7th Grade Interactive Paper Children!

Years ago I pinned this image on my Pinterest Anime/Manga Board. I LOVED how playful and interactive these creations looked and kept thinking about how to incorporate something like this into our 7th grade Manga Unit. Finally, after doing some research and creative planning, I developed the Interactive Paper Child Challenge.
For this Challenge I raided my house (mostly my 8 year old son's bedroom) for 30 "found objects" that would serve as props to inspire students imaginations. The students had a day to plan out their interaction and create a rough draft sketch of the interactive Manga Character. On the next day the students drew their final draft on card stock, then colored and sharpied their creation. On the last day the students cut out their character, positioned it with their prop, and took a photo of the interaction. SO MUCH FUN! This project is a keeper! Check out these examples below:

8th Grade Falling Illusion

Inspired by Tricia Fuglestad, I decided to extend an existing Op Art Project digitally to create an an illusion of falling into an abyss. What was cool was that the content of the project was already created! All I needed to do was teach the students how to use and apply techniques with two apps: Background Eraser and Doink Animation. Not knowing what was the best way to tackle this assignment, I approached it like a Student Performance Task. I created  created several Youtube tutorials, provided students headphones and iPads, and then set the kids loose to see what they could do independently. Check out these cool results!

7th Grade Animoji Success!

Over the summer I reflected upon previous 7th grade student feedback of the Manga Unit. I decided to revise the unit to include a new drawing fovus and incorporate more relevant content. Thus, the Animoji was born! The Animoji mashes up Anime details with Emoji elements. Each student chose an emotion for their design focus and developed an Animoji based on that emotion.
We didn't stop there...
I decided that the finished product, which was very cool- was not quite good enough on it's own because the words in the Emo Swirl end up getting blocked by the placement of the Animoji. That's when I put on my "Big Girl Pants" and experimented with the iPad app Animation to create a way students could Animate their artwork in a way to show off their artistic skills and tech savviness.

Here is an example of the digital project. A link to view the ALL is here.
I am SO PROUD of every one of my students and how engaged, enthusiastic and creative they were with their projects.
Check some examples of the Paper Project below:

Donors Choose

Last year I was awarded two Donors Choose Grants amounting to about $2000.00. This year I am hoping for the same thing to happen in 2016. So far I have two projects posted that will run for the next few months. Let me explain them both.

The first project I wrote was over the summer. It was when I was revising both 7th and 8th curriculum. I was noticing there were some skills that needed strengthening which could be bolstered with specific drawing tools. Th project I wrote is linked here and called  Help Fill My Artist Toolbox for Students. It would be awesome to acquire manikins for drawing and the proper paper with quality tooth to work with charcoal pencils.

The second project I wrote was during my prep period two weeks ago. It was when Chevron announce that projects posted That Day were considered for immediate funding. It was also when I realized how EXPENSIVE packing tape was and how much we will need for our Street Art Unit in May. I decided to write an entire project based on tape to include the Painters Tape for 7th grade Tape Murals and the Packing Tape needed for the 8th grade Sculpture Installations. This project is called It's a Sticky Job and linked here. Examples of what these projects look like are posted below.

I need help sharing out these two projects! Sharing these projects with friends and family could increase chances of them BOTH getting funded. I blast these out on Twitter and Facebook once a week. It would be GREAT to get these projects funded before they expire so any support with sharing them out would be appreciated! <3 <3 <3

The Power of Choice!

The 8th grade students started off the year by learning 5 Optical Illusion Patterns and applied those pattern techniques to create 5 designs. Students were then challenged to create a 6th free-choice design that was complex, unique and challenging. I am always amazed at how our students push themselves creatively. This year is no different. Check out these amazing designs students created this first week and a half of school!

Manga Drawing Unit: Emotions, Eyes and Faces!

On Friday the 7th grade wrapped up a series of directed drawings. We started off the year with drawing Manga eyes featuring various emotions. Students applied graphite techniques to shade and darken the eyes to really capture the elements of each emotion. Then we moved on tho applying those emotions into drawing faces. This time students applied color pencil techniques using various color schemes to review the color wheel. 'm really impressed with the effort and quality of work so far! Here are a couple student examples.

Check Out The September Charter Chat!

Expressions Charter Chat: September 2016 from Jenell Novello