"A Day at Comly School" stop motion animation

week of 4/16- stop motion!

This past week we made a switch in the schedule so that Ann Akif, the art teacher, and I could work on a stop motion animation video with the 3rd and 4th graders. We're using sculpture robot/characters the kids have been making with Ann over the past few weeks to act out "A Day at Comly School". The idea was sparked when she started lining up the bots in the hall to dry after painting, and they looked like an army ready to march down the hall. The kids learned about some video vocabulary, planned a storyboard, and have been stagehands moving the sculptures for each frame. The music teacher agreed to help out with our soundtrack as well, making this a truly interdisciplinary project.
The second graders have continued the life cycles painting project with a wet-into-wet watercolor landscape background.
The 5th graders missed out this week due to PSSA testing.

week of 3/26

2nd graders started learning about life cycles by viewing a few stop-motion growth videos like the one above.

3rd graders began coloring and painting their time story pictures for a crayon watercolor resist effect

4th graders completed their geometric form sculptures with added springs of paper and pipe cleaner and paper sculpture embellishments.

Some were more architectural, others animalistic.

some were just abstract.

5th graders had the honor of showing off their drawing machines to the crowd at the Comly Science night, Wednesday March 28th. We set up the spin art station, which was so successful we ran out of paper!

The spray bottle color mixing/op art station was very wet, but made beautiful art.

The marker pendulum was popular with the little kids.

We've been off from school for Spring break for a week now. When we get back there will be a change in the schedule so that Ann Akif (our art specialist) and I can work on a stop-motion animation project with the 3rd and 4th grades.

Week of February 13th

It was a slightly shortened week due to half day on Wednesday for report card conferences, so I only saw the Monday and Tuesday groups.
2nd grade: All three classes have continued to work on their shape stitcheries on plastic canvas. Many students have completed their shapes and some have begun filling in the background.

 The kids did much better this week at following their sketches to find the vertices. They also did a better job of pulling the pipe cleaners tight to prevent loopiness.

 A few students in Ms Spangler's class totally completed their projects and wrote a short reflection in their journals. When they are finished they really feel like fuzzy carpets.

 3rd: I only saw Ms O'Donnell's class this week. We did the abacus project with a slight supply difference. I cut board down for the frames instead of popsicle sticks for a wider base to tape onto, and we only used 10 yellow "nickel" beads instead of 20 since the other classes used up so many! Again, this project was a real hit- Ms. O'Donnell had the kids continue to do more practice with sliding the beads over to represent money values. Next week all 3 classes will be on the same page for papier mache over the frames.

 4th grade: Ms. McGinley's class got to do their coloring step to represent 1/3 and 2/3 in their circles and 1/2, 1/2 in their rectangles. Ms Yancey's class got to do the final step. We did a compare and contrast between Chuck Close and Sol Lewitt to see how the artists used the grid and squares.

 We did a short group fraction calculation to see how many of each color there was. Then the kids brought their squares back to a large board to arrange into a group mosaic. The kids liked the Chuck Close image better than the Sol Lewitt, so when arranging the blocks we tried to create gradations of color.

 Groups of kids came back to help glue everything down. Depending on how good the gluing was, I might go back through and try to get the blocks lined up a bit better.

 Since the entire class tried to do thirds in circles and halves in rectangles, the entire piece should have that as well- making it one huge equivalent fraction!.

 5th: On Monday, Ms Albert's class completed their geometric soft sculptures. Some kids were able to participate in the stop motion animation (see previous post). I hope to put a display up next week showing the 5th grade geometric forms alongside the 2nd grade geometric shapes.
On Tuesday we gathered both 5th grade classes in the auditorium to kickstart our next project. (Since there's no school on Monday this helped keep the classes at the same pace). We will be exploring the scientific concept of variables in experiments, combined with machines like pendulums and catapults. I showed a series of videos of pendulums and various other drawing machines to show how artists experiment with variables for art. We had some great compare/contrast opportunities and the kids were very engaged in watching the videos in this setting. The music teacher came down to help me set up the projector and microphone, and it was really great to have these videos on a giant screen with cinematic sound instead of on the smaller, quieter smartboards.

Next class we'll try out a few drawing machine experiments. I'm very excited about this project!

Professional Development

We've had a professional development workshop this weekend. Here are some resources that relate to what we were working on:

http://www.pdesas.org/ the Pennsylvania Standards Aligned Systems is the one-stop-shop for our cross-curricular needs.

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm the artists toolkit has several interactive activities to explore a few (but not all) of the elements and principles of art and design- this is a very kid-friendly site that could be shared in the classroom.

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/from-theory-to-practice/formal-visual-analysis.aspx  this webpage from the Kennedy Center has a  teacher-friendly explanation of all the E&P of A&D

Here are some resources about the artists we looked at:
http://diane-arbus-photography.com/ This is a portfolio of work by Diane Arbus- but note that not all images are appropriate for children.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat/street-to-studio/ fabulous kid-friendly interactive website by the Brooklyn museum about Jean-Michel Basquiat.


Here's a video of Gerhard Richter painting.
Here's one of Brice Marden comparing Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman:


Here is a website for finding videos on artists- http://www.artbabble.org/artist we'll have to see if it is accessible at school or not.

Here is a website for searching images: http://www.artstor.org/index.shtml however you need institutional remote access. To get this- visit the Wachovia Education Resource Center in the Perelman Building of the  Philadelphia Art museum.
Thanks for being great "Students" everybody!

Kalimbas!

Brainstorming for 3rd grade sound project

The 3rd grade will be learning about sound next and mentioned a desire to create a kalimba- otherwise known as a thumb piano. I had to do some research, but I finally figured out a way to get it done with some help from the internet. Many videos show how to craft more grown-up style kalimbas, but this video from Activity TV was very helpful. Here's my version:

I have to get materials, but it will involve a drawing as a first step to respond to high and low sounds and wavy lines. The Kalimba I made used some scrap wood for a block, thinner lattice for a bridge, bobby pin prongs straightened out, a bead, quick-dry tacky glue, and some paint. for mine I used tools like a miter box and saw, pliers, hammer, and clamps, but with some pre-cutting and adaptations I think I can cut down on necessary tools to make it more kid-friendly.
The real kalimbas are amazing. Check out the music in this video:


And then this is just breath-taking