Mrs. Paintbrush

Using Videos in the Art Room/ Asian Unit

Using Videos in the Art Room

So many of you may wonder why I use so many videos during my lessons. My room is extremely small and I have absolutely NO demo room. For all 25-36 students to see what I am doing I have found it is easier to project a demo video that I can pause, rewind, or fast forward as needed and not have to draw the same lesson 8 times in a week. I created my YouTube channel, Mrs. Paintbrush - Misti Scaggs, strictly as a platform to better control the videos with. It is easier to pause a YouTube video than it is to pause the Window's Movie Maker I use to create the videos with. Also, surprisingly, the kids listen better to virtual me than real me!

Asian Unit

The next 3 weeks will be devoted to the customs and culture of the Chinese. Being from Northeast Texas, we do not have a large Mandarin population, but the artistry and beauty of the country and its artwork are undeniable to any student. This is always a huge hit and I do these lessons every year.

My 3rd graders are studying the legend of the Chinese Dragon and we drew and painted a dragon on large paper. We used a 17" x 12" (I have to cut an inch off so the artwork will fit into the copier paper portfolio boxes I have to keep artwork for art show in.)

Week 1 we discuss the different geographical regions of china using the video vlog form Mr. Zoller's Geography Vlog. I created a worksheet to accompany the video and we worked through it together. This took the whole 45 minute class period.

Geography Questions

The map I found on the web and saved it for later use with this lesson. It was found on WorksheetWorks.com

Map of China

Week 2 we watched a read aloud called The Legend of the Chinese Dragon. Written by Marie Seller, this book discusses the different regions of China and the folk lore of each region. It was a great resource to accompany this lesson. This day, we just drew our dragon.

Week 3 we will paint our dragon and Upload it to Artsonia before turning it into the drying rack marked 3rd grade.

Week 1 - 4th Grade did the same geography lesson with the same worksheet as 3rd Grade.

We watched this amazing video produced by Christie's about a talented Japanese artist Takuji Hamanaka takes us inside his Brooklyn studio to explain why he adopted a centuries-old technique to create contemporary woodblock prints. The student's were just blown away with the composition of the artwork he displayed for the clip.

Week 2 - we reviewed the previous lesson and watched a clip to better understand The Great Wave, Better Know the Great Wave | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios. This video gave modern references as well as historical references pertaining to the Great Wave.

We drew our wave with dark blue oil pastel.

Week 3 - Students will be able to choose what medium they want to add color to their drawings with. They will get a choice of 3: Tempera Cakes, Chalk pastels, and my favorite oil pastels. They will add color and upload to their Artsonia accounts before turning them into the drying racks or their Teacher Portfolio Boxes.

Week 1 of 1st Grade: Koi Fish Facts Worksheet we used to accompany the video we used to learn about the Koi Fish by Animal Fact Files.

On the opposite side of the worksheet I put a coloring page I found online for free of Koi Fish and the students colored their fish using the 7 colors we discussed during the video.

Week 2 - 1st Grade is explored the Legend of the Koi Fish. I found this great video for a read aloud about the legend of the Dragon Gate and the Koi Fish, A Koi Story, directed and animated by Emma Louise Brelt and Phare. The illustrations in this video are truly stunning. I loved it!

Students drew their fish with a guided drawing lesson from my channel.

Week 3 - students will paint their fish and background, upload to Artsonia and turn them into the drying rack.

2nd Grade - Chinese Vases

Week 1 - students watched an advertisement by Viking Cruise Lines on a brief history of Chinese Porcelain. I showed a few pieces of my own wedding China (although I did NOT pass it around.)

We answered a few questions regarding porcelain then I gave the students a blank coloring sheet with the silhouette of a vase on it to design their own with.

Week 2 - we drew our vase talking about symmetry, line, and pattern.

Week 3 - students will cut out their vase, paint a background on a separate piece of paper, and glue their vase to the background. I will have them use oil pastels to draw flowers in their vase before painting the background.

When their composition is complete they will upload it to Artsonia and turn it into the drying rack.

Thanksgiving Break

Art Club Students are the heart and soul of Parkway!

Thanks to Mitzi Willis for all your help!

We had a successful day painting the windows at Parkway Elementary at the beginning of Thanksgiving Break. I don't imagine I could call the past week I have had a "break".

The first Sunday of Thanksgiving break, I met my Art Club Parents, students, and a few Teachers on campus and we got our creative juices flowing!!! We painted the front windows of the campus in festive holiday decor. I could not have asked for better volunteers. They worked their hind ends off for me and I am so pleased with the results.

We used plain ol' latex house paint. All in all, I spent about $300 on paint, mostly in pints. I only bought one gallon of paint and that was for the white. This will do the windows probably 2 times. I actually plan to use the left over paint to decorate the bathrooms across from my classroom in inspirational quotes. You know the ones...."be the rainbow in someone's day."

That of course will have to wait for Christmas Break!

Here is a little peak at how our day went!

The Week Before Thanksgiving!

Is there a crazier time in the Art Room than the week before Thanksgiving Break? I am trying to get all my lessons for the first semester finished, uploaded, and filed! PHEW! The work seems never ending when I have a raging case of the "I DON'T WANT TO's!" Many of my classes have finished the last lesson of the semester and needed just a short, 45 minute lesson to fill these last few days of class.

My 3rd and 2nd Graders are finishing up their lessons from a few weeks ago. My 4th and 1st graders are enjoying a one day, super quick lesson.

4th Grade Modern Landscape

This lesson from Deep Space Sparkle reviews our knowledge of WARM and COOL Color Families and CONTRAST. Students drew a modern landscape with oil pastel on black construction paper. We filled our drawing with chalk pastel, choosing a warm or cool color pallet for the land and trees and the contrasting family for the sky.

1st Grade Winter Owls

We watched the cutest video by Marshall Baya to learn more about the Snowy Owl.

After discussing the coloring, and addressing the issue of me coloring my eyes and beak wrong in the video below, we drew our owls with a black oil pastel and filled our owl with white chalk pastel for texture. We also did a little splatter paint over the top so our snowy owls could have a little snow!

Australian Unit at Parkway

1st Grade Painted Platypus

As many of you already know, I LOVE my Deep Space Sparkle Membership and use it all the time. I found these lessons from the Australian Bundle and fell in love with them.

My 1st Graders enjoyed learning about the Platypus and drawing their little platypus on a rock. In this lesson, students watched a short informative video on the Platypus, we discussed the unusual features of this "extra parts" animal. LOL!

We drew it with oil pastel and painted it with our Tempera Cakes.

2nd Grade Ice Cream Sandwich Boxes

Second grade is busy creating their Clay Ice Cream Sandwiches. This has been a 3 week lesson due to the every changing school schedule. Gotta love that unexpected pep rally thrown in without notice!

This year for our EOY Art Show Ceramic Theme we will be Parkway Elementary Pastry Shop. All grade levels are doing a dessert of some kind. I'll make a separate post for 1st grade's spilled ice creams. They turned out so cute!!

3rd Grade Koala Selfie

Third Grade studied the Koala and his unique self. Students explored VALUE, Color mixing, and SHAPE. We drew our Koala's with oil pastel and colored our tree and leaves with 2 or more colors of oil pastels. Then, we painted out koala's by creating different values of gray by double loading our brush with black and white.

This was a 2 day lesson. The second day we added texture to our Koalas with chalk pastels over the dry tempera paint and painted our background.

Day 1 Video

Day 2 Video

4th Grade G,Day! Mate!

In this lesson we explored color mixing through double loading our brushes and Aboriginal Dot Painting. The first day we painted the background and started our dot painting. The second day, we finished our background, drew our Cockatoo and cut and pasted it to our background. This lesson tested the students patients with all the tiny dots they had to put into the background. Many, especially my boys, became frustrated with the tediousness of the task.

They turned out so cute and I let the students choose the color they highlighted their bird with.

Day 1 of G,Day! Mate!

Day 1 G,Day! Mate!

TAEA Presentation 2018

I sent this picture to my Principal and said I found her portrait after STAAR Testing! LOL!

So I just returned to the classroom, high on paint fumes and free samples from our annual Texas Art Educators Association Conference. I always get so much from these few days of commiserating with like minded, artsie folks. It helps me remember I am not alone in my over populated classroom. That there are others with more difficult circumstances than I and that we are all KILLING IT! Art Teachers are a resilient and resourceful group of individuals and I am proud to be a part of their community.

I presented twice this year. My first presentation addressed the logistics of my annual End of the Year Art Show. I discussed how my preparation begins on DAY 1 of art class. I tell the students about the show, inform them they will not take artwork home for the entire year, and give them a few minutes to grieve the loss of bragging rights at home. After a mournful moment of silence I tell them all hope is not lost. I introduce them to ARTSONIA.

I have no affiliation with Artsonia, but I LOVE this resource for my students and parents. If you have not looked into this resource for your classroom, please do. It has been a game changer for my students and parents.

I have a 1st - 4th campus, so most of my students are familiar with Artsonia and how it works. Although it is an online portfolio as well as a fundraising sight, I mostly utilize it for students to go home and share their successes with their family and friend. This kind of takes the sting out of having to leave their artwork with me in their classroom box.

My husband is always so excited to help me do a classroom construction project (insert eye roll)! We took a weekend and designed these shelving units, on wheels of course, to fit 20 copier paper boxes per unit (40 boxes in all) for Classroom Portfolios. The first year, I tried individual portfolios, with each student having a folder of their own, but I almost killed myself filing all the artwork in the correct folders. This system requires my Art Club students to come in on their free time (usually rainy recess time) and file artwork into the classroom boxes. We just throw it in and sort it out at a later date. The week after Spring Break, students get all their artwork back and choose their 3 pieces they want to go into the Art Show. If they need to finish a piece, the next week I offer extra work time for those wanting to finish or refine artwork for the Show and Art Stations for those not working on finishing up pieces.

Banners are 6' in length, black bulletin Board paper. Artwork is attached with two dots of hot glue at the top of each piece and banners are stapled to the walls with 4 staples, one in each corner.

I have 2 parent work days and set up stations in the hall and in the classroom for parents to glue artwork to banners. Banners are stacked in the Music room, FLAT to prevent the curling of the artwork. (Found this out the hard way the first year when I stored the banners by class, rolled up.) If we do not have enough artwork to fill the last banner for a class, I usually pull artwork from the NO NAME! NO FAME! boxes for that grade level.

Art Club delivers the banners to the Cafeteria for teachers to hang up outside their classroom the a day or so before the Show.

Teachers are happy to help and all the artwork gets hung. The only thing I will do differently this year is run a blue tape line along the hallways to mark the height for hanging the banners so all look uniform.

I host a silent auction at each show called the Empty Bowls Project. Many of your are familiar with this grass roots movement and know it usually involves a dinner. I haven't quite wrapped my head around how to incorporate this into the Show so we hold a silent auction where we sell student made bowls to raise money for our Backpack Program.

Each year my attendance has increased by about 200 guests. Last year's solid count was 650. This was from the sign in sheets and does not count the people who bypassed the sign in table. I estimate that there were about 100 that did not check in.

My second session addressed a clay Bobblehead from Elementary, through Jr. High to High School and was presented with two colleagues of mine. Wayne Gaddis, Pine Tree High School Art and Nicole Davis, Spring Hill Jr. High Art were my co-presenters. I offered the basic strategies at the Elementary level, Nicole offered advice for the Jr. High attendees, and Wayne brought it home with the advance skills for the High School teachers. It was great fun and we look forward to presenting again next year.

Nicole Davis, Spring

Wayne Gaddis, Pine Tree High School Art

I can not take credit for this lesson. All the glory and accolades go to Cassie Stephens and the genius that is she! She has an incredible video that I was able to use for my lesson. I had my students practice on Wednesdays for 4 weeks before they actually do the final product. Wednesday's are our PLC days, aka babysitting day. I see a class and a half every 45 minutes while our classroom teachers have an hour and half Data/PLC meeting. I see each group of students every 3 weeks, so these days are really a wash. We use this time to practice clay or other skills I need extra time to impart.

This is the video I use........

4th Grade Wenzel Hablik Universe

Wenzel Hablik was a Czech artist (1881-1934) who specialized in German Expressionism. His paintings of Utopian cities and imaginary universes are thought to have been inspired by nature. Hablik collected crystals and used them to inspire man of his painting. For this lesson, his painting, Sternenhimmel, 1909 offers a great example of fine art inspired by our universe.

This lesson is quite expressive and allows for multiple techniques to be used: splatter painting, shading, stenciling and composition. This is a lesson from Deep Space Sparkle.

I look forward to seeing all the creative universes the students will create!

1st Grade Line, Color, and Pattern

In this lesson from Deep Space Sparkle students create a large flower, filling the paper and adding pattern to each flower peddle of the flower. Students learn the different lines and how to draw them, as well as being super creative in their painting techniques.