Culinary Arts + Clay

The Effect of Lines

Created with Ink and Watercolors.

CCA Welcomes Author Leslie Helakoski

Crossroads Charter Academy Welcomes Children's book Author and Illustrator Leslie Helakoski! Leslie holds a degree in illustration from Northern Michigan University. Book titles include: Big Chickens, Fair Cow, The Smushy Bus, and Woolbur (my personal favorite).

Weaving on a Cardboard Loom

After watching an instructional video on weaving, created by a colleage of mine who teaches in the Detroit Public Schools, the students tried their own hands at weaving. We all learned that weaving takes practice, patience, and perseverane, but the end result is very gratifying!

MLK memorial plans

After viewing the following video clip that shows a detailed plan for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial project, one of my students exclaimed, "This is WONDERFUL! It's like Martin Luther King Jr. cuts through the rock and lets all the people walk through freely." This is one of the many extremely rewarding moments that occur in teaching visual art.



In response to the video and a brief slideshow showing and describing MLK's biography, the students created pencil drawings:







Students were given the opportunity to share his/her drawings and to describe how we can act justly and promote peace without our own communities.

Paintings Inspired by Artist Emily Carr

After viewing the artwork of Canadian painter Emily Carr (1871-1945), the third grade students were inspired to create paintings of the Manistee National Forest!

Making a Difference by Creating Art: The Fundred Dollar Bill Project

During Thanksgiving week, we tend to think about what we have and what we are thankful for. While it is important to be grateful and to reflect on our blessings in life, I believe Thanksgiving is a great time to think about needs others may have and how we can meet those needs. I heard about the Fundred Dollar Bill Project (www.fundred.org) while Reading an art education journal last month. The project was started by artist Mel Chin, who hopes to raise 300,000,000 "fundreds" (drawings of one hundred dollar bills designed by students) that he will take to Congress in an effort to exchange them for the $300,000,000 needed to neutralize the lead in the soil in New Orleans. Curently 30% of the children in New Orleans have lead poisoning, and this is a preventable problem. The students learned about Hurricane Katrina (many of them were very young when the hurricane hit in 2005), and they learned about the destruction the hurricane caused. The students were enthusiastic about wanting to help the children in New Orleans, and I was greatly blessed by their empathy and thoughtfulness in creating these "fundreds."



This students drew the "tree of good hope"






This student drew a house on wheels that he wants to bring to people in New Orleans who have lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xor8lqjtc4M

3rd Grade Landscapes

The third grade students created landscape paintings in the style of the French artist, Paul Cezanne(1839-1906). They learned that Cezanne painted the same landscape (The mount of Victoria) 60 times! Cezanne believed that it was most important to paint the structure and shapes in a landscape. The third graders carefully observed photographs of landscapes and created paintings in the style of Cezanne.

3rd Grade Collages

The Third Grade students learned how to differentiate between warm and cool colors. They selected warm and cool clippings from magazines and created warm/cool color collages. The collages are hung up next to eachother in our art room, and they look like patchwork quilts!

Third Grade: What We Learned in Art This Year

"Things that are closer are big, and things that are far away are small."

"How to make a pinch pot"

"I learned what a mandala is"

"I learned a bunch about different artists and their paintings"

"How to draw a window"

"Nothing is impossible with art!"

"I learned how to make shoes out of cardboard, newspaper, and paint."

"I learned how to overlap"

"molding clay is squishy"

"We learned that artists take time on projects"

3rd Grade teacups

The third grade students learned how to create a teacup by making a simple pinch pot and attaching a foot and handles. Stay tuned for final glazed peices!