Kindergarten on the iPads

I braved using the iPads with kindergartners to start the Percolator Gumball Machine project today. I feel so fortunate that my colleagues were willing to let me borrow their iPads for the day! I will be doing this again with kinders twice next week, and starting with second grade next week as well. If anyone has an easier way of doing all this, please let me know. Here's what I did. . . 

My colleagues started dropping their iPads off right away in the morning, even though I didn't need them until after lunch. I used that to my advantage, and logged into Dropbox on each of the iPads. I then downloaded one child's artwork (which I had already photographed and put into Dropbox after loading them to Artsonia) to each iPad. I put a Post-It note on each iPad to let me know which child's image was loaded. I even went into Percolator and loaded the child's artwork to the iPad. After my demo, all the kid had to do was turn it on and start manipulating the image. 

I had one more iPad than I needed for the kids (it's a small grade level), so I used that to project on the SmartBoard and show the students how to change the different parts of the image. I then set them to work and as they finished I showed them how to save it to their camera roll and keep working. Most kids had more than one image saved-one even had eleven!

When the kids left, I went into each iPad individually and uploaded the images to my Dropbox. I changed the name of the image to the artist's class code followed by their name so that when the computer reorganized the photos the whole class would be together. Next, I logged out of Dropbox on the iPad and deleted all my students' work because they are not my iPads. If anyone knows of a way to change the image file name on the iPad, I am all ears as that would have been a huge time saver today (and even more so next week, when I'm doing more than one grade level!).

When I had all the images transferred, I was able to download them in one large group and load them to Artsonia. I love putting iPad artwork on Artsonia. Not only is it impressive looking, but it's so easy with no editing needed!

These images are all from the same class. I am thrilled with the variety of results and debating about making photo collages like the one at the top of this post to load to each kid's Artsonia account. It would be a fun triptych, but lots of work.

Pop Art, Pointillism, and the iPad

Pop Art & Pointillism Kindergarten Unit

by Wayne Thiebaud

My kindergartners are finishing up their Pop Art Gumball Machine a la Wayne Thiebaud this cycle. They used printmaking to create the gumballs and collaged it all together. I really wanted to use the Percolator app with them but needed to find a way to link our Pop Art work with Percolator. I decided this is the perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of types of art and specifically Pop Art and Pointillism. I found this great gumball machine worksheet on Mandy's Tips 4 Teachers and printed them out so they could get right to painting after my intro. 

Next, I created a video, as I will be having a sub coming in to teach this to two of my classes while I am off at Art Ed Conferences. This video took me for.ev.er to make. So I'm sharing it here so that all of you can enjoy the fruit of my labor without the intensive work! 

When they are done with their Pointillist Gumball Machines, I will be borrowing the school iPads to use Percolator with them. I am already taking photos of all the work for Artsonia, so I will load those in folders according to class in my dropbox account. This will make them available on the iPads. I will have to spend my lunch break loading each iPad to an individual image as I'm sure my kinders aren't ready for that, but Percolator is pretty easy to use, so once the images are on there I'll give a quick demo on the SmartBoard and let them get to work. I'll have to circulate around the room sending the completed images back to my dropbox. I'll be sure to post when we're done and let you know what I learned about using iPads with kindergartners!

Printmaking & Collage

Pointillism

Technology

Post-It Mural

It's done, it's hung, and it's AMAZING!

In the words of one of my third graders "I think we outdid ourselves this year."

Come see it LIVE and IN PERSON at the 9th Annual Art & Music Show TOMORROW 5-9!

Post-It Mural-Day 1

 I planned on starting our Post It mural with my fourth and third graders today. I got an email from the fourth grade teacher that they would be 15 minutes late because of a presentation. They ended up being over a half hour late, and got ten minutes to work on this. They were really bummed, but I assured them that they would get more time another day. The third graders worked on it for the whole class period. We started by watching the video of the business creating their mural that I posted last time and moved on to how to read my Excel chart. I then showed them how to mark each square with what color Post-It should be attached there. I'm not sure I should have started this way. It may have been easier to just start with the Post-Its, but I plan on having them add double sided tape to the bottom of each Post-It and that stuff really sticks. I don't want to risk the paper ripping if they make a mistake with that stuff! 

 I got smarter after watching the fourth graders. Originally, I had printed four copies of the chart, one for each long roll of paper. That proved to be a little confusing for the students working on the middle two rolls. Before third grade came in, I cut each of those charts to show only the squares that the students would be working on in their specific strip of paper. This worked much better, and the kids got a lot of work done. 

Gelatin Printmaking

When I came across this blog post on Pinterest, I was a bit intrigued. Admittidly, it took me over a year to get back to it and thoroughly check it out. I am in love with this process! There is a product called Gelli Art that mimics the gelatin printmaking technique, but I have too small of a budget to invest in those. Enter gelatin. Notice I didn't say Jell-O. I used Knox Gelatin, which I found at WalMart in a box with four packages in it. I used two cups of boiling water and all four packets of gelatin to create one cookie sheet of gelatin to play with. When I do this with students, I plan on using disposible tins that I already have on hand. They are brownie pan sized. After mixing the gelatin, I poured it into the pan and let is sit overnight. The next morning I had a flexible, rubbery surface for printmaking.

I like the lesson that is found on the blog post linked above, so I decided to try that one. Luckily, in Wisconsin in October, there are plenty of leaves to be found! I inked the gelatin with black ink and layed the leaves out on the gelatin, vein side down. Time for the first print. This one will give students an image focusing on the negative space.

Negative image, next to the printing pan.

Next, I removed the leaves. Most of the ink around the leaves was removed with the first print, but the leaves blocked off an areas with a great vein pattern. Once the leaves are removed, I created the second print. I LOVE these! They are simply stunning!

Pulling the second print.

Side by side; negative and positive space.

Negative space.

Positive space.

I plan on having the students mount these side by side. We will look at some Andy Warhol prints and talk about dyptichs. I love that there are so many concepts in this one, simple project! Students will be learning printmaking, negative/positive space, Pop Art, and dyptichs!

Post-It Mural



I thought about saving this post until our Post-It mural is complete, but that won't be until April and I figured perhaps someone out there may also be inspired by this idea, so here's where we are right now:

I have been completely inspired by a blog post that I came across while searching for images for a presentation on Andy Warhol. Despite finding the video on YouTube, I cannot get it to load into Blogger, so you can find the post, with a time lapse video of the Post-It note mural they created here. I am so inspired, that I have decided to create my own Post-It notes mural with my students! Their image was Pop Art, and it works really well for this techniques, so I decided to stick with Pop Art.   Pop Art is one of my favorite styles, so it's amazing it's taken me this long to decide to have an art show with a Pop Art theme.

To begin, my student teacher and I chose an image. We decided we wanted to go with something from Roy Lichtenstein, as I thought his comic book style would not only interest the students, but also work well with the pixelation we needed to create. While searching, we came across his painting, "Sunrise," and we agreed that that's the one. Mrs. Leland (my student teacher) pulled the image into PhotoShop and used a filter to make it appear in squares. Each square represented one Post-It note. Because we are doing this with elementary students, we decided to transfer that image into Excel to make the squares more obvious to the kids.

Transferring the image into Excel. Each square is one Post-It note.



Finished the transfer! It took me about 3 1/2 hours and is eight pages to print!



It's going to be AMAZING!

Close up of the Excel spreadsheet.

Our plan is to tape roll paper together to make a canvas large enough to accomidate our image. Together, we'll draw out the squares on the large paper. We have an atrium, which is where it will be hung for the art show. It is also where we will work on it. The plan thus far is to have grades 3-5 work on it once during their art classes. I have all of those classes before lunch, so the paper can be rolled up when the last class of the day is done with their contribution.

Spray Bottle Shape Paintings

Here is another wonderful idea I may use for the painting stations I was considering. I have lots of Foamies, especially the alphabet. It would be a cute way to do a connection to Jasper Johns and literacy.By Jasper Johns

Thiebaud Gumball Machines

LEARNING TARGETS:
-Understand that printmaking can produce multiple copies of an image.
-Know that Thiebaud painted desserts, such as gumball machines.

TERMS:
-Printmaking: Using a plate (in this case, a stamp) to create images, often multiple images.
-Wayne Thiebaud: A Pop Artist most famous for his paintings of desserts.

MATERIALS:
8 1/2" X 11" white paper with a circle pretraced by the teacher (ice cream lid works perfectly)
Circle stamps (I bought wooden circles and small spindles at Jo-Ann and glued them together to make stamps with handles)
Paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
8 1/2" X 11" red paper
4" X 6" grey paper
Scissors
Glue/ Glue sticks
Paintbrushes
Pencils

We once again began with a PowerPoint, this time highlighting paintings by Wayne Thiebaud; focusing on his gumball machines. Next, demonstrated how to stamp the circles. I asked them to start with yellow and work their way to the darker colors. We talked about how the darker colors change the color of a lighter color and we don't want to have funny colored gumballs. In hindsight, I think I would just have a stamp and paintbrush for each color to eliminate the cleaning the stamp between each color (I had them wipe them with a papertowel). I also asked them to stamp 1-3 circles outside of the pencil circle for the gumballs that have been purchased in the final picture.

Next class, I passed out the paintings first and while they were cutting those out I passed out the red paper, gray paper, and glue. I showed them how to fold the red paper the "hot dog" way and make the red base of the machine by drawing a small horizontal line and then a long diagonal line to the top of the page. I also showed them how to trace the top of the circle (with it flipped over, in case they get pencil on it) to make the lid, and use the corner of the paper to make a rectangle. I showed them all the pieces, and layed it out how they should glue it down and then gave them time to work.

ASSESSMENT: In addition to circulating the classroom, looking for success and redirecting misguided students I review the completed works of art for use of all the colors in the gumballs, cutting and gluing skills, and craftsmanship.