Teaching at Elementary School

Yesterday I got a call in the late morning. The art teacher at my daughter's elementary school hurt her back and they needed an emergency sub for the end of the day. So, I have finally taught some classes in my school district. Hurray for progress! I taught a lesson on masks of Africa/Oceania to 2nd graders and two 1st grade classes were painting their 'Where the Wild Things' Are creatures. What fun and what a lot of work. Hats off to all of you full-time art teachers. I think the kids' energy forced me to be a little more up than usual, and that is tiring! Maybe that magic power wears off after a while. Each class had free choice activities if they finished their projects early. Some used building blocks and clay, some drew or painted a get well picture for their teacher, and a few created art just for little old me. It was a wonderful first time in an elementary art room and I can't wait to go back. Thanks Ms. D. for thinking of me, and get well soon. Here are my gifts of art from yesterday's students.

Frida, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

I hope you all enjoyed Halloween. It is by far my favorite holiday! And I love to acknowledge Dia de Los Muertos as well. This year for Halloween I chose to dress as the artist who inspires me, and I hoped it would teach the children  little something too. Here is my rendition of Frida Kahlo. Do you like my monkey?

Some of the more interesting guesses from adults were Carmen Miranda (do you see any fruit on my head?) and a flamenco dancer. I guess we could all brush up on our art history! The funniest thing happened too. I have recently met another woman in town named Paula, who is an artist, a parent, and is preparing for the Praxis exam to become certified to teach art. Her son happens to be in my daughter's class this year. We both participated in the kids' Halloween party at school and both decided to be, you guessed it Frida! Paula had a monkey on her costume too. So funny!

What a blast! We joked that we planned to be the portrait of two Fridas. I was named Frida with freckles. Paula called us the gang of Fridas. We dressed up a second time and met just to document our great minds thinking alike. You can never have too many Fridas! Did anyone else dress up for Halloween and art history? Are there any other Fridas I should know about? You could join our gang. Good luck on your exam Paula!

Art Room Spotlight

One of my favorite and most inspirational sites showcasing art lessons for kids is Deep Space Sparkle. So I was honored and excited when Patty, art teacher extraordinaire, asked if I would like to be featured on the Deep Space site. Please visit and scroll down for the Art Room Spotlight link to see the article featuring my home-studio school and blog. And thanks so much Patty!

The Completed Giacometti Sculptures

Here are some of the completed Giacometti sculptures. The children really took to this project and were so productive. If the stages are messy, tactile and fun, I think we can accomplish anything!

Our sculptures grouped together and compared with the master.

Heavy Walker

Tall Female

 Arms Wide Open

Low and Lazy

Giacometti Sculptures

My students and I worked as sculptors and created figures inspired by Alberto Giacometti. We talked about how the figures made us feel. They are tall, lonely, and held to their bases with heavy feet. They are textural and monochromatic. I showed them photographs of the artist with his works and they could see how he looked like his artwork. We then talked about the process of casting a metal sculpture and one of my students wanted to know why we weren't going to do our sculptures that way. Since my studio doesn't have the capacity for a foundry, I made things up to them by letting the paint their sculptures with metallic acrylic paint.

We each started with an 8" square base of corrugated cardboard and four 12" lengths of light garden wire to create an armature. I've seen this lesson done with pipe cleaners as well, but I just couldn't cover them up! We began by placing the legs onto the base where we thought our figure should stand, and then poked the wires through the base, bent about a 1/2 " of wire flat long the bottom, and taped it there. These two lengths of wire became the bottom of the torso and legs. The third length became the arms, and the fourth was shaped into the head, neck, and upper torso. Next we took large pieces of aluminum foil and molded them around the wire armature to flesh out the figure's shape. The final stages were to wrap the foil with strips of plaster gauze to harden and solidify the sculpture and then to add a coat of acrylic paint. The children got to choose from copper and bronze. The final projects are coming up on my next post!

25 Posts and Even More Followers!

Proud to be posting for the 25th time here at My Adventures in Positive Space! And what is even more satisfying is the community of bloggers who are artists, educators, crafters, parents and more, who have been so supportive, and who have found my blog worthy to follow. Thank you all! And please keep posting all of you wonderful and creative people!

Below is a sculpture I made with one of my classes to help demonstrate the art of Alberto Giacometti. He seemed triumphant, so I decided to add him to this post. Pictures of the class in action and final works to follow— and maybe I'll find my source of inspiration to cite as well.

Flower Field Perspective

This is a lesson in basic one-point perspective that I found at http://kidsartists.blogspot.com. I loved the choice of subject matter to create a colorful and stunning image. The children created a landscape image of Holland (home to famous artists like Van Gogh and Rembrandt) by drawing a horizon line and vanishing point. Long rows of tulips, hyacinth and daffodils were colored with oil pastels. Silhouettes of windmills and farmland were added to the horizon line in black.

One of my classes took some very interesting turns. Some students followed the lesson as explained, but we always talk about using artistic license! So one student asked if she could create her landscape as a night scene. I said yes, as long as she could utilize several colors. Another wanted to do a night scene in the winter. We then talked about how the landscape would change in the wintertime. For example, there wouldn't be any flowers! But her idea didn't falter and she created an interesting multi-colored scene as well. I love how she made a smoking chimney to keep the farmers warm. Sometimes you just can't forsee what kids will want to do with a lesson. Hurray for their vision!