This has been a very exciting lesson for our fourth and fifth grade students - creating their own comic books! To inspire ideas, I created a Powerpoint highlighting vintage science fiction and action hero comics as well as familiar action hero stories. I gathered a collection of student-appropriate graphic novels in different genres such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Indiana Jones from the library. Then I read my son's comic book he wrote in elementary school so we could see what worked and what could be improved. Finally, we brainstormed ideas for their stories. I invited them to work with a partner which most were eager to do. The first two weeks, we focused on writing the story as well as learning the basics of comic book art (speaking and thought bubbles, changing the background colors in each panel, adding details and changing the background, perspective, zooming in, size and other drawing and coloring techniques). We explored the elements of a good story - how to introduce and develop the characters so that we identify with them and begin to care about them, setting up an adversary, creating action and events, how to draw out and develop the plot. With only an hour once a week it has been a slow process, but seeing the level of engagement in this lesson I believe it is well worth the time! Below are some pages from the finished comics. It was hard to send these home.
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Brooks fourth grade teachers and I embarked on a special Mother's day project. Making sure to be sensitive to those without moms, we focused on giving these special love messages in a bottle to moms, grandmothers, dads or a special person in the student's life. First, in art we decoupaged a wine bottle with layers of tissue paper. Next, students brainstormed their own words honoring and describing their mother such as: hardworking, caring, loving, fishing fiend, beautiful, etc. Then students drew a portrait (or used a photo) that they glued onto the bottle, surrounded by their words. Next, I hot glued on their silk flowers and ribbons. Students took time to write a special letter to their loved one talking about special memories such as, "Grandmother, remember when you took me camping and we sat around the campfire telling stories? The fire was smoky and you kept moving to get away from it until we all laughed that it was chasing you. I can still taste the s'mores and hear the crackling fire. I loved that time with you." I guarantee there were some tearful moms on Sunday who now have a special gift they can cherish! This spring my kindy, first, second and third grade students enjoyed a delightful lesson on bullying and believing in yourself. We began with the story Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. Gerald the Giraffe is clumsy and feels he can't dance and is laughed at by the other animals. He meets up with a cricket who encourages him to listen to the breezes in the trees and to tune in to a different song, to hear music that is special for him. He does and then begins to feel the rhythm until he is boldly dancing. Others admire him and soon his confidence and self assurance grows. We took time to decipher all the messages in the story, about treating others more carefully as well as positive self-talk. Students painted the background, stamp painted the giraffe skin paper and mountains paper. We even took time to examine a full moon and talked about how craters on the moon were made. This coincided with April's "blood red moon" which my students were eager to tell me all about! Mrs. Teskey's third grade students at Oxbow worked with Milford High School art students on a special team project. Students from Tara Johnson’s ceramics class came to Oxbow and helped our third grade students design monsters based on Maurice Sendak’s book Where the Wild Things Are. The high school students then used the colorful drawings to create clay sculptures of each monster. Then these were fired, under-glazed, fired, glazed with an over-glaze, then fired a final time. During the final firing, Ms. Johnson's kiln went on the fritz. So she packed the monsters up and we completed the firing at Oxbow. Students got a special peak into the kiln once it was loaded. Currently, some of these are being displayed at Oxbow and some are being shown in the Milford High art show. Wow! Our unit on Egypt was especially exciting for my art students. All grades enjoyed a chance to learn about mummies, the mummification process, Egyptian tombs and artifacts and writing using pictographs. I kicked off the unit by popping out of a full size sarcophagus (mummy case) as each class entered the room. Of course, this led to students taking turns for a quick visit for themselves inside the case. Then table teams traced around a student who lay arms crossed on top of two huge sheets of butcher paper. Each team then eagerly drew and designed their pharoah's mummy case including headdress, jewels, and intricate Egyptian designs on the front and back. They also wrote a secret message using Egyptian pictograhs on the front and back. Finally we stuffed them with newspaper and stapled the mummies closed. This lesson was so successful that students insisted on taking turns taking their finished mummy home to share with their families.
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March 2024
AuthorMy name is Mrs. Krupa and I'm an elementary art teacher at Oxbow Elementary. I'm a professional harpist turned art teacher of 20 years. I'll share art lessons and ideas on these pages, what works and doesn't. Enjoy! Categories
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