Mike Esparza Superheroes

Mike Esparza Superheroes

 

We are just finishing up our superheroes.  They are so much fun to look at, but I'm sure my kids little fingers are tired from doing this one.  The kids did a great job.  Day one of the project, we introduced the artist, Mike Esparza.  It is funny, they always want to know if the artist is still alive or if they've kicked the bucket.  Well, they were excited to find out, not only is he still living and breathing, but he is originally from San Antonio, just an hour away from us.   I gave the kids a chance to draw out theirsuperheroes, on scrap paper to work out the kinks first, they were allowed to draw any superhero or villian.  I also gave them lots of images of superheroes, as well as some of Picasso's cubism art, since his art is influenced by him.  Once they finished their practice, they moved to the large gray construction paper (12" by 18").  On day 2, they traced their superhero with black sharpie and began the coloring process.  Lastly, they cleaned up the sharpie with another trace.  I did this project with 3rd-5th grades. 

 

Kid Snippets...Funny!

Yeah, Some Days are Like That...

This is so funny, I cried when I saw it.   A friend and coworker sent this, thanks Erin, it made my day!!  Math was never my thing, I'm sure my math, algebra, and  geometry teachers all felt this way with me.  I'm happy to say I am doing what I'm suppose to be doing and I haven't had to use algebra since leaving college!  It is a good thing my husband keeps the finances straight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdxEAt91D7k

Watercolor Birch Trees

Watercolor Birch Trees

First Snow

We started these pictures out with a simple watercoloring and salting on the first day.  Day two the kids sprayed water tinted with white tempra paint on their cardboard or brown paper strips.  They used black colored pencil to the trees to add texture. Then glued them to their landscapes.  Tree shadows were added with black colored pencil.

Lion Dancers

Cultural Experiences

Lion Dancers

We had the opportunity to have a local lion dancer group come and perform at our school.  Three years ago I found a group linked with the University of Texas that would perform at schools.  It was great, because they didn't charge an outrageous fee.  The other bonus was that the whole school got to enjoy this cultural experience. Especially now a day, they limit the kids field trip to maybe once a year.  They performed for us for the second time this spring. I am curious to know what other cultural exposure you have brought into your school?

Scholastic Book Contest

Kids Are Authors

Several years ago I collaborated with one of the 3rd grade teachers, to create a book and submit to the Kids are authors contest.  Our book entitled The Twelve Days of Checkers Escape recieved  2011 Honorable mention.  Which was great, we were able to pick out $500 dollars worth of books to add to our library.  It was lots of work, but fun and we had something to be very proud of when we were done.  Below is a few pages from our book.

 



Star Wars Pop Art

May the Force Be With You...

Star Wars Pop Art

This lesson was so much fun and unexpected.  Our school just finished round one of the STAAR test, and is about to tackle the second round (this is the *New...And Improved*-Texas Assesment)

As a school, we decided to do a Star Wars theme.  I already had planned round 2 of my pop art lessons, but thought this would be a perfect fit, not only with the school theme, but the pop art theme as well.  The kids LOVE IT!!  This will be a lesson I repeat and build on for sure!!

Second through fifth grades did the character pop art.  We only focused on a few characters, can't wait to add a few more next time!  These were done with colored construction paper, art sticks and sharpie.  

Kinder and first did the light saber rubbings with the art sticks.  This was on the difficult side because they were so long.  We used some tape to keep down, but they still managed to move them a bit.

 These are the light sabers I made from heavy paper and glue.

Butterfly Art

Butterfly Festival

We have an amazing little outdoor theatre just down the road in a little town known as Wimberly.  It is the EmilyAnn Theatre.  Each year they host a Butterfly Festival to honor EmilyAnn, a young girl who died before her time.  The festivial itself is great, they have lots of family friendly activities, 3000 butterflies are released, each child gets to walk around with their butterfly on their slice of watermelon until the butterfly feels it is time to part ways. Plus, tons of beautiful butterfly artwork.   While I don't always get my artwork there on time, we do our best.  Especially considering March is YAM and I am usually wrapping up my art fundraiser with OWY.  None the less, we always do butterfly art.  It is great for learning and practicing balance with line and color.  Here are some of the butterfly projects I've done.

 

Diffusion paper with black sharpie and watercolor detail.

Blotto Butterfly with warm colors, sharpie detail.

 Glue 1/2 of butterfly image (white glue on black paper) and chalk pastel for the color.  You can see on these two butterfly images, we were also talking about warm and cool colors.

Black Blotto with construction paper crayon designs.

 

 

 

Eric Carle styled butterflies, with painted paper.

Various metal or foiled butterflies, colored sharpie details.

Black constuction paper cut-out, with art stick details, and traced with clear glue.

Van Gogh

Van Gogh!!!  A Lesson on Texture

 

Van Gogh Chairs- 5th grade Markers and oil pastel

Starry Night- 3rd Grade marker and oil pastel

If Van Gogh had been from Texas!- 4th grade Marker and oil pastel

Van Gogh Sunflowers- 2nd grade, Markers and oil pastel