kellicrowe

matisse art project - homeschool

Matisse Art Project.

We did this several years in a row in pretty diff ways. I like to pick out a fun artist (ie - someone my boys can stand to look at several of their pictures in a row without asking how many more we have to see) to highlight every week or so.

We do this during homeschool on Fridays. Matisse. Like him. The boys like him. I ordered these little booklets on some of the major artists a few years back from some educational catalog. It has info about his life and kid friendly (ie - not naked) art inside. It also suggested some art projects.

Personally - I think all this could be achieved in a few clicks on the computer. I do not like the library. I know - what kind of homeschool mommy am I? One who doesn't like the library. The books feel germie to me. I know germs can not thrive on books on a shelf....but still.

Matisse project #1 Did this with a 4 and 5 year old I mixed reg. glue and water in a bowl to make the glue thin. I let the kids paint brush the glue onto a piece of poster board. Then the kid tore tissue paper and placed it on the glue. Total time - 20 minutes from start to hand washing. The kids loved tearing the paper. The glue will become the color of the tissue paper if you slide the paper around. SO - I encouraged the boys to just lay the paper down and not slide it.

Matisse was a painter. But he also painted bright pages and then cut the shapes up to use in his collages. My boys were pretty young - so I let them tear the paper. We looked at Matisse's work when he painted and when he used paper. We compared and contrasted the two.

Alex - 4 - made a colorful collage with his papers. David - 5 - made a warrior These pictures are framed and in our long hall way upstairs. In our "gallery."

Matisse Project #2 The following year we talked about Matisse again. This time the boys were 5 and 6. I selected several pictures by Matisse to show the kids. Reviewed his life. The kids were given the squares of colorful paper to fill in the back ground - like in our sample pictures. Then I gave them a bunch of Matisse like shapes of brightly colored paper. They both chose to make a picture of themselves. David's is a tiny figure of himself with shapes (that represent the music) all around him. Alex's figure of himself is much bigger. His lines coming from his head are him talking and singing.

The idea was to lead the kids in a project where we imitated the artist's style. But the kids were not re-creating a particular picture. They still got to play and be creative within the parameters I gave them.

Oh - David liked it so much - he made a dinosaur and several warriors out of his shapes.

The following year we used the bulletin board to make more pictures with these shapes. Matisse would pin his pictures up on a board and move around the shapes for weeks before gluing them down. I think this year when we talk about him - I will let the boys paint and then cut the shapes themselves and have a little more flexibility in what they produce.

 I am not a "memorize this picture" kind of art of teacher. I just want to expose the kids to different ways of being creative. I know some will totally bore them. But some may get them so excited that they can't wait to make more. I just can't ever tell which way it will work out.

My sources for homeschool resources and what I use

Alex and David - first day of school - Aug 2004 School Supplies: muscle shirts, new Sponge Bob underwear, and markers.  That is what my kids needed for their first day of school.

Me? I needed more. So where do I get my stuff? There are so many resources. So many. I think I got all of mine from that Dummies book.

Here is my fave: I get almost everything from Rainbow Resources. I get a catalogue once a year...almost 1000 pages. It looks a lot like a phone book. Anything I could think of using from games, to early reading books to actual text books.  

I own other "how to" books on homeschooling. I have other catalogues. But really - I get everything from the dummies book and this ordering catalogue. Now - there may be a homeschool store close by. Or a Homeschool Expo - even better. If you could possibly look at or hold an item in your hand...that is ideal.

Back to my list of things I want the kids to learn - here is my reference book / text book for each subject item: Adventure Bible Study: My Bible. My husband. Ideas from thier Sunday school class.  I didn't buy anything for this. (SO we call it Adventure b/c we have it in a fort we made. We read by flashlight. It just makes it more interesting and blocks out distractions for them. Adventure = fun.

Pledge & memory verse: I bought a small flag that the kids take turns holding as we say the Pledge. I looked the Pledge up on line...Hey, I know it....but just not something I wanted to accidentally teach them wrong.

Memory verse - my Bible. So far I bought a flag.

Journal / Calendar / Weather: Journal = those black and white bound notebooks. They started by just drawing a picture based on a question I asked. Sometimes I got my questions based on what we learned the previous day (draw a pyramid, etc.) Sometimes it was just to know what they thought, to solve a problem about sharing, things that related to our family at the time. I would write what they said. Now they do some writing too. This was one of those long term skills of writing daily / creatively/ expressively that I wanted to start working towards early.

Cal & weather - kept track of that with a big desk calendar from Wal-mart.

Math U Can See - Yep - the first chink in my armor of knowledge. I stink at Math. This has a DVD for me, manipulatives for the kids and books at diff levels. web site: www.mathusee.com 1-888-854-math (6284) Some companies have local reps that you order thru (Usborn books is like that...like Tupperwear) This company is like that too. So, local person to talk to...nice. There were cheaper programs than this - but this was a weak point of mine - so I needed extra help for ME.

Art - my computer, my kid's magazines like Family Fun, Martha Stewart Kids. I am using this year Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks. Got it at Barnes & Noble. Broken down into lessons. This is one of my strong areas - so not a lot was invested in this. I did make a list of artists and then showed my kids their style. We would each week pick a diff one. Like Jackson Pollack was our first one. We just happened to have a children's story book about him already. I took old wrapping paper (UGLY stuff for 90% off a few weeks after Christmas) and rolled out on the yard face down (white side up). And I let them fling paint to music just like JP did.

Def. make a list before you go to Michael's because it is easy to rack up a big bill there with lots of $2.99 items. I stock up when they have sales. Pipe cleaners can be used to teach ANYTHING:)

Creativity - fun thing on Fri, I keep two big containers of mostly recyle items, show boxes, etc. The kids get to just build, create, paint whatever....I help - but they have to pick what to make and figure out how to make it work. Creativity, scientific method, simple machines, self expression, role play all have come into play when letting them work on this. Then they have a show and tell for Daddy (public speaking:) that night. Warning - boys WILL make guns at some point. So - bought nothing really.

History - www.susanwisebauer.com or www.peacehillpress.com That is where I got the Well Trained Mind book (which is an over view of classical ed. for k-12) I use her The Story of the World books. The history of the world in 4 years. Literature, history religion all tied in with stories, crafts and skits and food. I took a humanities course in college that combined all three of these primary subjects together and it really made sense to me to learn about all three at once. Now - my kids' peers in school are not learning some of this stuff right now. They are learning about the USA, their neighborhood, maps, etc. That is ok. We will get to that. This is the main area we have that doesn't match up with reg. school. I bought reference books - atlas, history time line books for this. BUT - these are reference books I will use all 12 years.

Spanish - I stink at Spanish. I taught the kids this year ok. But I want them to learn from someone who can really pronounce things properly. My kids are going to take a class one day a week for an hour. There are most likely lots of these classes the kids can take in your area. We checked with out city and county first, YMCA, homeschool groups and then finally, a friend who already knows the language is a resource. Not a huge deal to me - I NEVER learned another lang in elem. school. So I consider this a luxury item.

Science - At this age - science = FUN! I want the kids to love science way before we get to the heavy stuff. The Well Trained Mind suggests who to plan for each year and topics to explore. I bought an animal encyclopedia. Science projects are way easy to find on line and at Family Fun mag. We subscribe to National Geographic for Kids. The web site - www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids

Social - I keep track of this b/c I want to be able to show anyone who is worried about my poor sheltered kids that they are out there and a part of society. Any place where they interact with kids, or have meaningful interaction with adults counts for me. Their Bible study at church, play dates b-day parties, teams they play on, clubs, etc....I write it down.

Reading for David - my practical kid. $20 for Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons by Englemann, Haddox & Bruner. It took us a lot more than 100 days to do these lessons. A LOT MORE. I started using Bob books (sold in box sets that are super simple early readers) about half way through.

Reading for Alex - loves interaction. I just broke down and bought Hooked on Phonics for him. $$$ - yes. There were lots of these sets on e-bay. But really - it was the timing and his love of computers and sticker charts and bells and whistles (which this has) that works for him. I had tried several other programs and they just were not working for us.

PE - Ick. We have a trampoline outside, a small one inside (fidgety kids have to jump and count to 100 on it for me if they are having trouble paying attention...pe and math:) We go to the pool in the summer, the kids do stretching with me in morning (my exercises...just making them do it too) They have taken gym classes and played soccer and karate. They just haven't found a sport they love. We try to get them, with us, to do athletic stuff. There are classes they can take that are like sports basics kind of classes. Alex will probably take golf lessons this fall from Daddy and a tennis clinic. David doesn't care a thing about sports.

Extra - Ya know - only in elementary school and Jr high do we expect kids to excel at everything. When else in life is any person...adult...expected to do well in every subject and do ok in each sport? When I declared my major in college, it was the first time that it was acknowledged that I stink in higher level math and science. "OH, you want to be an English major? Well, are you interested in this science class for NON - science majors? We have a math class for math loosers...I mean, non - math majors as well." IT ROCKED. I learned the important stuff. There just wasn't the expectation that I should be an A student in everything anymore. I got to specialize in my areas of interest while still learning important stuff across the board. I want my kids to get a chance to specialize now.

Alex is gonna learn step by step with me how to run the Adobe software I just got. (E-bay and then bought the upgrade.....saved $100's) Last year, I gave him lessons with my video camera and my digital camera. Alex is going to take gutar lessons from the teenager down the street.

David loves to draw and build. I try to get him around local artists. He had art lessons this past year. My kids are going to take art lessons from a local artist this year along with another family.

Ok - so that was a lot. These are my resources. There is so much out there. It is easy to get bogged down in choices and spend money unwisely. That is why I made the list and filled in the blanks. And you don't have to learn everything right this minute. Look through your house - I bet you have cookbooks, games, toys, books that are educational in some way. In the early freak out phase - it is easy to forget how much YOU already know and how much you already have. I freak out every year. It is ok and normal.

At least that is what I keep telling myself:) kelli

Flag Art Project

American Flag Art Project We haven't studied American History yet. Alex loves flags (like his Mommy:) So when he said he wanted to have his new room "decorated to look like the American Flag" I had to come up with a plan. So we came up with some projects to hang on the wall. This is my favorite of them. 

 

1. You need red, white, blue & silver paper, foam, craft paper, wrapping paper. You don't need it all - but look around and see what you have. Construction paper will fade pretty fast - so I would avoid that. Scrapbook card stock is heavier and comes in a variety of colors. 

 

2. cut the papers of red, white and blue into 1 inch squares. It actually looks cuter if all the squares on not the exact same size. 

 

3. Take a large sheet of white paper (I always love to frame up the kid's stuff in those inexpensive frames from Micheal's. So when starting an art project I always make sure my paper will fit into one of my frames) Draw off the flag. Large rectangle in top right, 13 stripes. The first stripe is red. There are 7 stripes next to the blue rectangle and the rest are under it. 

 

4. I wrote a B where the blue squares went, R for red and W for white. 

 

5. Alex, in Pre K at the time and learning his letters, could remember what went where. 

 

6. Glue stick over the area you want to cover. We started with the blue and then went down the page alternating the red and the white stripes. 

 

7. I free hand cut out some silver stars from wrapping paper. I told Alex there were 50 - but didn't insist he put that many on there. The result (because we used the foam pieces too) is a picture that is very rich with texture. It looks kinda folk artie. 

 

8. This project took Alex 3 days to complete because he was so young and his attention span waned after about 3 stripes. We did talk about American History, songs about the flag, who made it, why we respect the flag. American and World History, Art, following directions, improving fine motor skills, communication. K

ABC School Project

One of my FAVE project with the kids. For Pre-K & and Kindergarten: Saw something like this in The Land of Nod cat. - very cute but cost about $98. 

1. Bought 18x24 inch canvas (found that they are not perfect in size). Figured that I could get squares almost 2.14 inch squares, 6 across and 9 down. That gave me two boxes for each letter of the alphabet and then two left over - where the kids wrote their names. 

2. Taped off the squares (masking tape works great and releases well from the canvas). It will take three or four times to tape it off because the tape will over-lap some of the squares. 

3. I gave the kids 8 colors of acrylic paint to choose from. They picked which colors to paint each square. The only rule I had was no two squares sharing a side could be the same color. 

4. Let dry, retape, same process 

5. White sticker letters from Making Memories bought at Micheal's (there are extras in the pack - you will want extras!). I let them color each letter with sharpies (I know - permanent, but the colors are bright.) The idea was to color it in a contrasting color to the block that it would go on. David really got into making his letters into guys. 

6. Each letter they did, they drew a picture. I cut the paper for them to draw on a little smaller than the the square it would go in (so their picture wouldn't exceed the space). For Alex - pre-K, he was learning to id his letters. I gave him choices of things to draw that started with each letter. David, K and working on letter sounds, he came up with his picture ideas. 

7. I cut out each picture and used decoupage glue (mode podge from Micheal's) to stick it to the canvas. 

8. When done, we took about a month to do this, I decoupaged the whole thing about 5 times (letting it dry in between) 

9. I also painted the sides red so it would look more "finished" on the wall. 

10. Occasionally we messed up and the picture or the letter was hard to see on the block. I carefully outlined it in black or put it on white paper and trimmed it again (which ever helped it to show up) 

11. Hung it on the wall. Grandma wanted one - so the kids did it all over a gain about 5 months later. It was interesting to see how they had the whole thing down by then. Art, decision making skills, logic, letter sounds, letter recognition, creativity, art for Mom's wall:)