Place in Your Face: Symbolic Self-Portrait

This is a 3rd or 4th grade project...the kids love it.

Day One: Collect magazine images and I trace their silhouette.
Day Two: Tear, cut and collage magazine images into silhouette.
Day Three: Cut head out and glue to a 9x18 colorful background. Also, on day 3 I encourage them to add words to their collage...their name or important words or phrases.

We use matte or glossy mod podge with large flat brushes. 

Did I mention this is a messy project? 

I love how bizarre this one is. 

More photos from other classes...

They take two days to completely collage the head. On the second day if someone works quickly, I have them find the letters of their name and also collage 3 words to describe themselves and/or a phrase about them.

 Example: I am an artist. 

Monograms with 4th Grade

I usually love this project. Some classes are making it really great...and others well...lets just say it's the end of the year. 

We spend the first day of this project designing our initials. The next day, we transfer the design to the burlap and learn how to thread an embroidery needle and tie double knots. (A single knot usually pulls through the burlap...)

Day Three: Start straight stitching. I get them to do a pattern similar to weaving...they count over 3 squares on the burlap and they stitch under one 'line' of the burlap. It makes their stitches look consistent and it's easier then stitching up and down. 

The goal is to get all letters outlined first, then they can start experimenting with different stitches. I teach them satin stitch, french knots and cross stitch once they all get the hang of straight stitch. 

Usually the kids pick it up quick and enjoy working on these. It is a good thing to work on during TCAP...keeps them pretty calm. 

Artist Visit: Wayne Brezinka

 We are so lucky to have Wayne Brezinka's kids at our school because that means I get a special artist visit each year. He currently has a son in kindergarten and he came last week for a special collaboration project with the kids. First he showed some of his work, focusing on collage and how he's been working with 'trees' a lot lately.

After that we jumped right into a project with mixed media collage on cereal boxes. 

We used watered down Elmer's glue, book pages, maps, newspapers, painted paper scraps and tempera paint to create these super fun "forest collages". 

I love these girls getting into cutting up some newspaper!

Here's some of the finished pieces....

Sorry some of these need to be rotated. Does anyone know how to do that in this program? Do I always have to "pre-edit" pictures? 

Faith Ringgold Quilt Squares with 1st Grade

I have taught versions of this project since I started teaching and I think I have figured out the best combo, for my classes anyways.

Day One: We read "Tar Beach" by author/illustrator/story quilt maker Faith Ringgold. They begin their illustrations in pencil and create a 1 inch border around their 12" x 12" white drawing paper.

The kids write in their Idea Books about Narrative Art and we practice drawing ourselves flying. I use a stick person to start and then we turn that into a "thick person"....by simply drawing around the sticks to make a realistic self-portrait. 

We also write a sentence in our books that will go on the quilt square....this will also be what the kids illustrate. 

"If I could fly, I would fly ______________________." 

to, under, over, across.....

I demo how to create the 1 inch border using a ruler...NO MEASURING required! We just lay the ruler along the edge of the paper and trace. Next they write their sentence preferably at the bottom of their paper...but nothing goes inside the border...that's the 'no draw zone' which will be covered with fabric squares.

Then they begin illustrating their sentence in pencil. That's about as far as we get on day one. 

Day Two: We finish drawing in pencil and then outline in black marker. Then, they begin coloring with crayons. I have a 'no white space' requirement. They also color the border with crayons in case the fabric doesn't quite line up...that way there isn't white paper glaring at you from under the squares. 

Day Three: Adding the fabric border....coming soon! 

Day Three: Adding Fabric squares to border. I precut a bunch of 1 inch squares...but I definitely don't measure them! The kids can trim them down if need be. 

Here is a picture of her story quilt from this story.


Artist: Faith Ringgold

Here's a neat little walk through I just found online....sorry I don't know who to give credit to.








* All images borrowed from Faith Ringgold's books and online sources