Cubist Roosters

This was a wonderful 3rd Grade project included in a unit on Cubism and Picasso.  We looked at many of Picasso's paintings and drawings of roosters and watched a short film of Picasso himself painting a rooster.    This started a discussion about how Cubists like Picasso were inspired by African art and it's powerful use of geometric shapes and sharp lines.  They also learned that Cubists were interested in rendering multiple perspectives of an entire subject on a two dimensional plane.  We explored this by thinking about peeling an orange and what the surface of a sphere would look like flattened out on a page.  From here, we looked at photos of roosters and broke them down into simple geometric shapes and thought of ways to draw the all sides of the rooster even though we had a two dimensional piece of drawing paper.  Materials: sharpie, watercolor, oranges, drawing paper, images of roosters, Picasso Rooster prints.

Accordion Name Books

This project was an excellent choice as an ice-breaker. I got to know the kids names and they got to express their identities. We started by thinking of words that described our personalities and interests that started with letters in our name. Students then designed graphic letters to represent these descriptive words. From there we folded strips of drawing paper into accordion books (this was the most challenging part!!) and drew our final graphic letters using color sticks, markers, crayons, colored pencils and sharpies. I was so impressed with the care and creativity these third graders put into these.

Imaginary Creatures

This was such a great project to do with first graders because they have such unbound imaginations. Anything seems possible to them. They also were excited and emboldened by the power I gave them to create their very own hybrid animals. I started by reading them the fabulous book of poems "Animals that Ought to Be" with great illustrations of make believe animals like the "homework eater" and the "channel changer". We also read "Where the Wild Things Are" which the children just loved and had read in class with their teacher. Their task was then to come up with their own hybrid animal that was made up of at least three different creatures, to think about where this animal lives and finally to give their animal a name.

Sketchbooks in Schools - AccessArt

Sketchbooks in Schools is the endeavor of Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli of AccessArt. It abounds with sketchbook ideas and activities and connects educators, students and artists. Check out their youtube channel for demo videos. Click on the photos for descriptions of a sketchbook icebreaker and a stitched story collage.