Temporary Art: Pancake Art and Oreo Relief Sculptures, Yes Please!!!

I am totally taking advantage of having a small group of 9 kids this week to explore Temporary Art. You know, art that is, well, TEMPORARY! There is a ton of temporary art forms out there like windshield art, sandcastle art, snow art. However, we will be focusing on the culinary aspect of temporary art with the challenge of creating Pancake Art and Oreo Relief Sculptures!

Luckily, my hubby is a Culinary Teacher and has agreed to hook me up with some helpful equipment like squeeze bottles, electric griddles, spatulas, batter, syrup and gel food coloring. To help kids plan, I  drafted a simple planning doc with video links so the kids can plan out their designs. Once the classroom is set up I will start off with showing the students the video above to get them hooked!

I can already imagine the sounds of encouragement and laughter as the kids experience and play with this art form. There will be loads of batter for epic fails, but I am sure each student will create something cool and unique! I will upload their final Pancake Art onto Artsonia so that there will be some permanence to their experience before they gobble down their art.

The next challenge will be creating Relief Sculpture out of Oreos. Seriously,  I'm already drooling just writing about this! Who doesn't love an Oreo Cookie? I got this idea from a few Art Teachers I follow on Twitter who have recently tweeted out their O-O-, O-R-E-O designs and I cannot wait to get started! As opposed to pancake art, this challenge will take require more focus and use of fine motor skills and will fit nicely after the Pancake Art challenge.  I created this simple planning doc with video links so they can plan out their positive and negative space designs. Each student will receive 4 cookies and toothpicks and sculpt away! I may even be extra nice and bring ice cold milk. Check out this cool video!

I am excited to get to be able to work with a small group this week and really think we will have a great time working together. If you want to explore Temporary Art, I suggest you try one Pancake Art or Oreo Art. I'm sure your students will say, "Yes, Please!"

Ceramic Guardians?

No one really knows what purpose Gargoyles served during the Middle Ages. This year, our purpose for making ceramic gargoyles is to guard the Paper Mache Gothic Cathedrals

Example of Paper Mache Gothic Cathedral borrowed by Becker Middle

which is our final project of the Middle Ages Unit. Not sure how scared off one might be looking at these adorable gargoyles and their unique personalities though....

Rethinking Classroom Chatter

One of my biggest fears as an educator is having someone walk into the classroom to hear chatter and make the assumption that learning is not taking place. A recent art project got me rethinking classroom chatter and what it really means in the artroom.

The Paper Quilled Dragon was a project that took eight 45 minute class periods. The first few days involved the normal stuff: direct instruction, application, assess, repeat- and was fairly quiet. The last four days involved students creating their Quilled Dragon that included 3 different colors and 5 types of quilled designs. Here is an example:

During those four days the chatter kept progressively getting louder. Of course, I automatically assumed this could be related to several factors: disengagement, spring fever, bad project. BOY, was I wrong! This was SO NOT THE CASE! Every dragon was turned in on time and turned out AMAZING! 

Looking back on the quilling process and those four chatter-filled days,  I now believe that the students were working at a much higher level of thinking because they had acquired the muscle memory to quill designs that allowed them the freedom to talk more. As a result, they were multitasking- engaging in the artistic process and the community of the classroom.

What do you think about classroom chatter?

February Charter Chat

Expressions Charter Chat: February from Jenell Novello and Emily Shane

Donors Choose: Digital Upgrade, Please

I just wrote a new Donors Choose Grant for the Expressive Arts classroom. We are in need of a high quality document camera for every day class instruction and demonstrations. We are also in need of iPad tripod adapter mounts for video making. I had success with my very first Donors Choose Grant that I wrote this year to fund the creation of 33 Book Title Ceiling Tile Murals so I am hoping to get funded this time around, too. Fingers Crossed!

The Dragon's Lair: My Vision for the Middle Ages Art Exhibit

The 8th grade class is currently collaborating with the 7th grade class on a Middle Ages Unit. This unit will culminate in an Middle Ages Art Exhibit that will run for a month in the Gallery Space on our campus next month. The Dragon's Lair is going to be a section within the exhibit that showcases both 7th and 8th grade dragons and all of their glory.
My vision to create the Dragon's Lair section in the exhibit includes two projects: Paper Quilled Dragons (in progress) that will be on the walls surrounding String Art Tree Murals adorned with leaves created by aluminum tooled dragon ornaments. I really enjoy planning out art exhibits. It's like a puzzle to me, creating projects that piece together into a visual presentation. I can't wait for this one!

Here are examples of my vision:

Quilled Dragon in Progress

Quilled Dragon in Progress

Quilled Dragon in Progress

Leaf sized green paper with aluminum tooled hanging from string art tree murals

Example of string art tree mural

Aluminum Tooled Illuminated Letters

The first project of the Middle Ages Unit for the 7th Grade is an Illuminated Letter created by tooling an aluminum plate to create a relief sculpture of a letter. To scaffold the skills of this process, we study calligraphy both digitally and by hand. We also immerse ourselves into the middle ages by studying medieval scribes and the laborious methods by which manuscripts were created. The students create a calligraphy letter final draft by hand,  including a personal symbol and stylized line designs.  They identify areas within their sketch that are to be convex, concave or neutral through light and dark shading. After to tooling process students then create a geometric border, color with marker, and outline with sharpie. This is a rich project that connects students with themes of history, old and new technologies and simple and complex art methods. The results are simply stunning!

Illuminated letters #medievalart #repousse https://t.co/ebQLz2uijW

— Jenell Novello (@expNovello) February 11, 2016

Claymation: How Life Can Influenece Art

One day, not too long ago,  I was laid up on the couch feeling not so great. At hand was my precious, but restless 10-year old daughter ready for some adventure time with Mom. The thing is, I was NOT feeling up to it. In fact,  I was desperate! Desperate for a distraction would keep my daughter happy, productive and engaged while allowing me some much needed rest time. That's when I first explored how to make Stop Motion, RSA and Claymation Videos.

After watching a couple youtube videos I decided to set my girl up at the table with the ipad, modeling clay and white board. I downloaded two different apps; imotion and stopmotion, had her watch simple video tutorials, and set her loose. Then, I did something that I almost never do. I napped!

3 hours later, without even a snack request, my daughter produced this video. I was so impressed with her level of engagement, creativity and perseverance! It made me think that if a 10-year old can do this, then surely my middle school student can, too! It is a result of my daughters experience that inspired me to bring Claymation into the classroom this year.

Just this week the 8th grade students finished producing over 40 Claymation Animation videos. For a first time project, I feel like it was a success. Sure, things got tricky and messy- but that is where the learning happens- FOR BOTH STUDENTS AND TEACHERS! After the project I surveyed the students to get a sense for how they truly felt about the project and the feedback received was overwhelmingly positive. They have certainly provided me with the confidence to permanently implement claymation into the curriculum and have provided me with a great starting point to develop and refine the lesson further.

This experience is just one of the many life experiences that have influenced me professionally. I love how life can influence art and how that translates into the Expressions Curriculum. Like life,  the Expressions Curriculum it is constantly evolving and changing. Thank you, Te'a, for your inspiration. I love you!

Chuck Close Mastery Project

#artcubed #scaleandproportion #chuckclose #masteryproject #teacherpride #fabartsfri #k12artchat pic.twitter.com/B4YPCeX4Ku

— Jenell Novello (@expNovello) February 5, 2016

So very proud of the 7th grade class and their effort towards the Ratio and Scale Unit Mastery project. These textured beauties are lining the hallway of the NCS admin building!