#artteacher Archives - Funky Socks & Dragons

Figurative and non-figurative art. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024March 2, 2024 by Anka Zapart

‘Calm night’ that started as an apple, if I remember correctly…

I am happy. As a teacher of English and a teacher of Art – I am happy. I have my Art Explorers classes twice a week, there are two groups so every lesson is not only taught twice and every idea trialled and trialled again. I am happy because I am getting better at coming up with ideas and with combining all the elements and finding the links between the artist, the language and the technique. And I can see how my kids are reacting to it and becoming more familiar with the paintings and more confident as artists.

I have also realised that all of us, we are more involved in the process and we are enjoying it more. The final product is important, of course, but so is the journey. It is all very rewarding and I am just happy that it is a part of my weekly schedule.

The art

As usual, out of the three components, one had to be prioritised and, this time, it was the art itself. I wanted to give my students an opportunity to experience the process of creating a non-figurative art piece. We tried doing it a little bit in our Jackson Pollock lesson but there the lead was taken by the very specific technique. The outcomes, amazing as they are, were absolutely accidental, and only at the very end of the lesson, we gave our paintings their names.

This time, I wanted it to be fully conscious, purposeful and planned, from A to Z for the kids to understand how a figurative painting may become a non-figurative piece and the artist (aka US!) takes the responsibility for that.

In order to achieve it we did the following:

we decided what to paint. I suggested a fruit and veg still life since it was still our Fruit February but I allowed the kids to opt out of it if they really wanted to. Some did.
we made decisions about the composition and started to drip draw with the paints. I had a set of paints that I bought for the stained glass lessons but they turned out to be of a very bad quality, too watery, to liquidy and I could not use them for stained glass. They spent about five months in the drawer and last week I had already taken them out to bin them when the hoarder in me hesitated and decided to use them somehow. Since they were so good at dripping, dripping was what I chose to be their destiny. We used a technique we experimented with before, spread painting.
we drew the contours with drips of the paint (sharing the one set of paints, hooray to the social skills development!)
we photographed the ready picture
we used pieces of thick cardboard to spread the paint and a decision had to be made here to, regarding the movement (or movements) of the hand.
we gave the paintings a name. In most cases, it was a list of the items of the picture but some of the children came up with different names, not related to what the painting first was. Real artists, I am telling you!

As usual, the creation started with a quick modelling session during which I produced a painting of a watermelon and then turned it into a non-figurative item.

The artist

This was one of the lessons in which we did not have one superhero but a whole dinner party. I divided them into two groups to illustrate what figurative and non-figurative art is. Our definitions were very simply, in order to convey the message even to my youngest students. ‘Figurative’ was defined as ‘I can see real things’ and represented by a still-life by Cezanne, by Rene Magritte’s Son of Man, by an apply by Yayoi Kusama and a still-life by Ilya Mashkov. ‘Non-figurative’ was defined as ‘I can see shapes and colours’ and represented by a piece by Jackson Pollock, Kandinsky’s circles, Mark Rothko and Yves Klein that I have just discovered for myself.

I also brought two pictures that I created at home and I asked the students to guess what fruit I tried to paint by the colours that they could see or the shapes that were still visible, just to highlight the fact that the fruit might be only represented by a fruit, not necessarily by shape.

The language

The langauge in this lesson was, as in every lesson of this month – fruit and vegetables. Apart from that I wanted to play with the language and to reinforce the idea of looking at the world from a different perspective. In order to do that, we looked at a set of pictures of the everyday objects and fruit and vegetables, seen either under a microscope or in a close up. We did it as a guessing game, using the set of wordwall cards I put together. This was a lot of fun and I am definitely going to use this resource again!

Outcomes

It’s not going to be the first time I say it, here or in the real life, but this, indeed, was one of my favourite Art lessons ever. The rest you can see in the paintings my students created.

Happy teaching!

Apples times 2. Cubism and pop-art. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024February 28, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

The language input was very simple and limited to singing a few vegetable and fruit songs and guessing the fruit and vegetables from stencils. I wanted to use this activity as an introduction and preparation for recognising fruit and vegetables in paintings by Picasso and Warhol.

The artists

These lessons happened together, in a way. We were in our holiday week and we were on a slightly different schedule so Picasso and his still-lifes in the styles of cubism as well as Andy Warhol’s strawberries were introduced on two different days but in a combination with each other. The other thing that joined them was the special focus that was given specifically to the style and the technique because we would aim at creating something similar, or, using a similar approach. We looked at a few examples of the paintings and tried to recognise fruit and vegetables and different objects in them.

The art

The directions for the cubist paintings were pretty simple. I asked the kids to prepare a composition of three fruit or vegetables and to draw them in pencil and then in crayons. Afterwards, according to the manual I found on wiki how, we used a ruler to add the lines. The next step was colouring in with the use of watercolours.

The pop-art task was even simpler – all the kids received an A4 piece of paper, divided into 4 with the painters scotch and our task was to choose one fruit to draw four times and to think of a colour composition, for each of the quarters and for the set as a whole.

In both cases I had students who opted for markers, instead of watercolours and the results are still interesting and in both cases we started with showing my students the little homework paintings that I did to test them and to demonstrate something to my kids.

These were two precious lessons and I will definitely use the these ideas again, as a part of other lessons. The cubism lesson gave us a chance to work on the colour, its shades and variations and how they can work together to make a picture. The pop-art lesson was amazing as regards the colour composition as the kids were working on combining two pieces together, the fruit and the background AND, at the same time, combining the four elements of our panel. I was watching the kids closely (and talking to some of them, too) and it was a fascinating experience to see how they were making their decisions, sometimes changing the direction a few times, especially with the final element of the panel.

Happy teaching!

Ilya Mashkov and our first still-life. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024February 17, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

February is our month of food and fruit and this is what we focus on in the language part of the lesson. With my younger group we listened to a great song from the Singing Walrus and we used a set of wordwall cards to guess the fruit and vegetables from the stencils. We did some drilling, too and we talked about whether we like them or not.

The older students needed a more advanced activity and for that I used my magic bag which, indeed, on the day was full of fruit and veg that I brought for the still-life installation. Kids put their hands into the bag and tried to describe the object they were holding using basic adjectives (big / small, hard / soft, smooth / rough, light / heavy). Despite the fact that some of the kids were as old as ten, they all did enjoy it. We also talked about the fruit and vegetables we like and don’t like.

The artist

Our artist of the day was my still-life here, Ilya Mashkov. I have used his painting in my Art classes before and it was only natural that this time I would want to take it up to another level. I did and I am quite happy how it went.

First of all, we introduced the artist himself and his famous (in my opinion) painting ‘Pumpkin’. We defined what a still life is (‘a painting of things’) and we looked at a few chosen paintings by Mashkov. I put together a set of questions, inspired and adapted from the material online Essential Questions to ask about each still life photographs. My final, go-to set for this topic includes: What colour is it? What objects can you see? What shapes can you see? What is the biggest shape? What is the smallest shape? Is it light? Is it dark? Is it smooth? Is it light?, although in the lessons this week we have gone through only a few of them.

In order to prepare for our creative activity I prepared a special slide for ‘Pumpkin’ made entirely of shapes, one to represent every fruit and every vegetable. I was revealing them one by one and the task for the kids was to call out the object that they represent. In the end, I showed them the real painting and we checked our answers. I was a fun activity and it helped them the kids the basics of the composition of the painting and to prepare them for drawing.

The art

We started with putting together our installations and while I was the one responsible for arranging the items for the younger kids, my older group just took over the bag, the table and all the elements. And, it has to be said, not all the fruit made it to the table. Avocado and aubergine were not deemed worthy of our set. I accepted.

We outline the main stages of the lesson: 1. sketching with a pencil, 2. tracing the lines with crayons (one colour or a set of colours) and 3. colouring in with watercolours. I also showed my students the homework that I did before the lesson: a small still-life I painted at home and a photo of it, for comparison.

Since it was our first lesson with a still-life I did not want to invade too much and to direct the kids for example by guiding them in which order to draw the fruit. I wanted to let them try to face the task on their own and, also, to see what they can do. I was preparing my own copy and moving around, handing in the resources for each step (which also help with staging) and admiring what I was looking at. The only thing that I said to encourage them was something along the lines of ‘Don’t be scared, trust your hand. This is our first still-life. Let’s see how it goes’.

And guess what? It was beyond amazing. Some of my students are already very confident as regards drawing and they have a good eye for detail so I expected some good work but still they managed to surprise me, especially the little ones. They approached the task with curiosity, without fear and they were just working diligently on their paintings.

The only question left to answer is: What are we painting next?

Happy teaching!

Jackson Pollock. How to survive a modern art lesson with kids. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024January 28, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

We continue to work on expressing our opinions and on justifying them. Since the Unusual Colours was a huge success with both groups, I decided to continue with a different set of visuals. We revised all the basic structures to express opinions, we looked at all the pictures in the set with the group and we said what we thought of them and why. As usual, it was great to see the growing confidence and the courage to express your preferences even if they are different from your friend’s or the group.

This time round I went more slowly, pausing after each picture, to share ideas. I was also trying to encourage the kids to produce a little bit more than just ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’, with questions such as ‘Why?’, ‘How does it make you feel about it?’, ‘What are you thinking about?’ etc.

The artist

Beginning October, my Art classes have been divided into two groups, the younger (pre-school and year 1) and the older (year 2 -4) and the decision to do so was a real game changer because I can adapt the level of the language and the Art input sessions to the age and the language level of the students. Each group has only one lesson a week but they are more meaningful, more focued and more child-friendly.

Because of the holidays and the calendar, the lesson with the older kids comes up first right now and it is also very important and handy. I can prepare for the more group with more advanced language skills, motor skills and with more life expience and do what I really want to do and then just adapt to what my younger kids are able to do. I really like it this way.

In our Jackson Pollock lesson, I introduced the artist of the day (name, country, favourite things) and the fact that he is, most likely, the most renowned modern artist today or, at least, the painter that most people associate with modern art.

Later on, we looked at five of his paintings, in different colours, with different titles, from ‘real’ names (‘Summer’) through ‘Number 5’, to the beautiful ‘Untitled’ and we talked about what we think about them and how they make us feel. In the end, we watched a clip from the video ‘How to paint like Jackson Pollock’ to show the students the real process. I also decided to include a short slot devoted to the main characteristics and I called it ‘What Jackson Pollock would tell us’.

The art

Well, this has to be the first thing to say out loud: Jackson Pollock is a serious logicstical challenge for an Art teacher. Especially if this Art teacher works with young kids and in a room that is a regular classroom which lends its square meters to all the creative activities and then goes back again to being ‘just a classroom’, used and shared with other students and teachers. To be prefectly honest, I am not sure I am entirely happy with how I dealt with it.

Things that need to be taken into consideration are as follows: the technique is a mess-generating one and it requires serious preparations. It is supposed to be done on the floor (which is refreshing and exciting) and the floor needs to be protected. So do the walls, the desks, the chairs and the kids’ clothes, because, surprise surprise, the paint spatter is a powerful force and you will find it in the most unexpected places.

The classroom was almost completely reorganised – the tables and the chairs were put aside, to make room on the floor. I perpared the working station for each of my students (an A3 piece of cardboard, on a much larger piece of newspaper, scotched to the floor) as well as the station with all the paints, brushes, water and tissues. Apart from that we had a semi-circle of chairs in front of the TV where we were to sit during the first, theoretical part of the lesson. We spent here around 20 minutes and later on, we moved to our work stations, to create.

The task was really simple – choose your favourite colours, think what idea you want to convey, take the water and the paints and start creating and experimenting with the technique. This part was great. The kids were trying out different hand movements, they were also observing each other and sharing ideas and opinions. The creativity was slow and a bit inhibited at the beginning but, as we moved on, the kids really got into it. Things were coming together. In the end, we talked about the possible titles for our paintings and how we felt during the entire process. This part was amazing. The paintings were left on shelves to dry overnight and some of my students came on the following day to pick up theirs and to take them home. They did enjoy and they did treasure their creations. Aims – met.

However, I have to admit – these preparations were not enough. The stations were too close to each other, the pieces protecting the floor were too small and, overall, the students’ clothes were not protected. We talked about being careful and respecting the other artists’ space, but I could have done better but mostly because I was lucky, with my older group of only seven students. I am to do the same lesson on Monday, with the younger group and I am working on adapting the ideas and the set-up or, also, entirely giving up on Jackson. I will also be adapting the number of resources used, giving up on the acrylic paints and the guache, because only the watercolours are relatively easy to wash and to clean.

The Pollock lesson – round two. Pre-K and year 1

There were a few things that I had to change for the lesson with the younger kids.

I took over a much bigger space on the floor, with the smaller pieces of cardboard (A4) on much bigger pieces of newspapers and with much bigger distance between them. I also marked the place on the floor where the kids were supposed to be sitting, to ensure that they are not facing each other but sitting back to back to minimise the paint spatter.
I also gave out the painting aprons that we apparently had at the school. However, I had my plan B – bin liners with holes for arms and head.
I was more selective as regards the types of paints, limiting them to watercolours only. Watercolours lend themselves to splashing and spattering, too if more water is added. Acrylic and guache paints are more thicker and more difficult to wash. What is more, a box of watercolours is a box of watercolours, with each child working on their own, at their station, without the need to get up, walk around and exchange jars with friends. Hence – fewer opportunities for stepping into splashes and dirty footprints around the room.
I am happy to say that it all worked very well!
Apart from that, I have to say that, somehow, my little students were somehow more open-minded and ready to dive into the modern art world. They were eager to discuss what they could see in the paintings I showed them and I really could not calm them down here. They wanted to talk and talk, although, because of their level of language, they could do it in English and in L1. They were also very eager to come up with titles for their own creations. These were really artistic discussions. I was really proud of them and some of these paintings are just precious!

Happy teaching!

Natalia Goncharova’s lesson about colours. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024January 20, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

January is our month of colours, chosen this way to balance up the monochromatic landscape outside the window. At the moment, due to the combination of various factors, calendards and timetables, I get to teach every lesson first with my older group and then to repeat it and to re-do it with the younger kids. This, in itself, is a fascinating set-up for experiments and reflection. The activity with the unusual colour was created for my little ones but it was such a success that I decided to do it again with my older group, too. It was a success and my older and more advanced children were even more involved and more capable of taking part in a discussion and expressing their views on pink teddy bears, brown unicorns and pink chocolate. This was the main language activity in this lesson. The older group were using a wider range of structures, including ‘I really like’, ‘I really don’t like’, ‘I love’ and ‘I hate’ and they could explain why they felt this way.

Because of that I am going to repeat it, once more, with a different set of images in this coming week.

‘Monet & Architecture’ will reveal Claude Monet’s works at London (architecturaldigest.in)

The artist

This week, we invited not one but two artists to lead us through the world of colour and this decision was made specifically with the art project I planned for us for the day and that, in turn, was the result of these creators’ artistic decisions.

My main idea was to show the students how the same object can be painted with different colours and how the selection of the colours can affect our perception of the painting and our emotions. Or, in other words, why would an artist choose specific colours to paint.

Our first artist of the day was Claude Monet and his cathedral, the other Natalia Goncharova and her peacock, or rather, two peacocks because Natalia Sergeevna created more than one and that was exactly what we needed. We looked at the two peacocks and answered a few questions: ‘What colours can you see?’, ‘Do you like this peacock? Why?’, ‘How does it make you feel?’, ‘Why did she choose such colours?’, ‘Which one do you like more?’. We compared the paintings with the photos of the cathedral and of the bird.

In general, the colourful peacock was a favourite although some of my students mentioned that there are too many colours and they are too loud. The black-and-brown peacock was noone’s favourite as very thin, very sad and a bit scary.

We needed these artists also because their colour decisions were rooted in two different sources – the sun itself and the artist’s conscious decision and it is the second approach that we were getting ready to use in our art.

The art

The task was very simple and it came as a natural follow-up of the activities in the first half of the lesson: choose a simple object and paint it twice, using a different set of colours to represent two different ideas or emotions.

To demonstrate how it can be done, in an even more direct and straightforward way, I showed the students the pictures that I created – a flower that I decided to paint using my happy colours, such as pink, green and blue and to paint the same flower using the colours that make me angry (orange, purple and yellow). You can see it above. Below – everything that my students created last Wednesday.

Before we started, we also brought back our earlier project, namely Andy Warhol and Chebourashka that I wrote about here. The previous activity had a character in it and it was, perhaps, easier to associated it with a set of emotions whereas this time round I wanted everyone to be a little bit more open-minded and, at the same time, to focus on the emotions and colours, rather than on looking at the world through the character. However, I did not limit them in any choice and, as a result, some of them decided to choose two different items to paint or to even give up on the shapes and focus entirely on the colours.

It is exciting to see that they paired up their beloved shapes and characters with the colours they love and, in the same vein, they made a decision to combine their less preferred colours with the characters they just don’t like. It seems your beloved goose could just not be painted in the colours you have a strong dislike for.

The kids made conscious decisions regarding the colours and while they were painting, we were discussing their choices and, in the end, the final outcome, too. And it was a real discussion, to a large extent in L2, in some cases also in L1.

This last piece here is special in many ways because we had a new student join our group and try his hand at creativity for the first time. He got the idea and the was happy to experiment with the colours and images and it turns out that his favourite combination is a cat in pink because this is his favourite colour and because ‘Boys like pink, too!’. He is one of the epitome of the cool kid and the would be alpha male in our class so I was surprised and in awe that he dived in and took to everything that we do in our classes. And, even more so, he enjoyed it.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #73 Winter, winter and cheering up Mr Levitan

March 30, 2024December 9, 2023 by Anka Zapart

This is a double lesson, actually. Right now my Art Class has been divided into two, the younger and the older. Sometimes they take part in the same project, graded to their level, sometimes the project takes two different directions. This is what happened to Isaac Levitan this week. Here are all the ingredients and all the activities. Feel free to mix and match as you see fit.

Raised Salt Paintings. Santa. No watercolours.

Raised Salt Paintings. With watercolours.

Ingredients

Winter vocabulary: we used the following Art Winter, as the theme for the entire month.
A recording of Vivaldi’s winter, the first few minutes.
The winter scene craft: glue, scissors, pencil and paper: one big square for the box, green for the trees, white for snowman, colourful for presents and white tissue for the snow. I was considering the following version here but it was too complex for my kids. Instead I recycled what I did last year. You can read about it here.
The raised salt painting: pencil, cardboard, pvc glue, salt, watercolours. You can see the tutorial here.
And, of course, a few of the copies of the winter wonderland according to Isaac Levitan.

Procedures

The lesson for the younger kids started with the vocabulary introduction and practice. We did a bit of drilling and some miming. We are going to be working on these in the weeks to come. So far we have only used the simplest ‘it is’ and ‘they are’ but I am hoping to take it further as regards description (It is big / small. It is hot / cold) and Present Continuous (Santa is running, reindeer are jumping) and hopefully towards picture description.
With the older kids, I wanted to introduce a new element, namely music. I told them about Vivaldi and his ‘Four Seasons’ and then we listened to the first two minutes of ‘Winter’. The kids were asked to listen and to think about their associations with the music. Afterwards, in the open class discussion, we talked about their impressions (Do you like the music? Vivaldi thought that it show what winter is like. Do you agree with his vision?).
Afterwards, we introduced the Artist of the Day and both groups looked at a few examples of the winter landscapes painted by Levitan. As usual, we talked about our impressions (Do you like it? Is it sad / happy? What colours can you see?)
Next, I presented the finished product to the kids. I showed them how the winter scene can be changed by adding kids’ toys, with whatever the kids had on their tables and in their bags.
With the older group, I showed the kids the final product and showed all the materials needed to complete the task.
We made the scene in the following stages: drawing and cutting out the snowman, drawing and cutting out two Christmas trees (aka triangles), drawing and cutting out the presents (aka squares). We prepared the pyramid (cut and glue) and started glueing in the figures. The task finished with tearing up the tissue to glue it on the floor.
The older kids were given a complete freedom as regards the choice of the design. I prepared a snowflake but they were more interested in representing their favourite things in this drawing, and I allowed for that. We did everything in a few simple stages: giving out the cardboard, drawing the design in pencil, covering the lines with the glue, sprinkling it with salt, using watercolours to add colour and leaving them to dry.

Why we like it

Both lessons were successful and, again, we managed to combine English, creativity and some interesting techniques. I used two different approaches with both age groups but I am actually very curious how the younger ones might react to Vivaldi and what kind of winter wonderland my older students might create. There is the following week, so who knows? And, naturally, when my little kids saw the drying salt paintings on the window sill, they immediately started to demand that we do it, too so we will have to. I have already promised.
The winter wonderland is relatively easy to prepare. To make it more achievable for my younger kids, some of whom are preschoolers, I prepared and folded the squares before the lesson. All of the parts of the picture are simple shapes (circles, squares and triangles) and, if the kids are ready, they can add the little elements themselves or just draw them with a pencil, for example the ribbons on presents. We didn’t do it but snowflakes can be added to the picture, too, for example with a white marker or a pencil. That has to be done before assembling the pyramid, though, otherwise it is a bit tricky to draw on and it can be destroyed by accident.
I was demonstrating the activity, step by step and we took our time, to make sure that everyone could finish their cutting, before moving on. If the kids are younger, the task can be made much simpler by limiting the number of trees, the teacher preparing a simple snowman cut-out beforehand. If the kids are ready, Santa or the reindeer can be added to it.
The raised salt painting was a lot of fun to create. No matter what you draw, the colours seeping through the salt make it all look amazing.
The process is easy to stage and to manage as the teacher gives out and collects materials needed for every stage and kids themselves can grade it to their level by drawing something very basic or something more intricate. They drew their favourite animals, they wrote their names or prepared signs with their favourite things.
There is a danger that the salt will make it a bit messy but if you have a big box, a bit bigger than the size of carboard you are using, everything will be great. With the older kids, we used paper plates, from which we took the salt and where it shook off the excess. Please don’t remember that it is not a good idea to touch the paint and the salt, turning the paper upside down and gently patting on it will make the excess salt fall off without destroying the picture.
The watercolours can be added before the glue dries which makes it all feasible within a lesson time. The pictures can be left to dry overnight and taken home or put up on the following day.
Upd: I did the activity with the younger kids, too and I simply loved how teacher friendly it is. Because of the number of the materials needed and the process, the activity practically stages itself.: cardboard and pencils for everyone, pencils away, glue for everyone, glue away, salt for the kids, one by one (I did use a big box! See the photos.), watercolours for everyone, watercolours away.
The finished product (especially if done on the recycled carboard) looks like gingerbread cookies. So pretty!
I really liked how the older kids interacted with the art and the artist. I have a very creative group and some independent kids who already have developed a taste for Warhol and Malevich. For that reason, I was a bit worried that they might find Levitan, well, boring and too unimaginative. However, that’s not what happened. My kids were stunned that a painting so realistic could even be created and some of them came up to the screen to check and to confirm that it was, indeed, a painting and not just a photo.
I was also very happy that we added music to our lesson. They listened with interest and they were involved in the discussion later on, sharing their views, although, actually, they did not agree with Vivaldi’s interpretation of the winter-themed music. Apparently, it is too energetic and too loud and winter requires peace and silence. I will be experimenting with adding music to our lessons. The younger group first, with Vivaldi himself, and then some other tunes for the older group, too. I hope that, eventually, we will be able to find someone who wrote the good winter music that matches my students’ tastes. I will be very curious to find out who that is, because I, myself, love Vivaldi’s winter.

Happy teaching!