Sketchbook Club Kick-off...Day one of our Sketchbook design.

I tried something new and different for my second year of 3rd and 4th grade Sketchbook Club. We used some recycle cardboard circles to create designs for the front and back covers on canvas board. Then we painted the Sharpie designs with tempera. The boards will be cut on the paper cutter and used for the front and back covers of the wire bound sketchbooks. They look so cool I just had to share a few. We will finish painting them next week and then attach them to the sketchbooks with glue and some very fancy tape. The kids LOVED this simple overlapping method and it was so fun to create! I will post more on the contraction as we finish them! There are some specks below.

 Here are some specks for you...The canvas boards are 9x12 (pack of five is about $8 at Micheals). They will fit a 5 1/2 x 9 inch sketchbook. I cut them on the paper cutter. (I know I will look like one of those people from the skittles commercial with one giant arm, but it is worth it!) The paint is premium Blick Tempera Paint. I will probably toss a clear coat on them to seal them when they are finished. Day one! Pretty Awesome!

Oceans of fun with painted paper!

 Painted paper has OCEANS of applications!! This summer, right before we went back to school (the first week of August which is still summer!!) I taught this fun painted paper/collage lesson with our on-site extended day program (Tiger Club). I painted the ocean wall years ago, when I had all that free time before kids and marriage. It is kind of a landmark in our building, but it was designed to be an interactive wall several versions of the curriculum ago and we created sea creatures and added them every year when 1st grade studied the ocean. I decided to revive a new version for some summer art fun!

SO...after I wrapped up a week at the Tennessee Arts Academy, I was so fired up about painted paper I couldn't wait to try it out. Here is a picture of Laura Lohmann in action at TAA!!

My "Tiger Club" kiddos are always willing to be my lab rats so I headed over there to test the waters! Here is what we did...
First we painted two papers each, some did more until the paint was gone. No water just mats to clean the brushes on...it was awesome!!

 

Aren't they awesome!!

 

The next day, we created our amazing fish! Cutting and gluing and sharing all the beautiful papers. No one even freaked out about not having THEIR paper.  Once they finished I had made "water" with craft paper. The dow rods I had fit perfectly into the plastic ceiling hooks so I made a pocket of folded paper at the top of the craft paper with the rod through it. The kiddos brought their finished fish straight to the paper for display. Once they were all finished and layer out on the papers I taped them in place and snapped the rods into the ceiling hooks in about five minutes! They looked pretty awesome!

Mirror, Mirror in my hand...a Frida Kahlo inspired self portrait.

 I love using oil pastels over paint, it is one of my favorite ways to create self-portraits with my students, especially young ones. These are 2nd grade portraits inspired by Frida. Students learned about her live and art before creating their portraits using mirrors. Then we framed them on paper that is shaped like a hand held mirror. (Thanks Phil from There's a Dragon in my Art Room for that idea!) Using crayons they added some motifs that are common in Mexican folk art as well as some symbols that are personal to each artist to decorate their symmetrical mirror shaped picture frame. They look almost as serious as Frida herself!

 This is a quick paint before the artist intro. We whip up the skin color for the head, neck and shoulders, adding the hair last and whisking it away to the drying rack before breaking out the idea books to learn about Frida Kahlo and practicing some front-view facial proportions!

 This way the paint is dry before we add the oil pastel the next week. Day three includes cutting out the portrait, gluing the three papers together and adding the designs on the mirror. You can see more on our Percy Priest Elementary Artsonia.com art gallery!

Our school year is in bloom with radial flowers by 3rd grade!

 We are off to an amazing start this year so I wanted to show off some of these amazing flowers created by 3rd grade artists. This is one of the lessons that I learned from Laura Lohmann (Painted Paper) at the Tennessee Arts Academy (or as my husband calls it "Art Teacher Art Camp").  After learning about radial symmetry and learning how to paint without water, they created these amazing flowers. I love how very different each one turned out, just like the artists that created them!