The Patterns & Textures of Memphis

My wife & I celebrated our 10th anniversary by going to Memphis to visit the brand new IKEA & Graceland.  I found myself being drawn to all the patterns & textures at IKEA, our hotel (The Guest House at Graceland...highly recommend!!), and Graceland.  I think there is an art lesson here!!  Do you ever get fixated on things like this??  My wife was like..."ARE YOU TAKING MORE PICTURES OF THE WALLS?" ha ha

This first group of pictures were taken at IKEA...some are of bedding & others from their fabric area.  I LOVE THEM SO!!!! 

The next group were taken at The Guest House at Graceland.  

We loved our stay at this hotel..just beautiful! 

This last group is from Graceland! 

Texture Necklaces: Kindergarten

                                         

Oh how the kiddos love this project. A former student(now in high school) told me he still has his!! I use yogurt lids for the students to use to keep the shape better.  I love my old metal cabenit I store clay in..I just write with crayon on the shelf....then use a Magic Eraser to get it off when I am done.

Kindergarten LOVES Texture Plates!!

It was like CHRISTMAS in the art room today!!!!  My kindergarten students LOVE LOVE LOVE texture plates!!!  They don't just love them..they are using them appropriately in their pictures!  We may need to use them a few more times this year now that I know it is a crowd favorite.  

Roylco has great texture plates....go check them out!!!

http://roylco.com/

HERE IS A TIP FROM 2010 ABOUT TEXTURE PLATES!!!

http://artwithmre.blogspot.com/2010/10/texture-lessonrubbing-plate-storage.html

Paper Sculpture/ Texture Focus: Kindergarten

My student teacher wanted to do a texture plate rubbing background on the papers before the students created a rough, bumpy, and smooth paper sculpture on top of it.  I think they turned out wonderful, and this is a twist on an old project I'll continue to use. Another reason why it is so great to have student teachers...they bring something different to the table!!  

Textured Fall Trees: 1st Grade

This is one of my student teacher's lessons. I usually do this with Kindergarten(minus the tissue paper leaves).    It was amazing how much the 1st graders struggled with glue?!?!?!  Kind of shouldn't be too surprised...there was struggles in Kindergarten with this group.  At least I know..and can provide more opportunities to use liquid glue.  

Clay Texture Necklaces - Kindergarten

I do texture necklaces with kindergarten every year...and it is always a hit.  This year though, I decided to change it up a little.  I usually only allow the students to use clay tools to create their textures in the clay.  This year I was doing a mini dino unit with kindergarten...and decided to pull that into this lesson.  I allowed the students to press small plastic dinosaurs into their clay, use sea shells around the edges, and their clay tool to finish off the piece.  THEY HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!  I had them paint them with metallic tempera paint.  I had never used the metallic tempera before(I love metallic acrylic!!).  I really like it, but you do need to have the students put at least two coats on to get full coverage!  

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P.S,

Sorry I have not posted for awhile....my family got to experience all 4 of us sick at the same time with a nasty stomach bug that is going around!  It was a rough weekend...and I am just now beginning to feel a bit normal(relatively speaking!?!?).  

Texture Lesson/Rubbing Plate Storage

Every year I do a texture unit with Kindergarten.  I start by using rubbing plates to show actual(tactile) & visual texture.  They also make a great sound!! One of the problems I have though is the texture plates are hard to store & pass out.  They are slippery little buggers!!  So I finally decided the best way to do it is  separate them out into gallon Ziploc/Hefty bags.  This keeps the neat & organized.  The students pull them out & put them back as they are using them...so they are all over the place.  Today was the first time I used them...worked like a dream! 

Kindergarten Tackles Texture

I had the students start by drawing a grid on their paper(This can be a

challenge with Kinderbabies!! ha ha). They then used texture plates under

their paper to create these crayon rubbings.

Students created texture medallions in clay.

They will be turned into necklaces once fired. Students created texture in the grassy area of their pictures by fringing the edges of their paper with scissors. This was one of the first times we used scissors and glue in class. They did an amazing job!!

1st-3rd Group Landscape In Progress PART 2