Ceiling Tiles Not Just for Ceilings Anymore.

This is a project that originated with one of the high school art teachers in my town.  If it has an origin earlier then that I am not aware of it.  The high school art teacher had kids pick a master artist to research.  They did a paper and a reproduction of their favorite piece from the artist and paint it on the back of a ceiling tile.  Which later goes up into the actual ceiling.

So, since all art teachers are at heart "borrowers" a bunch of us at the elementary level started doing a version of this with our own kids.

I introduced a program called "F.A.S.E." at both of the schools I'm assigned at.  I'm lucky enough to have two great principals at my buildings this year who have designated a whole class period for this.  F.A.S.E. stands for Fine Arts to Support Education.  It's a character reward program.  I take the older students, 5th and 6th grade, and pull them for this special program.  I rotate the groups.  Once a week for five weeks I'll have a group of 6th graders who have earned through good character the chance to be there. Then I rotate to a 5th grade group.  It's never more then 6 kids and I take input on who has earned it not just from their classroom teacher but also the librarian, P.E. teacher, and music teacher.  It's not enough to show the pillars of character just in my class or homeroom, you have to show them everywhere.  It's also not based on artistic skill, just the pillars of character. In the past I've done master artists as well, Da Vinci, van Gogh, Cassatt, etc. However this year I decided to go with some more of the unsung artists - children's book illustrators.

My current 6th graders are working on H.A. Reys' Curious George.  Here's some of the tiles in progress:

Since this is elementary and not high school, I do draw the panels out.  It takes some of the pressure off of the kids - they get really nervous about living up to the standard of the master artist they're reproducing.
The kids are responsible for matching the colors on the ceiling tile panels to what's on the print they're copying.  I may step in just to show them how to dry brush or where the shadow goes, but these are really all done by the kids.  We flip the tiles over to the cardboard side and use acrylic paints.  It takes two or three coats but they always look fantastic when finished.  I have very patient school custodians who then climb ladders and hang the tiles in our hallways.

Here's some more examples of what I've worked on with my groups (which are lining the hallway ceilings of my schools):

Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat:

Franz Marc's Blue Horse:

 M.C. Escher's Seahorse Tesselation:

 Georgia O'Keeffe's Oriental Poppies:

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night:

Norman Rockwell's Boy and his Dog:

Degas' Blue Dancers:

da Vinci's Mona Lisa:

Rene Magritte's The False Mirror:

I'll snap some shots of the others that are in the halls.

What's a Penguin to Think When He Turns PINK?!

I started a new project with my 1st grade this week.  I found this great book at Ocean State Job Lot, of all places.  It was only three dollars!

Poor Patrick the Penguin wakes up one day and finds that he's mysteriously turned pink.  There's a part of the story where he exclaims that he's a boy and boys can't be pink.  Right at that moment one of my kids piped up and said, "That's not true!  Colors are for everybody!"  I was so proud!  Patrick tries to fit in with some flamingos since they're pink birds but it doesn't turn out so well.  I won't spoil the ending, but it's a super cute book and my kids loved it.

After the story and a quick disccusion about the book - it has some great talking points about being kind, not picking on someone because they're differnent, etc. - I had the class get newspaper and a brush and set up their spaces for painting.  Once they were set up I called them to my own spot and modeled writing my name on the back of a 9 x 12 white paper with the crayons in the middle of the table.  Then I squirted a line of white tempera right onto my paper, followed by a wiggly line of orange.  I've always felt bad for orange; it's such a happy color and hardly anyone ever uses it!

I showed them how to mix the two, explaining that we were making a tint.  Patrick wound up a tint of red.  Some of the kids in the class had  shirts that were a tint of green, purple and blue so I pointed those out as examples of tints.  I told them when they got back to their own seats they would be creating their own tinted paper.  Today painting tints - next time the tinted papers would become penguins! 

To help me when once the kids are back at their spots busily writing their names I carry this paint basket around from spot to spot to distribute the tempera.

By the end of the class we had tables full of painted papers. 

I had some students ask me if they could paint designs in their papers.  So sure, why not?  Our penguins will be tinted and patterned!

Of course, there's always one that interprets "draw lines or shapes" into "scribble everywhere."

Ah well, I'm sure it will be a splendid penguin anyway.  I'll post an update when we cut and glue these into our penguins!

I debated for a while about what the first post of my blog should be about. Should I dive right in and post a lesson or just issue a general "Hello, I'm here" post.  I finally decided, why not both?
So "Hello!  I'm here!" and here's an idea for Chinese New Year.


This is a second grade lesson.  We talk about red being a lucky color for Chinese New Year and we also talk about how Dragons are seen differently in Chinese culture compared to the more common Western European dragons.  After the class discussion I pass out paper and have the kids write their names either on the front corner or on the back.  They get a newspaper to use as a place mat and a brush.  Once the kids are set up I'll call them back to my spot for a quick demonstration.  I just take the tempera paint bottle and and draw a squiggle on the paper.  The brush is then used to spread out the paint and add more dragonish features.  The kids get so excited about turning the random squiggles into a dragon.  I've even been asked to make loops and crazy spirals for the kids.

During the next class session we used oil crayons to add scales, facial features, and a background for the dragons.  The two above are my teacher examples.  Unfortunately I forgot to snap pics of the kids' work before I sent them home.  A quick two day lesson for you!