Our clay reliefs got finished yesterday. What a relief! I really wanted students to be able to wrap up projects before maternity leave.
One student from each group came to paint them while I was teaching my other classes.
This is what they came up with.
Each group of 5th graders got to choose one painting from a group of pieces that I teach throughout K-5.
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Old school. Eric Carle is one of the first artists we study together in First Grade. |
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| Hungry caterpillar head. Love the fingers. |
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| After painting it green, he had a great time splattering and scratching paint on the surface of the caterpillar. |
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| Van Gogh, sorry, but I think kids see sunflowers best. These are so happy! |
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Hokusai's Wave is so ominous.
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| Georgia O'Keeffe reinterpreted. I think this is even more expressive than the original! |
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| Gives me goosebumps. Love it. |
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| Monet's Waterlilies fired and ready to paint. |
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| Captured Mona like only a child could. |
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| The eyes have it! |
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| Finding the right skin color was a challenge. |
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| Mona is fired and ready to paint! |
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| Original art works taped on cabinets for reference. |
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Everyone poured their own paint (sometimes too much), got their own brushes, solved their own color problems, decided to paint the backgrounds, and cleaned up really well! I didn't have a spare minute to help them with 27 other kids in the room. That was a GREAT thing. The 5th graders are all grown up now.
Is this what it feels like to be a proud parent? |
16 comments:
These are wonderful Erica! Love them all.
Thanks Mary! Check out the post I left on your blog. I'm not kidding. Maybe next year???
Thanks for sharing this with me. It's funny because all the other kids kept asking me where your group was and I reassured them that everything was ok and you had it under control. Wonderful!! Our pictures of Cezanne came out really nice too. I'll share them with you if we ever have school again!! LOL.
Betty
I absolutely LOVE these. I may have to try this sometime.
I know too bad they couldn't have painted together. Too many days off! Too many kids who had projects to finish. Thank goodness for Kaizen to tie up loose ends:) You're a such a good sport for letting me take them last minute. You remind me I need to be flexible when I get those last minute phone calls!
Thanks Holly!!! You should try it.
Oh wow! I am really loving these! What do you do when you are done do you hang them some where? I love them!
They're fabulous. I'm wondering the same thing - where do they go or who keeps them?
But mostly I'm feeling a little dumb about the process. They are fired in pieces, and then painted and assembled?
The pieces are going to stay at the school. When we started the project I told the kids it would be their "legacy" that they could come visit. If the principal doesn't want them in a main area I'll hang them in the art room. They were excited about the idea of leaving something permanent behind.
This one I did a little different then the Starry Night. . . we didn't glaze each piece. They made each piece out of clay (keeping it a low relief) then I fired the individual pieces and then they laid them out on their board and painted them with reg. acrylic. When I was busy teaching another class they decided to paint the boards (backgrounds). They looked so good I decided not to "grout" them with plaster (like the Starry Night) instead just epoxied every piece down. They are a little matt so we might put a layer of or modge podge over the top.
A very make shift process
Hope I didn't make the explanation too confusing!
I love this idea as a summative assessment at the end of 5th grade to have students show you what they know, pick their favorite artist and reflect on their elementary art experience. What if each elementary student did their own SMALL one as their summative piece at the end of the year? LOVE IT. You should put the processes in a step by step for everyone, I think it would be really popular.
Jessica Balsley
Awesome! I LOVE the Monet bridge.
Thanks everyone. I should print out some of your comments to show them what other teachers are saying about their hard work!
Wish I could make a step by step for you all but this is one of those projects where I had to wing most of it and every time I do it, I do it a little differently. I told them in the beginning that I'd never tried this ambitious process with such a large group so bear with me. It was a collaborative process. . . we all solved problems along the way. I do a couple of large projects like this every year that take me out of my comfort zone and the results can be wonderful or not so wonderful. But it is a learning process!
Definitely need to do this project in groups I think. Everyone had a job. Some students created the pieces, some did a little research, some painted, it was a great way to teach how larger installation projects really work (in retrospect.)
These are spectacular! I am going to share this with our ceramics teacher, although I don't know whether she'll be up for something this ambitious!!!
A real ceramics teacher! I think every school should have one. I am a novice (good enough for elementary but need a some practice to teach high school.) I am self taught, mostly because I know how developmentally important clay/modeling is for children on the elementary level. I remember feeling so intimidated by clay and the huge kiln! I had to jump in feet first and most of the clay projects end up being my favorites of the year. I would be so honored if a ceramics teacher liked the idea! I have so much respect for sculptors.
A real ceramics teacher! I think every school should have one. I am a novice (good enough for elementary but need a some practice to teach high school.) I am self taught, mostly because I know how developmentally important clay/modeling is for children on the elementary level. I remember feeling so intimidated by clay and the huge kiln! I had to jump in feet first and most of the clay projects end up being my favorites of the year. I would be so honored if a ceramics teacher liked the idea! I have so much respect for sculptors.
AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME! Love the caterpillar!
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