Archives for January 2019

Collaborative Project

January 28, 2019

Recently, the school where I teach had an International Night for students and families. I volunteered to put together a collaborative project to display. It brought to mind a project that Pop up Art School did with a public library that was celebrating diversity in their community.

For the library we created a custom workshop that resulted in a collaborative art piece that is still on display. The project was designed so that the kids would have something to take home. Each student made a “quilt” square on an 8 inch square of paper. On it they painted concentric circles with colors and shapes from a world flag that represented their family’s heritage. On a separate piece of paper they drew pictures that represented something from that country. It could be a favorite food, a popular sport, a holiday, etc. At the end of the workshop we cut the squares into four smaller squares and gave each student a square from their piece to take home.

After the workshop, we took the cut squares, shuffled them and assembled them, so that each circle was comprised of four different artist’s work. The circles were mounted on poster board and made a colorful paper quilt for the library to display! We called it the Diversity Circle Quilt.

For my school I decided to have grades two through five make the quilt squares. There are 74 students in those four grades, so I knew that I had to make the quilt squares smaller than the original 8 inches. Otherwise, I would have a mammoth paper quilt that would be hard to hang. I used 4 inch squares instead which made it a manageable size.

First, students filled out a worksheet that asked them about their family’s heritage. Next, they identified the colors and shapes on the world flag associated with the country and painted their concentric circles. My favorite part was the variety of things they drew to represent their country: shamrocks, bowls of rice and beans, the Eiffel Tower, maple leaves, stars, slices of pizza, dogs, hockey sticks and cuckoo clocks!

The finished collaborative project measures 32″ x 36″ and I changed the name to World Flag Circle Quilt. The finished piece visually represents the many countries that Americans have immigrated from and how we weave our lives together under one flag.

Leave a comment below or join us in our Facebook group Freelance Art Teachers in Libraries. The group is for sharing ideas about teaching art and other subjects in public libraries and after school enrichment classes. Whether you are a librarian looking for new ideas or a teacher seeking a profitable AND enjoyable side hustle, we are here to answer questions and support you!

STEAM Art Project for Elementary School

January 20, 2019

Student balancing a circus performer on a pencil. Get the Free PDF download form Pop Up Art School.

Balancing Circus Performers can be used in a variety of settings and as a complement to lessons in art and science. Use them in your elementary classroom or library to spark discussions about balance, bilateral symmetry and center of gravity.

Start by balancing a completed performer on your finger. Have the kids guess how it’s able to balance and sway on your finger without falling off. You can let one or two kids touch it gently so they can feel the weight of the pennies hidden inside.

Here’s how to make one:

Cut carefully around both copies of the performer.
Color both sides with markers.
Lay one figure face down. Tape a penny onto each hand.
Put the second cut out figure on top, so the pennies are hidden.
Tape around the sandwiched copies so you don’t have any buckling or big gaps.
Test how well your figure balances.

Our favorite part of this project, is when the kids experiment with where they can balance the circus performer. Before you know it, all of them will have a balancing circus performers on their noses!

Free Circus Performers PDF

Five Dollar Challenge-Take Two.

January 14, 2019

I challenged myself to put together a lesson for Valentine’s Day. It had to be for a class of 25 and I could only spend five bucks. Last week, I attempted making a Valentine with the same supplies. I was happy with my discovery of printing with floral foam, but the end product was so-so.

Here is take two.

I’m really happy with this week’s results. It’s a Love Bug! I completely transformed the doily by cutting it apart and turning it into wings and legs for my love bug. Here’s how I did it:

Make the texture print like before.

Cut out the body and eyes.

Cut the outside trim off of the doily heart. This will be used for the legs.

Cut out a heart from the center. This will be used for the head.

Use all the pieces to construct an insect with a glue stick. After it’s put together use the red paint to add detail.

Now students can play with the pieces to make the insect unique. The finished bug is glued down on another piece of paper so it looks like it’s standing.

Leave a comment below or join us in our Facebook group Freelance Art Teachers in Libraries. The group is for sharing ideas about teaching art and other subjects in public libraries and after school enrichment classes. Whether you are a librarian looking for new ideas or a teacher seeking a profitable AND enjoyable side hustle, we are here to answer questions and support you!

Five Dollar Challenge

January 6, 2019

Here’s the story of a Valentine’s Day project that didn’t quite come together in the end. The creative process isn’t a straight path that always leads to beautiful results. Keep that in mind as I walk you through my attempt.

I challenged myself to come up with a project for a class of 25 students with only $5. Dollar store–here I come! I wanted to make something that’s not too crafty, so that I could touch on the standards that art teachers need to cover. Nothing says crafty like heart doilies, but I bought them anyway along with black paint and red paint and some florist foam.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with florist foam for awhile. I thought it could work well for printmaking. The store had big blocks of foam so I cut them into 25 pieces with a bread knife. First, I drew designs in the foam with a pencil but it didn’t print well.Then I tried pressing into the foam with the eraser end of the pencil. I painted the foam and used it as a printing block.The result is a polka dot pattern. I liked the results and I figured out how to do printmaking with florist foam! It also touches on a few art teaching standards: printmaking, patterns, positive & negative. Success… but wait, what to do with the heart doily?

First, I drew on it with crayons and painted over it with watered down red paint, But I didn’t like the results. However, it made a nice negative image of the doily on the paper I put behind it to protect the table. Maybe I can do something with that? …Nope! I tried but it just didn’t come together. That gave me the idea to paint and cut out a red heart to put behind the doily for a pop of color. I wrote I ❤ U using two fingerprints to make the heart.

Overall … eh. I’m happy with the printmaking results, but the doily part needs more work.

Stay tuned, the next blog post will show how I resolved the project.

DIY Social Media Photo Booth

January 1, 2019

Here’s a cheap and easy way to make a clean backdrop to photograph artwork during workshops. This is lightweight and can be set up anywhere. No one will know you are photographing Suzy Q’s art on top of an old chair with posters in the background.

You’ll need:

2 pieces of corrugated cardboard 16.25″ x 20.50″ each.

Clear packing tape or duct tape

4 medium binder clips or clothespins

white paper 37 inches long by 21 inches wide

First, you’ll use the two pieces of cardboard. Lay them flat with the long ends together. Tape them together on both sides. The tape creates a hinge, so that you will be able to lift one of the pieces up so that it is perpendicular to the other

For the white sheet of paper I use photo backdrop paper which has a nice weight to it. It won’t easily wrinkle. Lay the paper over the cardboard. Fold 2 inches over the short end of your cardboard and secure with two binder clips. Fold one side of your cardboard up so that it looks like an L. Place it against a wall so that it stays upright and drape your paper so that it curves where the cardboard bends. Secure the other end of your paper with the binder clips. Now that you have this pristine white box what happens if the artwork has wet paint? No problem! Just take a clean piece of paper (we always carry some 8.5 x 11 copy paper) and place it under the wet artwork.

Now that your artwork is ready for its glamour shot set the picture format on your camera phone to square. Make sure that you aren’t making a shadow with your body or your phone. Move your photo booth around until you find the right place in the room. Place the artwork in front of the curved paper and take a few shots at different angles.