Grunge Tigers -A Mixed Media Art Lesson

I found this idea online by googling "tiger art." I was led to this wonderful blog entitled SmartArt, and a grunge tiger lesson I decided to adapt for my class. Being self-proclaimed tigers, this was a fitting activity. Everyone worked really hard and had a great time getting messy. We did our first drawings and paintings on day 1, and followed up with with accents and splatter on day 2.

First, we looked up pictures of tigers to get an idea of face shape and other tiger attributes. We noticed that tigers had a mouth that looked like an upside down "m", with a bearded chin. They also had varying stripe patterns on their faces, and triangle-like ears.

We drew in pencil first, then went over the lines using Sharpies because we know that Sharpies will resist the water colour paint.

After we covered all of our pencil lines with marker, we broke out the water colours. Students were encouraged to use bright colours!

After, we did a wash for the background, where students learned how to evenly spread colour using water colours. Then students used stencils, to add some bling to their tigers. 

Then it was time to add the 'grunge'. We decided to create a splatter wall to protect the floors and passersby from rogue paint. We used tempera for the splatter, and our expert splatterer (you can see him admiring his student's work below), taught his technique which involved flicking the paint brush at the paper with the aid of your index finger.

Very excited to get messy!

Helping Children In Need

We have been learning how to give back this month. What I love about these lessons is that they not only combine Language Arts, Social Justice, Math and Technology, but they evoke selflessness and inspire young people to look beyond the latest video game, if only for just a few days, and see the big picture.

I asked students to visualize their bedrooms. They drew pictures of everything they had, adding labels and details such as their favourite comforter, or perfectly placed teddy bear in the middle of their pillows. They used the document camera and enthusiastically shared what they love best about that special room in the house. Whether they shared it with a sibling or their parents, each student felt safe and excited to share their room.

After sharing our bedrooms, I shared some images of children their own age who were not quite as fortunate to have a safe, comfortable place to sleep. I made sure that the images would make an impact, but were also age-appropriate and not be too shocking or upsetting. Students were then asked whether or not it was fair that some children didn't have a safe place to sleep at night.

Unanimously we agreed that it was not fair. I then posed several questions at each table, and gave each student a marker to have a graffiti-style conversation. The rules are: no one speaks, you remain focused on the question being asked, and you respond to the thoughts of other contributors. I couldn't have asked for more engaged, more on-topic conversations. Students were so inspired, that they filled four sheets of chart paper with thoughtful, inspirational suggestions on how they could help those in need.

 

Some of the ideas were to "invite children to come and stay in your house," to "send a helicopter in with comfy beds," and to "make a youtube video to help raise money."

I made a Shadowpuppet introducing them to Sleeping Children Around the World, (SCAW), a non-profit organization that takes a $35.00 donation and turns it into a bedkit for a child in need. My students were so excited with the concept, that they immediately wanted to spread the word with their own Shadowpuppets. 

Shadowpuppet is one of the easiest, kid-friendly apps I have come across. Students add pictures, and then are able to record their voices over the images to tell a story. It has countless uses in the classroom and at home!

I made an organizer, so that students could plan what they were going to say, and brainstorm 'Google' search terms that they would use to choose images for their puppets. Students needed to include the organization, a description of what a bedkit is, and use some persuasive language.

Check out our Shadow Puppets:

Jessica and Muskaan

Matthew  

Fatiha, Harini and Harani 

Asmiga and Ruhani

Aalam and Jujhar 

Mahwish 

Once we finished our puppets, we made an effort to bring in any change we could find around the house, and spread the word about children in need. Each day, students would count the money, and add it to our thermometer. We were learning how to add money, and what better hands-on way, then to count up for a worthy cause?

Some students went further, and created Pic Collage posters to advertise SCAW and how people can help those in need. This was also a modification for students who needed fewer steps and a more structured model. We posted all of their creations onto our blog.

 Pic Collages

Using Haiku Deck To Teach Each Other About Pioneers

With a partner or a small group, students chose a topic about what life was like for pioneers making their way to Canada. Students used the research in the classroom to help look for important ideas. They recorded the main points as jot notes onto paper.

They then used an organizer to come up with two statements (a title and a subtitle), that could summarize each important idea. They could create as many of these as they felt necessary.

Students then, searched the internal web of Haiku Deck, using search words related to their topics in order to come up with relavant pictures to match their slides.  They assembled their slideshows on Haiku Deck with ease.

Haiku Deck is a free app, that allows students to summarize their thinking and make simple presentations using beautiful royalty free images. It's a great presentation tool, that is extremely easy to use, and introduces students to creating 'to-the-point' presentations.

Students then practised presenting their information, making sure to expand on the information in the slide, and to not just read what's on the screen (a pet peeve of mine during presentations).

After many rehearsals, students presented their polished Haiku Deck's to the class.

Matthew and Nirupam's 
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/GZMx279RDu

Aalam and Ruhani
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/iJGag28fJq

Aaron and Jessica
Http://Www.haikudeck.com/p/fs3jiW7YK4

Mahwish, Asmiga and Jujhar
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/pQTL57RgbG

Harshit and victor
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/M3hSendtq9

Fatiha and Josephine
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/HyVOJI7qBV

Areeba and Harini
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/ZPayqG1b2R

Muskaan, Arshdeep, and Harani
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/gYTZoenktn

Piet Mondrian and Keith Haring Mashup

I have been terrible about keeping up with my blog! The Tigers of room 204 have still been creating amazing things! I hope to get caught up with all the wonderful doings by these amazing third graders!

I was inspired by Pinterest, a favourite place to scour for new and interesting activities! In this art lesson we created mash-ups, combining the works of Keith Haring and Piet Mondrian.

We were exploring artists who expored with line and colour. We looked at the lines and colours of Piet Mondrian, and the expression in Keith Haring's work. Students manipulated pre-cut strips of black paper (I recommend pre-cut strips for grade 3 and under). They created squares and rectangles using the strips. They had to make descisons about where to cut and how to line up their shapes. They used rulers to help them keep their lines level.

Students were then encouraged to only use primary colours, in the style of Piet Mondrian. They could use crayon, chalk or oil pastel, pencil crayon or marker.

Then we looked at Keith Haring's work, and learned about action and movement. Students created their people, coloured, cut and added them to their 'Mondrian'. 

They then added lines to show movement and direction.

Student Led Conferences and QR Codes

It was great to see my students take the lead and guide their parents through student conferences. We thought it would be fun to liven the conference up a little and add some tech to our classroom tour. Students wrote speeches, sharing what they had learned about a particular topic, or explained an activity in our classroom.

We recorded their voices using Audioboo, an app that allows us to share a link to our voice recording. We then used QRstuff to change the link into a QR code. We printed the codes and hung them around the room. Anyone with a device could scan the codes that link to students voices. We used Quick Scan on our ipads to scan the codes.

I added the links to the pictures.

Welcome to Our Classroom

Comparing Homes

Alien Recounts

Warm and Cool Colours

Aboriginal Dot Paintings

The Villages