Election '08: Campaign Posters and Caricatures

Mrs. Spagnoli and Mrs. Kreider are organizing a school-wide election. They asked if kids could do campaign related projects in some art classes. Some classes are choosing the candidate they will vote for and making campaign posters.

Fourth grade classes are learning about caricatures. First I made a bulletin board with photos of both candidates and surrounded those images with caricatures of them. I asked the students, "What kind of drawing do you think a caricature is?" The definition they came up with was, "A humorous drawing that exaggerates the features of a person." Some students noticed how artists exaggerated McCain's puffy cheeks and wrinkles and other exaggerated Obama's large ears and big smile. Students then chose a candidate they wanted to make a caricature of. They turned out great!

Oceans of Fun!

We have officially kicked off our Oceans of Fun underwater theme. We will be doing several nautical related art projects. Eventually all our hard work will culminate in an Art Show/Family Fun Night. To help get things started, Sponge-Bob Squarepants himself has joined us. He came to life through the efforts of Mr. Wales, Mr. Malloy, and with the help of several students, some of whom are shown above.

I like to adopt a different theme each year. My approach is to start with what children already know about and are obsessed with -- things from popular culture. From there, we move into research on that theme. We will look for the nautical theme in fine art, mythology, and science. Then we will express what we learn with art materials.

Now let's see how our yellow friend came to life:

He began life as a few sticks screwed into a board.

Mr. Malloy drew the face on a large piece of cardboard, and other pieces were added to make him three-dimensional.

Students here are helping add volume to the sculpture using Plastercraft.

He is beginning to take shape!

Now he has arms. We left one of the pores open to add Plastercraft from the inside of that area as well. We wouldn't want his arms to fall off!

This looks like a real artist here giving Sponge-Bob a coat of yellow.

"Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!"

Mr. Malloy socks it to him!

Color Drops

The Parent Teacher Group borrowed the art room for Family Fun Night and left behind some supplies. They said I could keep them and I'd say the art room made out like a bandit! The kindergarten class is using the droppers and liquid watercolors to create autumn leaf designs -- a nice addition to our color mixing unit. Students dropped paint onto maple leaves precut from color diffusing paper.

Vessels of Color

Clay update: If your third grader hasn't brought theirs home yet, they will soon! The coil pots they made have been glazed and fired again. This week in art class we're wrapping them to ensure safe transportation and sending them home!

A Return the the Racetrack

This lesson was such a hit with Mrs. Twedt's class, we decided it would be a great lesson for kindergarten. The main idea is that primary colors can be mixed to make secondaries. First we had a drawing lesson on how to make a car. Then a little red, yellow and blue was dripped on the paper. Each child was then given a toy car and told to "make tracks!" It's interesting to see the textures and colors achieved by making a painting with a toy car.

Lesson Plans -- Week 7

"The arts teach children that

in complex forms of problem solving

purposes are seldom fixed,

but change with circumstance and opportunity.

Learning in the arts requires the ability

and a willingness to surrender to

the unanticipated possibilities of the work

as it unfolds." - Elliot Eisner

Lesson Plans
Week 7: October 27-31, November 3.

Kindergarten.
Campaign posters. Write the name of one of the candidates and make a drawing of that person.
913B. Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
First Grade.
Campaign Posters. Demonstrate using block letters to make the name of the presidential candidate of their choice. Make a campaign poster advertising this candidate.
9.1.3.A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
Second Grade.
Ocean Pictures. Students are making a drawing of an ocean animal. They are choosing whether to draw the animal in a cartoon style or a realistic style.
9.1.3.J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.
Third Grade.
Campaign Posters. Demonstrate using block letters to make the name of the presidential candidate of their choice. Make a campaign poster advertising this candidate.
913J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.
Fourth Grade. Caricatures. Students will draw a caricature of one or both of the presidential candidates.
913E. Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts.
Fifth Grade. Acrylic Painting. Students will finish their acrylic paintings and put them on display. Review: flat color, design elements of repetition and emphasis. Make name card to accompany painting and put on display.
Caricatures. Students will draw a caricature of one or both of the presidential candidates.
913E. Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts.

Lesson Plans -- Week 6

Lessons the Arts Teach (Elliot Eisner) --

• The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.


• The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

Lesson Plans
Week 6: October 15-17, 20-23.

Kindergarten.
Texture Monkeys. Experiment with texture rubbings with crayon within a monkey shape.
Color Mixing. Students will experiment with color mixing using primary colors to create secondary colors.
913B. Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.

First Grade.
Pumpkin Drawings. Demonstrate contour line in drawing. Students will apply what they learn in an autumn still life.
9.1.3.A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.

Second Grade.
Monster Drawings. Use line and shape in an imaginative way to create a monster.
9.1.3.J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.

Third Grade. Pueblo Potter. Wrap up pots to take home. If anyone has not glazed their pot yet, they will do so.
How to Draw Books. Students who are finished with clay will choose one of these books to work from. They will read and follow the step-by-step directions to make complex objects using basic shapes.
913J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.

Fourth Grade. Celtic Knots and Calligraphy. Add the over-under lines and put on display. Review with students what they learned about Celtic art and culture.
How to Draw Books. Students who are finished with knot project will choose one of these books to work from. They will read and follow the step-by-step directions to make complex objects using basic shapes.
913E. Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts.

Fifth Grade. Acrylic Painting. Students will finish their acrylic paintings. Review: flat color, design elements of repetition and emphasis. Make name card to accompany painting and put on display.

915B. Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
913E. Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through creation of works in the arts.

Mouse Paint

"Once there were three white mice on a white piece of paper. The cat couldn't find them..."

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Wash is a lighthearted introduction to color
concepts for young children. Three white mice find three jars of paint -- red,
blue, and yellow. They jump in and out, dance in the puddles, and discover some
amazing things -- things like green and orange and purple. Yet they never
forget about the cat.

After hearing this story from Mr. Malloy, kindergarteners learned how to draw mice using basic shapes. They are then painting each mouse a primary color and using secondary colors in the background. Everyone has started this and will finish their painting during their next art class.

Pueblo Pots

Pueblo Potters (Black, 1997) is a story that is part of our school's third grade reading program This story teaches the history of this Native American tribe and their way of life, including their potttery. Students read this story in reading class and learn about Puebo beliefs, traditions and the techniques they use when making clay pots.

After reading the story in Reading class, they get to try these techniques in art class. It starts with a simple pinch pot, something learned in first grade, but then we take it to the next level!

Students make coils of clay and then build up the height of the pot by adhering them. The only way clay will stick to clay is by using scoring techniques and wetting both pieces.


The pots are built and fired. In this week's art classes, students will glaze the pots and then they'll be fired again.

3-D Paper Constructions

The whole idea of making art is to be open, to be generous,
and absorb the viewer and absorb yourself, to let them go into it.
I have to go into all those places in order to make it work." -- Frank Stella

This project was inspired by the contemporary artist Frank Stella. He was already a famous artist in the 60's and 70's making paintings like this:

Then he had an idea. What if the forms and shapes came right off the picture plane? Now his paintings are really sculptures. They look something like this.


The kids learned about this artist and making three dimensional art by first glueing two different colored pieces of construction paper together. Then they drew different kinds of patterns with oil pastel. Then they cut lines going from the outside edge toward the center. Each piece was then twisted around a pencil to create different kinds of curved forms. Once they had a design they liked we taped and stapled it into place.

Today's News

Tiffany Peden, a reporter from the Daily Review came to visit last Thursday. She wrote a really nice article about the multicultural projects Mr. Malloy has been doing. The article was in today's paper. Here's the article:

Art for art’s sake in Athens

BY TIFFANY PEDEN
STAFF WRITER

Published: Saturday, October 4, 2008 3:22 AM EDT

ATHENS — The students at Lynch-Bustin Elementary School have been learning about different cultures — in their art classes.

Matt Malloy, a senior at Mansfield University currently student-teaching in art teacher Andrew Wales’ class since the beginning of the school year, has been working on teaching students about different cultures through art.

Currently, he is working with the fourth graders in making Celtic knots, a symbol of infinity in Ireland.

“We’re trying to show them about the Irish culture,” Malloy said. “A Celtic knot is a good way to learn about it.”

Malloy gave the students pieces of paper, which they folded multiple times and cut into, similar to making paper snowflakes. The outcome was that there were numerous shapes and sizes of Celtic knots made by the students, no two the same.

“They enjoyed it,” Malloy said. “They opened their knot and they were surprised by what they made. There were challenges, but a lot of the kids were happy with the way their Celtic knot turned out.”

While the students were making the knots, Malloy said he talked with them about Irish holidays, and interesting facts about Celtic cultures and Ireland.

The students also got a chance to write in calligraphy with the Celtic knot project, writing their names in the fancy script with surprising skill.

The third graders at the school got to learn about a different culture, as they had made coil pots in art class while learning about the Pueblo culture.

Wales said that the students had just been reading about Pueblo cultures in their classroom, making the subject a perfect tie-in with shaping and decorating the coil pots.

“The subject area they learn about comes to life,” Wales said, adding that sometimes, this makes it easier for the students to learn and understand the material.

“Every culture offers different things with art,” Wales said.

Malloy said he would only be in the Lynch-Bustin art room until Oct. 22, when he said he will then be student-teaching at Towanda High School.

He’s not sure if he’ll be teaching the students at the elementary school about any more cultures before he leaves, but he said he will probably continue teaching cultures through art at the high school.

Diversity is important, Malloy said, and he said it’s important that students learn about other cultures so that they have that knowledge.

“It’s good to learn so that everyone is accepting of other cultures,” he said.

Tiffany Peden may be reached at (570) 888-9652; e-mail: reviewvalley@thedailyreview.com.

Lesson Plans -- Week 5

“Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

~~ Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert

Lesson Plans
Week 5: October 8-12, 15.

Kindergarten. Color Mixing. Students will experiment with color mixing using primary colors to create secondary colors.
9.1.3.H. Handle materials, equipment and tools safely at work and performance spaces.
Identify issues of cleanliness related to the arts.

First Grade. Sea Turtles. Students will use the elements and principles of design such as pattern, line, shape and color to make a sea turtle.
9.1.3.A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.

Second Grade. Self-Portraits. Define. Look at examples of artist self-portraits, by Van Gogh, Close, Wood, etc. Discuss proportion, etc. Students will make a self-portrait drawing.
9.1.3.J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.
913F. Identify works of others through a performance or exhibition

Third Grade. Pueblo Potter. Students will continue to add glaze to pots. When finished, they will paint a coat of clear glaze over the pot.
9.4.5.C. Know and use fundamental vocabulary within each of the arts forms.
9.1.3.J. Know and use traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.

Fourth Grade. Celtic Knots and Calligraphy. Assemble finished projects of knot designs and calligraphy. Review with students what they learned about Celtic art and culture.
915F. Identify works of others through a performance or exhibition

Fifth Grade. Acrylic Painting. Students will continue to add color to their paintings. Review: flat color, design elements of repetition and emphasis.
9.4.5.C. Know and use fundamental vocabulary within each of the arts forms.
915F. Identify works of others through a performance or exhibition
915G. Identify the function and benefits of rehearsal and practice sessions.

Mixed-Up Chameleons

The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle is a great children's book. In this story the chameleon is bored with his life changing colors and catching flies. Then he visits the zoo! He discovers he can acquire the characteristics of any animal, just by wishing. He gathers an attribute from each animal until he is quite mixed up. However, he is so mixed up, he can't catch flies anymore! The moral of the story is to be yourself!

After we read this story in kindergarten art class, we have a good time making our own mixed up chameleons out of Super-Dough (kind of like Play-dough). We then make the chameleons mixed up using feathers, glitter, buttons, pipe cleaners, etc. Lots of these little odds and ends were donated to us by someone who thought, "What will I do with this bag of doo-dads? -- I know, I'll give them to the art teacher!" You'd be surprised what we could use.