Fruit Still Life Middle School

I was traveling with students so I needed a project that would be stress free for a sub and a fruit still life fit the bill nicely. Prior to my absence we discussed and built upon previous concepts such as overlapping, form, shape, and rendering. I bought the fruit from the produce man down the street from our school. A funny observation is that there was no pineapple or cherries that were purchased but some student decided to include them in their drawings.

  

Junk Food Still Life High School

Yes, our school is guilty of selling junk food in the canteen and this has been an on-going issue for several years, probably since its inception. Parents argue that if you provide students the option of buying carrot sticks they would do that. If you are a developing teen and you had a choice between a Twinkie and fresh carrots what would you choose? You think you might know the answer but let me throw this thought your way. My first teaching job at a middle school in Boulder, CO I walked my advisory class to the shopping center where there was a Taco Bell, Arby's and a Whole Foods type of market. Most of the sixth graders bought organic smoothies and super green foods. They actually tried to show off by doing wheat grass shots and threw around phrases like vegan, organic...and this was in 1995-6. I know for sure that the concept of "vegan" wasn't on the social conscious radar that decade. And yes, there were a couple of kids that bought some junk food, and those that did threw ketchup packets into the road and watched the cars run over them while laughing like Beavis and Butthead. An argument can be made that our students eat like their parents, and with that being said I don't think the carrot stick idea will go over well here.

A funny thing to note was that these projects were completed when I was absent (traveling with another group of students) and when I returned all that was left were empty cans and wrappers. I guess they showed me!

Projects were completed with color pencils on black construction paper.

Folk Art Inspired Landscapes.

In my private art collection I have a couple of "flat" folk paintings of pueblo scenes from Mexico that include bullfighting, markets, cathedrals, etc. Daily life scenes depicted in folk art are a common theme in countries I've had the opportunity to visit. One of my favorites is a stitching of a street butcher hacking up a lamb I picked up in Egypt. To say the least, I continue to be a big fan of Naïve/self taught art.

I figured it was time to bring a folk like quality into my classroom. The concept for the students was to incorporate their culture, beliefs, and images of where they are from into a paintings. We even used lower grade tempera paints to simulate the process. Teaching at an international school many of my students hold multiple passports and have lived in another part of the world. In the paintings below you will see sights from Egypt, Syria, France, Greece, USA along with current events and religion.

Batik Buildings High School

Yes, there was a crayon fire in the process and thankfully no injuries. Our inspiration was looking at architectural. The students were given a list of different types of buildings and had to research and make preparatory drawings in their sketchbooks. Below are the results.  

UPDATE OCT 2016: I've had a few request for lesson plans over the years. Here is how I came up with the project. I recalled when I was in Grade 5 or 6, I had a lesson similar where we painted with crayons taped to a wooden board and then we dipped it in dye and ironed the wax out of it. I always thought it was cool idea and wanted to explore it with my students especially sincere there was a huge box with old crayons that were sitting in a closet. 

Here are the steps. 

1. Choose a theme. 

2. Get your supplies together: stretcher bars, cloth, tacks, crayons, a tin to foil to cook the crayons on, a hot plate, muffin pan and/or foil old pint brushes, iron, newsprint. 

3. Stretch out cloth on the board, like you would canvas and have students use a pencil to draw the image.

4. Melt crayons and apply to cloth 

5. Take cloth off stretcher and make into a ball to crack the crayon way and submerge in dye for 24 hours. 

6. Take out and let air dry for 24 hours

7. Iron with news print on top and bottom absorb the wax (this also make a nice mono print or a background for another project). 

8. Done   

Stretcher bar, tacks, and cloth

Crayons, cakes of color, brushes, muffin pan

Iron

Newsprint with image that was ironed

Additional news print

Adding crayon

Fashion design HS

It is true, I'm attempting to teach something new. I've asked my former student to co-teach the unit with me as she is getting into the business. She recently showed me a new line of shoes she designed that will go into production in a few weeks!

We have a seamstress on campus and my goal is to actually have some of the drawings come to life so to speak. We have barely started with the sketches, but I'm excited about this unit. Here's a teaser.

Grade 7 Sugar-high sculptures

The day before Christmas break is always about class parties which translates to kids consuming mass amounts of sugar. Kids arrive to Art soaring from the sugar buzz. I like to capitalize on this energy by doing my favorite one-day group project...wooden stool sculptures. There are three table and thus three teams. Each group has 3 minutes to work out their ideas based on a series of objectives: 


The first learning objectives are: symmetrical versus asymmetrical 
The second learning objectives are: representational versus abstract 
The final is each team has five minutes to use all 22 stools and anything goes. 


Here is what I observed:
students strategizing, assigning tasks and roles, the person with the vision trying to sell her/his idea to the group, cooperation, competition, arguments, team building, excitement, etc. 
The students had fun but more importantly there was serious learning happening. 


Here are the results... 

symmetrical 

symmetrical

Abstract

Chaos

One of the groups project was the Pyramids of Giza.

Another group did the tombs.

Mummy

Glazing and the aftermath

The results are coming in...

no camera trickery, it is that big

Grade 7 results 

ditto

Grade 8 boxes

Glazing with grade 8