“Make small talk. People who create their own luck don’t wait for a great opening line, nor do they initiate conversation with big talk… They tend to talk about little things: weather, traffic, movies, and the like. They might start by saying. “Hello, how are you?” They they listen to the response, build on it, and create a connection. By seeking out serendipity, they make things happen in their lives.” 

- From How To Create Your Own luck, Susan Roane

When I first heard the name of the School I now work at, I had been unemployed for about a year, volunteering, working part time and doing whatever I could to keep myself marketable to a potential employer. I was motivated to write this blog as a personal arsenal of lesson plans and also to share them with fellow teachers. I had really high hopes that my lessons could be spread to other teachers and maybe someone who I had sent my resume would find this and see how truly dedicated I am to sharing my talents with future generations. Now I can look back at my blog and my dedication to my volunteering at Rainey as my personal act of goodness and giving. Of course with spreading around  good karma, a positive attitude and the enthusiasm that at least I can teach, came back to me two fold when the director of Rainey approached me with the opportunity to teach in a new school. That was about 6 months ago when the last school year was still in session, and I was asked to come for an initial interview, then invited to observe a few classes, then asked to teach as a teaching artist. I added myself to their sub list and gave them anything else they needed. Just to follow the small led I had been given. It’s amazing how fast they hired me once a position opened, they were really efficient with their process, to be honest I almost thought it was too good to be true.

This year I can start off the school year as a paid educator. And I owe this all to my path from Rainey. But I also know that my amazing education really plays tribute to my talents, and all of my hard work has really paid off.

When I first wrote this blog I made sure to have a personal dedication to my late Mentor, Karen Malandra. And now, after the year I had, even the journey I took through the hiring process, I wonder if maybe Karen is looking down on me and laughing. Almost as if she were to tell me that I had no choice but to become a teacher, it’s my calling. I think back to the things she taught me, the things she reminded me of, and I know that she truly prepared me for any school system I could finally plant my feet into.

Now after the week I had I can tell you that this year is setting up to be really exciting. I can’t wait to see how each day will treat me, how the students will learn and together we will all grow as a class.

I look forward to sharing with you my future lessons with my 4th-6th grade classes from my NEW teaching position!!

OBJECTIVES

• Students will demonstrate their understanding of reduction by using the subtractive process on a linoleum plate.
• Students will learn to cave a linoleum block, and use safety guidelines.
• Students will learn printmaking vocabulary and demonstrate understanding by completing a vocabulary assessment.
• Students will write a short critique of their project, the process and what they learned from it.

MATERIALS

1. Various colored paper (for printing)
2. Newsprint (for test printing, and sketching)
3. Linoleum Slab (1 per student about 5×7 or 4×6)
4. Brayer
5. Cutting tools (gouge)
6. Various color inks (for various layers)
7. Sharpies
8. Phone books (for rolling ink evenly)
9. Spoon (for pressing prints, printing press preferred)
10. Glue
11. Mounting Paper

VOCABULARY

Print – A shape or mask made from a printing block or another object.

Brayer – a small hand held roller used to spread printing ink evenly on a surface before printing.

Block/Plate- a piece of flat material used to carve in to and print on.

Burnish- to smooth a surface by rubbing it with a tool that has a hard, smooth surface.

Collograph – a print made from a surface that has been built up like a collage.

Edition- the total numbers of impressions or “number of copies” made at one time or of the same block.

Gouge – A chisel with a curved blade in the shape of either a V or a U, for scooping, or cutting holes in the plate/ block.

Ink – medium used for printmaking

Inking Tray – tray to put the ink in so you can roll it out evenly

Mirror Image – the print comes out backwards because you are printing it’s mirror image. Remember this when you are writing letters.

Pulling the Print – pulling the paper off your block to reveal the printed image.
Proof – practice print

Relief Print – three-d print

Reduction Print – printing in stages each of which many prints a made from a block carve three times and prints after each carving, creating an evolving print.

Rubbing – using a crayon and paper to get a rough impression

Subtractive Process – taking more off every time

RESOURCES

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/know-art.htm#ANDY

http://www.ehow.com/printmaking/

ROOM SET-UP

It is suggested that students work in various stations for cutting, inking and printing. Students should have ample amount of room at their tables. They should all have their own cutting board to cut against and their own gouge to cut with. They may share brayers for each color and should ink in a different area then they will be cutting in, to avoid dirtying the ink in the inking area with linoleum scraps on the tables.

PROCEDURE

Lesson #1: Vocabulary and Postcard Prints

1. Intro: Students will be introduced to various forms of printmaking. They will look at various blocks of prints created from plastic (or acrylic), metal, wood and linoleum.
2. Students will learn and review vocabulary words. The teacher will go through a short power point lesson having the students write down the vocabulary definitions on the worksheet provided.
3. Students will be given worksheets of tips and warnings on how to safely cut the block, cutting away from their hands and their bodies.
4. Following the this part of the lesson students will all be given a small piece of linoleum or an eraser will work too. They will practice with the smaller piece and create a “Stamp” to grasp the concept of printmaking a little stronger.
5. They will print with one color ink on one color paper, either white or varying colors.

Lesson #2: Reduction Print Sketch and First Print

1. Choose a subject that is easy to stylize, such as people’s faces or objects that are close. Simple is better. Make a sketch of the entire composition and have it fit the size of the block. Do this on newsprint and make many changes as are needed. Use only outline shapes and don’t use any shading. Anything that needs shading is going to be simplified to a shape.
2. Transfer the subject to the block by turning the page drawing side down on the block, and then using the side of a crayon, or even a pencil to rub the drawing right onto the block. Once the transfer is complete remove the paper and go over all of the lines with a thick marker or sharpie. This will ensure your lines are thick enough to show up and give you a stringer idea of what the final product will be.
3. Begin your first stage of cutting. Remove the background of the subject and a small amount of the block for the very first print. This will be the largest amount of surface area that you will print. Students may use more than one color of ink on various pieces of paper, as long as they clean the brayers and blocks after inking use.
4. Students will place the paper on evenly on the block and then use the back of a spoon or their hands to rub the paper evenly on the inked block.
5. Students will pull their prints and allow them to dry before printing again.
6. Students should choose bright colors and print on either neutral paper or bright paper. This will give the students two bright colors right away.

Lesson #3: Second Print and Lesson Assessment

1. At this point students should be very familiar with the printing process. Students will take a short crossword puzzle test, testing their knowledge on the vocabulary words. The definitions will be the “questions” provided, and the answers will be the vocabulary words.
2. Upon completion of the test students may move on to their second print. Student may either continue to cut the block or if the block is ready for the second print the student may go on to printing their second layer of ink onto their prints already created.
3. Students will begin to see the layer process taking effect as the new layer of ink goes on the page and they reveal three colors showing.

Lesson #4: Final Printing and Mounting

1. Students will finish cutting their final layer of the block, which is now simply the outline of the image. Lines should be at least as thick as the remaining sharpie ink on the block, and should outline the image.
2. Students can complete their printing and mount paper onto the final mounting paper.

FOLLOW UP

Lesson #1 Follow Up

My class had 6 female students, middle school age. Students were very egger and excited to learn about the printing process. I began with passing around various blocks of printing blocks, and various prints. Students seemed a bit over whelmed with information on all types of printing, but listened intently.

We moved to a presentation on vocabulary words. I had given the students a worksheet with the vocabulary words and they were to follow the presentation along and write down the definitions to the words. I told the students to make sure they followed along because there would be a test on these words in the coming weeks. This was to ensure they wrote everything down.

After the list was finished they were all given manila folders with three worksheets in them. One worksheet had warnings and tips, the second worksheet was on the reduction print and process, and the third on the lesson itself.

We reviewed a short warnings lesson on how to safely cut the block. Students were told to cut away from their hands and bodies.

We then reviewed the lesson and the reduction print worksheet.

They were then shown a presentation board of how to create a reduction print. I went over the methods of cutting the block and then gave them all small pieces of the block to begin cutting with. I explained to them that they will be creating a small stamp, and anything that was cut away will be the “negative” space and anything left behind will be the printing, “positive” space.

I heard one of the students say “make a big stamp, that makes so much more sense now”. It was great to hear their enthusiasm, and I allowed them to work independently for a little. Some of the students seemed to understand but all still needed direct instruction when cutting the block to see that they should cut away the background, thus creating the stamp. I reminded them all to cut away the negative space and leave behind the positive impressions. All of the students were able to print their blocks. They printed on the colored cards and we ended with enough time to clean up and put everything away.

UNIT – Cartoons and Comic Strips

OBJECTIVES

• Students will apply drawing techniques to create characters for a future comic strip project.

MATERIALS

1. Scrap Paper
2. Pencils
3. Worksheets

VOCABULARY

Composition - n. particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture — composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements

Contour - shape: any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline)

Positive Space - the primary subject matter in a work of art, as opposed to the background or unoccupied spaces.

RESOURCES

“Art for Kids: Comic Strips: Create Your Own Comic Strips from Start to Finish (9781579907884): Art Roche: Books.” Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

“Big Book of Cartooning (9780762409396): Bruce Blitz, Foreword by Bill Keane of “Family Circus” Bruce Blitz: Books.” Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

“Blitz The Fun Book Of Cartoon Faces (9780762404520): Bruce Blitz: Books.” Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. <http://www.amazon.com/Blitz-Fun-Book-Cartoon-Faces/dp/0762404523>.

“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cartooning But Were Afraid to Draw – BLICK Art Materials.” Art Supplies from Dick Blick Art Materials. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.

McKay, Bob. How to Draw Funny People. Mahwah, NJ: Watermill, 1981. Print.

“You Can Draw Cartoon Animals: A Simple Step-by-step Drawing Guide! (Just for Kids!) (9781600586118): Christopher Hart: Books.”

ROOM SET-UP

For cartooning I like to demonstrate on a chalk board or dry erase board so I prefer to have the students near to board for demonstration.

PROCEDURE

I’ve been working for the past few weeks with my students on building their skills with cartoons. We began with the basics, went through several books making copies of basic parts of a cartoon face, eyes, nose and mouths. I passed out these copies to my students and told them to use these tools to create a face. I demonstrated one face on the board and had the students tell me what the face should look like. Once they saw how simple  the project was they got in gear. I made copies of how to draw different faces and people and called them challenges. Below are example of their work.

FOLLOW UP

OBJECTIVES

• Students will show understanding patterns for shapes and colors.
• Students will follow instructions and demonstrate how to weave two pieces of paper through a set-up paper.

MATERIALS

1. Weave Bookmark Page
2. Crayons
3. Scissors

VOCABULARY

Weaving - Weaving is the textile art in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads, called the warp and the filling or weft (older woof), are interlaced with each other to form a fabric or cloth. The warp threads run lengthways of the piece of cloth, and the weft runs across from side to side.

Patterns – design: a decorative or artistic work

RESOURCES

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/weave-bookmark-coloring-page/

ROOM SET-UP

Have students enter the room and seated evenly distributed at their tables. Again I am using the 1, 2, 3 and 4 numbers handed to each student and they will sit at the tables which correspond to their numbers. This method has continued to work for me each time. This keeps my students at alternating tables, with alternating friends and partners at each table.

PROCEDURE

This lesson focuses on two complex concepts for students to understand. First, patterns, students will explore patterns with shapes and colors. Last week we worked on patterns with colors only, so this week I want my students to go over patterns with color and shapes. Crayola has some amazing pre-created coloring pages. I love using this free resource for my students who really enjoy projects like this. This helps them veer away from the fear of creating shapes that don’t look right. Or not making it perfect. There are 4 strips students can color. Three have shapes already created for students to create color patterns, and one allows students to create their own pattern. Once the bookmark pieces are all colored students can cut out all of the pieces and then follow the more difficult instructions. The bookmark itself, has dotted lines for the students to cut slits in the paper to weave the paper through. It’s important that the students understand not to cut all the way through, or they will end up with many pieces of paper and a ruined project. Getting over this hurdle together is an important step. If it is necessary use the end of the class period to make sure everyone has a properly cut bookmark piece for weaving. Explain to students the weaving yarn or thread is what creates fabric. This is the first step to creating a solid bookmark. These projects can be used as a present for a holiday or for reading week. If you have the resources, you can laminate these, punch a hole on the top and loop yarn through the top for a more creative present.

FOLLOW UP

OBJECTIVES

• Students will understand the concept of pre-planning a project.
• Students will express their personal history through words and images.
• Students will build a 3-D cube.

MATERIALS

1. Pre-planning worksheet and cube layout. All About Me Worksheet
2. Pencil
3. Scissors
4. Glue
5. Crayons
6. Markers
7. Colored Pencils

VOCABULARY

Pre-planning – a way of mapping out goals and intentions for one project, without forgetting the initial goal of the work.

Cube - block: a three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides

ROOM SET-UP

Students will be focusing on themselves for this project. They should be evenly seated at tables.

PROCEDURE

This lesson is a great set-up lesson for any project which you feel needs pre-planning. Students are to follow written instructions leading them to a proper direction. This can be combined with a book report, a map before making a big projects with many elements involved or even an interview cube for a biography report. This lesson I’ll be presenting to my students will focus on themselves. They will answer 6 questions about themselves on the pre-planning worksheet. They will then use their answers to fill in each box on the cube layout with pictures and words. When all the boxes have colors and images they will cut out the cube, and then make creases in the lines to form the cube shape. Once this is done students will use glue stick to glue one tab at a time and attach the tabs to the inside of the cube parts. Have students put these all on a table and allow them to each look at each others cubes so they can critique each others work.

FOLLOW UP

I was pleasantly surprised when my students had all hear of pre-planing. Although when I said the words, they were all disappointed. This worksheet, at first glance seems like a punishment. And I understand that when one thinks of Art, they don’t think of lectures, of power-points, or having to do written work. But as a teacher, even the art teacher needs a written base for grading. I explained to them that this is easy written work. And then had each read a sentence or two out loud. After all the instructions were explained, I handed out pencils and let them fill in the questions. Once they had finished the written work I handed my first student his cube worksheet and showed everyone in the room the next step. I showed them where they can pick up the worksheet once I’ve approved the work, and then allowed them to use crayons, markers and colored pencils to color everything in. Only a few moved on to building the cube. They cut the shape out and caught on quickly as to how to fold and build the cube. Todays class went much much more smoother then last week, and I honestly believe it’s because the subject matter was toned down, and they had guidelines they created for themselves. This actually allowed me to have a self-sustaining, working, classroom.

This is a whole new practice for me since my student teaching where I saw the same group of students every day for 90 minutes at a time for several months in a row. I now barely get 60 minutes once a week. I do put a lot of heart into my lessons and I hope that my students will sense my hard work to encourage them to work. So I set up three tables with chairs and one table with all of my supplies. I had all of the chairs facing where I was standing and my lap top with my power point ready to go. My assistant brought my students up at 3:30 where they ran into the room and went hiding. This is a game they play every week, and now that it’s January I am really disappointed in myself that they don’t know to sit down and we can start. My older group can range in ager 8 all the way up to 17. This is a HUGE age gap, however it’s rare my high schools come, and my older kids are usually 8-12 and one or two are 16. And while this is still a good distance in age, ability and cognitive reasoning. I have hopes that they will all experience their own levels of learning. In anticipation of students who arrive to the program late in the hour, I didn’t run around trying to get them to listen. I told them to sit down, I told them I would wait, I told them we would spend the entire hour sitting in silence. This did work. They started to get mad at each other, “Guys she’s waiting.” “You are being rude, I don’t want to sit here for a whole hour doing nothing.” These were the general words being said. I suddenly felt in charge. But this is not with out consequence. As I was trying to get them to stop talking, the three students who ran to hide ended up running out of the room with my assistant who reprimanded them enough for them to come back acting like angels and apologizing to me and the rest of the classroom. And while I really appreciate that, it still took away time from me and the lesson and from what they were learning. Nonetheless, I was able to get through the entire powerpoint with very positive results. They learned about the artist, his history, we went over his influences of other artists which we’d already studied. We talked about his work and what we saw and how he did it. I told them we would be crating a collage today too and I had placed the materials on the table for them to take from. I explained the entire  project to them, how it was to be done and then told them the first set of materials they were to take. This is where I lost them. I told them to take, one large sheet of paper, one or two pieces of colored paper and a pair of scissors. They fell into a trance of their own world and started taking magazines, and colored pencils. So I had to tell them not to and re-instruct them on what to take, and what to do. When they all sat down with the right materials I told them to create buildings from simple shapes. I made them repeat what I said “simple shapes”. I reminded them of their composition and to create meaningful pieces. We were making some head way. Some of my students cut up buildings, squares for windows, rectangles for doors and started building. For the ones going a long well I let them take a glue stick and start adhering their work for less mess. I let some move on to the magazines. I use ones that me and my fiance had left over. These consist of Marie-Claire, Rolling Stone, Runners World and the ABA Journal. I had gone through them all to make sure there wasn’t anything in appropriate in them, but had over looked a picture of John Lennon in his last interview in one of the Rolling Stones. A famous image of him and Yoko Ono nude with the title “Virgins” was found by one of my boys, who exclaimed that he’d found porn. The entire class was in an uproar when this appeared. I explained to my students that this was an expression of love in the 60′s and that it was natural and not pornographic. But my words didn’t really stick. Once the magazines were out I stated to lose control of my classroom. My students started looking at pictures, articles, anything more interesting then art. They totally lost focus on the task and before I knew it I had ten minutes left and it was time to clean up and leave. So I gave them their 10 minute warning and told them they had to clean up. “Caps on your glue sticks, scissors away, magazines back where you found them, colored pencils in the box, papers stacked in a pile on the table up front, and all of the scrap paper and garbage on the tables, chairs and floor must be cleaned up.” I said, “I want you to leave this room cleaner then you found it.” But then my students came back at me with “But that’s not my mess!” and of course I said “I don’t care, you need to clean up, everyone MUST pitch in and do their part.” But that didn’t stick. They started running around, and this room doubles at the dance studio and theater room, it is very large with a LOT of space for them to run around. NOT a room meant to keep students contained in. I kept yelling “Clean up it’s time to leave!” I said to them individually, it’s time to clean, it’s time to go. But it only got worse. I no longer had any thing to take away from them. Art was over, they had nothing to lose. I threatened to call the father of 3 siblings who were chasing each other, I told them they needed to leave and that this was the end. But it wasn’t until I was screaming at them in a stern voice that I didn’t even know I had in me to clean up, that they listened. I had put the fear of god into them and said that they will clean up the floor, I wanted every single student cleaning the garbage off the floor and no one was allowed to say a word. And once they did that I expected them line up and go down stairs. I was beside myself in shock of how angry I sounded. It’s not me, it’s not how I am and it’s not the way I want to conduct my class. I just want to teach art, show them how to create and how much fun it can be. I truly hope that I can learn a better way to control my class instead of yelling all the time. I don’t want that to be the only way they are willing to follow a direction.

Needless to say I was disappointed with the results. They all had gotten out of control with the magazines, and didn’t get the point of cutting up parts of faces and making a new one. Or to make the collage with words, colors and pictures to help with their work. I think that in a school setting where grades count, and I can give a quiz. I would spend one period on learning about the artist, doing a worksheet on him and then having them sketch out their idea on the bak of the paper to show me their ultimate goal. This would give me a definitive grade to give them on part of the project, and a direction for them to take. I would probably create a whole unit plan on this including lessons prior to this one on Picasso and Barque, Bearden’s influences, for a few weeks. I like the flow of these three artists, and it would be my goal through this unit plan to teach my students about cubism, collages and recreation of something old into something new.

So needless to say, this project did not develop into the fun room of mobiles I hoped we would have. The class took too long to explain how to cut the paper that by the time they got to coloring the details and faces we had to clean up. I had someone attempt to help me staple the string on the snowflakes and tie them to the hangers. Although I had the yarn already cut up in the proper length strands, it didn’t really cut down on time. We were still very rushed.

My advice for teachers with their own classrooms would be to split up the lesson in to two classes. Have the students create the snow flakes one class and then on the next class add the yarn, and hangers. Or do it yourself after school, depending on your lesson schedule. My future changes to this lesson for myself which I would make, would be to put the snowflakes in their folders for the next week and reward them with the hangers and displays the following week. I think I tried too hard to include the entire lesson into one short program and I now realize my mistake. I do hope that my personal experiences with creating and conducting these lessons will help me in the future for better classroom management and time management.

OBJECTIVES

• Students will demonstrate how to color, cut and paste.
• Students will demonstrate how to draw simple lines and shapes to create art.

MATERIALS

1. Winter Hat print out:
2. Mittens print out (you will need two, one facing the opposite way, just reverses this image): 
3. Crayons
4. 11×17 Paper
5. Pencil
6. Scissors
7. Glue stick

VOCABULARY

pattern- a set of colors, shapes or objects in a repeating sequence, i.e. 123123123, ABCABCABC

matching set- creating two items which have the same colors, patterns and materials. In this case the mittens will sever as one pair to match the one hat.

parenthesis- either of two punctuation marks (or) used to enclose textual material, in this lesson we are using them are a large shape, not to be confused with the shape of a C

RESOURCES

http://www.crayola.com/crafts/detail/mitten-weather-craft/

ROOM SET-UP

I separate my students into 4 tables of 6. Three chairs on either side of long tables and on each table I have nothing but a number either 1, 2, 3, or 4. On small cards I wrote out the numbers 1-4 and have 6 of each number. I meet my students at the door and hand them each a numbered card to where they proceed to their table. I use the first minute of class to calm them down as I collect the numbers and explain to them what we will learn about in class today. I find that since I have new students each week in addition to the students who have been coming since the beginning that it’s not possible for me to give my students assigned seating. Unfortunately my class changes too dramatically from week to week to give them any more structure than this, but so far I am finding that this number system keeps them away from sitting at tables with their friends and helps them socialize with new students through out the period.

PROCEDURE

I printed out the hat and mittens image on paper to be handed out to each student. They will be told to only use three colors on the hat and mittens because they will be making a “matching set”. This will help the students cut down on clean up and on time. Have them color in a pattern on the hat and mittens. Once they are done have your students cut out the hat and mittens and place them on the large paper. The paper should be vertical and the hat should be pasted on the upper third of the page. Once the hat is glued to the page have your students use a pencil to draw a U shape for the face, and for the body two ( ) parenthesis shapes which curve from the face down to the bottom of the page. This will be the big puffy jacket. Then glue on the mittens on the bottom third of the page so it looks as tho the person in the picture is showing his or her hands. Now with your pencil add the details of the face, simple eyes, a J shape for the nose and a simple mouth. Have them color their jacket a nice bright color. They can add a zipper to the jacket, and any other details they may choose. If there is time they can event decorate the background with snowflakes, or color.

FOLLOW UP

My students responded extremely well to this lesson. I was able to pace out each students project by handing out each worksheet one at a time, allowed them to only choose three colors for the the patterns and then allowed them to cut the objects out of the paper, discard their scraps and then proceed to glue the pieces down and draw their character. These came out really well and I was so happy to see how well they could follow directions, cut out the objects and glue down their work. Below are examples of their work.

OBJECTIVES

• Students will understand the history of Romare Bearden and his influences for his art work and collages.
• Students will demonstrate layering purposeful colors, shapes and magazine cut outs in a collage form.

MATERIALS

1. 11 x 17 Paper
2. Construction Paper of Various Colors
3. Magazines
4. Scissors
5. Glue Sticks
6. Colored Pencils
7. Markers
8. Romare Berden Lesson Plan Power Point

VOCABULARY

collage - s a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.

composition - composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work.

Cubism- a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature.

RESOURCES

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/the_block/artist.html

ROOM SET-UP

Have students at tables separated from the materials. Since there are so many materials it’s best to set up stations for the students to go to and collect the materials they need for each step. I have created a power point for them to view first. So have the student all face the presentation board to see examples of his work, and steps for the project. Go through each step with them first in the power point before allowing them to return to their tables and allow one table at a time to retrieve materials from each designated station.

PROCEDURE

I have created and added a power point presentation for you to show the students. This is a great way to show students his work, and explain the lesson to them. The powerpoint starts off with a short history lesson about Bearden. Discuss his life in Harlem and how he was influenced by what was around him. This is a great lesson for students from urban areas to explore.

Once students have learned about his history explain the full lesson before passing out the composition paper. Explain to your students how Bearden planed out his art work, used colored paper, and magazine cut outs. Show them that how layered his work with simple colors and shapes and the details followed later. At the end of the presentation are some images which students can look at in detail to see how he used his materials. Once They understand the plan have one table at a time retrieve the first set of materials. The large paper, the colors paper, and scissors. Once students have finished laying out their building shapes have them show you their composition plan. Once they have your approval all them to glue the colored paper down. When this is done and their space is clean allow them to go through all magazines to pick out pictures of animals, birds, people and anything else they think will fit. Allow them to cut out their subjects from the magazines and glue to their piece. Once this is done if there is time how them all critique each other work by laying out the projects on a clean table,  and standing by one that does not belong to them and have them say what they apprecite and what they would change. Encourage your students to use the proper critique words early on, instead of saying I like it because, or I don’t like it because.

FOLLOW UP

OBJECTIVES

• Students will understand how to create snowflakes from simple cuts in folded paper.

MATERIALS

1. Markers
2. White printer paper
3. Scissors
4. Yarn
5. Stapler (for teacher use only)
6. Wire hanger

VOCABULARY

Moblie – a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. The objects on the structure are placed to create balance.

RESOURCES

http://www.crayola.com/crafts/detail/snowflake-with-personality-craft/

CLASSROOM SET-UP

As apart of a practice of classroom management I separate my students into 4 tables of 6. Three chairs on either side of long tables and on each table I have nothing but a number either 1, 2, 3, or 4. On small cards I wrote out the numbers 1-4 and have 6 of each number. I meet my students at the door and hand them each a numbered card to where they proceed to their table. I use the first minute of class to calm them down as I collect the numbers and explain to them what we will learn about in class today. I find that since I have new students each week in addition to the students who have been coming since the beginning that it’s not possible for me to give my students assigned seating. Unfortunately my class changes too dramatically from week to week to give them any more structure than this, but so far I am finding that this number system keeps them away from sitting at tables with their friends and helps them socialize with many students through out the period.

PROCEDURE

Students will be given two white sheets of paper and told to fold the paper in half, and in half again. They will then draw on one side of the paper with a pencil a simple geometric line that goes diagonal across the page. They will then cut that out. Then they will draw two triangle or square shapes on either side of the shape half way down. And then cut that out. They will then cut the middle corner off and can repeat on the second shape using different shapes to create a second snowflake. Leave an uncut area in the middle along the fold for the snowflake’s face.

They will then open the object up to see the new creation and use markers and crayons to add facial feature to the snow flake. They can add eyes, mouth, and squiggle line to the sides for decoration. Students can add glitter and glue, or outline the flakes on either side. Have students decorate both side of the snow flakes for the mobile.

Use yarn to staple to one end of the snow flake and have students tie tot he bottom of the wire hanger. Add both snow flakes and hang in room for a winter wonderland. Make sure students write their name on at least one of these to take home for winter break! This is also a great lesson right before a winter concert night or event parent teacher conferences.

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