Loom and Pom Pom Weavings

How many life-skills can you tie into one textile project?  I wanted to challenge my third grade students to problem solve and apply skills they would utilize again and again throughout their lives.  How?  By presenting them with a loom and a whole lot of yarn!  Students learned how to tie knots in  different ways,  fix knots in their work they didn't mean to create, stay detail oriented to the task of weaving over-under-over-under throughout their project, create interesting patterns and designs by weaving in different areas of their loom, and discovering how to recycle cardboard in order to create colorful pom-poms!  

Because of the variables with sizes of yarns, designs, and ability levels, it was a great exercise that enabled students to challenge themselves to see how sophisticated they could make their weaving.  

Most students came in during lunch recess on our coldest days to socialize and work on their weavings with their friends.  It created a great sense of community and they worked as a responsible third grade team to clean up after themselves before returning to class.  I have prepared a large "school wide" loom for students to work on either solo or with friends when their work is finished before the end of the class period.  They are currently on display by the gym and in our school lobby.

Over the river and through the woods....

Third grade students studied the music set to Lydia Maria Child’s popular Thanksgiving poem, Over The River And Through The Wood.  The poem was divided into one sentence phrases and randomly distributed among the students.  Using their special line from the poem as inspiration, students created a drawing to reflect the poem’s phrase.  

Printmaking concepts and techniques such as positive and negative space, image transfer, reverse imaging, and inking/printing were applied to create their finished product. Their beautiful prints were enhanced with colored pencil to define special areas. Their poem print is currently displayed in the main hallway.

Chinese Brush Painting and Papermaking

Chinese Brush Painting : Finding the Chi (pronounced chee)
Third grade students were introduced to the two art forms of Chinese brush painting as well as paper making.  We discussed the concept of "Chi", the energy some Chinese people believe run through all living things.

 
Understanding that we are animals and that animals by nature are perfect in action, this allowed students to free themselves of "good and bad - right and wrong" brush strokes.  They applied this concept to simple brush strokes and are learning how to pair these strokes together to build plants, animals, and insects.

History of Chinese Brush Painting

Chinese Brush Painting : Paper making

Have you ever wondered how "they" make paper?  Third grade students made paper using old writing papers no longer needed by primary students.  It was blended, poured into a screen and deckle, drained, and pressed by hand to absorb the majority of the moisture out of the paper.  It was flattened and left to dry for a week.  Watch this video from Nepal to see a process similar to what we did in art.

Paper making in Nepal

Mass manufactured paper is made very differently!  Here's how they make paper in Wisconsin.

Neenah paper mill

After creating the paper, students watched a portion of the 2008 Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics which featured a segment on calligraphy and the symbol for "Harmony".  I demonstrated how to paint the symbol and after practice, the students painted this symbol on their handmade paper.  They used fabric and other papers to create a background to mount their work and it is currently on display in the hallway by the gym.

Lighthouses of the Great Lakes

Lake Michigan has more lighthouses than the other Great Lakes.  It seems like every little town along the shore has a river emptying into the lake, with a lighthouse guarding the entrance.  

Lake Michigan is full of "pier lights", usually found at the mouth of a river.  Students created their own lighthouses using many different techniques.  They applied a value scale with oil pastels, bleeding and blending with watercolors, collage, and acrylic texture painting to create realistic rocks.  They were displayed proudly as a feature for our local history music presentation in April.

Check out this website to learn more about the Great Lakes Lighthouses.

Joan Miro Paintings

Third grade students practiced drawing all types of lines; curved, straight, cross hatch, thick, thin and spiral. These works combine line, shape and color in the style of Joan (Juan) Miro, a modern Spanish artist who was famous for his work with line. Students used their spacial skills to create balanced pieces. They also planned ahead as they worked; if they wanted to paint with warm colors, they needed to make their single shape a cool color, and vice versa.

Clay Food...with personality!

Hungry? Well don’t try eating this food! We examined the art of Claes Oldenburg and Joost Elffers for inspiration. They are best known for their gigantic food sculpture installations and anthropomorphized food characters. We created our own food characters using clay, googly eyes and imagination!

Stunning Still-Lifes

The talent of Ravinia students never ceases to amaze me. Third grade students were given the challenge of creating a composition using items in a still life. Since the theme of the year is "Pop Art", I used items that our culture finds common and popular; a teddy bear, piggy bank, Tinkertoys, and Coca-Cola.  
The drawing took over two weeks to complete and another two weeks to color with colored pencils and paint. 

We discussed the importance of finding curves, corners, and identifying lines to assist us in our drawings. I told my students to "forget what you're drawing and let your eyes tell you what to draw-not your brain". 

The final products were colored using colored pencils that were meticulously mixed to create the actual colors of the objects they viewed. We discussed the importance of hatching and cross-hatching and how it works to fill the colored area. They are proudly displayed in the third grade hallway and by the Tree House.

If...

What if hummingbirds told secrets?  What if music could be held?  What if lightning made rhinos?  Sarah Perry posed these questions to us in her creative and original book, If... We used this book as a platform for a discussion on creativity and imagination.  
We discussed her ability to draw outside of the plane of the viewing surface with images running off the page.  Students were asked to create 3 "If..." scenarios and chose their favorite to recreate using colored pencil and watercolors.

Pacific Northwest Haida Masks

Third grade students were read the story Whisper from the Woods by Victoria Wirth and A. Scott Banfill.  Afterward, they held a discussion regarding the concept of spirits that occupy living things in Native American traditions.

Students were provided with examples of animal spirits and their roles in the Haida tribe of the Pacific Northwest.  They examined authentic masks made by the tribe and discussed their purpose.  Using this knowledge, students chose an animal and created a mask using biodegradable paper maché forms and materials as well as “found objects”.

Using found objects in art enables the artist to diversify their mediums to include non-traditional materials and eliminates the amount of waste placed in landfills.

Students used feathers, pine cones, beads, and rafia to embellish their masks.  

Third Grade Art

Ravinia Third Grade Art Thus Far...

Now that I have my blog up and running, I am going to show you what we've been up to so far this year.  It's been an exciting year so far!  Students studied Andy Warhol and made some amazing Pop Art postage stamps.  Around Thanksgiving we learned the song "Over the River and Through the Woods" and created some block prints to go with our song.

Andy Warhol Stamps

Andy Warhol is one of the most well known artists of the Pop Art movement. He changed the art world when he took common everyday items and exhibited them as art in and of themselves. His Campbell's soup can is one of his most popular pieces.

Students chose an everyday object and drew it onto a stamp and painted it with watercolors. By putting it on a stamp, we transformed it's ordinary quality to special. The Post Office only puts unique and special people and objects on their stamps!

Over the River

Third grade students studied the music set to Lydia Maria Child’s popular Thanksgiving poem, Over The River And Through The Wood.  The poem was divided into one sentence phrases and distributed among the students.  Using their special line as inspiration, students created a drawing to reflect the poem’s phrase.  Printmaking techniques such as positive and negative space, image transfer, reverse imaging, and inking/printing were applied to create their finished product.