My Lesson: Scrapbooking Made Easy

This was the lesson that I taught. It was real fun. I showed the class an easy way to scrapbook. The way that I did it would not cost much. Like I told the class I don't go all out when scrapbooking, I just try to get my pictures on a page and keep them in a safe spot. This way I will have them for the rest of my life and I can show my kids and hand them down. I told the class to be as creative as they could. There were some pretty creative ones!! I was nice to see all the students take such time and work on their "masterpiece." The class used their time wisely and I was very pleased with how everyone did! The class had a choice of using pictures, magazine clippings, tickets, or anything they wanted to in order to make their project special to them.

An extension to this project may have been the class would have to make a mini scrapbook and tell the story behind each page and how they all fit together to make one big story.

Lexicon Collages

In this lesson we were to pick four vocabulary words and then write the definition on the back of it. We were told to keep our favorite and give the other three to classmates. After we painted then each person would add their own personal touch as to what they felt like when they saw the vocabulary word that was on the back. My four words were: obnoxious, aftermath, underground and handsome. After everyone was done decorating or designing the card that I had given them, they then handed them back to the original person. I really enjoyed getting back my original collages because I liked to see what everyone else's opinion of the vocabulary word that was on the back of each collage.

Obnoxious: something that stands out from something else; makes a scene.

Aftermath: what is left of everything after a disaster has hit the area.

Underground: the area beneath the surface.

Handsome: someone or something that is attractive.

Sketchbook

This is my sketchbook. I made this by using our other scratch piece of paper from our Eric Karl projects. We just took a big piece of paper and painted it. After it dried, we ironed it and then made book covers out of it. We glued them to card board pieces and then sewed them to each other with about 25 to 30 pieces of paper between them. This was a difficult project, but very nice to have when you just need to jot down an idea or project.

Scratch Art/Sketchbook Project

This project was originally in our sketchbooks. We first had to draw in our sketchbooks. I picked artist's choice and decided to draw the first thing I saw. I saw a remote control so I attempted to draw it. Then we were told to grab a piece of this black paper that had a different color under it and by scratching the black part away, a new color would be present. I began to draw my remote onto the black piece of paper by placing my original over top and tracing it. By tracing it, it bled onto the black paper and I could see my indents; therefore, I could just take my little wooden stick and trace over top of that again. By doing this I was scratching away the black and then the yellow shown through. It was hard to get a good picture of this project because the scratch art paper is so shiny.

An extension of this project would be for each student to make a few more of these and then arrange them a story line and narrate a story under each picture; therefore, it would be a children's book of scratch art.

Clay Project

With this project we used a dry clay. By using this dry class we did not have to use a kiln; we just painted our projects and let them dry. We were told to make a pinch pot or make a symbol of what we think a particular sound would look like. I chose to make a pinch pot. First the teacher made us blind fold ourselves and listen to a calm and relaxing music while she talked. She told us to make the clay into a cave and then collapse it. After doing this, as a class, I felt like we were all relaxed and felt comfortable with the clay. After we took the blindfolds off we were to design a pinch pot or sound. After we designed our project, we were to paint it with acrylic paint. I used red, blue, white, and yellow for colors in my design. I then took a hair pick and pressed it into the bottom and sides of my pinch pot; this just added some texture. After we were done painting our projects, we set them the countertop and let them air dry.

An extension for this project would be to make each student make a project out of what they felt a particular sound would look like and then have them express to the class why that particular sound made them feel a certain way and why they chose to make the design they chose.

Pastel Landscapes

In this lesson we were taught how to blend one or more colors and to introduce students to blend colors in landscape. We were first given a half sheet of paper where we were told to draw a geometrical shape and then shade it like it is suppose to look after shaded properly. After we got the feel for shading, we were told to get up and pick out a magazine clipping of different landscapes from nature. After we chose the magazine clipping we were told to either get an idea from that landscape or to try and replicate it. My picture was of the sky reflecting into a pond surrounded by vegetation. We had to color the different pastels dark and then blend them either with our finger or with a paper towel. This was a fun lesson, but messy!

An extension to this project could be to have each student make the different landscapes and then tell about how the picture made them feel and what steps they took to get it to look like the photographers.

The Four Seasons Window

This lesson was taught in order for us to get the feel of different colors and the different changes a tree goes through when the seasons change. There were two teachers that taught this lesson. They split up and took one half of the room and the other teacher took the other half and they gave us specifics as what we needed to do. First, my group had summer and fall. We first had to take and paint the backgrounds the different colors that we felt each season had. After doing this then we had to color or add different things to each season in order to make it look like that particular season. For summer had to color around the branches and make apples in the tree. For fall we had to take different little pieces of fall colored paper and place them on the tree different places or on the ground to make it look like the leaves were falling off the tree or already had. After those two seasons were done, we switched sides. Next, we went over the other tables and worked with the other teacher. She had us do spring and winter. For spring we took little pieces of pink paper and crumpled them up to make buds on our tree. For winter we took cotton balls and pulled them apart and placed them on the ground and then outlined our trees in glue. After doing that we went to the glitter station and poured glitter all over in order to give our snow that shimmering affect.

An extension for this project would be to have kids really keep track or look outside to see what it looks like outside and try to make a replica of the outside world.

Vanishing Point

This lesson was taught to show us line, shape, form and space. We were given a piece of paper and were told to draw a dot on the paper about in the middle and not all the way to the top and not towards the bottom; we followed the teacher's instructions. After we made our vanishing point we had to make different buildings, windows, sidewalks, doors, and etc., by connecting to our vanishing point. That is why when you look above to my picture you notice everything goes up and looks like it would eventually connect to the vanishing point. A lot of times we would draw our building lines to the vanishing point, but then erased the lines so that it looked like buildings. We were given rulers in order to get straight, connecting lines to the vanishing point. We only used pencils and the paper was light colored; therefore, it is kind of difficult to see the whole layout of the "city".

An extension of this project would be to keep building up different buildings and making sure they connect to the vanishing point. I only have a couple buildings above, but maybe when the students get familiar with this way of drawing, they could continue to keep putting up more buildings by using the vanishing point technique.

Printmaking

This lesson was taught to students for them to understanding and apply media, technique and process . We were given two smaller sheets of styrofoam, one was for practice and the other was for our graded project. We had to draw on our sheet of styrofoam what we wanted to make for a holiday card, we didn't necessarily have to use Christmas, but since in that holiday season I chose to draw a Christmas tree. I took my sharpie marker (cap still on) and just drew into the styrofoam the design I wanted (a tree). After doing this I had to press the rest of the area around the tree down so that the tree would stand out more because it would be outlined in white because I pressed down into the styrofoam. After I had my design drawn, area around the tree pressed down, I could go over the the other table and use the ink to make my card. We took our styrofoam design and laid it down and then chose a color of our choice. I chose green. I took some green washable ink and set it on a different piece of styrofoam and worked it into the styrofoam so it was evenly on my roller. After my roller was completely covered in green ink, I went over my design and made sure it was completely green. Then I set my piece of construction paper over top and ran another dry/clean roller over top and that pressed the ink onto the construction paper. By those two pieces pressing against each other, my tree was printed onto the construction paper, thus making my holiday card. My card didn't turn out as well as I wanted, but the teacher told me that when you press the edges down around your design it is hard to completely get the design and environment to turn out well.

An extension for this project could be to have students let their cards dry and continue to keep doing these methods over and over again. This way students would not only make the front of a card, but they could put other pictures/designs inside as well as writing or poems. After they completed this they could safely say they made their very own, hand-made card!

Garden Stepping Stones

This lesson was very fun and challenging, even though it was suppose to be for a Kindergarten classroom. We were told to bring a container such as a pie pan or some type of container so we could put ready-mix cement in it. This lesson was mainly for us to get familiar with ready-mix cement and also to use our imaginations when coming up with a design for our stepping stone. Before getting our beads and other materials to design our project we were told we had to have a reason for designing our projects the way we were going to. I chose to make this one for my daughter because she is two and would really enjoy all the different colors and media that were used. I chose to put her name and some other colorful things on the stepping stone in order to make it Livy's very own. After we got our cement poured in our container we had to get our beads or whatever we chose to use and push it a little ways down into the cement. By pushing them down a little ways would keep the beads/materials from falling off after the cement dried. This was a great activity because we got to do a lot of independent working.

An extension for this activity could be students each have to press a picture into the cement and then tell a story as to why they picked that particular picture and what meaning the stone has to each student.

Creating Comic Strips

This lesson was very interesting and fun! We were told we had to come up with our own story line for our very own comic strip. We also were told to try and mix colors together in order to get our secondary colors and also we learned the meaning of comic strips. I chose to do my story line about how Triangle wanted to become a millionaire and Square told him all he had to do was sing like Miley Cyrus. Triangle tried to sing like her, but then Square told him he should maybe try playing poker because Triangle was not good at singing at all! This was very fun because we got to use whatever colors, shapes, and stories we wanted. We got to use our imaginations and become very creative.

An extension to this project could be maybe have each student do their own comic, but then somehow try and put all of the comic strips together and try to get one, big comic strip. By doing this the students would have to very creative and try to get everything to fit together in some way, shape or form.

Native American Sandpaper Art

This lesson was to introduce an alternative method of sandpainting like Native Americans practiced and to give us students a better understanding of Native American art and the patterns they used. We had to take one piece sand paper and then color very hard on it using different patterns the Native Americans used; the student that taught this gave us different examples of patterns to use. We were told to color very hard on the sandpaper and to try to cover the entire piece of paper in order to have a better result. After we were done coloring the sandpaper we had to go and iron a white piece of paper over top. By doing this ironing method the color would "bleed" onto the white piece of paper and it would show the same pattern that was used on the sandpaper; a mirror image. As you can see my iron was a little hot so that is why the pattern didn't completely show on the ironed paper, it got too hot and melted the coloring away.

An extension to this project could be students could have to find a specific pattern that was used and do research on it. After doing research they would have to try and make a replica of that same pattern and then tell the history behind it; almost like a research paper, but with visual aids.

Me, Myself and My Initials

This Lesson was mainly taught so that students could learn about collages through art history and how to design and cut our initials. We were first told to grab two sheets of paper. One piece of paper would be cut and the other would simply have different photographs or magazine clippings glued to it. I chose to use magazine clippings because there were so many that showed pictures of my interests and hobbies. We were then told to cut a bunch of different pictures/clippings out that would describe how we felt or what interests we had. I chose different fall and winter scenes because those are my favorite seasons. After we had cut those pictures out we then had to draw our initials out onto one of the pieces of paper. When this was done we then had to cut those our initials out and lay them aside. Then we took the paper that had been cut and set it on top of the other piece that was still completely whole. We got a good idea of where our pictures would have to be placed in order to see them after the paper that had our initials cut out of it was placed on top. After we glued all the pictures to the paper we then just simply glued the cut out paper on top of the full sheet of paper and our initials appeared clearly.

I think an extension for this project could possibly be having each student put pictures from birth until they are older and tell a story about each or tell a little bit about themselves. By doing this each student could show or tell how their life has changed and what in particular changed their life.