Art Class: Clay

Students had a blast with the introduction of air-dry clay. They tried using the cookie cutter method to churn out a high production of clay pieces, taking into consideration the craftsmanship and design. Some students accepted the challenge of making handbuilding work by combining function and form. There were a number of details to lookout for such as knowing how to distribute the pressure evenly so that the clay will be rolled out evenly, positioning of the cookie cutters to maximise the space, judging the thickness of the clay, smoothening the edges, preventing the drying clay from warping, what to do with remaining clay, painting on dried clay. 

Most students love hands-on work and they learn best while working on something rather than excessive teacher talk. I always liken experiential learning with swimming. Would you learn better with more practices in the pool or from watching swimming videos? 

Spray bottles work as well as rolling pins

Art Class: Air-dry Clay Monsters Pinch Pots

 

Hi Teachers! I'm working on a new lesson unit on monster pinch pots this term. I will love seeing the creative ideas as they bring flat drawing to form. When making these pinch pots, I created a few extras just in case the children had theirs broken in the process so they will not be too disappointed.

Children will learn with experience that not all 2D drawings will translate directly to a stable 3D piece. It's great to let the children learn as they do and allow them to realise what works best. The final artwork has to stand on its own and attachments definitely has to be firmly secured. Please check back to see our progress. 

Art Class: Surrealism in Watercolour

 

Watercolour is an unforgiving medium. Its transparency is beautiful but a mistake is clearly visible unlike the acrylic paint where you can go over it by applying a new layer. 

I prefer to let the students use acrylic paint but since I'm conducting art class in the classrooms, I'm changing the medium. A good thing is each class is equipped with a sink so at least they still can wash their supplies without making visits to the washrooms. 

I prepared paint on the plastic lid and allow them to dry before distributing them to the students. They would just need to fill the continer with water and start paint. To clean up, they will empty the container and allow the paint to dry the same way when they have just received them. I made a watercolour video and the students will be learning to apply the techniques to their drawings. We'll see how it goes.

Art Class: Paintings

Hi teachers! how I miss working in the art room. I have only been using them as storage rooms for the children's artworks since three months ago. 

These graduated students from last year did their Surrealist paintings. They managed to complete them prior to their final exams. Take it as your graduation gifts 😆 was what I'd told them. 

Art Class: The Impact of Images Worksheets

I've designed a set of 10 worksheets some time ago for the older students. This was an extension activity to the Photography unit. The first question is: What was the first thing you noticed in the photo above? The other is: How does the image make you feel? Why? I would select some students' thoughtful responses and share with the class. Do you give out worksheets for art class?

Art Class: What's this tool?

Hi! I was cleaning out my sewing box when I found this tool. I seldom use them but they can be very useful for beginners. Let's watch to find out!

Art Class: Introduction to Sewing

Phew! I had just finished packing the resources for a new project. In a few more weeks, the Primary Six students will start their sewing project. Let me share some ways of distributing the coloured threads without getting them all tangled up. In my video, I explained how to remove the threads from the kitchen rolls and putting back when needed. The children will be using burlap as a canvas for their sewing project. 

Art Class: Pixel Art on Window Panels

The children were using the window panels as canvas. They used coloured sticky notes to create an artwork. I designed a worksheet for them to work on the calculations before transferring the digital image to the actual work. They had to take measurements of the window panels first and divide the length and width per unit (per sticky note) to count the number of sticky notes they needed. The image looked rather simple but they had to be quite precise and persist as they learn to work with a paper plan first and not trial and error.

Art Class: Pixel Art with MS Excel

Hi Teachers!

For the past few weeks, it has been extremely fast-paced and unpredictable. We are suddenly propelled into a strange and unfamiliar world. While everyone has to grapple with disruptions to their daily routines, including myself, the temporary inconvenience is nothing compared to losing your place on Earth.

While Singaporeans are now put on a circuit breaker, it is still a privilege to sit in front of multiple screens with Wifi and still be able do our job. We are on full Home-Based Learning (HBL) since 8 April and it will last a month. We are uncertain if this arrangement will be extended but teachers are on a rotation basis and will still be returning to school on some days. 

My students created digital Art using MS Excel in Term 1 given the theme Machine/ Cartoon. We looked at artists who made art with precision and the planning stage is vital to scale up art pieces or mural.

Check back to see their final artwork!

Art Class: Parts to Whole

Ever seen this noise barrier at construction sites? The purpose of these panels are to minimise noise and dust to the surrounding residences due to the underground MRT construction. It's the details that matter. On closer inspection, I suppose that the individual rectangular panels can be taken apart and put together. The different colours have to be fixed in a calculated manner to enable others to see a represented image of trees. It's interesting to discuss about what we see on the streets. Hopefully, those children who did not get a chance to see these will be able to observe one soon. 

Art Class: Surrealist Paintings

I do wish the P6 students have more time to touch up their Surrealist paintings. Since their PSLE exams have ended, they are now busy attending post-exam activities and doing their final community project. Some artists' works which we looked at were Salvador Dali's, Rene Magritte's and Meret Oppenheim's.

I like sharing the children's book, Dinner at Magritte's by Michael Garland. Got mine, second hand, at Amazon. The illustration contains many references to paintings from Surrealist artists which poses intriguing questions for classroom discussions.

The most challenging part in this unit is idea generation for the students. Some students spent too much time on conceptualising their ideas and compromise on their painting time. I think if I were to continue to collect photos of past year students' works and their write ups, I would be able to share more ideas with current students to hasten the work process. 

Art Class: Yarn and Burlap (Part II)

To prepare the burlaps ready for sewing, instructions for applying the white glue along the perimeter of the burlaps were given. There is no photo at this stage as I was busy preventing any burlaps from drowning in glue. The students used their finger to apply the glue by placing the burlap on a piece of recycled paper with the gloss finish.

Their actual sewing lesson started the following week and I did a live demo using my visualiser. To start off, students sew a border so that I have sufficient time to see that everyone is able to do basic straight stitching. Chalks were provided for the students to roughly mark out their images in the center of their canvas.

A few preventive points which I had to address the class are to resist pulling the stitch too tightly which would result in an uneven surface. Another point is that the stitches should not be too long individually. I suspect some students' intention was to complete the project with the least effort. Even if long stitches do get the work done, their work might not be long-lasting if something catches the stitch accidentally and it could destroy their work. 

Art Class: Yarn and Burlap

It's quite amazing after four years in my current school, I'm still finding a use for materials purchased ages ago. I won't bat an eyelid even if the materials are older than me! I'm trialling this lesson unit so that the graduating classes can pick up sewing and increase their dexterity. I mean their school shoes are tightened with velcro, not shoelace anymore. Something that I've taken for granted is the tying of knots, it is not a given for some twelve years old. Tying a double knot at the end of the yarn is the foundation and toughest for most of them as it requires the second knot to sit on the first one to prevent the yarn from pulling through the burlap. A single knot would be sufficient if the yarn is much thicker. Since I'm making do with what I have, it is good enough too. 

I showed some published articles to the children about the claim that surgery students are losing dexterity to do stitching and this video even show how medical students in a Japanese hospital are put through origami making to recruit surgical students. You can view it here. 

Art Class: Meaningful Memes

There is something about the visual impact that memes create and after some research, I managed to put together a lesson unit. Internet meme is a type of communication tool that combines image(s) and text in a context.

I enjoy reading memes that relates to our lives and so I compiled and decode a list that I think my student could relate to. Here is one of them:

Children are easily amused and I think I could do them a favour by asking them to articulate why they think something is funny or what contributes to a good meme. In the above example, I personally like it a lot and it's brilliant. The fact that it rode effortlessly on the fad of the #10yearchallenge which everyone on social media was doing to "show the improved version of themselves", and still managed to promote the brand. This meme is current and it starkly contrasts with the point of the #10yearchallenge. Thus, to understand this meme, the audience needs to have prior knowledge of what the #10yearchallenge is and to cater to a wider audience and making it more memorable, one has to think of how their ideas can be applicable to a wider audience. Otherwise, it is possible that the students will create something only ONE other friend understood.

Last week, our school officially started the use of Google Suite. It was the BEST thing ever! I find the platform more effective in distributing classroom materials and students could do their work at their own pace.

I chanced upon this blog and adapted a lesson resource. By combining the local Art syllabus' recommended list of the 32 artworks by local and international artists on Google drawing, the students could do their own research. The Google drawing page acts like a meme generator so we can avoid those meme generator websites which could sometimes contain inappropriate materials. You can click on this link here to make a copy.

I spent about four lessons for students' research/ journaling and they also sketch their own memes first. Next, I wanted the children to adapt the images and we had our class discussion on plagarism.

Students' sketches

From this point forward, I felt that I was digging my own grave. The ipads were good for research or using apps and I could have asked the students to use the Paint programme for editing but I thought learning Photoshop tricks are more substantial. To do so, we needed to get to the computer labs because the Photoshop app on the ipads would require phone verification. The students were quite impatient when the Photoshop programme were lagging/ installing or hanging in the computer labs and to some extent, it affects the momentum of the lesson. 

Looking on the bright side, at least I could put the Google drawing (Yay to G Suite!) meme generator to good use and the students could still create their own memes and Paint programme is still good to fall back on. 

I wanted the students to understand layering in Photoshop and we spent some time exploring making hamburgers before using the photo editing programme to create their memes. Those who could successfully saved their Photoshop working files and JPEG files on sharing folder posted the JPEG image on Class Dojo Portfolio would allow their parents to see their work and my comments.

I'm happy with their exploration in these lessons and I think given adequate support and guided instructions, the children can grasp the concept of layering quite quickly after some struggles. There were very few students who know about Photoshop before this unit and exposing this tool to them would allow them to see how manipulation of images can influence perception. 

Class Dojo

Hamburgers using Photoshop