Pop Art Style Onomatopoeia Bulletin Board

I've been sharing some of my bulletin boards lately. Here's the small hallway board that displays the  Pop Art style onomatopoeia paintings that the 4th graders made. 

Here's another look. Just trying to get the best light. But it ain't easy in this hallway!!!
You can find some other bulletin board examples in this post.

Onomatopoeia- Elementary Style

If you follow this blog (and if you do, I sooooo appreciate you stopping by!!!), you know, that I like teaching onomatopoeia in the art class. You can check out my middle school take on it here. Well, I found out that onomatopoeia is now part of the new 4th grade ELA curriculum. Well, time to brush off my onomatopoeia lesson! Integrate it with with ELA  and modified it for the 4th graders.

We started off watching a Keynote about Roy Lichtenstein and his Pop Art Style of art. The kids learned that it is:

* Comic book influenced

* Has bold, flat color

* Has thick, black lines

* And uses Ben Day dots

Then we discussed what onomotopeia is. Since the kids had already started writing poetry using onomatopoeia in ELA class, our discussion went well. The kids had a lot to say about it! Woo Hoo for cross curricular lessons!

Went it came time for the kids to come up with what onomotopeia word they would use for their painting, I had three conditions or options. There onomotopeia had to be either a sound effect from nature (volcano exploding, a strong wind, an earthquake), an animal sound (a snake hiss, an owl hooting, a lion roar) or an action sound (something falling, something crashing down, etc). There are many styles of onomatopoeia, but I just picked these three to help the kids limit the sounds to be used. Sometimes it can be too overwhelming if there are too many options.

The following are works in progress.

The following are finished paintings. We used tempera paint and black, fine line sharpies for these.

What do you think of our onomotopeia paintings? Have you ever modified a lesson for a different grade level? You can comment below.

Ceremonial Elephants- Integrating With ELA

Are you always looking to find ways to integrate your art lessons with ELA?  I'm guessing your answer is 'Yes!'
Well, here's one lesson that we did, that went along with a 2nd grade literacy unit. Ceremonial elephants from India!

We start off watching a Keynote on the background of the Ceremonial Elephants of Kerala, Indian. The kids get an overview of Lord Ganesh, the mahouts who train the elephants and what goes on during the ceremonial march to the Temple by the elephants. 

The Keynote also has images that gives the kids a good look at all the decorative designs that go onto the elephants- the embroidered blanket, the bells and tassels, the painted flowers and toenails, jeweled necklaces and bracelets. Looking at the images of the decorations gave the kids a lot of ideas when it came to designing their own elephants.

 

This lesson took about three 45 minute art classes. The kids start off by picking two pieces of colored paper for the framed background. After that they used a piece of grey colored paper to make the elephant which is centered onto the background.

Next the kids get to pick a piece of scrap booking paper to be used for the blanket. They can trim it, then glue it to the elephant's back. After this the fun begins! On to the decorating!!

From there the kids can choose scraps  that are cut into shapes to make patterns that are glued around the frame. They can also use markers to start drawing necklaces, bracelets, tassels and other various patterns and decorations on the elephants. As you can see you get a lot of interpretations of the decorative patterns! Woo Hoo!

We also used some donated plastic jewels that we glued on for some extra bling!

What do you think of our Ceremonial Elephants? Would this be a lessons you could integrate with ELA? You can leave a remark in the comments below. 

Wayne Thiebaud Inspired Lollipops

Wayne Thiebaud's art is really fun to introduce to kindergartners. Who doesn't get excited when they see sweets? You know cakes, pies, donuts! But for this lesson the kids got to take a look at his lollipop paintings for inspiration. Then... when they found out we were going to use clay. Oh boy! Talk about excitement!

I started out demonstrating how to make clay coils. (FYI- we used Crayola Air Dry clay) Or if you want to be really descriptive with your words, we were making a snake-like shape with the clay. One little tip- Just make sure to keep repeating that when you roll the clay into the snake-like coils to use the palm of your hand, not the fingers. That way, the coils come out rounder.

After the kids roll out the coils they then have to twirl them into a spiral. Remind them to start making the center first. The kids are excited to see that it's not as hard as they think to make the spiral!

Hint! Hint! Next comes the hardest part! 

The kids (or with your help) can turn the clay spiral over and  score the coils on the back with a clay tool. Explain to them this will help keep the coils together as it dries. Just keep repeating though, if you press too hard with the tool, you will break the coils!

When the coil spiral is all set and done, you can then gently put a Popsicle stick into the clay for the kids. Then let them dry!

The next day when the lollipops were dry, I put some white glue at the base,  where the Popsicle stick entered the clay. Extra reinforcement! 

You'll be ready to paint during the next class!

When it came to painting, I had 5 paint stations set up. They could choose two colors that they wanted to paint with.

Another hint- I always remind the kids to treat the paintbrush the way you treat your hair. No banging on the table, no twisting and no whipping it around. This analogy works for the most part.

After the paint dried, I had two fifth graders help me put glitter on the lollipops. Again, another night  was needed for the glitter to dry.

And they're all done!

I was concerned that the lollipops would break on the way home. So they were each put in a brown, paper bag with their name on it, for the journey home. 

The lollipop came out really cute. They learned some art history. Got to paint. And had an introduction to clay coil making. Yeah! A win-win all around. You can't beat that!!

Well, what do you think? How about another Wayne Thiebaud inspired art lesson? You can find one here.

 Would these Wayne Thiebaud inspired lollipops work in your art class? Let me know! You can leave a comment below.