Paper Cutting + The Winner Is... + Your Opinion Please

This is a great lesson for those in-between times. Paper cutting is quick, easy and effective. Plus the students love it – one recent class literally broke into applause as I unfolded my example before their enraptured eyes! No kidding : ) Click here for some previous examples and the instructions on my first such post. These particular ones were created by an enthusiastic year 3 class.

I've found the children learn more and are frustrated less when they begin with some practice attempts on scrap paper before using this research and development to make their deliberate final cuts on their coloured square. 

I'd love your opinion on the display of this artwork. Please let me know which is your favourite method? The top grid of 4 is the way I most commonly display art here on the blog, but it's a looong scroll for some viewers to take them all in. I like to include every student's art as an indication of the success of the lesson across the varied levels of ability and enthusiasm within any given class. 

The second way is the patchwork you see above with every student's art pasted together in one image (including one artwork repeated twice to make a rectangular number). The individual artworks are seen on a smaller scale but look really neat altogether.

The third and newest way is the potentially seizure-inducing 'gif' below! It briefly flashes through every child's artwork and runs on a continual loop. The image quality and colour is not as high as the previous jpgs, but every student's art is potentially right there near the top of the post. Gifs are not widely loved, but I thought I'd at least give it a try... It's also possible to adjust the amount of time that each image is shown for.

Realistically I'll try and keep using a variety of ways to present the artwork. But I really would appreciate any comments, feedback, preferences etc. I've got big shoulders and thick skin : )

And finally, the Win a Joe Hall & The Treehouse Band CD competition has now closed. My wife Katherine was the band's drummer and I gave her the unenviable task of choosing a favourite as the winner. We were both really impressed with all the contributions and really enjoyed reading them. If you haven't read them, it's well worth clicking here! Those childhood experiences and the memories of them, really are so special.

Insert drumroll here... With all her wifely wisdom, Katherine has declared that everyone's a winner! From North America to New Zealand, congratulations Don, Phyl, Mrs Hahn, Mary, Jen and Gretchen. I'll catch up over email and get some postal addresses to send the cds to. Thanks a bunch for sharing : ) The competition's over but if you feel inspired to add your own childhood memory please do.

"Notanarama"

Each year 5/6 student began with a black square, triangle, rectangle or circle. Most of the class chose to cut more abstract rather than representational shapes, and then derived great pleasure from recognising incidental objects within their work. We were limited to using black paper (all the available coloured paper was single-sided), but black and white turned out to be very effective.

This was the first time I'd taught about—much less made—Notans (a Japanese design concept focussing on the relative placement of light and dark within a composition), and both myself and the students enjoyed the process. I hope I can make them with another class soon. I'd seen a number of Notan posts floating around the blogosphere, but the most recent one I recalled and studied up with was by Rina from the K-6 Art blog.

While you're here, have you entered the "Win a Joe Hall and The Treehouse Band CD" competition yet? It's as easy as pie, just recall a favourite childhood memory or pastime here. One week left to enter...

Chalk it up!

When The Treehouse Band and I were still performing we asked our fans (okay admittedly a high proportion were friends and family!) to create chalk messages and drawings of support for us. Photos were taken and we kept an album entitled Chalk it up! It was a lot of fun and we even received some from the other side of the globe. Here's a small selection of the resulting photos, you can see the entire collection here.

By the way, I'm sending a copy of our debut recording "Joe Hall and The Treehouse Band" to one lucky reader : ) Just leave a comment here with a favourite childhood memory for your chance to win...

Win a copy of "Joe Hall & The Treehouse Band"

I recorded these songs with my wife Katherine and two good friends around 5 years ago now. As well as playing the drums, Katherine was responsible for all the art and design — very handy! You can hear the songs on the player below. If my Aussie accent's not too much for you, the EP is available in iTunes. Alternatively, read on for a chance to win your own copy of the CD posted anywhere in the world : )

We had lots of fun recording the music and playing at community events and festivals. We originally wrote the songs with 8-12 year olds in mind, but didn't want to call it kids’ music because we thought they'd run a mile — and in the end the songs proved just as popular with adults, so we labelled it “all ages”.

As I eluded to earlier, a lot of the content is very Australian but the general themes are universal, like celebrating simple childhood memories and good times, the power of being pleasant, having a positive attitude, respecting others and being confident to be yourself.

So, for your chance to win a copy of the CD just add a comment below sharing a childhood memory that you have, like walking to the corner shop to spend some loose change, making mud pies or that exhilarating sound of the final school bell before Summer : ) I'll let my wife Katherine choose her favourite response to be our winner in two weeks’ time. If you don't have a profile to post your comment from you're welcome to email it to artwithmrhall@gmail.com

I'm next to Katherine, sans beard, several kilos lighter and pre-dad status. This must have been a “lets just try and look like a serious band” pose... there are more photos (and videos) here.

TTTPs (or Two Terrific TeePees)!

I'm always up for some alliterative fun : ) This year 2 class used textas to draw two tall (and terrific) teepees before adorning them with repeated patterns featuring triangles, lines, zig-zags, circles etc. To complete their teepee scenes they used watercolours to paint their background landscapes. Some teepees were set in front of sunburnt and dry desert-like landscapes while others featured lush green grass with far-off mountains.

I guess "Cowboy and Indian" movies, toys and the like aren't as prevalent these days—the children all being more familiar with subcontinental Indians than Native American Indians. Hopefully they'll now remember that the Native American Indian people are just like our Indigenous Australians, people who lived and thrived in these beautiful landscapes long before freeways, cities, factories and the rest.

Cloudscapes II

These graphic cloudscapes were created by a year 5 class within their first few days of school this year. They were embarking on a weather unit to begin their studies and these were a great way to quickly brighten up the bare walls of the room. You can view my inaugural cloudscape post here. 

The students painted these with regular acrylic paint after viewing a diverse selection of cloud photos including sunsets and sunrises, storm clouds and much more. I think there must have even been some aurora borealis in there judging by a few of the colours! Some students also added some subtle oil pastel the following day. I really enjoy the variety of responses from the students.

The three grids of nine artworks that I've used meant that the 28th student was left all alone... I hope they don't mind! To make up for it I've copied and rotated the photo of their cloud four times resulting in the symmetrical pillow-like cloud above.