Dollar Tree Oil Pastel Review

WAS excited to see these at my local Dollar Tree....emphasis on WAS! 

What my review & you'll see why!

Sargent Art Fluorescent & Metallic Oil Pastels

Do you all use Fluorescent & Metallic Oil Pastels in your classroom? I purchased the Sargent Art brand version of these oil pastels.   Here are swatches of a few of the Fluorescent & all the Metallic(6 colors).

The Fluorescent works wonderfully on white/light paper, but I do not recommend it for dark.  The Metallic works well on both, but really pops on the black!  There are a ton of fun projects you can use these on.  I did not get a class set worth, but have enough to make "stations" for students to use on certain projects.   Would love to hear how you use these materials in your art room! 

Dinosaur Tracks: Kindergarten

My kindergarten was busy tracking dinosaurs today in art class!! I started by reading Mine-o-Saur in the reading area(great book if you have not read it!!). Once they returned to their seats I provided handouts with a variety of dinosaur footprints. After making their selection they drew the dino prints across their paper. They then used two colors of fluorescent oil pastels to color the prints. Finally they did a wash over the whole page using two colors of fluorescent watercolors.  I think they turned out dino-tastic!!

Two Georgia O'Keeffe Lessons

This week I'm using Georgia O'Keeffe as the inspiration for 3rd & 4th grade, but the projects they are doing are not the same. I love to use artists as jumping off points without doing a direct copy of the inspiration artist/art work. 

3rd grade is creating flower "ish" op art drawings using Sharpie. Next step will be to use watercolor pencils(three colors) to create a gradation of color.

4th grade are creating a mixed media piece that may look more traditionally O'Keeffe, but it is a bit more abstracted & less flower like.  I wanted my students to have an opportunity to work with oil pastels & color blending.  They did a watercolor wash over top of the picture when they were complete.

Oil Pastels With 2nd Grade

I admit it...I'm not a fan of messy stuff!!  Oil Pastels fit in that category for me.  However, I love the color...love what can be done with them...so I "deal" with the mess.  This 2nd Grader blew me away with her work today!!

Practicum Student Mrs. J: 1st Grade Seahorses With Pattern

Mrs. J is another practicum student from MTSU that has been spending time in my art room.  She taught a lesson to 1st grade on seahorses.  The students loved her Power Point & enjoyed working with oil pastels for the first time.  They focused on Shape & Pattern.  

Mrs. J has a great teacher voice & is very animated when she is giving instruction!  

The seahorses turned out very cute!!  I loved the variety of patterns & color!!

Oh Georgia!

          

I tend to put some of my best student work on my blog....I think most of us do that.  However, like you....some of my students struggle to follow directions, complete tasks, or give me their best work.  Aren't we all like that from time to time? 

So how do we motivate the student that is not meeting grade level expectations?

PATIENCE is a big thing!  At the end of the school year...I know it can be in short supply.  Many of our children need to be loved & encouraged through the struggles.  Sometimes those struggles are not reflective of their feelings/abilities for art...but go deeper into personal/home life issues.  Not that we need to make excuses...but have understanding.

Next...don't let them get away with it!  Call them out on what they are doing wrong.  They won't grow if they don't know...or aren't made aware that you expect more from them.

Spend time with them...set down and work beside them with one of your examples.  Model good artist behavior...model good craftmanship.  Things like this are better caught than taught.  They "catch" you doing the right thing...they may try to "copy" that behavior!!  

Not long now...you can do it!!!  Help your kids finish out strong!!

Hands Across Time & Place: 3rd Grade

My third graders have been looking at cultural connections world wide.  We've tried to find themes, similarities, and shared experiences.  We've really enjoyed looking at "HANDS" through out history...and through out the world! Here is a great website if you are interesting in doing a project such as this ....... CLICK!!! -WEBSITE ON HANDS-CLICK!!!

::QUESTIONS::

"WHY WOULD HANDS BE A COMMON/SHARED THEME AROUND THE WORLD & THROUGHOUT TIME?"

"WHY ARE HANDS STILL IMPORTANT TO US TODAY?"

"HOW CAN WE MAKE HANDS PERSONAL?"

Students started by tracing & cutting out their hand.  On their first day they selected their color palette & used color pencils to go around their hands. On the second day they used oil pastels, watercolor, construction paper, and construction paper crayons.  The oil pastels & watercolor had to be within the color palette the selected before...and the construction paper had to be a contrasting color.  I loved the results, but do think we could spend another class time adding a bit more to them.

African Clay Masks: 3rd Grade

I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING I KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THIS SPACE ABOVE HERE?!?!!?!?  I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT IS DOING THAT???

This project started at the beginning of the 2nd 9 weeks, but just finished this week!  To kick the unit off, we looked at & discussed African Masks.  We looked at many from different parts of Africa...with many different purposes....and many different designs. We started by drawing our mask out & writing a description of what the meaning of our mask.  The following week students created their mask out of clay.  We went over all the wonderful clay techniques they could use in their masks: texture, addition, subtraction, piercing..etc.  

THEN WE WAITED!  It was a very wet start of the 9 weeks...so the clay took longer to dry than usual.  We moved on to our circle weavings(post coming soon).....so I had plenty of time to allow the clay to dry & fire it.  

This week students have been using oil pastels to "color" their clay.  We use paper towel to really rub the oil pastel into the surface.  

I then dipped the clay into a black paint/water bath.  I used both tempera and acrylic paint to create my "bath"...and it seemed to do the trick.  I had to add water each day(didn't have a closed container) and stir it up...but other than that...it was no problem at all!!  

After giving them time to dry...I'm brushing a quick coat of TEMPERA VARNISH on top.  I love tempera varnish..low odor...not very expensive...great results!!  

"Corn"dinsky Corn Ears

One of my practicum students did a mixed media lesson with oil pastels and collage to create corn ears.  They are only here two days a week, so I decided to change it up a little on the days I was teaching the lesson.  I showed the students an image of Kandinsky's Farbstudie Quadrate.  We used that as inspiration for the corn!!!  I think it is kind of a fun twist on Kandinsky's work! ha ha