art with miss amber.
brigham young university.
arts bridge partnership.
arts bridge partnership.
DAY TWO WAS FABULOUS, COLORFUL, AND OH SO HAPPY!!! The students were so excited to quickly review symmetry and teach our visitors - another second grade class that joined us while their teacher was away - all the things they had learned. We quickly went over the terms and they pointed out some of the things they had noticed during the week that showed symmetry. After that quick little review chat, each student got paired with a partner from the visiting class and I had them face the front. I explained the golden rule of oil pastels VERY FIRST - to build light to dark & keep the pastels clean - and had 5 students repeat it back to me by raise of hand. After the students got it down, we moved into the super exciting oil pastel techniques. I demonstrated to the class on the overhead projector, keeping them engaged by asking them questions that helped them think through and really understand the techniques taught. I only taught a few of my very favorite simple techniques (see lesson plan below for a description of each), but the students LOVED them and were so excited to try them out! The favorite techniques of the class, as clearly seen by their vibrant and textured monsters, were the scratching and blending methods I demonstrated. These made for some pretty interesting & unexpected dynamics in their work, which I absolutely LOVED! The students seemed to really grasp the concepts well and enjoyed the process of layering and experimenting with color and a new medium. I loved seeing them help the visiting class, especially because it helped demonstrate their understanding of symmetry and oil pastels, so much so that they could easily and accurately explain it to their partners. The class got a little excited, but the happy energy wasn't too much to handle - except for when cleanup time came. Since their were more children then usual, near the end of the project, I lost a little bit of the control as their attention spans wore out and they set their work up on display. With almost 40 little second graders - 80 busy hands, 80 moving feet - Ms. Brown had to step in and read a story in the corner for the kids that were finished so that the students who were still working wouldn't get anxious about finishing. While I cleaned most of the pastels and paper towels up by myself, some of the kids quietly helped and it was nice and calm. That's something I need to work on, but for the most part, the students are good with both set up and clean up. The projects were put up on the whiteboard and I was genuinely impressed by the experimentation that I saw! Each monster ended up being SO different - both in shape, texture, color, and style. IT WAS WONDERFUL! This project went better than I had anticipated and I hope the students continue to experiment and utilize oil pastels - they are little masters! Go check out my little cutie second graders and their work in the slideshow below the lesson plan! _______________________ Materials, Day 2:
Lesson Procedure, Day 2:
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The first day of symmetry went well! The students grasped the concept quickly & with energy. I began by explaining the idea of symmetry, placing a strong emphasis on finding lines of symmetry all around. The students quickly started listing off things they noticed around them that had obvious symmetry - plates, faces, pumpkins, pencils ... the list goes on, and got rather creative rather quickly. It was interesting to see the way the students reacted to drawing the lines of symmetry one by one on the white board. They were excited for their turn up at the board and the rest of the class got into it - showing on their fingers the number of symmetrical points they saw. The slideshow it attached below. It will be interesting to see the way the project turns out - the students decided we would turn their double handed symmetrical pieces into custom monsters, using the oil pastels to create bright & lively figures. _________________________________________________________________ Lesson Plan: Grade Level: 2 In this two-day lesson plan, students will learn about symmetry and its use and function in art. Students will identify lines of symmetry by looking at mirror images found in nature, artwork, and architecture & then create an image using the properties of reflective symmetry discussed. Each lesson should take about an hour to complete. Materials, Day 1:
Line of symmetry: imaginary line where the image could be folded and directly mirror & match itself Asymmetry: lack of symmetry, lack of equivalence or equality between parts Preparation, Day 1:Find 20 images (or one for each child) that show reflective symmetry, whether in art, nature, architecture, and display them in a document to be projected on the whiteboard. Have large sheets of white paper available for students to begin the process of creating their own reflective symmetry image. Make sure that each student has two pencils and a black marker to trace their pencil lines in order to add oil pastels later on. Lesson Procedure, Day 1:
I definitely am not complaining about the 20 happy second graders that get SO excited to see "miss art teacher amber." Creativity & a love of learning runs through these little ones & the excitement is refreshing & contagious! The past two Friday mornings were paint-y, messy, & oh so happy. My lesson plan - "Primary & Secondary Colors - How Are Colors Created?" - was a two part review and practice of color mixing and vocabulary. The first hour block that I came in, I placed paint samples on the white board - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet - and had the children raise their hands to tell me everything they already knew about those colors. We discussed primary hues, secondary hues, mixing, warm/cool colors, emotional connotation, & even complementary colors! (The kids (mostly the boys, no surprise) were even riveted to learn that mixing all of the primary colors resulted in a muddy brown). I was SO impressed & surprised by these tiny but brilliant minds. They were captivated as they ordered the paint samples into a color wheel structure, with little help from me! After an overview of color vocabulary, Miss Brown & I passed out half sheet papers, cups, brushes, and watercolor refill inserts - red, yellow, & blue only - to the tables. The children followed along really well as we created color reference sheets, a resource, I explained, many artists use to organize colors & mixing combinations. It was INCREDIBLE to see these tiny people grasp the concept so quickly & create effective reference sheets (some, admittedly, looking more like abstract watercolor pieces than organized mixing). We set these aside to dry & be used in the next half of the unit. A week later, I returned to the wonderful world of whims & watercolors. Part two of the unit opened with a review of color vocabulary & mixing, including a reorganization of the paint samples on the white board. I helped them "rapid review" by yelling out a color word & having the class answer with the definition. It was valuable to help the students refresh their minds & push color back to the front. Quick review over, I explained the idea behind the watercolor pieces we would be working on - halloween narratives, something they could explain & potentially write about, helping them engage their conceptual & practical skills into the process as well. We read a darling Halloween book - "Click, Clack, Boo!" - focusing on the illustrations & use of vibrant, bright colors. I explained that the illustrator of the book used watercolors in primary & secondary color outlined in black throughout the entire book, the same idea we would use in our own works. After reading the short story, the students & I discussed the activities that different monsters/skeletons/witches/ghosts/whoever else could be doing on Halloween night. Then we got to work! The only restrictions I gave the kids were: 1. leave a clean white border of some sort 2. use only red, yellow, & blue watercolors 3. outline the image in black crayon & 4. check the image with me before beginning to paint. i found that these restrictions created a rather interesting dynamic & unity to the pieces, especially with the vibrant colors contrasted with heavy black line. I was especially grateful for the last restriction I included, as it enabled me to spend a moment of one-on-one time with each child. I hope it helped them feel important & excited! As I checked some of the images, I was able to suggest certain things to the kids, especially those with a lot of white space. The paintings turned out vibrant & lovely & very, very unique! I definitely was surprised with some of the work these little ones pulled off. Many of the pieces were incredibly dynamic & interesting - especially in their restricted color mixing options - & the fun halloween narratives danced across the page! |