Lion King Masks (2009)

In 2009 the Disney musical, The Lion King, came to San Diego and the dance teacher at my school asked me if I wanted to take my art students with her class to watch the Broadway show. Of course I did! So I quickly came up with a lesson plan to justify our field trip. Disney actually has a great education website with teacher lesson plans and a DVD behind the scenes to help prepare your students before they watch he musical. The DVD is so fascinating and shows all aspects of the production from costumes and masks, stage design, lighting, choreography, etc. My students really enjoyed watching the clips and they completed a study guide about what they learned. This was also great for the kids that couldn't come watch the musical in person because they still felt included. The musical was fantastic!!! The costumes were amazing and of course the music is wonderful. My students LOVED it and was definitely the highlight of the year.

After watching the musical my students constructed their own masks inspired by The Lion King. I let the kids choose to work in a group or by themselves. They also had the option of recreating a character from The Lion King or making another African animal. Students drew rough draft sketches to plan their design and then built the mask out of cardboard. They paper mached the cardboard, painted a layer of gesso, and then used acrylic paint to finish the mask. The project turned out great and this is hands down one of my favorite lesson plans!

                                                                   Teacher Example

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Paper Mache Bowls (2010)

My Junior High art students learned about sculpture by making paper mache bowls. (I saw this project idea on Artsonia). Each student used a Styrofoam bowl as a mold and I placed a piece of tin foil inside the bowl. Students then paper mached the inside of the bowl mold by using thin strips of newspaper dipped in Elmer's glue. They paper mached 3 layers making sure the bowl was thick enough to hold it's form. Students then cut pieces of tissue paper and applied it in color sections to create the design on their bowl. Students painted a thin layer of Elmer's glue on the paper mach and applied the tissue paper. Most students did 2-3 layers of tissue paper until the newspaper underneath couldn't be seen. Lastly, students painted a layer of mod podge on both sides of their bowl to seal it and make it have a glossy surface.

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Initial Artist (2009)

My High School Art 1 class studied movements from the 20th Century. Students chose an artist from one of those movements to recreate one of their famous paintings. They designed a letter of the artist's initial and build box using cardboard and paper mache. Next students painted a layer of gesso and sketched the painting to wrap all the way around the letter. Finally students painted their letter using acrylic paint trying to replicate the colors and style of the original artist. Final projects were on display in the Spring Art Show. Students were so proud of their artwork and they did a fantastic job! The nice thing about these projects are that they're super light weight and you can hang them with fishing line from the ceiling.

                                                                    Andy Warhol

                                                                  Vincent Van Gogh

                                                                   Norman Rockwell

                                                                     Andy Warhol

                                                                       Edgar Degas

                                                                    Frank Stella

                                                                   Wayne Thiebaud

                                                                     Jasper Johns

                                                              Georges Seraut

                                                              2009 Spring Art Show

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans. splattersandsmudges@gmail.com You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**

Student Teaching Days

I'm beginning to upload photos of art projects I've taught over the last 6 years. I guess it makes sense to me to start back in the beginning...the days of student teaching. I was very blessed to have great master teachers that really mentored me in my teacher training and bravely relinquished their classrooms to me. (I'm not sure that I could ever have a student teacher because I'm too much of a control freak in my classroom).

My first art project that I completely planned and taught on my own was with 8th graders. I saw this idea from another teacher and adjusted it to fit the level of my students and turned it into an art history project. I must say that this project would have never been successful without the help of my master teacher (thank you Andrea!) There definitely needed to be two adults on hand to supervise and keep the students on task.

Initial Artists (2006)
The premise of this project was to teach the kids about 20th century art history. They were given a brief introduction to about 30 different artists and their artwork. (Students selected one of those artist to research and choose a piece of art to recreate. They began by drawing the letter of the artist's initial (first or last name) and cut it out of cardboard. Next they constructed the letter into a box and paper mached the surface. They then painted gesso, sketched the painting to wrap around the box and finally painted it with acrylic paint. Students also created a web page with the research on their artist and then presented their Initial Artist to the class.

The projects turned out fantastic and were on display for the school's art show. The students loved it, parents loved it, teachers loved it. It took about a month to create with the help of two art teachers. I have sense made this project two more times with high school students.

                                                        This was my teacher example

**As with any art project I post please email me if you have questions about materials used, processes, or if you would like lesson plans.   splattersandsmudges@gmail.com    You can also ask questions in the comment section below each post.**