Bat Before the Moon - 4th graders & Stellaluna

This lesson turned out even better than expected!!!  LOVED IT!  We used Takashi's piece as our inspiration, the fabulous book Stellaluna who you can also see at www.storylineonline.com for some of my favorite actor and actresses reading the books aloud, our first attempt at charcoal, learned how to make symmetrical bats, did a ven-diagram about bats vs. birds and finally I taught them how to write bat in Japanese. See info below. 

Biho Takashi,

Bat before the Moon

1910, via the Brooklyn Museum

 蝙蝠 
koumori - "kohh-moh-lee"   

The Spider & the Fly - Positive & Negative Space

This project turned out better than I thought!  My 5th graders did this and I LOVED it!  My lesson power point with videos, how to and the fabulous link to see a clip of the author/illustrator are all included!  Happy Webbing!  http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/huskeyj72501-2303973-spiders-positive-negative-space/

Mermaid Paint Party with first graders

Sooo much fun at Ruby's (my amazing niece's) birthday paint party!  These first graders made some of the most ADORABLE Mermaids ever.

  

We used bubble wrap to make our cool bubbles in the ocean.              

Positive & Negative Space with a little Musical Twist!

The photos do not do them justice...but these pieces turned out pretty cool. My 7th and 8th grade students had to pick a phrase from a song lyric and illustrate it using this positive and negative space concept.  

1.  We looked at this cool you tube clip using Michael Jackson's "Black & White" song to get us started.  We discussed positive and negative space and how this element of art was important in creating pieces.  http://youtu.be/OtRqHG_yP0s

  

 2.  My students used our previous color theory study and they had to select a color scheme based on what they had learned.  We glued strips of magazines down on their piece to create the negative space.

3.  They used razors to carve their designs out of poster board and mounted the final pieces on top.

This is Nate...he wanted his photo displayed...he was one of many that gave their fingers a little slice.  :)  Good thing they could handle it, ha.

Razorback Paint Party

Fun afternoon at the paint shop!  WPS!

Cat Silhouettes Paint Party

Fun night doing these cat silhouettes!