After seeing a great link to a science experiment post about making fireworks with milk, dish soap, and food coloring, I wondered if the results might yield a print. Boy did it!
You can find the original instructions for the experiment here...
After following all the steps here I placed the paper on top of our mixture we had prepared in a shallow cookie pan. What resulted was very pretty, but not exactly vibrant as you can see...
In pursuit of capturing the bright firework colors permanently, we decided to try placing the paper in the pan first and then adding the milk, food coloring and finally the dish soap.
This process produced significantly richer colors.
We allowed them to stay in the milk mixture for about 10 minutes after we were done adding colors and soap and laid them to dry on paper towels. The paper was quite curled by the time it was dry so I mounted them on shiny black cardstock to simulate a night time sky.
This was a fun way to combine science and art with my boys and I plan to try it out soon with my art students as well.
Next time I think I will experiment with liquid watercolor paint and perhaps tempera as well and see what happens!
As a science extension to this activity you might try finding out what causes this reaction. Is it a physical or chemical reaction that occurs.
As an art extension, take a look at the prints and see if there are any hidden pictures in there waiting to be more defined. Might there be an alien hiding in those fireworks or maybe a friendly hoot owl, or even a roaring lion. Just think ink blot and see where your imagination will take you.
Today I only bring you a glimpse of what I've been up to as of late. I have not had time to put together tutorials on these, but I wanted to share these wonderful projects anyway.
First we have Dorothy and the Tornado inspired by Oodles of Art Falling Back in Space lesson. This project shown is my sample. I tried to encourage the kids to update Dorothy- if nothing else just so the character wearing a dress and the angle didn't create an "I see London" issue, and so we could use the opportunity to bring in thematic elements from the book and movie. Notice the rainbow and blue bird themes as well as the green sickly sky in the background.
Next up is our current project- The Not-so-Scary- Scarecrow. This is actually a mixed media, 2 piece of cardstock project. We did the background in pencil and sharpie and then colored in with crayon using heavy pressure to blend the colors. I encouraged the kids to use at least three different colors in each area- three greens in the cornstalks, three red/orange tones in the pumpkins, three blues/purples in the sky, etc. The scarecrow was done on a second piece of cardstock in pencil and sharpie then painted in with watercolor. I showed the kids the wash technique of laying down water in each area first to keep the colors light and only in the wet area. Once it was done we cut out the scarecrow, attached it to the background with rolled tape to get a more offset 3-D look and them added in highlights and shadow details with more crayon and/or oil pastel.
The last one is not really an Oz project, but I suppose I could call them Cyclone Coasters! They are based on this fun project at Art Projects for Kids. I just about used a whole magazine for this one. The only difference in my sample is that I did not complete the last step of pushing the coils into a bowl-shape, but just left them flat and painted them with white acrylic craft paint. I have been meaning to add some more color or design or even make some coasters, but it hasn't happened quite yet.
That's all for now!
Except for this heads up... Tune in next week for the announcement of a brand new blog carnival and a contest to kick it off!
Materials 7 sheets of paper, red, orange, green, blue, purple, white paper plate pencil paper trimmer and or scissors stapler clip(optional)
1.Start with 7 sheets of paper stacked in this color order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white. Use a paper trimmer or scissors to cut the papers in half lengthwise.
2.Use a large circle to draw a curve at the short edge one of the papers. Cut this curve and use it as a template to trace the same curve on the remaining papers. Turn over and trace on the other side of the papers. You want a mirrored curve here so that later when the pages are folded in the curves will match up.
3. On the white paper, after the curve is traced, add a wavy line on both sides.
4. Cut all the curves.
5. Stagger the papers so that each shows evenly. Fold the bottom up to meet the white and create two rows of cloud. Crease the fold. Clip to hold in place.
6. Reopen and staple on the crease. It is best to staple from the outside in so that staple points aren't sticking out to poke little fingers.
7. Close book up and place under heavier books to get to lay flat.
In honor of National Poetry Month, this is my Easter rainbow poem. You could write this out in the rainbow book you just made! I am planning on making these with my Sunday school class of kindergartners and four year olds this Easter. I will print out each verse on labels or sticker paper and have them stick on the appropriate verse for each color. If anyone would like the corresponding bible verses, let me know and I will post them.
A Rainbow for Jesus By Julie Moses
Red is for the blood Jesus shed on the cross Orange is the color of spices Used to prepare his death cloths Yellow is the color of the hem Of an angel's robe, who From the tomb, Rolled away the stone. Green is the color of the brand new life We find in Jesus Christ Blue is the color of the comfort and peace He gives, even in the midst of strife. Purple is the color Used to dress a king. Remember the rainbow and How Christ gave us everything.
This book can become many things. You can write your own rainbow poem or story in it, cut out same colored items from magazines and make a rainbow collage, or think of items that are that color and draw them in yourself. Turn it into your own favorite bedtime story so that you too can have rainbow dreams! For older kids who want to get in on the fun have them check out some rainbow history.
"The Scream" by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch has always been a favorite of mine. I have seen reproductions ranging from extremely vivid colors to black and white graphics. It is a strong piece of emotional art work springing up from the abstract expressionist movement. It has inspired countless parody as one can find by simply Googling images for the title. It is at once simple and extremely complex, silent and deafening. I learned for the first time today of it's connection in concept to the eruption of the volcano of Krakatoa, a natural event with global ramifications. In the painting you can hear the explosion in the reverberating waves of color that are at battle with the sounds of the death-like figure's screams. Pretty heavy for kids you might think, but when you see Macaulay Culkin putting on aftershave in Home Alone you are really looking at the same image. Kids scream. People scream. Screaming occurs for multitudes of reasons, from fear, anger, frustration, excitement, or sheer joy. It is all the about the emotion, not the specific emotion, and that is what abstract expressionism really is. Today I bring you my version of an art project and unit study ideas to help you learn more about this painting, artist, and correlating connections. (Can you tell how much I love alliteration?)
What you will need:
white cardstock masking tape cardboard or other drawing board pencils black sharpie oil pastels
1. Start out by having students draw a single figure in the center of the paper. It does not need to be the whole figure. It can be cropped to show only a face and upper torso or a full length figure. (for a figure tutorial- check out Paul Bunyanor Dancing Divas) 2. Make sure to draw the features of the face with a strong emotion and expression! 3. Outline the shape of the figure and then "echo" these outlines all the way to the edges of the paper. Try to make these outlines as wavy as possible, as if they are vibrating. 4. Use black sharpie to outline all the pencil. 5. Color the inside figure with either all cool(greens, blues,purples, greys) colors or all warm(red,yellow,orange,pink, brown) colors. 6.Color the reverberation lines with the opposite type of colors. If your figure is warm, use cool colors, or vice versa.(tip: work from the inside out to avoid smudging color all over you paper) 7. Lastly re outline all the black lines with black oil pastel.(You could also rub a bit of paper towel over the whole image to smudge the black a bit and add some texture- but be careful- a little goes a long way!)
Here you will see versions done both ways...
To extend this into a unit study...
Science: Study sound waves, geology, or vulcanology
History: Learn more about Krakatoa's eruption and how the weather affected history.
Geography: Learn about Norway
Math: How many sound waves are in you picture? How many miles is it from Krakatoa to Norway?
Language Arts and Music: Write a song or poem about the things that make you want to SCREAM!
A little overdue, but as promised, here is the rest of the Tall Tales Unit Study. The art lesson was in this post. Today I will cover Geography,History, Science, Math, and Language Arts.
Geography- Learn about all the places Paul and Babe went. Maine, Minnesota, Oregon. Or the places he made according to the legend: the Rocky Mountains, Appalachians and the Mississippi River. (For an add-on to spelling, learn how to spell all these places and learn the Mi-double-s-i-double-s-i-double-p-i spelling trick.)
History- Part of why Paul did what he did as a logger was to make way for the Westward Expansion of the United States. Settlers headed west to become pioneers. Some real life stories to learn about, that center on this topic are Louis and Clark and the Oregon Trail.
Science- As I mentioned, Paul Bunyan was a logger. What a great way to tie in to the study of environmental preservation and the global effects of deforestation.
For math- I challenge you to incorporate the art lesson. Use ratios to make a life size version of your art project in a driveway or park with chalk. Start by making a square grid of you first project with one inch squares. Go outside and measure the same grid but this time use one foot squares. Copy the lines from each box on the small project into the larger one. This is the same method muralists use to make large scale art projects on the sides of buildings. When you are done answer these questions: 1. How tall was Paul Bunyan on paper? 2. How tall was he outside? 3. How about Babe?
Finally, for language arts, there are lots of tall tales told by many different authors and illustrators. I have some listed below in my recommended books. After reading a few, write your own tall tale to explain some part of historical or scientific occurrence. Be sure to include larger than life characters in unbelievable circumstances. When you are done, be sure to write your tall tale on very tall paper!
Stay tuned later this week for: Art Emergency- Super Art Teacher to the rescue (Two art lessons on Ferdinand Leger) Shady Little Shamrocks- A St. Patrick's Day Art Lesson Greek Speaking Scratch- Use Greek Vases to tell stories in pictures and symbols.
Well here is at least part of my promised art lesson on Paul Bunyan and Tall Tales. I plan to have the rest up by tomorrow. For now, here is the drawing lesson...(click on picture to make it larger)
They are based on the world's largest fiberglass statues found in Northern California.
and her suggestion of a unit study on knights and castles!
My suggestion is to begin the study with the art lessons then learn about the subjects and finally at the end of the lesson to create the same projects again integrating all the new knowledge gained in the learning explorations!
First the knight drawing lesson...
You can click on this to make the picture bigger. If the visual step by step is not enough, let me know and I will post a more detailed tutorial.
Additional art projects to go with this study can be found here..
Math... Practice your math facts with these games... All you need is a chessboard, knights, rooks, kings, queens, di, and flashcards or a regular deck of playing cards.
Directions: Roll di to see who goes first, highest number goes first. Players pick their game pieces- king, queen, knight, or rook and start on corner of the chessboard. The first piece to make it all the way across wins. (Depending on the age and interest of the players you can have the players move straight ahead in a column to the other side or have them move on a winding path through every square on the board- for this option use a roll of the di to determine how many spaces will be won with a correct answer, incorrect answers lose number of squares indicated by di roll.)Have the player pick a card with a math fact, if they answer correctly they can move ahead, incorrect answers lose one square. Variations of this game are really endless and brainstorming new rules with your players could result in a really fun new game. Some variations I thought up were: Knight's War- 2 players Use regular playing cards or flash cards. Shuffle cards and place in a stack. Both players draw a card. High card or sum gets to move on the board. Another variation would be low card or sum gets to move. (if any of you out in blogger land have additional suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments for this post.)
There are also several books about Sir Cumference in my recommendations. They may or may not be ready for these. I think they are pretty clever and fun though. Use at your own discretion.
History- Excavation Project- get a small knight figurine- one that won't melt at higher temperatures- put in a muffin tin or cupcake liner. Fill with muffin or cupcake mix and bake as directed. Let "archaeologists" excavate the knight relics with plastic fork tools.
Lots of additional suggestions can be found in the links section at the end of this post.
Science- The middle ages is not well known for it's scientific advancements, but something that was of great interest in those days was alchemy and blacksmithing. Research and learn exactly what alchemy is. Interest in this subject in China led to the discovery of the formula for gunpowder! Blacksmiths were of great interest to all the knights because that is how they got their armor and shoes for their horses. See if you can find a blacksmith still working today and take a field trip to a forge. In the meantime, try creating your own "chain mail" with paper chains. Use grey or black construction paper to make chains that interlock together the way they did on a knight's hauberk.
Language Arts- Try reading some great knight stories out loud. Kid friendly versions of Robin Hood and King Arthur would be great and inspiring bedtime tales. Try writing acrostic poems with the words knight or castle. K-kneel N-noble I-iron G-gauntlet T-triumphant
Or a write story about one of the amazing art creations they have made!
Books you may find helpful. I often check the ISBN numbers and then request them at my library through inter-library loan as opposed to purchasing a ton of resources.
Before I leave what is already a remarkable long post, I want to let Dana at School for Us know that her Tall Tales suggestion was too irresistible to pass up, but too lengthy to include in this post. I will be posting an art lesson and unit study on Paul Bunyan and Tall Tales tomorrow! Stay tuned also this week for
This was a post from a while ago, but what the heck, a classic is always in style, and I am beginning to have visits from these lovely creatures in my backyard again.
Many a seemingly complicated drawing project is really simple if you just break it down into steps. When teaching a lesson, I always start with a black line coloring book style drawing. Most details and color blending is done as the last steps in a project, but tends to get seen first and can distract you from finding the "bones" of the drawing. I obviously used a still picture to do this project and drawing from life is much more challenging, but the principle is the same. Practicing gesture drawing in quick sketches is the best way to get the structure of your drawing and then go back and add details later. This blackline came from the Jan Brett website and is available as a free coloring page. I tried to break this down into manageable pieces without making too many steps. If you find it confusing, just try to break it down into even smaller steps. What does a shape look like to you? Do you see a triangle or maybe a Hershey Kiss. Do you see a sideways letter C or maybe a rainbow or happy face? Making those kind of connections is what turns you into an artist, not simply following someone else's steps. The finished hummingbird at the top of this post was completed with watercolor pencil and white oil pastel for highlights.
Below you will find some images of real hummingbirds to reference for color ideas.
This week in art class we looked at Raphael. Among his many great paintings, he painted St.George and the Dragon. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to get the boys excited about what they were drawing. In the study of Renaissance artists, there aren't all that many subjects for boys to get all that exited about that are also appropriate. Lots of portraits, religious paintings, and nudes. Dragons on the other hand are perfect for boys and girls. All the kids who tried this one did really well. I have omitted a few of the steps above just because of space. If you'd like the in between steps just leave me a comment and I'll get them to you. As always, I like to let you know about ways you can expand these lessons to incorporate other aspects of a curriculum, and this lesson again can serve as a gateway to a wealth of learning...
Science: Dragons, could they have been another species of dinosaurs? What else could they have been? Explore the myths and legends surrounding these great mythological creatures.
History, Social Studies and Geography: Where and when are these legends coming from? What country and time period seems to have generated the majority of dragon lore? Learn about the Chinese New Year and what role dragons play in Chinese culture.
Language Arts and Literature: Read St. George and the Dragon, Retold by Margaret Hodges and Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman or Droofus the Dragon by Bill Peete for younger kids. Write dragon poems and stories. Create your own dragon legends.
Math: Estimation; how many scales might have a dragon have? How big is a dragon and how many square inches does a scale cover, then estimate how many scales it would take to cover the whole dragon.
Art History: Learn more about Raphael at Art Smarts4 Kids or at Garden of Praise and try drawing your own dragons. The illustration at the beginning of this post was done with regular markers and blended with a blender marker.
These samples above were done by students in third through fifth grade
Soapbox time again. The Nutcracker offers an amazing array of subjects to explore in a unit study. Just a few...
Language Arts
The Nutcracker and the King of Mice
Fine Arts/Music/ Theater/ PE
Ballet Dances Waltzes Pas De Deux Tchaikovsky
Social Studies
Christmas celebrations around the world Germany, Russia, France (Clara is German. The original story comes from Russia. Alexandre Dumas revamped the story to the one we are familiar with in the ballet.) The history of Christmas symbols(IE;the tree)
Science
Different types of snow Snowflakes candymaking rats and mice- how are they different, how are the same?
Math
Telling time Calendar(when is Christmas?) Counting- characters, mice, rats, soldiers, fairies, dances, songs, etc.
Upon my soapbox I have boldly proclaimed before that you really can teach all your other subjects through art. Today I add more supporting evidence to my claims. I really love unit studies, and in all honesty with just a little creative brainstorming you can put together a unit study based on anything your child has a fancy for, or you do for that matter. A unit study may be a wonderful way to share something that interests or fascinates you with your children. Today, we begin with the tiger.
Tiger Unit Study
Literature; Younger Kids- Leo The Late Bloomer: I love this story! My kids all had mild delays that caused some concern for us. Though we did not just take a "wait and see" approach, ultimately they blossomed and continue to do so.
Older Kids- The Jungle Book- by Rudyard Kipling- Need I say more?
Spelling and Vocabulary- I use the rules found in weekly graded spelling books and pull out words from the books based on those rules. (Words ending in "er' for example.)
Social Studies, Geography and History India What a rich topic this is! Dig in!
Science- Domestic and Wild Cats Endangered Animals Ecology and Habitat Preservation Why do tigers have stripes and why are they all different? Adaptations of Siberian Tigers
Math- Count the tigers stripes. Count a group of tigers' stripes. (Sets and Multiplication) How many tigers are left? How many different types of tigers are there? In captivity? In the wild?
PE
Though this is a stretch, I couldn't help it. Study golf and learn about Tiger Woods!
As you can see the associations are endless and limited only by you and your children's imagination and curiosity.
Below are some some products you may find useful. I found them in about five minutes, so I know a good google search or visit to your local library will probably yield vastly more treasures than I could dare to post in a single blog entry!
You can also check out his great plan for a free tiger lapbook
Leonardo da Vinci is arguably the world's most famous artist. His paintings and life have become the basis of much myth, legend, and speculation. He was born in the town of Vinci near Florence in 1452. He later took the name of his birthplace as his own. Though his father never married his mother, Leonardo was the son of an important man. It was this illegitimate relation that would deny him access to the universities and professions of his father's family which in turn caused him to be apprenticed to a famous artist , Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was not satisfied to simply be a painter however and he helped to further the cause of science, invention, engineering, and architecture as well. His autopsies of cadavers could have caused him to be excommunicated from the church, but his detailed drawings and notes actually increased the knowledge of the workings of the human body well beyond the knowledge of the day. Deciphering his notes often required a mirror. Many believed he was trying to protect his discoveries. In truth, he was left handed and writing backwards was easier for him, though when he truly wanted to keep something secret he wrote in code. He is of course best known for his paintings of The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Though we know he painted many, many paintings, only 17 survive to this day. On May 2nd, 1514, Leonardo died, supposedly in the arms of the King of France.
