The Tree of Life

We discussed the many uses of the tree of life from that of the Aztec and Mayas to The Tree of Life frieze by Gustav Klimt, and the clay tree of life sculptures used in many areas of Mexico throughout time. 

Medium: Acrylic paint on watercolor paper
Technique: Painting
History: Aztec, Mayas use of the tree of life, Klimt
Vocabulary: Tree of Life, Aztec, Mayas, Stele, Precolonial
Art Vocabulary: symmetry/balance, Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Radial Symmetry

Watercolor Fans: Chinese Art

Medium: watercolor
Elements of Art/Principles of Design: Balance/Symmetry, Space
Other Vocabulary: Woodblock painting, silk road
History: The Silk Road and the history of fans in Asia.

Sugar Skull Magnets of Plaster of Paris for Day of the Dead

With Dia de Los Muertos is coming up I thought I'd share this one, even though I would make some changes next time. For one, I would make them thinner and two, I would use larger molds so that we do not have to put magnets on them, they would larger surface area to paint and glue beads and other items on them. However, they were so cheap and a quick project for the students, that I thought maybe you can make the changes as you wish. I saw this mold just now on Amazon and thought it would be good for magnet sugar skulls https://www.amazon.com/Lekue-Crazy-Skull-Game-Mold/dp/B00I5SRLJC/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1507413608&sr=1-4&keywords=skull+molds  

1. Using a silicon chocolate candy mold for sugar skulls, I made several skulls of plaster of paris.

2. Students used acrylic paint to decorate them.

3. I hot glued magnets on the back.

My Favorite Art Teacher Apron Pattern

My first "pattern" was created by just piecing scraps. I then twiked it some to make others just how I want them.... Wrap around the sides, with pockets and reversible and ties in the front. Now I have Starry Night and Van Gogh sunflower fabric that I can't wait to make more. 

Feathers in Art

Humans have a long tradition of making art inspired by birds and feathers. We discussed why and how Native Americans have used feathers in their art and so have the Aztec, Mayas, and Incas. I showed students their work. We discussed the interesting story of Moctezuma's copilli (headdress).

Since it's really a Spanish class, we only have a few minutes to do art, so I use a lot of templates. I create about 10 templates of  feathers for students to trade on a piece of card stock and design their own feather bookmark. This year, because I have many more students, I only made one time of feather template. The students seem to love them just the same and the designs all come out different.

Terms:

Social Studies: Aztec, Maya, Inca, Mesoamerican, explorers

Art: Pattern, artist licence

Yayoi Kusama Inspired Work

We saw sculptures and paintings by Yayoi Kusama online and read a little of her story. We discussed how she used art to deal with stress or worries and how we could do the same.

Initially we were going to make the pumpkins out of paper mache, but we had a guest artist coming soon. So we made due with orange Styrofoam pumpkins were purchased from the Dollar Tree. We painted them with house paint primer and them used acrylic paint for our designs. The paintings were created on 180 lb watercolor paper using color pencils and acrylics. 

Discussions: using art as a mode of relaxation.
Art Terms: Pattern, Contrast

Red Ribbon Week!!!!

This year we are doing a hall Red Ribbon Week decoration, so I thought I would post the one we did last year. The students made colored, labeled body parts in Spanish, and cut small skeletons. The bottom photos of are for the dress up days for the week.  

Textile Sculptures: Sewing

Yes, students design, create their own pattern and sew their own sculptures.

My students love sewing. I have made a small instructional book for basic stitches which seems to help me get to help to more students and made it so that they can take it home to practice. I will post that soon, along with patterns for this and past posts. I can't wait to share all we do in class. 

Oh, this semester after doing this project, a student knocked on my door. When I opened it, I noticed her holding a large torn cushion and said that her reading teacher's pillow broke. I almost knew I was about to be given something else to do, but instead she asked for thread so that she could use the "overcast stitch so to fix it." Ahhhhhh!!! I couldn't ask for more than to see students using the life skills that they can better their environment.

Every year I make a different sample doll as I am showing them the process of making our own patterns. 

 

Art+Science: Journey of the Monarchs

You can read on the Smithsonian that thousands of monarchs travel to a little town in Mexico and stay there for the winter. In the Spring time, they make their way back to the US and travel throughout the US and to the southern part of Canada. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/where-see-thousands-monarch-butterflies-180953961/

Oh, a student surprised me with the top right, silk monarch a few days after the lesson. She also let me know that her and her dad were going to the OKC Zoo on monarch day to learn even more about them and get seeds to help out the monarchs..... sounds like music to this teacher's ear.

 

Possible Topics/terms:
Science (migration, butterfly life cycle, pollinators)
Social Studies (migration, countries working together for the good of all)
Art (contrast, warm colors)


Possible mediums:
for color- (crayons, pastels, watercolor, tempra, color tissue paper

Hello and Welcome to My Classroom

Hello dear educators. My name is Carolina Elizabeth. I started teaching visual arts and Spanish 8 years ago and to my surprise (a bit before Pinterest and Instagram) there were few good books on multicultural arts that really focused on cross-curriculum; most just showed a craft project that seemed to be from that culture or time period. 

So, I made up my own lessons by asking some of the core/general ed/or "regular" teachers around me what they were working on in their classrooms and then researched that time period or subject to see how I could connect to an art work. Then I would try out different crafts to work out the kinks before I presented it to the students. 

This didn't seem like a great big deal, until the University observer (who was in charged of teaching teachers) asked where I got my ideas. So, I let her in on my process and then she asked me if she could share my lesson plans with her students. Still, not thinking it was a big and just happy that I got a positive review from her, I agreed. 

Over the years, my collection of ideas have been collected and this year I finally started to take picture of the process and not just the students' product.

My intent or philosophy on the requirements from a lesson plan is that it must teach something besides making the actual item- connecting with other subjects and/or new vocabulary. It must require technique and it must allow students to make some choices of their own in the process.