Going Under the Sea in 3rd Grade

Because 2 weeks of vacation isn't enough, with the -30 degree wind chills (BRRRRRR) today, luckily we had a COLD DAY! Snow day, cold day, what have you..I'll take either one.  So on this frigid day I thought I'd share something a little more tropical-esque to warm your innards.  

I've found the best way to teach intermediate colors is not simply just talking and looking at the color wheel, but by doing.  So to create these lovely sea creatures 3rd graders first had to paint loads of intermediate colored paper!  I'm all about texture, so we got the forks and texture tools going.

Students had a choice between creating an octopus or a seahorse.  I guess kids don't really like octopi because EVERYONE chose a seahorse, I would even try to persuade bribe  them into making an octopus for the variety, but that didn't even work!

But still, they are quite beautiful.  Something about the combination of colors and the textured paper is just stunning! What do you think?

Stay warm! I'll be hanging out in my snowflake covered pj's all day...life is rough.

Mixed Media Sea Horse Gelli Prints

This year I decided to teach summer school, only 15 schools days over a 3 week period.  It's shorter hours and much more lax than the regular school year.  So I said why not, I can always use the extra cash.  Lucky for me the name of the course is "Arts with a Twist." I only have about 45 4th and 5th students I see and I get to see them every single day!!!!  Kind of exciting right? means I'm used to seeing the students like once every two weeks.  

Any way I'm using the opportunity to experiment with some things I haven't been able to do and always wanted to try.  Seeing the smaller groups also gives me the luxury to do projects I would never be able to do with a larger group.

For our first project the class started by tearing newspaper and gluing it onto a white piece of paper.  We then used watered down white acrylic paint to whitewash of the the newspaper.  The next day we came back and drew a seahorse on the back (the opposite of the newspaper).  They cut out the seahorse silhouette, flipped it over to the newspaper side and drew on top to make the seahorse details.  Then using oil pastels, colored pencils, and/or crayons students colored in the seahorse.  My only instruction was to blend and overlap the colors in someway.  Any scraps were used to create seaweed.  

Have you ever heard of a Gelli plate? I had seen the idea of using gelatin for printmaking and became intrigued.  I did some investigating and ran across the Gelli Plate. I also saw the price tag....yikes! So I researched some more and found a way to make my own.  IT IS AWESOME.  We used stencils to print our underwater background.  I find the result quite stunning! What do you think?

Here are some detail shots of the texture the newspaper gives.  I also love that you can still see the text.

I love this big jello rectangle.