Guidelines for Art Journal Drawing

I created this poster to inform students on the guidelines of how to earn a "Happy Rock" in their art journal.  I discuss with them my four main criteria (use of space, details, creativity and craftsmanship) and how they can improve upon the drawings in their book that have not earned a happy face towards their rock (students must earn 5 happy faces in order to get their rock).  Check out my Happy Rocks post to learn more about this reward system I do in my classroom.

Too Sweet Not to Share

While I was checking first grade sketchbooks this afternoon, I came across this drawing that warmed my heart and made me smile.

Brooklynn, 1st Grade

If you can't figure it out, her mama is going to have a baby soon.  Don't you just love this drawing?

Egyptian Portrait Batiks

Third Grade Art Lesson
3 Class Periods

Egyptian Portrait Batiks, Third Grade Art Lesson

Day 1 
1.  Students learn about Egyptian culture through classroom books I have on the topic and a brief PowerPoint.

Some Ancient Egyptian Facts to Share with Your Students

*  A Pharaoh is the title given to the rulers of Ancient Egypt.
*  Ancient Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs.
*  Cats are considered sacred animals and are believed to bring good luck.
*  Ancient  Egypt is one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations in the history of the world.
*  Much of the success for this civilization is directly linked to the Nile River.  It provided Egyptians with food, soil, water and transportation.
*  Both Egyptian men and women wore make up.  The eye paint was usually green (made from copper) or black (made from lead).
*  Make up provided protection from the sun's powerful rays.
*  Ancient Egyptians loved to play board games.
*  Ancient Egyptians invented lots of things we still use today (paper, pens, locks, keys and toothpaste).

2.  Together as a class, students complete a follow along drawing of an Egyptian on a piece of brown craft paper.  Students are given choices during instruction.  What direction do you want your portrait to face?  Who will your Egyptian portrait represent?  A Pharaoh?  A Queen?  A Worker?  We discuss how an Egyptian portrait is always in profile view.

Day 2
1.  On the second day, students viewed part of a YouTube clip that described the reasons why ancient Egyptian portraits all seem so similar and yet odd in their proportions.

2.  After viewing the clip, students used an assortment of crayons to color in their portraits.  Backgrounds were to be left alone and students were encourage to press hard with their crayons.  The crayon wax is very important for this lesson.

Day 3
1. This day of class is a little scary for students.  We sit in a circle with our artwork.  I explain to them about the process of Batik (the technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to a piece of cloth).  I informed students that we want our paper to have the feel of cloth.  I demonstrate how we will accomplish this by crumpling up our paper.  The shock on their face during this process is quite amusing.  After they earn my trust that I am not playing a trick on them they begin to crumple and un-crumple their work, repeating this step 5 to 6 times.  Students are reminded to be careful in the un-crumpling process, but not to fret if they end up with tears in their work.  I reassure them it will just add to the ancient look of their piece.

2.  Students next take a black oil pastel and outline their portrait.

3.  Black tempera paint is painted over the entire piece.

Student painting pieces.

4.  After the piece dries, students used a Egyptian Alphabet stamp set I acquired through our school library The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fun with Hieroglyphs by Catharine Roehrig to write their name.  We drew a box around the name to represent a cartouche (a double loop of rope tied at one end, the pharaoh's name was written inside of a cartouche).

I am always so impressed with the results to the lesson.  I hope you are, too.

Examples of Student Art:

Glazing Distribution Tip

Today in my daily email from the Art of Education I noticed they had an article about storage for easy glaze distribution in class.  After reading the article, I said to myself, "Hey!  I already do that!"  I thought I had blogged about it and realized that I never blogged about it specifically, but only mentioned it in a lesson that I was teaching.  So here it is for all of you that may not get emails from the Art of Education or missed seeing it in my post Burch Clay Cats.

When I glaze with my students (I currently only glaze with third grade and older) I have smaller containers of glaze all ready to go and set up on a counter in my room.  Each container is labeled with the name of the glaze and a photograph of what the glaze looks like when fired.  Students are to take a new brush every time they change to a new color.  Dirty brushes are placed in water buckets at their work stations.  Last year was the first year I used this system, but I did use it again this year with the pinch pot frog lesson we are currently working on.  It really does make glazing so much more manageable for the class room setting and allows students to have more say in color selection for their projects.

I try to have three containers of the same color to help with the sharing process.

I only fill the containers about 1/4 full.  You can always add to the container if it runs low.  Glaze stores in these containers for me for about a month before the glaze start looking like it may dry up.   I usually add the left over color back to the container.  Cleaning the containers is actually a snap.  I leave the lid off, let the left over glaze dry in it.  After it is dry, I gently squeeze the sides of the container (these are tempera painting storage cups) and the glaze cracks right off.  Shake in garbage can, wash container and dry.
                       Happy Glazing!

The Cradle's New Spin

Here is a new spin on a lesson that I do every year with my first grade students.  To see the details about the lesson and see previous student work from the year before follow this link: Gustav Klimt's The Cradle

Side by side comparison of last year and this year projects.

This year, instead of creating a baby face near the top of the blanket, we instead added a photograph of ourself.  I think the results turned out pretty cute, but honestly I feel I love my original plan better. Sometimes lessons work out like that.  Good to know though, that there are options to spice up a lesson if you get bored with it.  What are your thoughts?  What lesson outcome do you prefer?

Check out below to see more examples from students this year or check out the above link to see more examples from last year.


Student Examples: