human spirograph

Another WPS art teacher shared this with me and I had to post it here. Visual artist and performer Tony Orrico uses his whole body to make these beautiful concentric circle masterpieces. Video of Tony Orrico in action

coil bowls

The fourth graders made bowls using just spiraled clay coils.
1. roll long pieces of clay into coils (much like pretzel makers do)
2. spiral them and place them in a plastic bowl so that they touch
3. smush the coils so that they touch completely and fill any negative space
4. finally, blend the coils together. this step eliminates slip and scoring

...add some glaze and voila!

Picasso inspired flowers

The kindergarteners looked to Pablo Picasso's Hand with Flowers for inspiration on this project. Super adorable result that combines many things learned this year; crayon resist with watercolor, proportions, patterns, organic and geometric shapes, collage, tracing, and cutting.

After creating a patterned border, they used both organic and geometric shapes to draw the flowers. Pedals were painted on with water color. The following week they added paper flowers by cutting square papers into rounded shapes. For the final touch, they traced their hand and glued it to the bottom of the page, curling the fingers for a more realistic touch. 

Faux stained glass flowers

The fourth graders are making imitation stained glass clingers using this fun product introduced to me by a student's mother. First they drew their flower image using sharpie and colored it in with crayons. After taping a sheet of wax paper to the drawing, they used the imitation leading to outline their design. 

When dry, they filled in the shapes with different colors. The pieces will dry translucent and can be displayed on a sunny window. 

Check out these famous artworks recreated in food! Recognize any?

click here for more pictures

adorable woven heart

Many of the students have learned how to weave paper. Here's a cute way to use those skills. Thanks to Kate from Minieco.

Click here for the tutorial

proof that learning is happening!

While cleaning up after KG's class I noticed these two bowls of crayons. What's so great about them is the way they're separated. In the green bowl are cool colored crayons and in the pink bowl are all the warm colored crayons! Now, I didn't put them out like this so some clever kindergartener must have decided to brighten my day by practicing their knowledge of warm and cool colors, something we learned back in March. For a teacher, this is so satisfying.