Chinese New Year 2016: The Year of the MONKEY

February provides a wealth of integrated arts inspiration for Art Teachers! February 8th (2016) is Chinese New Year--the Year of the Monkey. Here are some of the projects from my site that I've done with my students over the years along with some resources and projects from the interweb that I love. 

My previous posts:

Chinese Calligraphy Placemats/Posters

Easy Paper Lanterns

Dragon Puppets

Projects I LOVE from around the web:

• Simple dragon puppet from Red Ted's Art Blog
• These simple banners (no original link--just a photo). Sorry, I love anything with crepe paper streamers!
• Thumbprint Lanterns from Let's Go Fly a Kite (you gotta look at this one--so cool!)
• Chinese Dragon Puppets from Olive Art!! Do You???
• Fingerprint Cherry Blossom Lantern (with FREE Printable) from Imagination Box

And a recipes to enjoy:

Rainbow Chicken Fried Rice

Resources I've used:

• "China: DK Eyewitness Books," by Poppy Sebag-Montefiore (A nice overview of China and Chinese culture. The book has some clear, beautiful images of calligraphy, writing, and dragon costumes).

• "Gung Hay Fat Choy," by June Behrens (This is a great nonfiction book that has lots of pictures and info about Chinese New Year. I love the pictures of the dragons used in the Dragon Dance).

• "Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats," by Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz & The Children's Museum, Boston (A wonderful book of Chinese holiday tales, activities and recipes).

• "The Boy Who Painted Dragons,"by Demi (All of Demi's books are beautiful! This artist has been known to paint with a mouse's whisker! She's also created books on Mother Theresa, Mary and Jesus).

• "The Kid's Multicultural Art Book," by Alexandra M. Terzian (This is a great go-to book for a number of crafts from around the world. A must for an art teacher's personal collection. I love the whole series of art books for children by this publisher).

• "The Paper Dragon," by Marguerite W. Davol (LOVE this book! And artist saves his village from a dragon by using creativity and intelligence. A great book!)

• "You Can Write Chinese," by Kurt Wiese (A bit dated, but the way the information about Chinese symbols is presented is wonderful and very kid-friendly).

• A China Family Adventure. http://www.china-family-adventure.com/chinese-writing-symbols.html (Accessed January 2012) This site has a section entitled, "Learning Chinese Writing Symbols for Kids" that has some wonderful, clear images of chinese calligraphy and a nice chart that shows the evolution of a few Chinese characters (this is where you will see that the original Chinese character for rain looks like rain falling from a cloud)

• Chinese Calligraphy By Kids. http://library.thinkquest.org/3614/intro.htm (Accessed January 2012) A wonderful website by two elementary girls that is very child-friendly and has a ton of wonderful information about Chinese calligraphy, great picture examples and explanation of some symbols and the combination of symbols. Lovely!

Dragon (Faux) Stained Glass

Yesterday was the first session in my after school Medieval Art Class! What a blast! I have a great group of kids and a nice mix of boys and girls!

Aren't these fabulous?!

We did a variation on a project I saw in the book, "Medieval Projects You Can Do" by Marsha Groves. The image is pretty much the one Groves uses, but I used the Contact paper technique that I've developed with my students over the last couple years.

I showed the children pictures of stained glass from medieval times, making sure that I had examples of traditional stained glass (tall and rectangular), some details showing the brushed-on enamel details, and an example of a rose window with its circular design.

I then provided them with a guide that had the dragon image on it with all of the sections labeled so the children would know what was fire, what was dragon and what was background (sometimes that gets confusing). Using a template like this is actually very traditional. In medieval times artisans would sketch the designs for windows onto wooden panels and the artisans would fabricate the windows on top of the wooden templates.

The end results of this project were gorgeous! It is funny how different the pieces can be even thought they are all the same subject.

One bit of warning, using tissue paper squares with children can be, um...tricky. This group wasn't bad at all: I had the tissue paper squares in a tray in the center of each table and I warned that crazy movements can cause the squares can fly up and get on other people's work (not cool!). Once the tissue paper is on the Contact paper, it cannot be removed, so the children need to be mindful of their neighbors' pieces and move slowly and carefully.

I do hope you try this project, it really is a cool one!

Here's the method:

Dragon (Faux) Stained Glass

Supplies Needed:

• Template (I copied mine on 8 1/2" x 11" paper)
• Pencils, Ruler & Sharpie to create your template
• Piece of clear Contact paper slightly larger than your paper guide
• Clear tape
• Four 3/4" x 12" strips black construction paper "(for frame)
• About four 1/4" x 12" strips black construction paper "(for leading)
• Many 1" squares of tissue paper, assorted colors
• Scissors
• 1 clear sheet protector, optional

Directions:

1. Make your template: Draw a border around the copy paper that is about 1/2" wide. Use the pencil & ruler to create a simple, bold image made up of straight lines. Don't make anything too detailed! You can use the dragon image for inspiration. Once you have your design down, use the Sharpie to go over the lines. These will be the guide lines you will use when placing your construction paper leading. You may want younger children to work from a template image you've created, but older children could create their own over a period of classes.

2. Tape the template to the table using clear tape.

3. Remove the paper backing from the Contact paper and place it on top of the template sticky side up. You will be doing all of the work on the sticky side of the Contact paper. Tape the Contact paper to the table using a couple pieces of clear tape to hold it in place while you work.

4. Place the 3/4" pieces of black construction paper over the areas of the template designated as your border. Place the paper strips directly onto the sticky side of the Contact paper and press lightly. It is OK if the strips extend beyond your template--you'll be trimming the piece later.

5. Using your template as a guide, place the 1/4" strips of construction paper over the leading lines on the image you drew. Simply rip (or cut) the construction paper strips to the proper length to cover your leading lines. Cover all of the lines in your drawing.

6. Once you have the border and all of the leading lines covered in construction paper, start filling in the remaining sections with colorful pieces of tissue paper. The squares can overlap each other and can overlap the black construction paper lines a bit (you are actually working on the piece from behind). But take care to make sure the tissue paper goes where you want it to. It is almost impossible to remove the tissue paper from the Contact paper once it gets on there. 

7. Once all of the sections are filled in with color, trim the piece down to 8 1/2" x 11" and slip it into a clear sheet protector to protect it. Other options would be to use another sheet of Contact paper on the other side of the piece to seal the tissue paper and construction paper safely inside. Or you could run the piece through a laminator (maybe), I don't have one at my disposal, so I'm not sure of that, but it may work. 

Place in a sunny window and enjoy!

Working on our dragon (faux) stained glass windows.
Everything is taped down with clear tape and the tissue paper
squares are in the center of the table in cardboard trays.

Dragon Puppets

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year falls on Monday, January 23rd this year, the Year of the Dragon! In previous years I have had my art students create Dragon puppets and lanterns in honor of the holiday. This year, I'm going to post a couple of related projects so your family can mix and match and have a celebration of your own! These projects are appropriate for a variety of ages, have fun!

Dragon Puppets:

I have made dragon puppets in the past, but I really wanted to try creating the version I saw in Family Fun Magazine about a year ago. They are elaborate (in terms of kid crafts), but worth the work since they definitely have a "WOW" factor! You can find the directions here.

A quick note: I don't usually have projects where children create carbon-copies of the same craft, but these dragons we created in class look very much the same since I didn't have four weeks to let the children all do unique dragons in terms of color and body, etc. Someday maybe I can allow a bit more choice, but for now I chose the colors they would do. 

Here are some suggestions I have when doing this project with a group:

• Enlist some grown-up help. I had one helper (besides me) for 10 children. We don't have water in our room, so I think I would grab a bucket of water so that no one was leaving to refill water buckets. Have an empty bucket for dumping dirty water into.
• Precut the egg cartons in the sections.
• Precut the fabric into rectangles.
• Create stations to break the craft down into manageable pieces. I had a station for painting the eyes, a station for painting the mouth, and a station for painting the fabric body. When the children were done all of the painting they could go to the cutting station and cut out all of their "extra" pieces like the eyebrows, etc.
• At each station, have step-by-step instructions for the specific piece they are creating at that station with a finished example of that piece (not the whole dragon).
• Have grown-ups in charge of dispensing paint.
• Create a drying area. I laid out sections of newspaper and wrote each child's name on a section. When they were done a piece of their dragon, they could put it onto the newspaper with their name on it to dry. This kept all of their pieces together and I could quickly see what each child needed to finish before class ended.
• Allow for drying time. It would be great if you could leave the pieces to dry overnight. I don't have space for this since the room I use needs to be empty when I leave. Use a cardboard tray to move and store the pieces between classes if you have to move them.
• Paint during one session, assemble during another. You could even make this a three (or four) part class if you had time. 
• Photocopy the chin and tail templates directly onto the colors of paper you want to use. I also needed the children to cut multiple shapes at the same time, but cutting many layers of paper can be too tricky (and time consuming) for some. I stapled the paper together through the shapes they should be cutting out. This held the layers together so they could cut them out. Once the shapes were cut out, I removed the staples (the holes left behind are small).
• On assembly day, work with 2 children at a time to assemble the finished dragons while the rest of the class does something else (maybe Chinese calligraphy?). It is a nightmare to try to walk more than two children through assembly process. Call in another grown-up if need be to speed the process along.
• Cover everything with newspaper and have everyone (including grown-up helpers) wear aprons. I was painted on a couple of times yesterday by accident :-)
• Don't use good paintbrushes for this. Due to the nature of this craft the paint gets ground into the brushes no matter what you do. Encourage the children to place the brushes back in the water when they are done painting so the paint doesn't dry on the brushes (especially if using acrylics).

Despite all of these warnings, I really did love this craft! I think it is totally worth doing and would be very manageable with a small group or single child. Just plan ahead and take your time! ENJOY!

Clothespin Theater

I love this project! This clothespin theater is one of those projects which kids can totally make their own! I originally taught this project as part of a medieval art course. I tied in medieval puppetry and theaters and it was a wonderful way to link history with art. 


While I had envisioned creating backgrounds and characters to act out a play about St. George and the Dragon, the children created a wide variety of characters and backgrounds such as a rainforest explorer, a soccer team, a horse and rider, and more. This project would also be a wonderful way for children to make an interactive diorama for a project at school or a book they've read (imagine Little House on the Prairie!).


Enjoy this wonderful project and the creative options it inspires!

Background:

Medieval life was hard! But during festivals, children and adults alike were able to enjoy puppet shows. There are woodcuts, paintings and illuminations that show people enjoying puppet shows. These shows were also a great way to illustrate stories for people who could not read.

One popular type of puppet during medieval times was the marionette. We created marionette during my first semester art class. Marionettes have jointed body pieces that are controlled from above with strings. Although there were also puppets that were glove puppets (that fit over a person's hand) and "jiggling" puppets that were controlled from below with a stick.

I brought in a few different types of puppets for the children to see: a finger puppet, a marionette from our first semester class, and a glove puppet. We talked about the elements of a stage: the floor, or stage itself, the background, the actors, etc.

In this project, we use a cardboard box with the top and front removed, for our theater. We then created backgrounds and floors by drawing on pieces of paper and inserting them into the box. The actors (or puppets) are drawn on index cards or cardstock and glued to clothespins. The puppets are then placed onto a piece of yarn that has been strung across the width of the box. The child can then move the puppets along the yarn as s/he acts out the story.


Supplies Needed:

• A cardboard box (we used a box that juice pouches came in)
• Yarn to go across the width of the box 1 or 2 times 
• A nail to make the holes for the yarn (a grown-up's job)
• A plastic needle
• Plain white paper for the background (ours were 10 1/2" wide x 5 3/4" tall)
• Plain white paper for the floor (ours were 10 1/2" wide x 3 1/4" deep)
• Pencils
• Crayons or colored pencils
• Sharpie marker (optional)
• Clothespins (the non-spring type)
• Index cards or card stock, white
• Hot glue or tacky glue
• Scissors
• Glue dots or masking tape (optional)

Directions:

1. Remove the top and front of the cardboard box you will be using for your theater.

2. Measure the back and floor of the inside of your box and cut plain white pieces of paper to fit. These will be the background and floor of your theater.

3. With pencil, draw the details of the background and floor. In my case, I created two backgrounds: one that shows the outside of the castle with a seascape and misty hills shrouded in thunder storms (that is where the mean dragon lives) and an inside view of the castle. This was a great opportunity for me to draw all of the things we've learned about this year in our medieval-themed art class: shields, tapestries, swords, etc. When drawing your background think about drawing things near and far (the foreground, mid-ground and background)--that will add depth to your drawing.

The two backgrounds I created. I only colored one in.

When I drew the pieces to line the bottom of my clothespin theater, I drew a dirt path for the outside view and a castle floor with rug for the inside view of the castle.

The two "floors" of my theater.

4. If you'd like, go over your pencil lines with black Sharpie marker and then color the images in with crayons or colored pencils.

5. Create the puppets or actors: You will need one clothespin and one index card per puppet. Draw the puppet onto the index card (put the puppet's feet at the bottom of the index card), trace over your pencil lines in Sharpie, if desired, and color in as you did the background. I made my puppet about 5" tall. When done, you can cut around the figure with scissors to remove the excess paper. Using hot glue or tacky glue to attach the puppet to the clothespin as shown in the photo below. This will allow your puppet to move along the yarn.

Puppet front

Puppet back. Note how the clothespin is glued to the puppet.

6. Assembling the theater: Have a grownup poke holes in the side of the box. They should be the same height as the clothespin slot. Now, using the plastic needle, thread the yarn through the holes and knot each piece outside the box. Slip the background into the box and place it into position (if you want to change the background, you can just prop the background in there, or you can use glue dots or masking tape to permanently attach the background paper to the back of the box). Slip the floor into place (you can attach that with tape or glue dots if desired). Place the puppets onto the string and enjoy the show!

You can string one, two or more lengths of yarn across the theater.

Here are a couple of the clothespin theaters the children in my art class created: