Fall School Craft

Having four kids it was only a matter of time before I signed up to be room parent. Luckily this year it is just assistant. Here are the cute crafts we did at our fall party with first graders. I had seen on Pinterest where you took a child's hand print and added veins for leaves. I added the frame made of popsicle sticks. We all know that a craft at school isn't complete without the foam stickers.

So here it is. A cute kid craft for that season in between summer and winter. 

Art Lessons: Newspaper weaving

The kids were ready to craft. I guess every artist needs to let loose and do something fun rather then fundamentals. So we tried basket weaving. They had a good time and loved working with their hands. Added bonus, the materials were free.

Here is the link to the craft project. 

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/easy-weave-newsprint-basket-858559/

Art Lesson 2: Shading and Value

It is time for gray-scales. Yeah. Fundamentals of drawing. I always tell my students that I did these even when I was in college. You go from the darkest value to white with even steps in between. I was impressed with how well they did.

A trick I told them was to squint your eyes. This will help you see if the steps are gradually getting darker. It is also helpful when you are drawing. The values are easier to see when things are out of focus and you aren't paying attention to the details of the object.

We drew an egg first then a white ceramic bird. It is much easier to see gradating values in white objects. Overall they did really well. We will still need work on applying the gray-scales to actual objects. 

Next lesson they have asked for a craft. Anyone have a favorite? I don't think hairbows will fly.

Art Lesson 1: Symmetry

Teaching... I seem to always have art students. One way or another for the past ten years I find myself teaching. Sometimes I actively pursue someone to teach, other times they just find me. 

Last week I had the first lesson with my new students. They are home schooled. If they were in tradition school the girl would be in 3rd grade and the boy 5th. I am really excited! The first lesson I do is to get an idea of their skill level. I just have them bring an object, sometimes it is their shoe, and draw it with no instruction. And these two kids did fantastic! Their proportions were spot on. 

Then we did a lesson on symmetry. Which I found it quite funny, I used an old sketch book and found where I had taught this lesson previously and drawn a demonstration. And also saw where I had done several lessons to different students years apart from another on portraits and figure drawing. 

 I didn't take a picture this week of my current students. But here are some students and projects from previous years.

 Casting masks is a classic. It is really fun to explore different cultures with this project. 

 An impressionist project.

 And here were the last group of student until now. I taught five girls, plus my daughter, that were around 6years old. Wow, I have no idea how teachers have an entire classroom. But they were all so sweet. They got excited no matter what we did. 

I do love to teach. I find the enthusiasm that I get from my students to be contagious and inspiring. To watch them grow and develop as little artists is just amazing. At some point later in life I would love to have summer camps and after school classes. But right now I am glad to have a few students here and there and practice with my own kiddos.