Haunted Houses taught by Heather Dearing

We practiced making our haunted houses first by talking about what shapes we see in a few pictures of haunted houses. Then we designed our own house using geometric shapes, such as, square, rectangle, oval, trapezoid and a triangle. Once we had our design we sketched it out on a larger sheet of paper. Then we took a black crayon and colored in our house. We colored the whole house so that it would resist the watercolor that we used to color the sky.
An extension activity that you could do is have them talk about where haunted houses came from. Or what makes a house haunted. Or even just talking about abandoned houses and why when you drive outside of Aberdeen to some of these rural areas why their are abandoned houses out there. Also could relate it to urban and rural areas within social studies.

Hidden Safari

Based off of Henri Rousseau's work we talked about animals that are on safari. Students then made ruby red glasses. Then we practiced upside down drawing of an animal. Talking about warm and cool colors and patterns we then drew and animal using the upside down technique with a blue, a cool color, colored pencil. After we had our animal drawn. We then covered the animal with patterns in warm colors to camouflage the animal. We started with our lightest colored warm color and made at least three patterns with three different colored pencils. This was also very fun project. First drawing upside down turned out a lot better then I thought my drawing would. It gave me a lot of confidence in my drawing ability. But then it was also fun to look through the ruby glasses to see what animal was hidden in the safari. My children loved looking at this when I brought this project home. Plus,  you get to make super vision glasses, what fun. Students also provide three clues to help the viewer identify the animal in the picture.
As an extension activity you could also hide other items with patterns it wouldn't have to be just animals. Fruit could be another example. You could have students hide fruit that they would find in the jungle. Then this could lead to a nutrition talk to help incorporate health. You could also bring science in again and talk about the animals and their habitat. Or social studies and talk about safaris and where they are located.

Vincent Van Gogh      
 Starry Night Collage

With this lesson we looked at Vincent Van Gogh and his Starry Night painting. We recreated our own version of this project with tissue paper and oil pastels. From this class this is probably one of my favorite pieces that we did. Like the Dot Day project it seemed like we were all able to create fun pieces of art that would look good displayed on any wall at school or at home. This collage created movement in the sky similar to Van Gogh's Starry Night. The first extension activity that I can think of is having students create their "Starry Night" collage and then have them write about the scene they created. Telling a story about their collage. Science could also be brought into the mix with talk about the Northern Lights and how, why, where and when they can be seen.

Dot Day

Dots were made using coffee filters, oil pastels and watercolor markers to name a few. The dots are made to keep things simple but also to show that something as simple as a dot can be art. All of our students are good at art, sometimes are is in the eye of the beholder. Students can just design a dot but they could also use the same exercise to make an animal, item or the could have the base shape of a dot. As a pre-assessment we were asked to think of as things as we could think of to draw in a circle or dot. So you could incorporate science by having the students draw animals. To take it one step further you can also have students write a report about the animal they made or designed. It is also possible to use the dot made while painting the original dot. I truly enjoyed working on the dot project. All dots were unique, colorful and interesting. The Dot Day story was also enjoyable as it shows students that they can all be good at art.

Elements and Principle Assignment
In this assignment we used photography to find the elements and principles of art. We went on a scavenger hunt to find photos that helped describe the elements and principles. These are a few of the photos I found to help explain the elements and principals.

Color

Using color in a photograph. Photo of a flower on the Northern State University campus. 

Repetition

Repetition-objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a pattern. Repetition on the tables on the Northern State University campus.

Movement

Movement-action shot or a blurry motion, shows movement.

Jewel, our 12 week old puppy has a lot of movement.

Emphasis

Emphasis-What is the focal point or focus of the image.

Focus on flowers from our flower garden at our home in Aberdeen.

Texture

Texture-The feel of the surface.

The texture on a manhole cover by Moccasin Creek Soccer Complex. 

A few ideas for changing up the lesson, would be for the students to work in pairs and take photographs of the elements and principles together. Also one week take photos of the elements and then the following week photos of the principles. 

Footprints

This project is our footprint. We drew around our footprint and then put our names on them. We used three different types of media to create our project that tells a little bit about us. Some students use crayons, photographs, glitter, colored pencils to describe a little bit about themselves. This is a great way for the students to get to know one another.

In my footprint I have included a photo of my two girls. A chalkboard and NSU for my journey to my second degree, Elementary Education. I included the mountains because I love the mountains. I also added a lake and a person rowing, because I love to row and kayak and I was on the rowing team when I received my first degree, which is journalism. The N is for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where I received my journalism degree. I love football and soccer. I have the Space Needle because I love Seattle and the number 12 for the twelve man for the Seattle Seahawks. And a camera, because I love to take photos.  

A few other ideas that could be done with this project. Students could make a footprint for their neighbor or friend in the class. They could interview each other and make a footprint for them based on their interview. Students could also have to include key questions or the teacher would have a list of question for the students to answer and they would need to include at least two of their answers in their footprint. For example what was your favorite thing you did this summer? The students would then have to include that in their footprint.