Kinetic Carousels!

Kinetic Carousels have to be one of favorite my newer STEAM projects. I recently presented about this at the Maryland Art Education Association conference but realized I have not made a blog post about it! I stumbled across them while looking for more ways my students could utilize the milk caps we have been collecting. I thought they were cool but need to let the students have a voice in the design some how so I started making prototypes and came up with a blank one that could allow the students to add their own idea. The example is from one of my 8th grade students that was given the challenge to design one.

Practicing Trees

Kindergarten and first grade were working on the concepts of landscapes and talked about how some trees can be structured. The students looked at a few paintings of landscapes. We connected back to the book we read a few weeks ago called Lines that Wiggle and talked about how lines can be seen in the environment. Here is a kindergarten example for the first day of practicing landscapes. 

From 2-d to 3-d: Bubble Letters

Students are moving along thinking about how shape comes from lines and form comes from shape. The students felt challenged by the idea that putting a bubble around a letter could create something new. We practiced first making bubble letters and then created form by the repetition of sides. We went through the ideas from the impulsive students that were like Ms. Johns I got this but rushed through missing some of the accuracy from paying attention to the construction of the shapes. We also talked about how value could elevate the complexity within their designs. 

Monster Collaborations! How would a Monster look if it were stuck in a hexagon?

Ah monsters! Second and third grade answered the art question of how would a monster look if it were stuck in a hexagon as class collaborations. They discussed different monsters and looked at a teacher example about how one could be created. They were super psyched to begin. Several students wanted to create several hexagons and also felt challenged by the size of the hexagons itself. The students had Micron pens available for them to use to bring out details and also used colored pencils. They created all kinds of monsters. We talked about using up all of the available space and trying to use colors other than white and blue to create the background for the monster.

Shape Collage: Cutting out Shapes like Matisse

So kindergarten and first grade geared up for their next challenge: Scissors and Shapes! They looked at a book about Matisse and how he used shape cut outs to create art. They worked one class to cut out shapes and then a second class period to put the shapes together into a collage. Many of the students created non-objective art and a few of the students created abstract works about people and robots referencing Matisse's Creole Dancer and the work about Icarus. Students were saying things like look at me, I'm cutting out shapes like Matisse. We practiced a reading strategy of any time they heard the word Matisse they would shout it. The students even seemed to remember his first name too.

LED Watercolor Paintings

My 8th grade students were asked how they could incorporate an LED light into a painting. The students brainstormed and got to work. I was glad to see that they came up with a wide range of results for this. I feel like making the brainstorming list on the board helped the students see that there were several answers to the question. I told them to draw out their idea then paint and after all that learn how to create a circuit for the light.

8th Grade Kaleidocycles and Thaumatropes

Part of the beginning of the year is reviewing key vocabulary. This year I decided to take a different approach. The students used kaleidocycles and thaumatropes as tools for using the elements of art. I was excited to try something different with the kaleidocycles because they are so versatile for the classroom. The students were experiencing building form after emphasizing each art element except space.

This is where the thaumatrope comes in because their whole reason for working is understanding the use of space. Many students struggled with the abstract concept of negative space but when it's changed into a math problem of a+b=c they seemed to understand it more. Most of the students wanted to take the route of reverse engineering as opposed to figuring it out from the step by step handout we went over so if you want to try it maybe you might want to look at quite a few built thaumatropes to come up with an idea.

We will be moving on soon to look LED painting next!