Fish Pond Printing

Our fish prints are done, and boy are they cute.  To make them, kindergarten and first grade blew bubbles into a bowl of soapy water into which blue liquid water color paint had been added.  When the bubbles rose up over the rim of the bowl they gently pressed their paper onto the bubbles filling their paper with a foamy print and we set these aside to dry.
During our next class we did some practice drawing about fish.  We noticed oval shaped bodies and triangular tails.  We practiced drawing fins and scales.  When kids had a fish they were satisfied with they drew their final design on a piece of 3"X4" copy paper.  The paper was taped onto a piece of Styrofoam and kids drew over their lines pressing hard to make an impression in the foam, and we cut them out.
On week three we set up a printing station and kids inked up their printing plates and printed them onto their bubble print.  I folded a piece of masking tape on itself and taped the ends to the back of the printing plate to make a little handle for the kids lift their plate off the paper.  We worked in small groups, and kids cycled through the centers we now have up and running again.
Lots of fun watching little ones become printmakers.
Recipe for bubble prints:
Into a cereal-sized bowl add a squirt of liquid soap, a squirt of liquid watercolor, and the tiniest amount of water to barely cover the bottom of the straw.  Bubble away!

My New Love--Tara Publishing

The Flight of the Mermaid

You can see from my last post that I've been inspired by Gond Tribal Art lately.  I know children will be as enchanted by the bright happy colors, beautiful patterns, and simple designs, as I am. 

As I wandered around the net researching Gond artists and looking for spectacular examples to share with my students I found my new love....Tara Publishing.  If you love art books, collect children's books, or have a very special child in your life; you must check this out.  

Tara Publishing is based in India and has created a selection of wonderfully illustrated books with the help of Indian artists and traditional designs.  This is a small publishing house and many of the books are silk screened by hand by a commune of artisans, and bound by hand as well. I Like Cats is a fabulous a beautiful handmade picture book.   

I spent a long time trying to decide which book I wanted to buy first and then gave up.  I'm going to send them all my money and buy everything.  You can buy the books on-line at Tara Publishing.    

If you need to be convinced, check out their facebook page.  

Gond Tribal Art Patterns

"Deep in the forests of Central India, lives a tribe called Gond.  The girls and boys of the Gond tribe learn traditional painting and other crafts at a very young age.  gond painting is done with very bright colors and the basic form is filled with tiny dots an dashes.  Like most of the other tribal paintings, this also used to be done on the mud walls of houses.  Originally, natural colors were used.  The main colors being, deep red (from Al tree), yellow (from leaves), and red(from hibiscus flower). Now, however poster colors are used."  Themes include festivals, myths and folk tales, birds, horses, tigers, fish and others. 

http://www.indianewspost.com/lifestyle/38921-showcase_of_gond_art_to_keep_artist_s_legacy_alive.html 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/roondeer-nankushiya-jangarh-singh-shyam.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gandara/3446167223/in/photostream/

http://www.tarabooks.com/books/books2/

Rainbow Fish

I love this system for introducing the color wheel and color mixing to young students.  I think the idea came from Deep Space Sparkle and it works so well.  With a sharpie draw three circles on the plate.  This is where kids will mix the secondary colors.  In the in-between places drop a dab of red, yellow, and blue paint.  The circles give the kids a visual cue where to mix their paint so everything ends up neat and tidy.

We used our newly mixed colors to paint us some RAINBOW fish.

We added pattens and colors with oil pastels.

We cut them out.

Tomorrow we'll add a border and paste them here.

Beautiful.

First and Second Grade.

Sock Bunnies at School

A big hit!  We're moving on to monkeys!

Sock Bunnies Are Here!

After School Programs are so much fun.
This week kids are fine-tuning basic sewing skills and making this little guy.  Want to join in the fun?  A wonderful how-to can be found at Such Things Beloved .

Urban Canvas: How We Do Street Art

Spring weather makes think of sidewalk chalk.



You can visit the site here:
http://www.urbancanvas.org.uk/works.htm