raised from the sale of the bowls goes to a local charity that services our community's families. We sold the bowls on our campus and raised a few hundred dollars for the cause. Hopefully next year, we do even more! (Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the finished projects.)

 

Door Decorating Contest

Our school had a holiday door decorating contest during December. This was my contribution to the art room door. I created a giant gingerbread house with various pieces of candy and a friendly gingerbread man.

Kindergarten Thumbprint Holiday Lights

Kindergarten practiced making wavy lines with permanent black markers. After making their lines, they added holiday lights with their thumbprints.

First Grade Overlapping Candy Canes

First Grade needed some practice back in December on how to draw objects in front of others. So, they practiced by drawing overlapping candy canes. They could make them whatever size and add whatever color patterns they wanted.