Above: Finished Elephants drying out and waiting to be fired.

             

Elephants: Part 2 

Time is a valuable thing in the classroom, as I am learning. 

Since we ran out of time the last class period, Mrs. Butikofer kindly made space in her schedule for me to come finish up the project with the kids 2 weeks later.  We were tight for time, between spelling tests, recess, and early dismissal, so she set up a table in the corner of the room and I worked with 5 students at a time, slowly rotating through all of them.  Having a small group like that was easy to manage, and it built anticipation in the kids who had to wait their turn.  This made them eager to work on it and not dawdle or fool around.  

I gave the students the option to stay in from recess to work on their elephants, and a handful did!  Any 2nd grader who it willing to give up recess for an art project must really be excited for it. I love seeing their enthusiasm!

What I’ve learned…

However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this project, it’s plan ahead for time.  I miscalculated how long it would take to finish the elephants, and if I could do the project over I would have done a simpler project that could be done in an hour and a half, like a rolled out python or something.   Elephants are a very hard project, what with inserting wet newspaper, scoring, slipping, attaching, and forming.  I was pleased to see that 2nd graders could do the project, and I was very proud of them, it is just taking a long time.  

That being said, once the new school year starts, we will start a new habitat project covering the Arctic.   During that time we will squeeze in time to paint the elephants.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

In the mean time, enjoy Christmas Break and your loved ones!

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year!

Above: Still drying...

Clay Elephants!

Hello again parents!
We finally got to play with clay in the classroom!  It was so fun, but sooooo messy.  I didn't anticipate the amount of clean up I needed to stay after and do.
We were learning about the Savannah habitat, and I thought it would be fun to make a herd of animals for the Savannah.  I decided on elephants because they have strong sturdy legs that wouldn't break off, like giraffes or gazelles.

The first thing I did was show the students videos on how to score and slip pieces together (which is SO IMPORTANT when working with clay), then I showed them a video of how to insert moist newspaper inside of the legs, body, and head so the elephants won't crack in the kiln.  After that, I did a demo, then turned them all loose to make their elephants.  They followed me in a step by step approach, which Ms. Butikofer so wisely recommended, so we were all on the same step most of the time. Toward the end, some kids moved ahead, so we'll have to catch everybody up to the same place next time.

I thought we would finish up in one day, but I was way off.  We're going to need two more weeks before they're done.  One week for finishing forming and reinforcing attachments, and another for  firing and painting.  We opted to paint instead of glaze because Ms. Butikofer already had acrylic paints on hand that were nice Savannah colors.  

I was so impressed by the dexterity of these second graders! This was a hard project and they jumped right in an did it!  That just shows, with a little be of extra time these students can do amazing things. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

I'll be up again tomorrow finishing up phase one.

Until next time!

First Teaching Day! Ocean Animals and Habitats!

First Teaching Day!

I finally got to teach my first lesson to Ms. Butikofer's kids!  We did a two part watercolor project on Ocean Habitats complete with wax resist, wet on wet application, salt and alcohol texture, and observational drawing.   We were able to complete part one, which was creating the ocean background wash, and almost all of part two, which was drawing, painting, cutting and gluing their animals onto their ocean background.  When our time was up, all we had to save for next time was cutting and gluing.

The kids were great and were enthusiastic about the project.  When it came time for the kids to draw their own animals, they really took possession of their own project by delving into a stack of ocean animal books that Ms. Butikofer provided, and drawing them freehand.  They were respectful of each other and the books, and did their work without coercion.    

Ms. Butikofer was great, as well.  Since it was my first time, I hadn't thought through all the time consuming processes, and I made a couple of glitches for myself.    Ms. Butikofer knew how to remedy these, and because of her knowledge and skill, she was able to help me deliver as smooth of a lesson as possible.

I learned that every single little detail needs to be thought through and prepared for, like how to disseminate supplies that will probably be spilled, or  what early finishers should do.  I also learned that if I have any questions at all, I should email Ms. Butikofer beforehand, instead of the day before of day of.

Next time I'll try to think through as much of the process as possible to make the next lesson run more smoothly.
 

Head's Up For Next Week!

 Hello again parents and students!

I'm not going to see you this week since there's not school on Friday, but I wanted to give you a heads up on the Ocean Watercolor project we're going to be doing.  I found this wonderful project on the Blog, buggyandbuddy.com which is full of wonderful art ideas, and it encapsulated exactly what Ms. Butikofer and I wanted to do, so I thought I would pass it along to you all to get you excited for our project!

Take a look below, and I'll see you all next week!   

Painting with Watercolor

Ocean Art Project for Kids Using Oil Pastels, Watercolor, and Salt

Materials for Ocean Art Project for Kids

• watercolors (
• Paintbrush
• Oil Pastels 
• Salt 
• Art paper 
• Scissors
• Glue

How to Make Ocean Art for Kids

1. Draw lots of white, wavy lines across your art paper using a white oil pastel. (The set from Discount School Supply actually came with three white oil pastels, which I loved since we use those most often with the watercolors.)

2. Set out some liquid watercolor paint in different shades of blue. We used blue, teal, and turquoise. 

3. Paint a blue watercolor wash over your sheet of art paper using any shades of blue you’d like.

4. Before your paint dries, sprinkle some salt over the paper. As the paint dries, really cool designs will appear in your paint.

5. Set your ocean water paper aside to dry and begin making your ocean animals. Use another sheet of art paper and oil pastels to draw any sea creatures you’d like.

6. Paint your drawings with liquid watercolor paint. The kids always love seeing how the oil pastel drawings resist the watercolor paint!

7. Once your sea animals are dry, cut them out.

8. Glue them onto your salt ocean artwork, and let it dry.

Display your finished creation!

Tips

• When sprinkling the salt onto your ocean painting, don’t do huge piles of salt or put the salt on dry sections of your paper- designs will be less likely to appear.
• When we’re using lots of different colors of liquid watercolor paint at once, we put the different colors in an ice cube tray. It makes for easy cleanup and can be used again and again!
• The liquid watercolor paint is very brilliantly colored straight from the bottle. You can lighten the colors by adding water to the paints you’ll be using.
• Don’t leave younger children out of this activity. Theo (age 4) loved making his salty ocean painting. Although he is not quite ready to draw ocean animals, he drew his own designs which were ocean animals in his eyes!
• When choosing art paper for this project, be sure to use a paper that is meant for watercolors. Construction paper will tear easily as it gets wet. I was very happy withThe Ultimate Art Paper from Discount School Supply. It’s very inexpensive so I know I’ll be buying it in the future, and it even dried without curling which is a huge plus!

Second visit: Halloween Observation

This week I observed Ms. Butikofer's class during the most exciting Holiday of the year, Halloween!  I arrived just in time to join in the costume parade which snaked through the Gym, hallways, library, and looped back into the classroom.  The costumes were AMAZING and the parent turnout was even more AMAZING.  The parking lot was packed and the Gymnasium was teeming with parents and family to show their support and excitement.   100% of Ms. Butikofer's class were in costume, which  makes my heart happy:)  All the teacher's got into the spirit of Halloween by dressing up too.   Ms. Buikofer was a nurse, and I went as Little Red Riding Hood.  The kids costumes blew me away.  Some of the costumes I saw were, Nerds, Witches, Park Rangers, Princesses, (including princess Leah) Zombies, and so many more I can't even keep them straight.

The creativity behind the costumes demonstrates how, at home, Midas Elementary parents encourage creativity in their kids.  As an art teacher this get me excited about our future creating together in the next several months.  Knowing that the kids's homes are fertile soil for growing creativity gives me hope for art in the classroom.

It's been good for me to see what the school looks like during the Holidays.  The excitement from the kids is contagious and I've been able to see from Ms. Butikofers' example that even thought the holidays are exciting, the kids can still focus on school work in between celebrations.  The day is a little disheveled because of interruptions like parades and parties, but being able to deal with the change in schedule is important.

Next week we will start our Ocean habitat watercolor project.  I'm excited and will post my lesson plan as soon as it's finished!

First Visit!

Hello!  My name is Kelli Brown and I am an Arts Bridge Scholar.  I am and art education student at BYU, and thanks to the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Program, I get to participate in the push for arts integration in Utah classrooms.  My purpose of coming into the school to work with your kids is to assist Ms. Butikofer in integrating Visual Art into the curriculum.  This includes projects like drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.

Last week I got to meet your kids for the first time.  I was very excited to finally get to go into a real classroom, since that's where the magic happens.  I got to see her kids finish a pumpkin project that they had been working on.  It was an observational watercolor project where the kids learned the wet on wet technique as well as how to mix colors by tilting their paper. I was so impressed!

As we look forward to the next week of observations, Ms. Butikofer and I decided that we would focus on habitat art projects for the rest of the year.  Our projects will deal with animals and habitats in  Oceans, Savannahs, Rainforests, The Arctic, Ponds, Meadows, and Deserts.  The will involve watercolor, melted crayons, found objects, chalk pastels, sculpey, and collage.

I've thoroughly enjoyed meeting your kids today.  Until next time!