Friday Fun: The Mystery of the Missing Mural!

Last Friday our school held a fall festival for our community! My little hallway section had the theme of Edgar Allen Poe since the ELAR teacher across from us has been studying his work with her classes. Since I have a pretty awesome space for a Photo Booth a few students and I created a backdrop using butcher paper and paint!

This thing was HUGE!

Lots of people stopped by to take their picture!

We had some students also make mustache props and a few other things to hold while taking their picture. We even had a top hat too! Everyone had a great time and I enjoyed seeing parents of students I hadn't met.

You might have seen this on our instagram!

My neighbor across the hall, Mrs. Shive, helped out by taking down names and email addresses in a spreadsheet so we can send photos to those who participated. Afterward I went home and had a lovely weekend, excited to get back to school on Monday only to discover that our mural was gone! Dun, dun, dunnnnn!

I spoke to our head custodian, and emailed teachers...it has vanished completely! At first I was a little upset. When art goes missing, even if it was something simple like this, its a little hurtful. But I'm being positive and turning it around thinking "Well I'll take it as a compliment that whoever took it thought it was great!" I even thought about making a sign that says "Have you seen this mural?" Just thinking about it makes me laugh now.

Have you ever had artwork or displays mysteriously disappear? Did you ever solve the mystery? Let me know below!

Monday Mayhem: Required Work. Good or Evil?

Every year in our district we have several district wide requirements as art teachers. Disability Awareness Poster contest, Symphony Orchestra Theme Artwork, Winter Art Show Theme, Spring Art Show....plus everything in between! Doodle4Google, Dart Transportation Poster Contest, one year we were selected to do a Poster Contest for Oncor Energy! So many!

The themes for our art shows change every year as well as the Symphony theme so there is always something new to be created. On one hand it keeps me on my toes as an art teacher! On the other hand...sometimes it can be taxing to pause the flow of curriculum and insert this or that into my plans.    It's a double edged sword so to speak!

This years Symphony art theme was our song The Mexican Hat Dance! So we listened and watch some videos of folkloric dancers dancing to the song. We talked about the origin of the song, which is pretty interesting by the way, and the history behind it and its meaning.

We then did some timed gesture drawings of our drawing mannequins, progressed to gesture drawings of our friends, and then using our mannequins to pose and create detail for our dancers.

I did a timer for 2 minutes x 4, then 1 minute x 2, then 30 seconds, then 15 seconds. It was a really fun and frustrating for some of my students!

A full page of sketches!

I don't know how they did it, but it was really amazing!

Outside on our porch sketching our classmates!

Strike a pose and draw!

For the final product, we used construction paper crayons on
black paper to make our colors really pop!

Do you have requirements like poster contests or other things that you have to do during your school year? Share your ideas and thoughts below!

Monday Mayhem: Radial Symmetry Color Wheel!

Penguins!

Scissor design!

Pancakes and butter!

Robot character!

Flowers! 

Sharpie!

Interesting take on the seasons, not a complete symmetrical radial design, but
she explained her concept really well so I let her go with it.

Adding line designs in the same color.

My teacher example!

Using different materials to create the designs.

Progress!

Looking good!

What kinds of lessons do you use to create an interesting color wheel?

Thursday Think Tank: Color Collaboration Installation

Right now my classes are diving into learning about COLOR! Which happens to be one of my favorite elements of art! On a spur of the moment kind of thought I thought it would be interesting to do an installation in a nearby display case that the art studio shares with another classroom since it has been empty(and growing cobwebs, ew!) for the first six weeks of school.

Here was the plan: Have each class responsible for bringing an object of a certain color to class. Then display them in the case in the correct color order (Roy G. Biv anyone?) so create a Color Collaboration Installation!

Each class was responsible to bring a certain colored object!

Collection day!

Our little display case in the back of the school!

Our installation title and information for others observing the work,
plus a little history lesson about Picasso!

 Look familiar? I used this also for a project I did in elementary, but since I'm in a new school with new kids and it still applies to the lesson at hand...I used it! I love recycling!

Trying to get others to think about what they see!

As I was setting up the display I had a teacher that was walking out the door comment on how this was a great display! And other teachers have also said they loved the idea of all those different colored objects creating a rainbow! I am so thankful to have people who enjoy art and especially color!

What types of displays have you put up this year? Care to share? Link it below or send me a pin on pinterest!

Monday Mayhem: Edible Art Cookie Color Wheel

I LOVE COLOR. I also love(in moderation of course) COOKIES!!! So, lets combine these two lovely things and make it apply in the art room! I was taught this lesson in my college art education courses and because I'm in middle school with not as many students as elementary I decided it was time to try this lesson out!

First we talked about the color wheel, and I even learned that it was created by Sir Isaac Newton in 1706! So I had the students draw the basic wheel in their sketchbooks.

Next step was to figure out how many cookies I would need total and do the math. 200 kids x 6 cookies per color wheel...thats a lot of cookies! I got around 16 boxes of vanilla wafers and 7 containers of vanilla icing, I had food coloring, spoons and plates and cups on hand. I tried to find colored icing, but the Wal-Mart I went to didn't have much of a selection.

I have six tables, so each table got the plate pictured above with just enough icing for a quarter size amount of icing of each color for each student.(not shown a spoon for each color specifically for that cup) Six spoons for the kids at the table to mix the other colors.

I had some of the students who came early wash their hands and help divide the cookies onto plates.

Prepped and ready to go!

Working on the process of mixing colors.

A completed color wheel!

Time to take home, it's the rainbow!

I've never seen color look so delicious!

The students really enjoyed this! After we created our wheel by mixing the primary colors, we were able to review the different color schemes and because it was hands on, turning the wheel to see the different complimentary colors really worked to our advantage! To take them home we stacked our cookies in rainbow order or as some of us know ROY G. BIV. Great lesson I'll definitely do it again next year, maybe even this year as the kids wanted to do a wheel with the TWELVE colors, I even had students saying they'd even donate boxes of cookies and icing. We'll see!

Have you ever done the cookie color wheel in your room? How do you get your kids excited about color theory?