Masks, 5th Grade

I have done this lesson many times, and students always love it.  I begin by showing students examples of Native American masks.  Students then create a animal, monster, or alien mask to represent their alter ego.  This year my students had to write an artist statements to explain their work.

Portraits, 5th Grade

These portraits were created by my fifth graders.  The focus of this lesson was on using the correct proportions of the human face.

Overall, I think these turned out great.

Family Portraits, 2nd Grade

 This lesson was focused on families.  Students drew their families, their home, and some drew their neighborhoods.  I asked students to focus on overlapping.  This overlapping brought depth to their drawing.  I found the idea for this lesson on the blog Apex Art.

 I think these turned out wonderful.

My Two Sides, 4th Grade

 I have been trying to teach differently this year.  Instead of focusing solely on skill based art lessons, I am now attempting to take a more meaningful approach to teaching art.  This year my lessons will be focusing on the theme, My Place in This World.  The idea is to have students create art that relate directly to their life, their experiences, their feelings, and their world.

My fourth graders spent about a month working on these paintings. In this lesson, students created a self portrait that shows both who they are on the outside, and how they feel on the inside.  In order to understand the meaning behind their art, I am having all 2nd through 5th graders write artist statements about their work.

I really like these, and my students are very proud of their creations.  I am still learning to loosen up my teaching style, and allow for more creativity, but I think this was a good start to this years theme.

School Starts Tomorrow

 School starts tomorrow, and my art room is ready.  This will be a busy school year because I will be teaching art full time as well as working on my thesis for my master's degree.  I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible through this crazy busy school year.

In my school, I teach 6 classes a day for 35 minutes each.  I see a total of 30 different classes each week.  Keeping track of all my students is probably the biggest challenge of my job. Organization is the key to survival in my classroom.

 I did about four bulletin boards in our hallway this school year, and here is a picture of two of them.

In order to maintain order in my classroom, I utilize a voice level chart, and students earn "Art Dollars" for good behavior.  Four times a year students get to spend their art money on prizes.

Summer at Boston University

I have been working on a Master's degree through Boston University.  Most of the classes are online. However, this summer, I went to Boston to take a few studio courses.   I took two classes: Wire Sculpture and Printmaking.  All of these techniques were wonderful to learn, however in order to apply them to my elementary classroom, I will need to simplify the techniques and materials.

 This is the wire sculpture I created during my time at Boston. This was a very time consuming process because it involved twisting and bending thick sharp wire.  If I were to do this with my elementary students, I would need to use softer wire.

 We created a variety of monoprints during my time in Boston.  This monoprint was created with water-soluble crayons on plexiglass, which was then printed on wet paper. This process can also be done with oil paints or watercolors.  While I don't have a press in my elementary classroom, I would be able to do a version of this by simply rubbing with a spoon.

 This was a woodcut I created.  The colors were added by printing several times using stencils to block out the parts I didn't want inked.  While woodcutting would be inappropriate for my elementary classroom, a similar process could be done with styrofoam or E-Z cut.

This last one was a pronto print.  It was created by printing a photo on pronto paper using a laser jet printer.  Then I used a brayer, and added ink directly to the pronto paper. Next, I used a wet sponge and wiped the pronto paper.  It was printed using a press.  I am not sure if this is doable for my elementary students.  I will have to see if this process works without a press first.   

Paper Mache Totem Poles, 5th Grade

This art lesson was done in collaboration with the fifth grade classroom teacher.  A few weeks ago, a fifth grade teacher came to me and asked if I would be willing to create large totem poles out of oatmeal containers he collected.  I immediately loved the idea, but I only see my students for 30 minutes once a week, so I knew I would need his help on this one.  In order to accomplish this large project, the classroom teacher taught the students about the history of totem poles prior to coming

to art class.  He also was kind enough to stay in the art room and assist during the art lesson. This was very helpful, as paper mache is difficult to pull off in short 30 minute classes.   

This totem pole lesson took us 5 (30 minute) art classes to complete.  Students began with an oatmeal container and used cardboard, bottle caps, and paper towel rolls to create an animal.  Once this was created, students covered the entire thing with paper mache.  Lastly, students painted their creation. 

Once each animal was completed, I attached them together to create one large totem pole. The fifth grade teacher then had each student write a short essay about their work.  I think the results are amazing!

Art Show 2015

This was our first Art Show.  I decided to turn our art show into a fundraiser.  We had a company called Artome frame the artwork, and we sold each frame for $25.

By using this company, the whole process was really easy.  I labeled the artwork, and sent it to Artome two weeks prior to the show.  They came on the day of the show with the framed artwork, and even hung the artwork for me.  At the end of the show they packed up any unsold frames, and will send the artwork back to me.  This was great because it made cleanup easy, and we are only charged for what is sold.  

 Other than the framed artwork, we also had sculptures up for everyone to see.  

 Here are our 4th grade paper mache ice cream cones.

 These flowers were made by my kindergarten and fifth graders.  They worked collaboratively on this.

The Totem Poles were made by my fifth graders.  Each student created one piece of the totem, and put them together to make a large totem pole.

Musical Art, 1st grade

 I have done this lesson many times in the past.  This time, I did it with 1st grade.  This lesson focuses on creating an instrument and showing visual rhythm.  My students created these using cut paper.  I allowed my students ten minutes at the end of the lesson to add details with oil pastel.

Reflections, 3rd Grade

This is a great lesson to teach reflections.  I found the idea for this lesson on the blog, Fine Lines.  Basically, all you have to do is have students draw and color the top half of their paper with regular washable markers.  Then students spray water on the bottom half of their paper.  After this, students fold their paper and rub.  This makes a simple easy print of the image.

I allowed my students to draw any landscape image.  Some students drew houses, while other drew castles, mountains, or farms.

This is a great example of art that connects to math.  This one is easy enough to be done by either the art teacher or the classroom teacher.

Cakes, 5th Grade

 This lesson is a perfect Wayne Thiebaud lesson.  I found the idea for this lesson on Arteascuola.   Students drew a cake and then added shading to make it more realistic.

Here's a hint:  After coloring with oil pastels, have students use a Q-tip with a little baby oil to blend the colors.  It really makes the pastels look smooth, and almost like paint.

What's in your brain?, 3rd Grade

 For this lesson, students focus on creating a self portrait.  Students create a silhouette by standing in front of the projector and having a friend trace their silhouette.  Then, students draw things about themselves inside their silhouette. Students had the choice of coloring in either crayons or colored pencils.

 I think these are wonderful!  After creating their portrait, students wrote a few sentences about themselves and added it as a thought bubble.