Clay Fish Sculptures

This is a simple sculpture project my grade ones completed a while back. We used Model Magic in order to complete all the sculpting in one day. Although I don't use this product often, this air drying modelling material does allow students to model, add textures and to press bits like the shells, pipe cleaners and googly eyes directly into the clay. The next lesson we were able to paint using tempera paints and enhance details with permanent marker.

 

Warm Sky, Cool Sea

 

I always enjoy teaching warm and cool colours and I think my grade ones did a great job with this lesson which is courtesy of 'Color Like You Mean It'. 

I had my students begin with a "wavy" line across the middle of their page to represent the sea. They then drew a semi circle for the sun (those who would struggle with this were given a paper plate to assist them to draw the shape) and added lines for the rays of the sun (yes, this is the only time this is OK!). I then asked them to practice their best wavy lines to draw in the ocean waves and those who needed more of a challenge could draw spirals too. We outlined in black permanent marker before painting in watercolours. Students were encouraged to mix their own colours as well as using the ones available.

Warm and Cool Sea Creatures

The idea for this great painting lesson on warm and cool colours comes from arte a scuola. 

I tried out this lesson with grade 3 students. They used pictures of sea creatures as inspiration for a drawing of their choice. They then divided up their page using wavy lines and painted each background area using various cool colours and the areas inside their animal using warm colours.

Hokusai's Great Wave

 

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa image via wikipedia.

This project was given to my grade 6 and 7 students recently as part of our focus on Japanese art. Students learn Japanese at my school so I've been trying to introduce a big helping of Japanese art this year. I discussed with students the work of the great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849) whose woodblock print 'The Great Wave Off Kanagawa' is arguably the most recognized piece of Japanese art. 

Commonly called simply 'The Great Wave', this print has been entwined in pop culture for nearly 200 years. One only has to google 'great wave hokusai' and you will find yourself bombarded with this famous image reproduced for murals, tattoos, iphone covers and t-shirts. My students were also impressed to learn that 'The Great Wave' was the inspiration for the logo of our beloved Australian surf brand Quiksilver. 

Students were asked to create their own interpretation of Hokusai's famous image using any medium of their choosing. I was very surprised, not only by their ability to reproduce what I considered to be quite a complex image but by the clever, witty and adventurous way many students tackled this project, which has definitely been one of the highlights of the teaching year for me.

Collage using marbled paper

The Great Wave - as a diorama.

A particularly surreal approach.

The Great Wave that sank the Titanic

The Great Wave - inspired by Aborginal dot painting