“Living in a box”-grade 1-3

This was an incredible project and enjoyed by both myself & my students!
Technique: recycled tins, pencil & fine liner

We usually work in big, loud & bright, so this was new experience for my students, working in miniature.

At first they were a little reluctant but once they started, they really they got into it with all their hearts. It was amazing to see the length of detail they got into & the quietness it gave them and the feeling of success to finish a little masterpiece! It really was so peaceful & gratifying!

They first drew the outlines in pencil & then in fine liner. Then they colored in their fine details with pencil colours(brightly & enjoyably)

Since the beginning of the year I have been collecting tins & finally some of the kids & members of the staff also helped me .I carefully washed & dried them .

Laminated the beautiful pictures & stuck them inside the boxes.

I also stuck a small loop of string on the back so that they can be hang up on the walls.

The amazing thing about this project was not only do they look absolutely beautiful, but also the level of success & enjoyment the kids got out of it. Because of its size the kids that don’t normally excel in art managed to succeed with greatness!

"החיים בקופסא" – כתות א', ג' - יצירה בטכניקה מעורבת- קופסאות שימורים ממוחזרים, עפרונות וטושים.

זה היה פרויקט מהנה ומאתגר גם עבורי וגם עבור התלמידים שלי. בדרך כלל הילדים רגילים לעבוד על פורמטים גדולים ורחבים, אך הפעם הייתה להם התנסות חווייתית חדשה- עבודה בגודל מיניאטורי. בהתחלה הילדים היו חשדנים, אך ברגע שהחלו לעבוד, נכנסו לתהליך וגילו את האפשרות לעבוד בקטן, הם נרתמו לכך בכל ליבם. הריכוז, השקט וכניסה לכל הפרטים העדינים ביותר, הסבלנות שנדרשה לכך ותחושת היכולת והמסוגלות להגיע לתוצר כל כך אסתטי- כל אלה הביאו ליצירות אמנות קטנטנות, מעשה ידיהם וגאווה גדולה לי ולהם. השלווה, לצד תוצרים כה יפים- כל אלה עושים את היצירות לכל כך מיוחדות.

תיאור התהליך- בהתחלה הילדים התבקשו לצייר בקווי מתאר, ואחר כך מילאו בפרטים ובצבעי עפרון. אני אוספת את קופסאות השימורים מתחילת השנה ובסיוע של צוות בית הספר הגענו למספר רב שלהם. את הציורים הקטנים ניילנתי והכנסתי בזהירות אל תוך הקופסאות הנקיות. כדי שיהיה קל להציגם על הקיר בתערוכה, הדבקתי חוט.

מה שמדהים בפרויקט הזה- זה לא רק יצירות האמנות היפות, אלא הערך של תחושת ההצלחה וההנאה הגדולה שליוותה את הילדים. הגודל המוקטן זימן ליצירה אפילו ילדים שבדרך כלל מתקשים לעסוק בחומרי האמנות.

Faux Stained Glass in a frame-Art with a Splash of English(Tal Menashe)

Teaching English in a fun & creative way …

I found this wonderful idea on Suzys Artsy CraftySitcom for faux (fake)stained glass and loved it! Thank you Suzy for your fantastic & inspiring ideas!!!

After reading our English story the girls & I used Artline pens to trace the designs that they chose.

We mixed the acrylic paints with white plastic glue and they started to paint (make sure they paint on the opp. side of the outlines).They also painted and decorated their frames with acrylics.
They absolutely loved painting with the thick shiny "new" paint!

To add an extra dimension we even stuck aluminum foil on the back of some of them; it really gives a fun, sparkly effect.

Just look at the wonderful results!

Faux Stained Glass with my Tal Menashe girls

Faux Stained Glass with my Tal Menashe girls

Paper Mache Bowls- Art with a Splash of English

I love working with Paper Mache! This time we used bowls for our shapes, covered with Vaseline .I like to use good old fashioned newspaper & flour.But next time I will try glad-wrap instead of Vaseline!
We used acrylics to decorate and I varnished afterwards to give a sheen & protect them.
I am delighted with these wonderful treasures!

Paper-Mache bowls with Tal Menashe

Art with a splash of English- Painting on Canvasses (Tal Menashe)

Is there more fun than painting on a canvas?

All that I stipulated was that they had to come up with 2 different pictures, to make a series. The subject matter was freedom of choice, but we did try to think of things that would work well together & things that were big enough to fill a canvas.

My girls are so very talented & I was well impressed!

We used acrylics & took 2 lessons to complete our master-pieces!

Ayelet painting her sunset

Another beautiful sun being painted by Myann

Masks for Purim

Art with a splash of English- Masks for Purim
After reading our English story we went straight to making masks for Purim
We used cardboard, pastels & glitter
What a lot of fun!

What a lot of fun!With Cloudscape Studios

Art with a splash of English- Trees for Tu BiShvat (Tal Menashe)

Something fun for my littlies!(Preschoolers & grade 1’s)

 Being close to "Tu BiShvat" the Jewish Holiday celebrating the birthday of the trees I thought it appropriate to do something fun with trees. After seeing how successfully the kids at school had drawn their hands I thought it would be a great start for the tree.

After reading our English story together and having our normal discussions & giggles we all sat around our table ready to start.

I gave then each a brown recycled page of paper & they drew their hands, cut them out & stuck them on beautifully radiant blue paper!

They have finally caught on to collaging & love it! They also worked with markers and stickers.

I think it was a greatly successful project! So colourful & fun!

Trees for Tu BiShvat- Studio in Tal Menashe

Art with a splash of English-Collage Owls(my Studio & Tal Menashe)

After reading “Wow said the Owl”(Tim Hopgood) I was greatly inspired by the pictures and the story …a great way for my kids to learn the colours!

I absolutely love working in textures & collage, so this was a must!

And my kids have finally caught onto the wonders of collaging! Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time you collage with  the kids …the second time round it just clicks!

Beautiful collage work starting

With the addition of pastels, giving a great effect!

Great eyes with different colours to his classmates

Adding pattern in markers

A family of owls

I just love how the different personalities come through!

I just love the happiness in this little owl!

Collage Owls

Art with a splash of English-28/10/13-4/11/13 (Tal Menashe)

A group project once again, this time with the “littlies”. grade1-3's

After reading the great book “The glass bottom boat” by Peter Harris

We spent the first lesson painting the background with different shades of blue & green on great big sheets of paper. The following week we drew fish with black pastels and painted the watercolors. The results were spectacular.

I then cut out the fish and stuck them on our beautiful sea background. Just look at the beautiful aquarium we now have in our studio. A wonderful way to “jell” a class and have fun doing it and a great way to decorate our white walls in our new studio in Tal Menashe.

After drawing the outlines with an oil pastel they start filling in the colour

Three shades of blue

Look at how they are all working together so nicely

Adding some more details with oil pastels

 

Beautiful drawings with black pastel & watercolors

I just love this fish!

Beautiful shapes, pattern & colour!

After carefully cutting out all the fish I glued them onto the beautifully prepared background...spectacular!!!

Flower Mural

As a project to get to know my new group of girls from grade 5 & 6 I decided it would be fun and great team building to do a mural together. Thanks to my wonderful father-in-law I have access to great big pieces of paper!

We looked at both photos and pictures of flowers .I told them we would paint a field together! The idea was to fill the entire paper. They drew the outlines, some preferred to start painting without pencil.

Each girl found a space and got started .It took longer for some to feel confident and comfortable but at the end of the class they were all into it! We used a mix of tempera and gouache paints.

For the first lesson we painted the flowers, leaves, butterflies and even some ants & then the following week we painted the background. The background really brought the girls together as a group because they were all doing the same thing and they were feeling more confident.

I suggested they outline everything in black but the girls decided as a group against it.

Looking at the photos I think they made a great choice! It is delicate and beautiful just like my group of girls!

It now adorns the wall in our studio and everybody admires it!! I am so proud of my girls!!

It was a great way to start the year !!!

Starting to take shape

Each girl finding her space

Working together with lovely ideas and beautiful colours!

Adding some grass

Connecting the flowers with stalks

Working so nicely together

Background almost finished 

Wow!



Simply magnificent !!!Well done girls!!!

Art with a splash of English – Spots and dots!

I am very excited as today is my first lesson in Tel Menashe, with a group of new girls ranging from pre-school to grade 3.Teaching English in a fun & creative way I decided today we would start off with something fun and colorful and simple but effective. I had recently bought the wonderful book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds and loved the illustrations and the wonderful message! Just the perfect way to get started!

Unfortunately my studio was not available yet, but we were blessed by one of the moms offering us her patio…so we got to enjoy the outdoor air too!

We read the delightful story, on my magic carpet; translating each page …they loved it!

I gave the girls each a cut out circle in different colours and asked them to stick it on their page as our starting point .I also gave them black pastels and suggested that they could make rings around the circle(like a tree).Others stayed with the dot idea.

The girls were delighted with the wonderful paints (I use Giotto tempera)the radiant colours and wonderful results!

Great fun was had by all!

Art with Claudia - Curtain of fun

Ok so this is a post with a difference .It was'nt a class I gave but research for a book I wrote and illustrated."Claudi's Curtain" published by Cambridge University Press.

It was a project that took a lot of time both collecting the materials and actually doing the work but it was well worth it!!! And it was a great family experience!

We collected, we washed and dried!

 

We made holes, cut shapes and made interseting designs.We found this amazing thread with rainbow colours( but you can use any strong, thick string) and started the fun of threading them in a fun and dynamic way.Once we had many beaded lines of string we hung them up next to each other AND behold a "curtain of fun"!!!

I also did this with a class of Grade 4's as a school project which was great & very successful!

I am planning on doing it this year with my new students, as I am starting to work at schools & Activity Centres! Sooooo exciting!!!



I like to call these snowflakes!

The top half of the bottles make great tulip shapes

oooh what lovely colours!

cut plastic bottles into great shapes

collect bottle caps

make holes in the lids

Just look at the results!Soooo fun!

Claudi's Curtain of Fun!!!