Tie Dye, Psychedelic Donuts, & Ojo de Dios

There are 4 days left of school...I REPEAT 4!!!!!!  

It's no secret that I'm a tie dye lover, and my students know it too.  In fact, they BEG me to do it with them.  HOW I WOULD LOVE TO DO THIS, but I'm still trying to figure out the logistics, like ya know getting white shirts that fit everybody.  Maybe I'll start small and try it out with my summer school class.  This one time at summer camp we had an auction, the campers bid on items (aka counselors) with the payment of pine cones.  I'm not kidding.  Well I decided I would put myself on the chopping block and who ever was able to pay me the most pine cones would get to tie dye with me. NEVER AGAIN.  Needless to say, thirty 8 & 9 year olds and tie dye had me going  extremely a little crazy.

Moving on......

You know at the end of the year when you have all those nearly empty paint bottles?  You try to combine them, dilute them a bit to get the paint of the sides, keep them upside down, and you still feel like you are wasting paint when you throw them away.  I've got your solution--if you're in to tie dye.  I hit up the travel section at target and bought a bunch of those little 50 cent travel hairspray type bottles.  Water those paints down--like a lot--as long as you can see the color your golden, pour them in the bottles and you're all set for some magic.

2nd graders took on fiber arts for this lesson.  We started off with talking about the history of the Ojo de Dios (God's Eye) and the culture of the ancient Pueblo People.  We sat all kum ba yah on the floor (me included) and we got to work on our Ojo de Dios.  

The next class we made our "tie dye." I showed students a couple of different ways to fold their fabric, you don't need to use rubber bands, and then they used our spray bottle of paint to color the fabric.  When they were finished I had them clip it to our makeshift clothesline.  

If you don't have fabric you can do this with a sturdy paper towel, just make sure to soak it in water before hand.  Some classes ran out of time so we had to do a different version of tie dye.

To finish this off, I'm going to leave you with these psychedelic, rad donuts, that only one class who had a little extra time were able to do.  We learned a thing of two about our friend Wayne and made these beauts. Donut you just love them?  

Summer's so close I can taste it.

CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE

Have you ever had a class who hasn't liked learning about Wayne Thiebaud? I certainly haven't.  However, after that first day of looking at his work some students do look as if they could kill me with their eyes---No, sorry guys I did not bring all 170 4th graders a slice of cake! Sorry not sorry.  But they get over it....kind of.   

I've done a lesson about Thiebaud every year with 4th graders, but it has certainly varied from year to year.  Check those out here and here.  This lesson is a combo of the two.  Thiebaud's work is a fantastic example for students to see the difference between geometric shapes and forms, and of course we hit on repetition, shadows, value, edge of page, composition, and balance. Really, it's a loaded lesson.

I'm totally biased, but I think these 4th graders created some pretty fantastical stuff.  It's rad.  Speaking of rad, check out my rad sweatshirt.

OH EM GEE when the kids realize what painting is on my sweatshirt, THEY FREAK OUT.  Have you guys heard of this company, Rad?  It's the greatest.  They take paintings and put song lyrics over top of them, it's an artistic mashup so to speak.  Some of them are just straight up hilarious.  I'm thinking about getting this one next.  

Well, now I'm off to eat the only thing that I can bake---tie dye cake.

 

PSA: EAT CAKE FOR BREAKFAST
This one time at summer camp (circa 2010) I did and it rocked. Best day of my life.

4th Grade Clay Cupcakes (with Sprinkles!!!!!)

I've had a few different clay projects going on in 4th grade.  At one of my schools we decided to make clay cupcakes.  I've made these before with the silicon cupcake holders using model magic, salt dough, but this round we used air dry clay.  It's the perfect clay project to do as the year winds down as it is SIMPLE and the kids love it.  We had just finished another project where we studied Wayne Thiebaud so it was also a good extension of that. At the particular school where I did this lesson I have two sections of 4th grade.  One class did such a nice job of following directions and helping each other out (whereas the other did not) they were rewarded with "sprinkles."  Through trial and error I found a method that works! I was originally going to coat with epoxy, but I didn't have the time and want to spend the extra cash on that.    

I first coated with the E6000 Spray Adhesive, sprinkled the sprinkles on top, then sprayed the adhesive again.  I let that dry for maybe 20 minutes and went over with the clear coat.  To my surprise no colors ran and they stick! I used a combination of the long soft sprinkles and the tiny circles.  They both stick fine, but because of the softness of the longer sprinkles some of them will get smashed when picked up.  So if you're going to try (or if I do it again sometime) I would suggest the smaller sprinkles.

4th Grade Wayne Thiebaud Cupcakes

The school year is winding down for me (I only will see each group of students 3 more times)  and that time will go quickly.  So as the end of the year goes by I try to keep projects as a two day lesson because with end of year field trips, field days, and assemblies there will be several groups that will miss.  Here's a Wayne Thiebaud lesson that most students were able to finish in two classes.  I did a Theibaud lesson last year with 4th graders and really loved the results as far the variety goes.  For another year I may try to combine the two.