Thursday, September 19, 2013

Free Choice

This week in Art class nearly all my classes needed some extra time to finish individual elements for our big school collaborative artwork. As kids finished up they were allowed to move onto free choice until I had all of the artworks complete. Last year all I had was paper for free draw and 2 boxes of mosaic blocks at the free choice station (snore). It frustrated me that kids would get paper and just draw hearts or fold fans, and others would fight over who could use the blocks. This year I've stepped up my game, and it has been magical seeing kids focused in their free time. Here's why:
1.There is now a box of pre-cut squares and directions for making small zentangles.
 2. There are now 4 tubs of playdough (although I thought I ordered 5.....) and kids from 1st-4th have been captivated by the creative possibilities of a lump of clay. I LOVE what I'm seeing in clay- making sphere "meatballs" which led into a bowl of ravioli and meatballs...
 ...cubes and other geometric forms and kids asking each other, "how did you do that?....
... lots of patting, pressing, rolling, and texturizing, as well as snake coiling.  Every art room needs some playdough. I love how kids seem unattached to their creations and willing to start over or remold when things aren't what they want.
I have a new etch-a-sketch fascinating my boys especially. And there are also 3 more boxes of shape blocks so everyone has plenty for building. The mosaic shapes are brilliant- I have pattern pages for 2D exploration and then there are those who like to build towers and enclosures 3 dimensionally.
 There is still paper for free draw, but now I have a creativity prompt for kids called "silly sketches"
 There are 3 boxes with color-coded words and they have to pick one word from each box to combine in a phrase. First and adjective, then a character, and finally an action. For example, the drawing above was a "Red Bigfoot Flew a Kite" and the one below was a "Yellow basketball player threw a giant ball".
These silly sketch prompts have TOTALLY changed how my kids approach "free draw". I'm not ready to switch totally over to a TAB-style classroom of centers, but I do value what students show me when they have free-choice options. My Vice-principal came in to observe while we were in the middle of class with half finishing the project and half working with free choice- we had a great conversation and she really "got it". I'm all smiles today!

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