Images of Home

My 1st and 2nd graders are drawing pictures from their everyday life... and isn't that just what artists are supposed to be doing?

Interesting points of view

My fifth graders seem to have grown a lot over the summer! I can't believe the unusual perspective shown in these works..

Collages are improving!

I can't believe the great art that is being created in the collage center. Using my new digital projector from the district, paired with the laptop, I've been able to show slideshows of collage images along with images of collage techniques. This new technology has greatly improved student achievement in the art room!

Year #2 is going full speed ahead!!

I began the year in August and was feeling very optimistic about having another great year! When the students arrived, I had them each make a folder for their work (just 12x18 lightweight tagboard folded in half and stapled 3 times up each side. After thinking this summer of how much I wanted my artists to have the experience of using a sketchbook, I introduced the idea to my 1st - 5th graders. My 1st graders can't seem to get the hang of using the sketchbook to draw their ideas, so I may not include that grade level next year... note to self. But all other levels are enjoying the new concept of drawing ideas and keeping all their work in one place. I showed the video - "How Artists Use Sketchbooks" , the classtime after we made the sketchbooks and I think that offered them a look inside the mind of artists.

End of year #1

This year has been one full of creativity and revelations. There were a number of times what I questioned this new approach to teaching art but each time I was sure I'd make a mistake, a student would tell me how much art class meant this year-

"It's so much better than last year because now I get to explore using my own ideas."

"This year I have liked learning more about weaving and making things with yarn and fabric."

I plan to spend time this summer going over my thoughts about what worked and what might need to be re-worked. More time needs to be spent helping students find their own voice in art. Maybe we need to spend some time at the beginning of the year talking about how artists get ideas and how art, like writing, comes from within. I also need to tighten up the assessment part of my curriculum - sinced the students are in charge of their projects, what exactly should I be grading?

As a crowning achievement for the art department, the rain forest mural was completed, framed and hung in the hallway. I will sure miss this years group of 5th graders --

Here are two products from the Sculpture
Station --- it's amazing what students can
create with cardboard and army men!!

This sculpture, in the style of Louise Nevelson,
is called "Jail Break".

A kindergarten self portrait in paper...

Here are a few different takes on creating a landscape.

This girl obviously loves her cat!

Doesn't this remind you of Magritte??

There continue to be great paintings being done --

Paper sculpture is another enticing project in the art room --

These two works show how one student has been exploring using soft pastels --

This student first created a stitchery called
"The Jet Pencil" and then decided to turn
it into a pillow.

It's been awhile....

Now that thanksgiving break and xmas break are over, we begin the 2nd half of the school year and the students continue to explore in different mediums, creating wonderful works of art. The Fiber Station continues to be a favorite and the Weaving Station always has a handful of artists quietly working away on their creations . At the Clay Station, there are a number of students who are practicing their techniques in order to earn the chance to try real clay. The rule is that two practice sessions must be graded before they are allowed to give real clay a try and at present, I have a dozen projects drying and waiting to be fired. The biggest draw has been the Sculpture Station and I am finding out quickly that I don't have enough places for students to store their works in progress. I think it's time to purchase 2 or 3 five shelf units to put along the wall! Then I will have a place for student work as well as somewhere to put boxes of materials so that they will be accessible for my artists... time to hit Target and Big Lots!

Next Steps

Two weeks ago, I opened the Fiber Center and I have some students from each class who are working on producing a stitchery piece. I began by telling students they could sew a picture and then put a backing piece on and stuff it to make a pillow. I don't think they understood the process as well as I wanted them to. One girl actually put both piece together and THEN tried to sew her picture! Needless to say, she didn't understand why she ended up with two pieces of burlap sewn together with no room left for the stuffing. The next day, I posted a new menu listing the steps for making a stitchery picture and I will re-introduce the concept of making a pillow later. The hallways at school are filled with examples of drawings, paintings and collage works but it will be great to be able to put up some stitchery projects. Soon, I will offer weaving on cardboard looms for the upper grades and tongue depressor looms for the lower grades. Maybe it's time to start showing students how to weave paper looms first so they can get the hang of the over-under process.

This week, I posted a menu on the many ways for making paper three dimensional. Many students were thrilled with the idea of making a sculpture out of paper - I even have a group of 5th grade girls who are working on making a model of New York City. They completed the Empire State Building yesterday and are now trying to figure out how to make a representation of the Statue of Liberty to put in their model. The younger grades seemed happy to work on what they called an amusement park, complete with stretched out spirals of paper for the roller coasters. I let them take their first attempts home -- can't figure out how to house the 3-D artwork yet. I'm thinking of going to Target next week to buy a plastic 5 shelf unit to put along one wall in the art room. Maybe that will solve my problem. It will be interesting to see the direction my sculptors take as the quarter progresses. I want to move on to cardboard sculpture but I don't have enough recycled material yet to make the center work. Guess it's time to make up a wish list to send home! Then I will have to make a menu on the different ways to attach things together -- I have plenty of glue guns but I want to stop at Hobby Lobby and stock up on Tacky Glue as well.

After Thanksgiving, I'm going to place an order for low fire clay. I have a handful of students who have been working with oil clay and I know they would like to try making their ideas in real clay that we can fire, so I'd better get on that ASAP. It seems that the more centers I open, the more smoothly the classrooms are running. Of course, the flip side of that is that I seem to be busier and busier with each class! The school day passes in the blink of an eye and I'm worn out by the end of the day -- but the kids are happy and loving art more and more...

Now that the first quarter is over, I am able to sit back and look at how this new pedagogy is working. Being an art teacher for 20 years, I've been known for having great displays of student art work in the hallways but all the products came from teacher driven projects and the displays showed many different variations of MY concept. A great example of that was the unit I did last year when I had the 5th graders do value studies of a still life I constructed -- the display consisted of 15+ drawings of that same still life. Granted, the art work was beautiful but the display was repetitive and led the viewer to pick out which student possessed the greatest skill at reproducing said still life. This year, I have seen many people actually stopping to read the artist's statement while viewing the Art Gallery in the hallway and I have overheard comments like, "This is like going to an art museum!" In the art room, I have been amazed by how much thought my students are putting into their work. Even my kindergarten students catch me by surprise -- a number of times, I have thought, "Now what the heck is this all about?" , only to have my eyes opened as I transcribe their thoughts on the artist's statement form. Scroll down and look at the collage with all the holes in it -- when the little girl brought this to me, I couldn't imagine that she would be able to say what her thought was behind this work (other than that she had discovered the holepuncher in the Collage Center!!). Now, as I pass her work in the hallway, all I can see is rain and a flower - from the mouths of babes...

The Park Lane Art Gallery

"Whales are my favorite..." and this whale is being friends with the other creatures in the sea.

This collage was made by a 5th grade girl who is worried about the way people are trashing the earth. It consists of crumpled scraps of paper glued onto the earth, which is spinning through a charcoal drawn universe.

"This painting represents the two parts of myself -- the good side and the bad side"
This 4th grade student is working on a series of work reflecting the duality of his personality ... now *that'* deep!

A kindergarten girl described her collage this way:
"It's raining and I added a flower"... the white button on her collage looks like a flower!

This creation was made by a girl who loves the mountains.

"I made this collage because it reminds me of my grandmother's house."