Snowflakes

Ok I 'm here in the South. Last week or so ago the snow missed us and went to Atlanta. This week the snow went to South Georgia and turned to ice on the beach of Saint Simons Island. Again we were missed here in Middle Georgia.
 Monday is the big Georgia/Alabama game and they are calling for rain but a low of 33. I wonder if we will get any ice or snow? It usually happens when its not predicted.
I still have a cool product for cutting snowflakes, linking it to symmetry(both math and an element of art design) and some cool ideas about creating art with those snowflakes. Here is the link:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowflakes-and-Symmetry-1007433

I also have Winter coloring sheets. Here's the link:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Coloring-Sheets-2197096

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody! Ready to go back to school? Snow Wonderful snow? I wouldn't know. Here in the South we rarely get any. We usually get the dreaded ice. However it's a good time to teach cutting out snowflakes. My art lesson on Snowflakes and symmetry not only teaches how to cut out snowflakes but also gives suggestions what to do with those snowflakes.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowflakes-and-Symmetry-1007433

Back to School Art

Have you notice that students get scared or anxious over drawing on that blank white piece of paper? I have some great ice breakers for back to school art jitters! Check out this one. It's a freebie:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ice-Breaking-with-Line-Designs-1339838

Back to School Sale

My store is having a sale- Tpt is having a sitewide sale! Save upto 25% off ! Please remember those needed art projects! Click on my link to get to my store! www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Happy Fourth of July

I am usually on Saint Simons Island for the fourth of July. Saint Simons has fireworks going off from several spots on the beach and from the pier. It is a fantastic display if you can position your self to see most of the fireworks and Jekyll Island's display and there is another one off in the distance.
I am working on creating art projects organized by grades. My first one is posted on TPT. Here's the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Art-Projects-for-First-Grade-Bundle-3227204

Summer Art

It's  summer time and the living is easy! I wish... There have been two too many deaths so far- Gregg Allman was the first. He was buried here in Macon and the fans all partied. Unfortunately one of my former art students (now a grown young man) ingested something that took his life while asleep. A lot of folks had drug overdoses and a few have died from fake opioids. The young man's family is suspicious that he may have taken one.
 On a happier note my grand children have gone one week to a Roman Catholic School's summer camp and have absolutely loved it! The camp is 6 weeks long and is themed based. The theme this year are Luaus and Hawaii. They have studied volcanoes and will create them this week. Last week they learned how to hula and made leis. They also go on field trips and visit a water park each week.
Learning can be fun!
I have created some new products:
One is a coloring workbook based on the color wheel which I use to teach children how to make colors not mud!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-to-make-colors-workbook-3186978

Another product is making a color wheel triangle for preschoolers through first grade.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Triangle-Color-Wheel-3187038
Both of these will be 50% off starting on Monday and ending Tuesday night.

Back to School with Shapes

I saw on facebook that many of you are beginning math teaching shapes. Art also uses shapes to create patterns and to create interest. There are two kinds of shapes in art: geometric and natural. I have several art projects based on shapes in art that will help review identification of geometric and natural shapes. Here's the link to one: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Shapes-Art-Projects-871403

And here is another link: www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lines-Shapes-and-Patterns-for-back-to-school-770453

Have you heard the news?? It's Time for Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School Sale!!!

My store is 20% off and Tpt kicks in another 8%! 

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gena-Mcwilliams

What makes Art ART?

Why is Art Art?

What is the difference between GREAT ART and mediocre art?

I don’t really know. The phrase “I know it when I see it” makes art a perception but art is still art whether it is perceived as such by one or not. So then the idea of art becomes quite subjective depending on the viewer’s opinion or mood of the day.

For me really good art is that which has been drawn well and somewhat realistically but is then turned into an abstract or an impression or an abstract impression. I am a bit of a conservative in that I believe for artists to create really good art they have to be able to draw. I have told my students that drawing is the basis of all other art techniques.

My favorite artists who have demonstrated the ability to draw realistically and turn a painting or sculpture into an abstract, impression or abstract impression are Pablo Picasso and David Hockney. There is a video/DVD called “Behind the Scenes, Volume:1 Painting and Drawing” (available on Dick Blick’s website) during which David Hockney draws a chair from many different views while explaining perspective, depth, and vanishing point. I showed it many times to my middle school students. The result is a cubistic chair (Picasso’s influence).

Today I discovered a painting of David Hockney’s called “Gaugin’s Chair” that looks like the very chair that’s in the DVD. It’s a painting with bright tropical colors similar to those Gaugin used but drawn in a cubistic manner like Picasso. That thought process is what makes a great artist and great art to me!

                                                         That’s MY opinion! Mizz Mac

Rain Rain Go Away!

It has been raining so long here. Our river crested the other day the third highest crest in history! There were so many people out taking pictures of it on the main bridge the police had to shoo everyone away. The cemetary got more visitors because it borders the river and some lots overlook the river so they got alot of visitors taking pictures. Someone even went up in a helicopter and took a video of the flood waters and posted it on facebook!
My grand children are ready to go back to school where they can at least get somewhere to run and play! My yard is filled with mud and goo so they can 't even get to their swing set!
Are you getting ready for school? I'm having a sale on 12 of my back to school products- 20% off- beginning January 3-6th.
Click here:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Thank you! Mizz Mac

Time for Apples!

It’s time for Apples!

Apples are in season and they are great for beginning school activities, particularly kindergarten and preschool classes.  For art teachers the apple  is a great beginning observational subject to use.  This art teacher would begin the class reviewing the five kinds of lines- horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curvy, and zigzag. I would explain how artists take the lines and combine them to make drawings and shapes. I would then show them an apple and ask which line I would use to draw the apple. What am I going to look at when I draw the apple? I will be drawing the contour shape or the outside edge of the apple.

While holding the apple with my freehand I draw the apple slowly on the white board or with my tablet and project for all to see.

Students should already have paper and pencils and apples are then passed out. A 9x12 drawing paper could be folded two times, unfolded, and students told to draw their apple with four different views (side 1, side 2, top, and bottom) in each rectangle. Try to fill up each rectangle with an apple.  Each apple is then colored. The apples can be colored with crayons or oil pastels and the background painted with a thin watercolor or tempera wash.

Older children can do a progressive drawing with the apple. First drawing would be a whole apple, second an apple with one bite on one side, third an apple with two bites on each side, and the fourth with only the apple core. Students who don’t like apples are allowed to spit the apple bites out in a cup.

Check out my freebie apple print lesson for an easier lesson:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Print-An-Apple-for-Johnny-Appleseed-1428061

More Love Back to School Sale

SURPRISE!!! It's a one day BACK TO SCHOOL sale! Thank you TPT!
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Back to School with Harriet Tubman and the Shoo Fly Quilt

The Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon, Ga is absolutely gorgeous! It was finally finished this year and I finally went in to see it today. OMG is it GORGEOUS!!! I am so proud that my hometown has such a beautiful museum.  Be sure to go upstairs. There are rooms with inventions that blacks have made, a huge mural one of our prominent black artists made depicting black heritage in Macon ( I have personal story to tell about this artist too) and in the Harriet Tubman room there are not only documents about the life and times of Harriet Tubman but one can view actual real nationally known artists work. Some of the artists I remember and have taught my students are john Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, and William Johnson.

In another room downstairs for Georgia black artists I got to see art work by the Dot Man who was featured in an article published in an issue of School Arts magazine when I first started teaching art. I was so excited!! It’s quite exciting to me to see the actual real artwork!

Another artist I must mention is Wini McQueen. She is one of our local black artists who mainly works in fabric, dying and using photographs in her pieces. She was commissioned by the Tubman to create banners and quilts depicting the history of the black people in Georgia and they are hung in the rotunda.

As sad as the past is let us all remember so it won’t be repeated.

Check out my arts integration lesson on the Shoo Fly quilt. Legend says it helped the blacks in their flight on the Underground Railroad: 

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Shoo-Fly-Art-music-math-shapes-review-for-back-to-school-972741

Back To School Sale

It will be here soon!! Back to School Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!! www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gean-Mcwilliams

Christmas in July Sale for back to school

Hey Y'all! I'm having a Christmas in July Sale 10% off my back to school and beginning art projects!
WHEN? July 26-28. WHERE? www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams
Here are a couple examples:

How to Draw a Bird

Our elementary and preschools are teaching the recognition of geometric shapes. Art teachers also teach looking for shapes to draw and paint. Some art teachers have children put on their “shape” eyes when looking at an object to draw or paint.

Parents, grandparents, child keepers help reinforce children’s learning of shapes in school. The following is an example of one of my interactions with my grandson.

Yesterday Bishop sat in front of our picture window and said he wanted to draw a bird. He had gotten his sketchbook out and his crayons.

Bishop asked, “ GaGa, will you help me draw a bird?”

Me: “First draw an oval.”

 He did.

“Next draw a circle for the head.”

He did.

“Draw triangles for the wings.”

 He did.

“Draw another one for the tail.”

He did.  He added the legs, eyes, and beak without directions from me. He also added the limb and the tree on his own and colored it!

For another directed drawing lesson click here:

www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Drawing-with-Beginners-398360

Directing children to draw using lines and shapes not only reinforces math concepts of geometric shapes that are taught in school but also demystifies the act of drawing for some.

Mizz Mac has taught children's art for over 25 years and sells art projects and art lesson plans on her store:

www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams

All About Shapes Art

Have your children talked about shapes this week? My grandchildren have. When I picked them up from school on Friday, my grandson (kindergarten age) started a game. He would give us checks if we could find geometric shapes.  Challenge on! His little sister and I found circle tires, square and rectangle signs and windows, and circle wreaths and signs on doors all the way home. The hardest shape to find was the triangle. I finally found some on top of the square tower at Vineville Baptist church. That was quite a fun way to reinforce his learning.

Another way to reinforce is through art. Art has two flat shapes-geometric and natural. 3-d shapes are called form. The sphere, cylinder, and cubes are drawn illusions of 3-d but that’s getting too technical. Try my shapes projects when using art to reinforce identifying shapes. Here is the link to my All about Shapes project: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-All-About-Shapes-871403. 

  I like to use Edward Hopper’s paintings as examples of how artists use shapes in their artwork. Here’s a link to his “Seven A.M.” painting: http://www.edwardhopper.net/seven-am.jsp.

Creating art by first practicing line making and shape making takes away any drawing fears.  Mizz Mac

Mizz Mac’s art projects can be found in her store on www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gena-Mcwilliams.

 

Sales over and I'm having fun!

Ok the TPT sale is over but I am still having fun. Do you like my new background for the blog? I drew the little girl myself and made her into a pattern. I didn't know I could customize the background with my own work!! That was fun! My classes have started back and my students are eager to be back creating wonderful works of art. I hope to get some photographs of their work for you to see soon. Mizz Mac
My Jungle Animal Coloring Book is still a freebie - you might want to grab it while it is!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Jungle-Animal-Coloring-Book-1355615

Back to School Sale!!

Back To School Sale!! My store is 20% off plus 10% from TPT!! Grab up art projects for the year!!
Here is the link to my store:
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gena-Mcwilliams

Another Back to School Freebie

I have been trying to think about what teachers my need from an art teacher. I was reminiscing about how I had my room organized with everything my students did in my classroom was about art or art appreciation or art history. One of the favorite activities my early finishers enjoyed were the word search puzzles ( they were all art terms or artists in history) and my coloring sheets. I was inspired to create a coloring book about jungle animals. The book contains 10 sheets of simple black and white line drawings of cartoon-like jungle animals- all my creations and hand- drawn by me! Here is the link:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Jungle-Animal-Coloring-Book-1355615

I hope you all enjoy them. Comments are appreciated. Mizz Mac