The best part about all of these art projects are the little things you learn. The take home point from this project is that if you need to get the same mixed paint color two different times, good luck!

This project focused on patterns. To make the project individualized we did patterns with our name. I chose to use BDV ( Beau Douglas Voegeli). We were advised on how to properly use patterns to make our final piece. I chose to mix black with red because they are my favorite colors. Part of the rubric was to mix a color with black to develop a shade for some of the square in our pattern.




By looking at this picture it can maybe be assumed that this is how I intended it to be. However, the truth is 2 of the top and bottom row squares were completed the next day. That is where I struggled to find the adequate mixture.

An adequate extension activity for this is more math. Math patterns are essential for furthering understanding and education. After something like this I would assign students to make a Sudoku math problem. This would make a fun activity for them, yet it would be very challenging.

A reoccurring theme in this class is my struggle with projects. Sure, I am hard on myself, but the reality is that i struggle with all kinds of crafts. Not only crafts but also construction. I loved roofing this summer, but I hated having to cut shingles. I hated it because I cannot cut strait! For some reason I am not that good with my hands on certain things. I guess maybe I am more cut out for picking up heavy things and putting them down... Caveman style! Why is this important to this blog? It is because I think I tried hard to make a nice pot in our clay unit, but it looks unworthy to hold old cigarette buds.

 Our clay making session was pretty fun. It was great to work with something hard and odd feeling. However, it is not easy! Another thing I learned from this lesson was that yellow is NOT a good color choice to paint over clay. Three coats didn't get the job done.

Danielle and Lisa did a great job of teaching this lesson. They are smart girls and we can all learn a lot from them. They tied in history and culture to make this an adequate lesson for us.

This is my final piece.

I chose to depict a frowning face in my pot. We were supposed to use symbols, and I chose to capture emotion. By the looks of this picture the yellow doesn't look as bad as it does in real life. One thing we can take note of though is the lumpiness that the sides of my little bowl struggles with.

Danielle and Lisa had a great lesson. I would look to feed that idea for ways to integrate these practices into the classroom. They chose to go the cultural route which is an excellent idea. Another way I would go is if there was a constellation unit. A constellation could easily be depicted in clay objects. This would help students at least remember a few of them.

One project that doesn't look that complex at first, yet had more  to it one may think was our quilt project. Color choice played a vital role in this activity. That was a good thing because it helped make everyone's project similar, yet unique.

This is a picture of my quilt. It was made on plan paper. To for the design we were all guided through steps of color choosing, cutting, and gluing.

Notice the top four squares. Each one of these is made of four tiny squares that contain 1/4 of a circle. When placed together it makes for an unique design that looks fancy and fun.

I feel that this project could be used in an elementary history or social studies class. While talking aboud heritage and or traditions something like this could be tied in. This would provide a break from the books and the children a chance to take pride in their creativity.

The best lesson done in our art class was the fish project.That is of course because Heather and I led this lesson. This was a simple project designed for a 1st grade classroom. It was a fun lesson to teach because we treated all of our peers like first graders the entire hour. The project was pretty simple, but we went through it step by step and found it pretty effective even for our classmates.

For our lesson plan and instruction Heather and I each made a fish. I also made a "bad fish". How was it bad? It wasn't properly colored in and the rules were not followed.

The major part of this lesson was understanding patterns. We went through direct instruction and guided practice with the students. We also made sure everyone was checked for understanding. I feel that we did a good job of showing how this can tie into other subjects. We used math standards to help find an idea. We also talked about parts of fish. Lastly, as part of a reading and writing deal we planned on doing writes about each fish, but ran out of time that day.

This is the fish I made. Notice there is a pattern on him. I chose a circle-square-triangle-square pattern so that the ending results would look like a checkerboard.



This is a picture of our board with everyone's fish on it. Catch of the day! Every students picture was taken while holding up their prize catch.

* This board was done the way it was to show everyone's personal art and picture. We believe it shows creativity and organization on the students and ourselves behalf.

Spring was a season used often in our group projects this semester. You can probably tell that this spring (2013) has been quite depressing. There has been a lot of snow and cold days. However, my classmates hopes didn't die when we once again had the spring into spring idea tossed at us in class.

This project used crayons and paint to accent powerful colors to make beautiful flower designs. A big point of this lesson was to use appropriate colors and paints. We were instructed to completely color a sheet of paper in hopes to make it look like a flower as our final work. Here is mine!

I chose to use these strong colors, with the attempt to have a cool middle to my flower. I found out that my coloring skills are not very good when the black water paint awkwardly filled in the gaps of my project.

I way I would use a project like this is in the classroom would be to first identify flowers around the town of the school I am located in. Then to get familiar with them I would ask my students to design the sheet of paper to explain the flower. This could be fitting for a life science class.

It's Easter time! For this project we made Easter egg ornaments. In this class we used:

1. String
2. Glue/water
3. Water balloons
   
   This was a pretty fun project. Some of us found out the hard way that we could not use too much water with our glue. However, I believe most of the eggs turned out okay. 
   
   
   This is my completed egg. The process was to wrap strings, that were soaked in water/glue, around a water balloon. After the strings dried the balloon was popped by our teachers and this is the finished product. 

An extension activity for this would be to have the students make it one more time. However, I would have students use math when dealing with the length of the strings. I would ask the students to find the point where the biggest circumference is and use certain lengths of strings to practice measuring skills. 

This project was another spring unit. I accomplished this master piece by following the instructions in our Art Methods class.
For this class we were instructed how to shave oil pastels onto appropriate paper so that it could be ironed to blend cool colors. It was a fun project because while shaving the colors we didn't really know how the colors were going to turn out. Thankfully, mine turned out pretty well. I made two separate sheets and combined them to make this little insect.

Just like I mentioned in the last blog post, I would use this as an introduction to a Language Arts unit. This would provide the students a chance to write with imagination. I would use it as a time to work on grammar and fundamental writing skills.