Using Your Imagination

The purpose of this activity was to use your imagination to create a drawing starting with only a single random line. This activity made you think outside the box and create a picture starting with a single line, that you did not even draw yourself, your neighbor drew it for you.

Extension Activity
The would be a good way to have fun in social studies. Students would draw a line and then send it to someone else in the classroom where they would have to complete a picture based on the social studies topic we are discussing. The would be a fun way for the kids to show you what they are learning and for the teacher to see if they are understanding what is being discussed in class.

Easter Egg Painting

The Purpose of the activity was to introduce young students to a few of the elements and principles of design. The different ones we discussed and talked about were: patter, color, line, and shape. We were able to use paint to create different colors and then paint the colors onto the eggs using the other elements and principles.

Extension Activity 

You could incorporate these elements into any season letting the kids decorate using the four elements that we used. You could make paper Christmas ornaments or even just allow the kids to paint the paper and have them cut out different shapes, adding math into the lesson. I would be careful about cultural differences and using holidays as your way to allow the kids to practice and create art. 

Jungle Safari

The Purpose of the activity was to introduce warm and cool colors and drawing techniques. We talked about how colors reflect and when we put on red glasses on we could no longer see the red on top of our pictures and how if you draw upside down you focus less on what you are drawing more on the lines that you see.

Extension Activity 
This would make a good science lesson when talking about color and how we see color. It would give students a hands on real life experience that they would be able to see happen right in front of them. You could easily integrate another subject by having kids draw a picture of the character in their book or so some math problems before covering it up with other colors.

Eric Carl Collage

Today we created collages based on the work of Eric Carl. We started by watching a short video that explained the process that he went through to create the pictures found in his books, it was our turn to work with a very similar process to create paper we would use for an illustration. We then painted and made different colors and textures of paper. These would then be used to create a two page book layout that included a setting, characters, and something for them to do. We then had to create that layout and when our colored/textured paper we made dried we cut out pieces of that paper to create out layout.

Extension Activity

You could do this with many different illustrators incorporating this into your reading or author of the month. It would be a lot of fun for kids to watch what they do and then let them be creative to create their own in a very similar way. Each child’s would be different and show their own creativity. It would be fun for the teacher to give them a phrase in which they have to create their work around. You would get so many different ideas and pictures for the kids to look at and incorporate in their own way. 

Van Gogh Tissue Paper Collage

During this lesson we focused on painter Vincent Van Gogh who is most famous for his painting the Starry Night. To create our Van Gogh art we started by cutting out tissue paper and laying it over a construction paper we did not glue it down to the construction paper but instead painted a clear gel medium over the top which also gave it a shiny look. After the gel medium dried we created lines or shapes using oil pastels or colored permanent markers. Last we cut out a sky line for our piece adding lines or shapes to that as well.

















Extension Activity
One way to integrate this activity into the classroom would be to introduce any painter and then make a work that is similar to his. This would be very easy to integrate into history or social studies depending on what type of artist or art work you use.

Elements and Principles of Art Picture Scavenger Hunt

The purpose of this activity was to look at the world around you and find all the elements and principles of art. This shows students how to look for the elements and principles and how important they are in the world around us.  I did this activity while I was in South Korea so all of my pictures are from the world around me while I was there.

Emphasis 

This picture was taken from Busan Tower in Busan, Korea. 

I was told that this building was a college for women. 

Organic Shapes 
I took this in Busan, Korea from Haudae Beach.

 Repetition and Pattern

When I was in Korea we went to a temple where everything was very elaborate and had many patterns.

Balance
This is the entrance to the same temple as the above picture.

Value

This picture was also taken in Korea while flying kites.

Extension Activity
This is a great activity to have the kids do as well. Put the students in groups and have them go out in the school yard to find 3 or 4 assigned elements or principles when they are finished collect the cameras. Have the students do this right before a special, lunch or recess so that you can put all the pictures into a power point and when the students return you can view the pictures and have the students write down what element or principle they think the picture is. After all the pictures have been viewed collect their papers and go through them again identifying them as a class.

Footprint Introductions

The different mediums I used and what they mean to me:

Construction Paper - My favorite color is orange  

Photo - A photo of my family, the love and support I receive from them  

Magazine and Wood - Campfire, love for summer and being outdoors 

Construction Paper and Marker - Suit Case, love for traveling 

Construction Paper and Crayon - Chalk Board, enjoyment of school and to one day be a teacher

Magazine Picture - Pictures of friends, enjoy hanging out with my friends

Yarn and Construction Paper - Paint Brushes, like to do crafts

The purpose of this activity was to introduce yourself to the class using different mediums to tell about yourself.

 

Extension Activity

You could use this in many different subject areas such as reading tracing their hand or foot and use it to describe the character. You could also use this project in math to work with measurement and feet. Another subject you could implement this project is in social studies to learn about culture, your student's culture and how everyone is different. This project could be used for any age group since it could be simplified or made harder for older kids. If you did use this as an introductory activity or student's culture activity the hand prints or footprints could double as name tags and remind student's who they are and who their classmates are.