marbled medallions with super powers! and other lovely art moments...

Thes medals are made out of model magic, markers, beads, paper clip, colored string.

...an artist statement about this student's clay medallion with super powers!

Checking out a collage book at the Study Studio...

A large monster out of popsicle sticks at the building studio. Students love to make pictures, names, fences, and buildings out of these sticks.

Hooray for Interns!

Especially interns that clean out paint cupboards for me! Yeah!

more from the art room...

My students love to make "temporary displays" like these whiteboards and geoboards they leaned against the marker ledge.  Notice the timeline below- we stick famous artwork that we have talked about on our art timeline.

Modeling clay is also popular for "temporary displays". Here we have twisted clay in an interesting composition.

A tray full of clay on display.

A pinch pot nest and a chain out of modeling clay.

A First grader inspired by the still life.

More clay creations!

What kids create

Kids love to use the whiteboard! This is a picture of a "mean girl" taking a pizza away from another girl! 

A child's interpretation of the flamingo by Audobon.

poster of flamingo by Audobon 

Child's interpretation of a Stella- This has been a very popular art card to draw, I'm not really sure why... 

We have had a lot of crayon resists lately at the painting studio.

Busy students

Here is a sampling of what has been happening in the art studios! I love watching what the students come up with when they are allowed a little freedom of choice, and they are empowered to be in charge of their own  learning.

Constructing with cardboard at the Build Studio

The student titled these, "Statue of Liberty" and "Cat Statue of Liberty" :)

This student chose to use a picture book for reference at the clay station.
They were very inspired by the clay reliefs in this book.

When this student couldn't remember how to mix the secondary colors, they reread "Mouse Paint".

Collage inspired by Matisse.

new building, new students, new schedule...

I just found out that I will have another building of students added to my schedule.
A while back I got a phone call from one of my friends saying that it was in the paper that my school district was going to share "Activity Teachers" with another local private school. Art is considered an "Activity" class, so my friend was wondering if I was going to have to teach at this school.  I hadn't heard a thing about it, so I assumed that there were some arrangements that didn't include me. Well, I was wrong. I got the call this morning. I have until tomorrow to decide if I want to bid into a general ed. classroom or stick with the art job. Next year the art position will have 4 buildings of students. The schedule will be primarily divided between 3 buildings.  The art teacher (maybe me) will be at each of the 3 buildings for 4 week rotations. At one building the first class period will be at the new school. So, for one month out of 3 I would have to travel daily. Each building will have 8 classes per day, most classes have about 28-29 students.
I'm really not sure whether to jump back into the classroom, or stick with teaching art.

Wonderment: Following directions

Two classes, 56 students, same directions- What a difference! Class make-up completely changes a lesson! Each class has a personality. Some classes are the calm, quiet, studious type; some are active, silly, and on the go, some are moody, mysterious and a little disturbing... I find it fascinating what a difference it makes in the outcome of their artwork! Here's an example:

See if you can guess the personality of these 2 classes! They are both Kindergarten classes, and they come to art in the afternoon- one right after the other. This is a "Crazy Hair" assignment that I have taught a lot. I didn't make up the lesson, a lot of art teachers use this one because the students really love making these (I love to make them too :)

Here are some pictures from class 1-

Here are some pictures from class 2-

wonderment: fun and games

Clay portraits by elementary art students

This was the last week of art for one of the buildings I teach at. The kiddos got to take their "portfolios" home! I wanted to teach them some games they could play this summer, so we played a game with the art books (this can be played with any book) where one person is the "caller" and the rest of the players have to find whatever they call out.  For instance, one thing I told them to find was "portrait", and the first person to find a portrait in the book was the winner. We also had winning teams- when the whole team found a portrait they all won! Now, I have been talking about portraits all year and I was amazed how many of them still didn't know what to look for... depressing :( However, it's amazing what one game and a little competition can do! All of a sudden, after one game, they all seemed to know what a portrait was! What a great way to reinforce vocabulary.
The other game we played was a version of 4 corners. I put the colors of the rainbow around the room. Everyone had to go stand at a color. I made a dice that had all 6 colors on it, we rolled it, whatever color was on top was out. Everyone could choose a new color- we rolled again, etc. The last person in was the winner. Then the students made their own color dice so they could play the game at home this summer. The game was a big hit! Making the dice was a great 3-D project, it's a very difficult thing for some students to figure out how to make a cube from a flat piece of paper...
Lesson learned, note to self, I will definitely be playing more games with them next year. The proof is in the puddin' They definitely learn better when they are having fun!
Search Amazon.com for art games

Wonderment: smelling your art

After thinking about the need to color, I wanted to make a conscious effort today to notice what other very basic things my students choose to do.  I've been telling my family lately about a little 5 year old in one of my classes that likes to sit right right by my legs during group time.  He gets his little nose right up to my knees so he can smell them :)  He likes the smell of my lotion.  What can I say?  He is working on backing up a little... Kindergarteners don't really know their social bounderies yet!
He got me noticing how important smell must be to my art students.  Today there was a small group of 1st graders rummaging through our crayon cakes together to see which one they liked the smell of the best. (I don't think they smell at all.)  I saw 5th graders going through the magazines looking for the perfume ads to rub the smell on their project- now, I thought that was a pretty cool idea!  My students pretty much put everything up to their nose and take a whiff.  Many of them aquire marker or chalk marks on the ends of their noses at some point during class.  Mr. Sketchy markers are made with fruity smells.  I used to have a lot of them, but I got rid of them because I was constantly telling children to go wash their nose.  I do love those markers however!  I don't blame them for wanting to smell them, they smell wonderful!
Art and wonderful smells just go together.  I used oil paint when I was in college, and the smell is such a great memory for me.  Someday I'm sure I will go back to oils.  In elementary school we used to use paste, don't some of you from my generation just love that smell!  and, of course there is that kid in every class who doesn't just smell it, they have to eat it!  Gross! (but I bet you have all snuck a taste of some kind of glue or paint :) Taste is a whole 'nother topic...

wonderment: coloring/ basic needs

 

As I am watching my schoolchildren today I am struck by how many choose the stations where they get to fill in areas with color. Today's station choices include: chalk -landscapes, or finishing portraits; yarn -weavings; craypas -abstract line designs; paper strip constructs or weavings... I am trying to be intentionally aware of the choices they make, and considerate of what the draw is to that station. So many of the students choose the stations where they are coloring, whether it is with crayons, chalk, colored pencil, markers, or craypas. Perhaps they like the mindlessness of it, and the big results. They love the abstract designs where there is no pressure to create a likeness. I am really wondering if coloring fulfills some type of basic need? We need love, shelter, food.... and coloring!