Any Given Child Residency: Camouflage

I just completed the fifth week of a six week art residency.  I've been working with two third grade classes on an arts integration unit to go with their classroom unit on Camouflage.  Since they had little previous art experience we started with a lesson on the elements of art.

I usually like to spend more time on the basic elements by doing a few warm-up lessons on color, line, shape and pattern prior to beginning a final project but due to time constraints I tried to get the job done in a one hour lesson using a worksheet I made up.  We briefly went over color (primary and secondary), line (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, thick, thin, curvy, straight etc....) shape (geometric and organic) and then practiced creating patterns and textures in preparation for the final projects.

On day two we looked at examples of animal artwork done by various artists and discussed how drawing animals could be made less complicated by starting with simple shapes to get the proportions and basic animal shape and then refining the drawings by erasing unnecessary lines and adding detail.  We drew several animals as a class and then I encouraged them to try drawing an animal of their own. 

On the third day we looked at pictures of animals in their natural habitats and discussed how they were camouflaged.  We looked at the colors, patterns and textures of the animals and their habitats.  Then the students chose one of their animal drawings to transfer onto colored construction paper.  They used oil pastels to pattern their animal before cutting it out.

On the fourth day we talked about the element of art "space" and discussed how they could create an illusion of space in their artwork.  We added overlap, foreground, middle ground and background to their vocabulary list and then they went to work creating a background for their animals.  They used a sheet of construction paper the same color as their animal and sketched in elements of their animals habitat before adding color with oil pastels.

The final step of the project was adding some low relief by gluing layers of foam between the animal and the back ground.

 Their finished artwork.  I think they're fabulous!

Final Student Project Posting For This School Year

The fifth graders worked on patterned animals inspired by the illustrations in the book "Calabash Cat".  The author/illustrator, James Rumford, was inspired by a calabash gourd cat decorated with African inspired patterns.   The book follows the adventures of calabash cat as he seeks to find where the world ends.  Along the way he encounters animals from different lands.

This project took 4 one hour class periods. On the first day we practiced creating patterns with sharpies.  The next class we drew a variety of animals and then each student picked their favorite to use for a final project.  During the remaining two classes the students used sharpies to add decorative patterning and then used colored pencils to enhance the patterning.  They finished their project by cutting and pasting their animal to a brown or black paper background.  Some students used sharpies to add patterns to the background.

First week: practice patterning

Second week: draw animals

Third/Fourth week: choose animal, add patterns, cut out, paste to colored paper, add final details

      

New Classes

I finished up the first four weeks of art with grades K-3 and then I had a week off teaching during STAR testing.   It was nice to have a week to try to catch up with all the things I've let go around the house.  Unfortunately I didn't make much of a dent in my "to do" list.  Being a teacher, artist, wife, mother and wearer of many other hats requires some juggling and at times it's difficult to keep all my balls in the air.  I tend to be an optimist when it comes to time and I always think I have more then I actually do.  When working on a project it's easy for me to be distracted by another project which makes everything take even longer.  I very seldom work on one thing at a time.  It's funny to me that I didn't realize that I'm a "type A" personality until a few years ago.  Duh. 

This past week I started teaching the upper grades and had all new teachers and students.  It's been awhile since I've worked with the older kids so that was new too.  It's always tough the first day with a new class, especially when I'm "art on a cart" and don't have my own room.  I'm happy to say that everything went well and I enjoyed working with all the classes.  I love the younger kids because they are so darn cute and I get lots of hugs but it's nice to work with the older kids because we can take the art work to another level.  These kids don't get enough art and they really love it.  They got so involved with their projects that they didn't want to stop....so we didn't.  At least we didn't stop on time and the teachers were more than okay with that.  I have extra time between classes now so I have more flexibility.   It's refreshing to be at a school that appreciates and supports the arts.   At some of the schools where I worked it felt more like it was just tolerated.

A Sampling of the projects from this week:

The fourth graders worked on Op art designs

 Fifth grade animal drawings for the Calabash Cat project

The third graders finished working on their Picasso/Matisse paintings

The First/Second grade class finished their Georgia O'Keefe inspired watercolors.  They are SO beautiful!