Hamsa Hands

The Hamsa Hand (Khamsa Hand/ Hand of Fatima) is a very special symbol to me. It's a symbol that relates a pure message of extending peace and happiness for friends, family, and even strangers. I wear a Hamsa Hand around my neck each and every day.

 

I decided to bring this idea into a lesson plan where students create their own Hamsa Hands. In this lesson, students trace their own hand and then decorate the inside with various patterns consisting of lines, shapes, and color. Students can trace their hands with fingers spread open or closed. There are different meanings for both; open fingers symbolizes protection, and closed represents good luck.

I have implemented this lesson with classrooms as a fun one-day project, along with summer camps, and special community event art activities with students of various ages. It can be completed with any medium. I would love to try this activity with clay one day! I especially enjoy completing this project with younger students for various reasons;  tracing your hand builds eye/hand coordination and essential motor skills, and it's always great to see the reaction of students seeing how big their hand actually is!

 

 

Matisse Collages

After a trip to the Detroit Institute of Art, I was inspired. I was fortunate enough to see a traveling show on the collage work of Matisse and Picasso. It was truly amazing! I wanted to bring that creativity into the classroom and inspire the students to use their imagination and creativity to create pieces of art, just like the fabulous Matisse! That's when I got the idea for Matisse inspired Fall Harvest Collages!

 

 

For this project I worked with 4th grade students who were learning about the growth and development cycle of plants in their science classrooms. We discussed the differences between fruits and vegetables, along with seasonal food. Students were excited to tell me all about their pumpkin carving experiments. We focused on observation drawings from actual gourdes, pumpkins, squash, and apples. Students learned about contour lines as they concentrated on the outline and detail of each harvest food item as they sketched. To boost their drawing confidence, I projected what they considered their best work on the board and cycled through all the images. As a class we discussed positive attributes of each drawing.

 

I introduced the wonderful Matisse, and students had a fun time saying his name. They were in awe of his bright and colorful collage work and had a blast trying to figure out different abstracted shapes within certain work. We discussed the meaning of collage, and how an artist would create a collage from paper alone.

 

The project involves students creating a collage involving objects from the Fall Harvest. Each collage will contain at least 3 fruit/vegetables, along with pattern and design. Students are to focus on creating a composition that is active and moves the viewer's eye throughout. Students will also continue to work on their craftsmanship qualities and pay special attention to cutting out design elements from construction paper, and making sure that glue is not overused.

 

 

For added fun, students filled their harvest fruit/vegetable shapes in with pattern. Some students chose to have the pattern the same color as the construction paper for slight texture, while others used contrasting colors for greater emphasis.

 

 

Hard at work creating amazing collages! Hey, where did that pumpkin face come from?! I had to instruct students again and again not to add jack-o-lantern faces to their pumpkin shapes. It must have been very difficult to resist!

 

After two class periods, and a ton of scrap construction paper, there was success! Students created wonderful collage pieces inspired by Matisse and the Fall Harvest that included bright colors, patterns, overlapping shapes, and contour lines. I think they did an excellent job!

 

 

 



Animal Constellations

Who knew that science and art could go together so well? Ok, a lot of us reading this probably thought of that. I was looking through some books at a local book store and I found this gorgeously illustrated book on constellations.

Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitten

 Christina Balit illustrates the constellations beautifully. The duo also has another book on constellations that' s a must get as well. I knew that I had to show my 4th and 5th grade students this book. It actually worked perfectly because my lesson fit right into their current science unit on space. How awesome?! I designed a lesson where students were able to create their own animal constellation and then write a story explaining it's history.

I read the book to my students. I presented this project to several different classes, so to keep it interesting for myself, I read it different each time. Some classes, I would read selected passages to the students. Other times, I would show the images, have the students guess what constellation was being depicted, and then read to them the history and meaning behind it. Each time, the students were engrossed with the book. They absolutely loved learning about the science and the history behind constellations. Their enthusiasm was contagious!

So on to the project! I love giving open-ended projects to students. I gave each student a pre-cut piece of string and told them to lay it on their piece of black construction paper. The students were to make an interesting line on their paper with the string. I wanted to see squiggles and angles! After the students were satisfied with their line, they were to glue it down. Now for the fun part! Students were instructed to think extra hard as to what animal would that line fit into. In other words, what animal does the line look like? During this part of the instruction, I reminded the students that constellations are similar to connect the dots. This is where technology came in handy! I projected an illustration from the book onto the classroom's white board and connected the dots in the constellation!

After students decided on an animal for their constellation, they used construction paper crayons to draw around their string. When they were finished, glitter was added for the full effect of stars in the nighttime sky. After drawing their animal constellations, students wrote a short story describing the meaning and history behind their creation.

This project highlighted science, history, writing, and art in a fun and unique way that kept students interested throughout. Dragons, Guinea Pigs, Cats, Snakes, Unicorns, and Birds... I saw some amazing animals and artwork! Adding glitter didn't hurt either, everything is better with glitter!

There's always that one student who has to be different! Oh well, I love the creativity!



Owl Collages

I love, love, LOVE children's books! I'm drawn to the illustrations mainly, but a good story is always amazing too! But the illustrations, now, that's what brings the story to life! I was awestruck when I found out about this gem of a book:

It's just too cute! A little owl falls out of his nest and desperately tries to find his Mother with the help of a few forest friends. The story is simple, but the colors used in the book will blow you away! So bright and graphic. Look for it here on Amazon.

See what I mean?! I knew I had to create a lesson for my Elementary students with this book! I wanted to go out and purchase the book instantly! The only problem? My local book store didn't have a copy available and I couldn't wait for shipping. I hopped on YouTube, hoping that someone put the book up online. Even better, I found an animated version of the story! My students loved watching it. I got several requests to watch the video over and over again. It's even in a different language. The voice acting is incredible, but unfortunately, there were no translations! Thankfully there were other videos on YouTube that showed the English translation! It took some work, but I added subtitles to the video. The students didn't seem to mind reading the subtitles.

I had a huge box full of scrap construction paper and I had an idea. Students could create their own Little Owls with construction paper. I spoke with the students about color theory (not too in depth though!) and overlapping and collage. I did this project with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders and here are the results:

One stipulation I had with this project was that there were NO PENCILS allowed to draw elements before cutting them out. Earlier in the semester (I'll post about it soon!) we did a Matisse project where we learned to 'draw with our scissors' in the style of Matisse. I wanted the students to stop relying on the pencil and the eraser and just create what was in their minds. In hindsight, could have added more structure to the lesson, and really stress layering different shapes to create a forest background.

However, I think that these projects came out great! Especially because this was a one class period project. These students created these AMAZING COLLAGES in around a half hour! I'm so pleased with the results!

P.S. I'm developing an obsession with owls now!

Welcome!

Hello! I'm so glad you have stumbled upon my blog! My hope is to create a blog that catalogs my adventures of art through my teaching and self exploration. I plan on posting on inspirations and how I relate that into the classroom! 

First blog posts always seem a bit awkward! But, I figured you should know a little bit more about me, so, here goes: 

My name is Layna Williams. That's me to the left (big glasses, bangs, and wearing either a huge necklace or scarf).  I am currently in the process of completing my year-long Student Teaching Internship as a part of Michigan State University's Art Education program. I have had an amazing experience at both of my placements in the Lansing, Michigan area! Last semester, I was placed in the Lansing Public School District at Lewton Elementary and Mt. Hope Elementary. This semester, I am placed at Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge, Michigan. At the end of this semester, I will become K-12 certified in Art Education. I'm so excited!

But that's not my entire life!  I also volunteer at REACH Studio Art Center in Lansing, where I get the chance to hang out and create art with very inspiring and creative youngsters! I work primarily with Creative Connections, which is a free after school program for youth ages 7-12. I absolutely love it! Last year, I ran REACH's Art Truck where myself and a fellow artist traveled around to different locations each day bringing new and exciting art projects to participating youth. I also work at the Lansing Art Gallery (LAG) on the weekends. I get to see some amazing art, and speak with even more amazing artists and patrons! I've even had the honor of running summer art camps via LAG. 

I'm a busy lady, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Creating art brings me joy, but teaching others about art brings me even greater joy! I hope you stick around, check out my blog every so often, and get inspired!