Mrs.Williams Art Room

This lesson is a real hit with my middle school students. We learned to create a stuffed felt pillow. I have used a variety of themes for this project but the list is limitless. I have done stuffed emoji's, and winter holiday characters you can have your students create all kinds of things. Our first step is to create a template of there design using carboard or paper. It must be large enough to fill with stuffing and able to be sewn or glued around the edges to seal shut. Pick two sheets of felt and trace your template onto the felt. Cut out your design and begin adding details.  Connect your two pieces with needle and thread, hot glue or fabric glue. My students used needle and thread as this was a sewing project for them but I have used hot glue guns with them when we are in a time crunch.  The hot glue or fabric glue can be used to add embellishments too. Below are some pics of my Art ED colleagues at a PD that I facilitated. I introduced this lesson to them to take ...

        Sometimes it can be difficult trying to create lessons that will engage middle school students. This lesson is from a workshop that I did using modeling paste to create textured paintings. Since I have a lot of boys in my class that love graffiti I thought "Why not?", lets create our own graffiti walls. So we did! We used Modeling paste and a brick wall stencil to create the wall and while that was drying we learned to create graffiti names. Check out the videos and images below of there amazing work. Supplies used:  Flexible Modeling paste Cardboard any size Palette Knife Tempera paint (red) (black) brushes Sticky foam cubes Glue White 8 x 11 inch Tag board Scissors Markers Colored Pencils Crayons Painting our brick walls  Adding shadows to create dimension   Cutting out our names Here are few completed projects.

So have you ever played Tag with middle school students? No, I don't mean running around the room screaming and tapping someone. I'm talking about a fun way for students to peer critic. T.A.G stands for This is inspired by the wonderful art instructors at the Art of Education.   How it works? First my students finish a project and without grading it I placed each paper on the table.  Next to each art project I placed empty sticky notes and a pencil. Each student is to write a TAG for the art piece that is in front of them. Now, of course you may have absent students or students who do not do the project, so for those students I make them TAG a project even if someone has already tagged it, (so there may be two people tagging one piece of art work).  More than one piece of feedback is great.  Students can start when the music begins, when the music stops they stop and TAG the piece that's in front of them. We repeat the process 3-4 more times....

We have all used a scratch board or made one at some point in our early learning or art teacher  careers. So I thought I'd try it again cause I think its fun and my current students have not tried the process yet. This  lesson can be used for any grade level. I used this with my 6th-8th grade students.  I created a short video tutorial for my students so they could see the process. I've shared it below.  I'm starting to have fun creating these videos! On the positive, it gives me a chance to save my voice, and sometimes its hard to demo with a large class. I want everyone to see even the smallest details, so a video lets all participants see the action.   Supplies Used: 12 x 12 inch White paper Oil Pastel (variety of colors) Black tempera paint (thick is better or good quality) Dish soap Skewers My example used with acrylic paint.  We learned that using washable tempera made the surface thin. So the better the ...

My Mixed Media 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students just finished this fun painted paper collage inspired by artist Pete Cromer. Check him out on Instagram @PeteCromer or Petecromer.com/ . We started with painting 2 12 x 18 inch paper with colors that would make a great animal design. Once dry we cut our painted papers and began creating some unique animal designs. Below you'll find a few focused learners examples. Supplies Used: 12 x 18 inch white paper Tempera paint (variety of colors) Scissors Glue Pencils Construction paper Brushes Pete Cromer examples My example  My quick video introduction for my Mixed media students.

This school year I wanted to introduce some new artist to my middle school students. So, as I browsed the Pinterest site I stumbled up on an artist by the name of Thomas Fedro. He has a unique painting style, it reminds me of Picasso's Cubist portraits. I enjoy his bold colors, interesting designs and unique placement of objects and shapes. I asked my students to create a portrait or still life in the style of Thomas Fedro. Students used oil pastel instead of paint. Before we started we practiced  a few oil pastel techniques. We learned to scrap off excess pastel, blending with baby oil and using paper towel to blend. We also practiced shading, adding black and white pastel to other colors. We had a great time, students learned very quickly not to use to much baby oil because it bleeds through the paper. Once they got the hang of it they loved using it. I've posted below some finished and unfinished pieces. Love how...

Middle school clay project focusing on types of relif sculptures.  In class we discussed low and high relief  and looked at a few examples. Below are a few student pieces some  glazed and fired. Wolf howling at the moon Cupcake Spray can on brick wall Night time Super-Bat Man Flag Bird on a branch