Peace Pets Sculptures Art Class Lesson Idea (Middle School)

 Hello! I'm very excited to share a lesson I felt was very satisfactory that was part of my unit on peace last semester. The unit was inspired by Romanesque art and historical psalters. The elements we focused on were texture and form, I think, for this lesson. I did this lesson with my middle school students grades 5th-7th, but this could easily be adapted for any grade level. The challenge was for students to sculpt an animal of choice out of Polymer clay, paint them with tempera paints (and optionally add Sharpie designs), then to make an accompanying card to encourage somebody or give somebody peace by sharing uplifting words of life. Some students did encouraging messages, others used Bible verses. One student made a creative acronym. I did mine alliterate because of course I am obsessed with alliteration, but I did not expect anyone else to. I was so very thrilled when a lot of students came up with amazing alliterate names, like the "Turtle of Truth", "Worm of Wisdom", "Elephant of Encouragement", "Owl of Optimism", etc. I was so proud of their works and creative ideas. Here are some examples of student works below: 

Hopefully I can find the rest of the photos to share eventually. I think my 5th-7th grade students quite enjoyed this lesson, so I hope fellow art teachers out there find this inspiring! 

-Lauryn 

Folk Art Tunnel Books (Middle School Art Lesson)

Good Sunday morning, everyone! I am happy to announce that since I have started adding art lessons and plan to continue posting some when I have time for blogging, I plan to create a separate page like the "Events" and "Gifts" pages where those can be easily accessed for my fellow art teachers (or people looking for an art lesson, creative parents, teachers of other subjects, or anyone interested, really). Speaking of art lessons, the one I'd like to share today was part of a folk art unit themed around memories/time, this one inspired by Grandma Moses. 

The assignment was to create a tunnel book featuring a memory (or mashing memories together) that was (or were) important to the student. I got this wonderful tunnel book project idea from this link from Dali's Moustache: http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/2014/02/tunnel-book-fun-with-8th-grade.html. I'd seen but never knew the name of tunnel books, and certainly never made one prior to this, so I used Youtube tutorials and they are surprisingly simple, even for very non-mathematical people like me lacking in measuring and cutting skills. I broke it down step-by-step for my middle school students (I did it with grades 5th-7th). This project applies the art elements of line, shape, and form. I handwrite my lesson plans and I am not required to state all of the standards met at my school (praise the Lord) although they do align with national and GA state art education standards. In case you were interested in seeing the actual lesson document, I tried to add it to this post but I could not attach or paste it (sorry!). 

I hope you enjoyed this post and have a great 4th of July!

-Lauryn

Horse & Cat 7th Birthday Party (A Purrfect Party, of C-horse!)

Hey everyone! Just a few days ago we celebrated my cousin Riley's 7th birthday with a unique theme she chose herself: cats and horses! She also wanted an orange party. For this theme, I decided to do a boho-vintage style with subtle oranges and browns as the main colors. The cake was from Ingles. The dishes and books displayed were items I had on hand, with most of the ceramics handmade. I also handmade the giant, wooden box and wooden, hollow rectangle used as stands. The lollipops and candies were super easy: I made them by melting some chocolate chips, mixing in a little water, pouring them into a succulent silicone mold (from Walmart) (that I sprayed with baking spray first to be safe), adding the lollipop sticks, and freezing them. The bouquet consisted of wildflowers and plants from my yard and my grandparents' yard. The little plants on display were mine and my mother's that we had on hand. I made the prize ribbon by cutting and hot-gluing a combination of burlap ribbon and scrapbook papers. I painted a tiger figurine and all of the other cats and horses came from my grandmother. All of my cat statues decided to go missing and I could find nothing to use when my grandmother came to the rescue with perfect small kittens and a horse. I painted the banner with acrylic paint. My mother tied yarn onto the embroidery hoop and I tied on ribbon, then painted the yarn with watered-down acrylic paint to create the bohemian dream-catcher decor. Riley and I agreed on hot chocolate for party favors (which might seem weird for a summer party, but we agreed every day is a great hot chocolate day) and I packaged them in brown paper bags. I decorated those bags with hot-glued or stapled scrapbook paper and doilies, on which I wrote "Thank you for making Riley's party 'purrfect'!" I displayed hanging photos by taping them on yarn that I tied to a wooden dowel. The party did not include half of what I hoped to include, such as the subtle-orange-dyed photo backdrop I started on or a balloon arch. I started putting out a few dishes when I ran by the day before to teach an art lesson, but I basically made everything the morning of (since I accidentally overslept until 3 or 4 a.m. and had to go around 7:00 a.m.) and had like thirty minutes to decorate, so it was super duper last minute despite my best intentions. However, I think my cousin was happy, so I guess it was mission accomplished.

I hope that you enjoyed and can use this theme for future inspiration! My second-session summer class starts in two days, so I hope to get back to posting weekly but if I don't, that's why and I will get back soon. Thank you for visiting! 

-Lauryn