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Monday, December 16, 2013

Dec. 2013 Paul Klee Inspired Castles: 5th Grade

Paul Klee

Coolest 5th Graders, Ever...
Everything takes time. When dealing with 30 kids a period, many students will finish a lesson quick, some a little slower and some will take the rest of the year if you let them. This lesson was a geometric shape lesson that dealt with tone and shade using watercolors. The students studied Paul Klee's painting Castle and the Sun, then got to work with a black marker and pattern blocks. The first lesson they were able to complete the structure and patterns, (most I should say) then the next period I gave a demonstration of how to produce tone and shades of each color. The painting took around 2 periods to complete for most, then the 4th they outlined areas that became muddy. They were asked to use light crayon patterns over certain shapes to add details. I originally thought this lesson would be quick, but it took up most of my Dec with the 5th grade! We will be making unity dolls this week for Kwanzza to celebrate the second principle of this holiday...photos to come soon! Thanks for checking these out!

December: Color Theory PK-2nd

For the month of December, I focused on two main concepts throughout the grades. The first was color theory which is  primary color mixing for PK-K. They go slow and steady throughout this month, focusing on only one secondary color per day (purple,green,orange). The books that I read all have to do with color mixing such as Little Blue and Little Yellow, Mouse Paint, The Color Tree and Is it red?Is it yellow?Is it Blue? The idea is just to expose them to the concepts and make sure they adhere to painting rules of clean brush and not mixing everything! They learn to separate the piles of primary between mixable and leave it alone! This will give them more colors to choose from during paint time. We focused on putting shapes together to make a city scape, much like a puzzle now. They were given a demonstration, then examples are left on the table during work time. The first day not too great, but by the third and final period they were really starting to get it!
The 1st and 2nd Grade worked with the color wheel and mixing all 3 primary colors at the same time. They were asked to create the pizza with templates and rulers, then fill in the correct colors on the color wheel. I have 5th graders now that still remember doing this 4 years ago. The color wheel is referenced often for lessons on complementary colors, warm and cool colors and mixing primary colors. It is useful for them to learn this early! They also began cityscapes, focused more on overlapping the buildings to produce depth. They had to use all 6 colors on the plate while of course washing the brush.Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Nov. Pk-K Collage Techniques: Funny Faces and artist Eric Carle!



For the month of Nov., the youngest students in PK-K were taught basic collage techniques. They used scissors and glue to arrange the shapes into realistic pictures. The first project was about the features of the face. The students were taught to overlap and layer the pieces so create the face, then add a pattern using lines around their artwork. This lesson had many priciples of design, elements of art and important techniques that will serve them well for their artistic careers!
The next lesson was using Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Cattepillar. They used precut shapes to arrange the cattepillar on the tree limb, being sure to create a pattern again for reinforcement of previous lessons. The students saw a video on several Eric Carle stories, then I read the book to them. They sure enjoyed it! Mr. Mac

Nov. 2013, 5th Grade: Grant Wood Inspired Landscape Collage





This Grant Wood inspired Landscape unit took a bit longer than expected, in fact it took around 7-8 45 min periods! The results were excellent though, and the students truly understood the concepts of foreground, middleground and background. They understood how a horizon line separates the sky from the earth, and how to create depth and space in a landscape artwork.
We started by drawing a landscape with an example of Woods painting at each table. They learned that the objects in the foreground are largest, middleground smaller and the background they become the smallest to produce depth. Next, they used paint scrapers to create painted paper that they would use for the landforms in the collage.
The demonstration of how to overlap from the horizon line down was effective, and the students used their creative instincts to create the layered landforms to the bottom (foreground) of the page. Next, the details such as trees, houses and bushes were applied. The final class, the students were asked to write about thier experience and recall how they used the elements of landscape to create the beautiful work. Hope you all enjoy the fruits of thier hard work! Mr. Mac

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Week 8: New Classes, new schedule and ohh yeah, Halloween!

This week seemed a bit jumbled, the schedule changed drastically to fit in Professional Development for teachers. This happens every year, so no surprise. However, three classes I have serviced for the last two months were dropped and three new ones appeared! If there is one characteristic that I have found helpful in this profession, its the ability to be flexible!
Many classes were finishing projects from the previous week on printmaking. It is important to try to give enough time for all the students to finish a project, but many finish early and others take much longer. This is a challenge at times, but to fill in the extra time for the "early birds" I had the 5th grade students make sketch pads with a simple binding method. When the younger grades finish early, I normally put a bin of art books on the table for independent reading or a bin of design blocks.
Finally, certain classes (PK-1st) made spiders out of paper plates. They had to trace and cut out the heads (previously taught, so reinforced!), then use a new skill of accordion folds for the legs. The students had a spider book read to them and we made a list of spider facts. They chose one, an adult wrote it in yellow and they traced the words. These were pasted to the spiders belly.
They other project that I did was a modeled drawing of Halloween symbols. The students (2-3rd Grade) were able to see how the lines and shapes previously taught could be used to make the drawing. After being colored in with crayons, we applied a black wash to give the drawing a spooky dusk setting!
The pumpkin is one that I carved with my own 5 year old, Jack! So yes, its Jacks-O-Batman-Lantern!



Monday, October 28, 2013

Week 7: Intro to Printmaking! Reusing old and broken crayons!

For this week, I chose to do printmaking 101 with all grades: crayon rubbing! I removed the paper with a blade for quick turnaround, then gave several different lessons.
The Kindergarten were able to cut and tear shapes for both soft and hard edges, then place them under the paper for an abstract composition. This lesson focused on scissor skills for the third time this year, along with crayon rubbing techniques. They came out very nice and the students were able to identify the  shapes and the method of cutting vs. tearing.
First grade used leaves from outside the school for a nature infused lesson. We began by showing images of New England in the Fall, which they ooohhed and aaahhed! Next we watched a video on why the leaves change color from the website, Brainpop. They then traced a template of a tree and moved the leaves around to make multiple prints from the leaves. They were able to use scissors to cut and mount the trees on construction paper.
For the next class, I had them use their imaginations and place shapes under their paper and rub over the edges. For this lesson however, they had to combine the shapes to make recognizable images(abstract vs. realistic) like houses, animals or people.




The Second-Fifth Graders used rubbing plates and discussed overlapping and crayon rubbing techniques. I asked them to fold the paper into 8 separate panels, then use a pattern plate for the first rubbing. The next plate would then be either a bird or leaves, and overlap the patterns. This left us with 8 prints in total.
Next class, the students were shown how artist's mount their work. They cut, arranged and glued the panels to black paper with a border around each one. The work looked very professional and gave the students a sense of pride and confidence! Thank you for looking and be sure to recycle your old and broken crayons, there is plenty of life left in them for crayon rubbing! BMAC

Monday, October 21, 2013

Week 6: Organizing my 185 Students...One portfolio at a time!



So, I figured that this past week was as good of time as any to begin putting together personal portfolios    for all of my 185 students. This has several advantages of course, and allows for a sense of organization and sanity to the class bins which seemed to be overflowing!
This can tend to be a sensitive issue as students are fond of taking work home, though I need to collect for data and to show administrators and parents the results of my lessons. I tend to put roughly 70% of the work in folders, which I send home the contents every 3-4 months.
Each student receives a folder, and a period to decorate it. This time can be used to to review the drawing intro techniques of tracing, stencils or proper coloring techniques. They are free to color the front, back or inside. But I do emphasize that this folder will be holding their artwork, and presentation should be nice. What do you want people to think of your work when they see your portfolio?
Before giving them time to work, we visited two websites that I would like to share. The first was a site that explores several of the elements we have studied such as line, shape and color. You also can watch videos of serveral professional artists, one of which deals with our next unit, collage. The name of the website is Theartiststoolkit.com. The second website that I introduced them to was artpad.com which is a virtual painting pad. They loved the feature where you can watch the instant replay!
In my classroom, the folders or portfolios provide organization, data collection and provide assessment for grading. They are referenced with the parents during parent-teacher and give the students a sense of pride and ownership. Every art teacher has their own way of organizing the large number of student's work, this is just one example. Thank you for taking the time checking these out! Mr. Mac

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Week 4 and 5: Six Techniques of Clay/ Pinch Pots

For this lesson, the students began by learning about various clay items that can be made by reading the The Potter. The students were able to see different techniques that she used to form her clay ware, which led us to the clay techniques worksheet.
The worksheet consists of 6 techniques that I find are the most important to be able to create sculptures and pots. After a teacher demonstration, the students had to show on their own techniques such as making balls, coils, pinching, poking, flattening (slab), and stretching. They would raise their hands and show me that they completed this before having several minutes exploring the clay independently.
The second period, the students learned about how to make a pinch pot. Again, this is only an intro to clay and not a unit!(Success builds confidence!) They incorporated the techniques from the previous day such as ball, poke, pinch and coil.  While the clay was still soft, they were shown how to add texture with a pencil by twisting the eraser side for dots, and carving line and shape with the sharp point.
The third period, the students were given a demonstration about using lines, shapes and pattern with their colorful paints! This reinforced our recent paint intro week, and the colors were very vivid!
Finally, the students were asked to write about the experience using vocabulary and techniques that were required to complete the project. We made a list together of materials, decoration, texture and techniques. Enjoy and have a great week!





Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The NYC Blueprint for the Arts: The art teachers Bible!



I remember in Nov. 2003 (my first forgettable year!) going to a training for the Blueprints that NYC had just published. They are guidelines or a road map of what the students should be able to do by 2nd grade, 5th Grade and so on. The training was at some hotel in Midtown, and sooo many teachers came. Honestly it was very unorganized and all these teachers rushed the doors and took large beautiful books called the Blueprints for the arts. The book had visual arts, music and dance (and I believe technology). There were thousands of these books, totally free of charge. Well, the trainings were expensive but my school graciously provided my funds. They were trainings to allow art teachers all over the city to understand how and why art is relevant and important to a well rounded curriculum. Over the years the trainings have become cheaper to the point of free, and I believe you have to special order the books now which are way smaller! They have provided me with information to feel confident and prepared, and I'm not sure where I would be without the invaluable trainings. Please take a look and see if this can help your curriculum in your classroom, or perhaps you want to implement some of these great art ideas into your rainy days at home! Hope this helps...Brian

Recovery to Discovery: A short video I made to inspire my students to reuse materials for art

Hey! I have been showing this video for the last few years to inspire my students to look around the neighborhood for materials that can be transformed to artwork! I have taken many classes at Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, Queens which has given me a new perspective on the possibilities of found  materials. Perhaps you or your kids can make a short clip as well to encourage recycling and reuse in the classroom or at home! I used Audacity for audio and IMOVIE for the images, enjoy!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Week 3: Painting Basics and Abstract Intro

For the third week of school, the students were introduced to painting mini-lessons about technique, shapes, lines, overlapping and value. The first class I introduced the artist Wassily Kandinsky, an abstract artist who used elements such as line, shape, movement and color. I wanted the kids to understand that you can put the elements together like a puzzle and make a picture people recognize, or use the same elements to make a de3sign. These are often fun at the end when I turn them around to "find" a recognizable image with my imagination! The kids pick up on this and do the same just about every time! The first lesson they were required to keep the brush clean and not mix the colors. The paintings become much brighter! Next they had to use a variety of lines and overlapping shapes that were discussed during the lesson along with my teacher example. The next lesson was value mixing with white (tones) and black (shades). The students still cleaned the brush but had numerous piles of color all over the plate! The abstract subject did not change for this second lesson, which made it easier for them to know "what to paint" Try this at home and let your imaginations free!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Week 2: Mini lesson time! Intro to Drawing Materials( 1st-5th Grade)

This week I focused on letting the kids use their imagination with materials that are always available in the drawing center. I focused on stencils using pencils (lol!) and outlining with markers. By outlining, the students prepared their drawings for the color on the next day...watercolors! The first day I make a teacher example by combining various stencils to create a original drawing (the example on period was a kangeroo and baseball player). Then I ask that they add additional environments and details using their own ideas...Stencils by themselves do not seem that interesting, add your own artistic flair! The second class I introduced the UK contemporary artist named "Bansky" to show how modern art is incorporating stencils into public places. Check out his artwork at www.banksy.co.uk/‎!Finally, the students received a short intro to watercolor techniques, which they used to color the artworks...enjoy!

Week 1: Bookmaking

The first period I see a class its mostly about rules, procedures, introductions and art room expectations...This does not lend to much time for art making, however the class does like to leave with something after my boring speeches! The last few years I have started off with simple bookmaking projects that I can ask to become blank books or give them extended time with a subject (summer memories, family, robots!). I am more concerned with the technique than the content so that they can make more books at home on their own. The Kindergarten and First made envelope books by sticking the flap into another envelope and licking (you hear lots of "yuck!" at this stage). Then they just continue to place the triangle flaps of their envelopes to create the additional pages. The second grade and up made Diamond books where we carefully fold 8 squares from paper (long way is hotdog, width way is hamburger!). You make on scissor cut when folded in half, then the pages fold together for a real nice book. Kids like stuff, just something to put in their pockets and carry around! This is a great way to get them to begin drawing spontaneously!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Take a closer look: The place the magic happens...the art studio!

To begin the year, I am posting photo's of what the inside of my art studio looks like. I am very fortunate to have such a great space where the students work in small groups. This year I have added a smart board, which I am so excited and grateful for! Technology will be used to enhance the students learning, I cant wait to use it! The room looks a bit empty this early in the school year, but it sure fills up quickly as time goes on!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Welcome to Mr. Mac's Artroom!

Thank you for visiting the new art blog of a public school art teacher in The Bronx! My name is Mr. Mac and I am now entering my 11th year as the art teacher at P.S. 23, an elementary school in the South Bronx. I want to encourage, inspire and share the artwork that is created on a daily basis in my artroom, which I have been very fortunate to have over the years. I will be posting photos and lessons that I teach to the students each week, and would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions from you! Enjoy the imagination and creativity that I have the pleasure to see every day!