Stop Motion Animation!

Students in Digital Art used the Lego Movie Maker app to create stop motion animations.

Check it out!

6th Grade Glazing Information

Here are the links to the websites to look at for choosing your glaze colors. Click on the links below to go to the websites.


 Sax Glazes

Amaco Glazes 

The following is a video explaining how to set up and glaze your pot. It did not turn out very good because I did not get the pot in the video screen a lot of the time.

How to Glaze Your Monster  
      click on the above link for the video

Dia de Los Muertos - Day of the Dead

    
The Day of the Dead is a Mexican and Mexican American holiday whose intricate history is intertwined with the history of Mexico and Mexican culture. The Day of the Dead is practiced on November 1st and 2nd, during which the graves of loved ones are decorated, special foods like mole and pan de muerto are made, ofrendas are built to honor the dead, and special festivals and processions are held. 

    The Day of the Dead has its origins in ancient Mesoamerican cultures that blended with those of the Spanish, who arrived in Mexico in the early 1500s. During the early twentieth century, Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada popularized the skeleton images associated with the holiday by his humorous drawings of calaveras, and thereby established a uniquely Mexican style of art.

                        Cyclists -  Jose Guadalupe Posada

     Later, the Chicano Movement embraced the Day of the Dead as a way to recover pre-Hispanic and Mexican identities. Today, the Day of the Dead continues to be celebrated by Mexicans and Mexican Americans across Mexico and the United States every November. - Dead of the Dead Educational Activity Guide Humanities Texas

Calaveras

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sugar skull, a common gift for children and decoration for the Day of the Dead.

A calavera [plural:calaveras] (Spanish -pronounced: [kalaˈβeɾa] for "skull") is a representation of a human skull. The term is most often applied to decorative or edible skulls made (usually by hand) from either sugar or clay which are used in the Mexican celebration of theDay of the Dead (El Dia de Los Muertos) and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls' Day. Calavera can also refer to any artistic representations of skulls, such as the lithographs of José Guadalupe Posada. The most widely known calaveras are created with cane sugar and are decorated with items such as colored foil, icing, beads, and feathers.

Click for video on Sugar Skulls

Clay Discovery

 What is Clay?

Clay is a special kind of earth which is made by the decomposition of rocks through the action of weathering.

What does that mean?

Well basically, over time, bits of earth are carried from one place to another by water and deposited in areas where the water slows down to a trickle. 

(Have you ever gone digging by the water's edge only to grab a handful of muck? Well that muck is clay.) As the bits of earth travel with the water, they pick up all sorts of stuff and by the time we pick up a box of clay from the pottery store, the muck has been collected and prepared for us to use. All of the tiny rocks and lumps have been removed and some additional materials, like sand are sometimes added to create the perfect workable clay.

What Else?

Clay can be found anywhere but it is only useful for pottery if it has good "plasticity." You can test this by seeing how stretchy a piece of clay is. If you can take a piece of clay, roll it into a coil and bend it into a ring without cracking and falling apart, chances are it will make good pots and sculptures.

Natural clay that we find outside usually needs to be cleaned and refined before it can be used. Any tiny rocks and lumps are removed and some additional materials, like sand are sometimes added to create the perfect workable clay that we buy from the pottery supply house.

Working With Clay:

Clay artists throughout the ages have invented many ways to shape things out of clay.

PINCH - Use your fingers to pinch and poke a single lump of clay into any shape.

SLAB - Roll the clay into flat sheets (like a pie crust) to cut apart and assemble.

COIL - Roll out long snakes of clay and twist them into coils and shapes.

WHEEL - Spin clay on a potter's wheel to form pots and vases.

Some Tools to Use When Working with Clay:

• Your fingers
• Rolling pins and canvas
• Popsicle sticks and toothpicks
• Cookie cutters
• Plastic bags
• A clay cutter (wire)
• Sponges
• Various carving tools, nuts and bolts, old toothbrushes and anything else you can get your hands on that will create texture in the clay

SOME........clay definitions you need to know before making a pinch pot:

Earthenware: This is the type of clay often used in schools. It comes in white or red and it is fired to a temperature of approximately 1000 degrees C. or 1830 degrees F.

Slip: This is liquid clay ... clay with a lot of water added to it. It is sometimes used as a sort of glue to hold clay pieces together. You need to use slip to "fasten" pieces of clay together so that they don't fall apart in the kiln. 

You see, clay shrinks as it dries so if you haven't made sure that your clay pieces are firmly attached, they will separate in the kiln. It isn't enough to simply "pile" one piece of clay on the next. Use watered down clay as your glue.

Shrinkage: As clay begins to dry the water in the clay body begins to evaporate. This will cause the clay to slightly shrink as it dries.

Important Tips for Success!!!

• The rule of thumb - this means your clay should never be thicker than the width of your thumb. A good thickness for a pinch pot is the width of your pinkie finger. Use your fingers as measuring tools when making your pot!
• Work quickly and purposefully with clay, it tends to have a memory and can give out and get exhausted if you work with it too much or for too long.
• Smooth cracks as you go along.
• Keep the clay moist but avoid using a lot of water. This can create a slime on your clay body which leads to cracking and falling apart.

When you have completed your learning guide, have your teacher sign it so you can move on to the next step.

Information Sources:

Kinder Art - http://www.kinderart.com/sculpture/clay.shtml

Photo Sources:

 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Clay_Mixing_for_Pottery.jpg

http://cottonridgehomeschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Laguna-Red-Calico-Clay.jpg

http://www.chinacrushing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Clay1.jpg

https://cmdcapstone.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/tumblr_nlzqtqhldc1r5mafso1_1280.jpg

http://www.osartistsco-op.com/pixhow/pinch02.jpg

Art Student Survey

Student survey 

Mutant Superheros

Some good sites to use as inspiration for planning your superhero.

Which superhero had the coolest and best secret headquarters
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/04/which-superhero-had-the-coolest-and-best-secret-headquarters/

The Ultimate list of superhero lairs
http://www.worldofsuperheroes.com/2014/10/turn-your-bedroom-into-a-superhero-lair/

Superhero name generators

http://superhero.namegeneratorfun.com/

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=superheronameorg

http://www.zimbio.com/generator/YgpmozHXpvQ/What%27s+Your+Superhero+Name+Power

Greek Gods and Goddess Web Quest

Welcome to the world of Greek Mythology! Your will investigate websites about Greek Mythology to learn about the 12 main gods and goddesses. You will gather information about these characters and then choose one to research and use for your Greek Theater Mask. You will be responsible for answering all of the questions on the worksheet and preparing an informative paragraph about the god or goddess of your choice.

Explore the following websites:

MythWeb   http://mythweb.com/

Major Olympians  http://www.majorolympians.com/

Fact Monster  http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0881990.html

Greek Mythology  http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/olympians.html

Zeus  http://www.zeus-publications.com/zeusgod.htm

Mythography  http://www.loggia.com/myth/olympians.html

Ancient Egyptian Web Quest

You are about to embark on a virtual journey back in time to the land of the ancient Egyptians. Follow the links below to navigate your journey. Answer the questions on your worksheet related to the site you are visiting before you move on to the next website.

1. Go to the Nile File, read the information and take the quiz. Record your score on the worksheet.

2. Go to the Oriental Institute and learn how to embalm a body.

3. Remember to write down (on your worksheet) 3 important things to do when embalming a body.

4. What are the jars that the organs are put in called?

5. Go to Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and read about 3 or more gods or goddesses. On your worksheet list 3 gods/goddesses and describe what they represented.

6. Explore Egyptian Hieroglyphs. In the space provided on the worksheet, write your name in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

7. Go on a Egyptian Tomb Adventure. Collect information while exploring an ancient tomb.

8. Print your certificate and turn it in with this web quest.

9.Go to the Three Pyramids and the Tomb Adventure. Play and have fun. In the space provided on the worksheet, write a description of one amulet you have collected.

10. Explore Ancient Egypt. Using the space provided on the worksheet, write down 2 things that you learned about Ancient Egypt that you did not already know.

Turn in your complete worksheet - make sure you have put your name at the top.