Storyteller Dolls

Fourth grade students looked at Native American Storyteller dolls.  We talked about Cochiti Pueblo potter,Helen Cordero and her clay figure that represents her grandfather telling Native American Tales.  We also discussed the connection Helen had with her artwork and grandfather.  I asked my students to make a connection with their artwork like Helen. The kids did a great job on them.  We used an upside down pinch pot for the body.  Below is a picture of a few finished pieces.  If you would like to see more go to our school gallery at http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=1035988
Each Student wrote an artist statement about their piece.  Here are a few quotes they wrote about their work.  

Artist Statement (what lily3425 said this about his/her artwork)

This piece is important to me because this is me and my dad watching football my dad and I bond over football because every night we play pass with a football every time the patriots get a touchdown my dog Autumn gets a cookie.

Artist Statement (what Nagy2 said this about his/her artwork)

This piece is important to me because it is my mom and I when I was a baby. The hardest part for me was the legs because even when you scratch and attach, they still break off sometimes.

Artist Statement (what Beaulieu1 said this about his/her artwork)

This is important to me because I like soccer. Because it's fun. It is fun because I keep the Jersey.

Collage People

While looking around on Pinterest I came upon the artist MALIN KOORT.  We looked at her amazing paper illustrations.  Check her out here:  http://malinkoort.blogspot.se/.  The kids really enjoyed looking at her work and were very inspired.  We started out by making a paper person but soon the kids were into creating little environments for them.  It was very difficult to take pictures of them but here are a few views.  

4th Grade Color Super Heroes

When my son was in first grade he made a project with the theme Primary Color Super Heroes.  I loved the idea and knew that I wanted to do something with my kids using this theme too.  I thought it would be perfect for my tinfoil people project that I had planned for fourth grade this year.  

In class we reviewed the color wheel(primary, secondary, intermediate colors) as well as warm, cool, analogous and complementary colors.  We also talked about tints and shades.  It was a lot of information but we had talked about all of it at different times throughout the years.  

Their challenge was to create a super hero that had a power that was connected to color somehow.  The kids had a great time coming up with different powers but the challenge was linking it to the color wheel.  We had some really creative powers.

The armature for the super hero was made from heavy duty aluminum foil.  Here are some directions I found on Pinterest.  Here is a link with great directions:http://2peasandadog.blogspot.ca/2013/03/tinfoil-sculpture-art-lesson.html

Once the armature was made we covered them with paper mache.  This was a little challenging for the kids but they did a good job with it.  

The kids made sketches of the ideas so they were able to refer to them when it came time to paint and decorate their superheroes.  I had a variety of odds and ends that they could use for capes and other decorations.  They really enjoyed this part.  We used cardboard to create stands for them too.

Here are some of the finished pieces.

Some sketches

Our final part of the project was to use the ipad app ComicBook! to create a comic page of our super hero telling about them and their powers.  This is a great app and the kids had fun with it.  Here are some of their comic book pages.

Clay Birds in a Nest

In second grade our students learn about birds.  Each student is assigned a particular bird to research and create a board game.  I was looking on Pinterest one day and found these really cute clay birds.  Here is the link to the Etsy site:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/120121796/sale-clay-bird-sculpture-turquoise.

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make them with my students.  While making the clay birds we really practiced modeling the clay with our hands.  We talked about how we could push, pinch and pull the clay to form the bird shape.  I found a great graphic that I used to show my students one way to create the bird.  Here is the site where I got this picture.  I think it really helped the kids visualize the process:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJpvJb_wsAmgXm7JGBRIGUw6tl4hXDN_07JnfsGmMkoxwDxTXNrktmntmKzQIxcpEYW5CdfTkNxEyxCFcwSK4f6rZL5RUFMRhtMHjeFZo1dKE3-KNqBWkpe7tOoJiwCBXFiDvVvSET28E/s1600-h/genine4.jpg

I also found these great clay bird nests on Pinterest, here is the link: 

http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-make-ceramic-pottery-birds-nest.html

 and decided to make those to put our birds in.  If you are a bird lover you should really check out her blog.  There are so many beautiful photos.  Each student got a small slab circle of clay,turned the edges up and added clay strings made from garlic presses.  It was great practice attaching clay.

The kids really loved making both the birds and the nests. We practiced lots of handbuilding skills. Here are some of our finished birds.  If you would like to see more visit our Artsonia exhibit Clay Birds.

Model Magic People

First grade students worked with model magic clay creating these fun clay people.  We talked about different ways that we could roll, pinch, or stretch the clay to make the body parts.  We also talked about the difference between 2D and 3D artwork.  I love using model magic with my students.  It is a fun, non-messy way to practice handbuilding techniques.