The extras

One major thing I do as the art teacher is help supply decorations for the school concerts. I get along really well with the music teacher, who is also my mentor teacher, so I don't really mind helping her make the school concerts impressive events. I work with my art club students to design and produce backdrops for the concert. We have a cafetorium, so it's a bit of a challenge to transform it into  a setting worthy of a concert. This Spring the students felt that the choir's music selections seemed mostly patriotic, so they wanted red, white, and blue! We projected the images onto canvas, sketched it out, and painted them over about 2 weeks.  

In addition to the backdrop, I thought it would be fun to have some kind of slide show to illustrate one of the songs. I had my third graders each take a line from the lyrics of "The Ash Grove" and create an illustration that included the words so that we could make a "lyric video" for the concert. The kids whose images ended up in the slide show were so excited and proud!

It feels really good to hear everyone's comments about the artwork around the school. I love helping make our school a more pleasant, colorful, and visually interesting place to be in.

Sounds of music in Artclub

I'm so excited about my new art club group. This was our 3rd week, and our first project is in full swing. After learning a thing or two with my first group in the Fall, I decided to make our sessions more structured. We have snack, and then there is a sketchbook challenge for the kids to do while they wait for everyone to finish or for me to get things set up. The sketchbooks were made in our first class and the kids can add any additional drawings or writings they wish. We also made a list of themes to explore in artclub, and the first one they chose was music. Simple changes like this ( more structure and theme-exploration instead of material exploration), not to mention a calmer, more focused group, have changed my whole feeling about Tuesdays.

Each child selected a favorite instrument to draw as a big poster. We found google images of the instruments for inspiration and cheated by projecting and tracing the outlines (Is it cheating or using a tool?). We played with scale and composition so that even if 2 students shared an image they would still look different. Then they traced over their lines with sharpie so that when we paint they don't lose their drawing. I challenged them to add something to the background to represent sound- of course most of them chose music notes. Since our papers are so big, only 2 people could really work at a table at a time comfortably, so we sprawled out around the floor on carpets. I love how relaxed and true-art studio the room felt when they did this. Working in my little room with just 15 kids is sooooo nice.

Winter Wonderland

I love the last week of school before the Winter break. The joy of the approaching holidays and the kids' enthusiasm is soothing the soul.

 My after school art club made gingerbread houses and these snow globes. I picked up some tiny snowman figurines and a frond of fake pine needles. One of my kids brought in a bunch of glass baby food jars and lids thanks to a baby cousin. We pressed a small ball of white model magic into the lid, added the figurines, then painted the inside of the jar with glitter paint and finally twisted the lid onto the jar. My luck with liquid-filled snow-globes in the past  has been messy and unsatisfactory, but the glitter paint makes it look like there's always a flurry going on inside. They're surprisingly enchanting.

 My Kinders and First Graders are working on wintry landscapes. We looked at snowy pictures like Harry Callahan's lakeside trees in snow to find value and horizon lines. The first graders drew 3 different horizon lines across a page, then painted each of the four sections a different value of blue. I gave them cups of white, then came around with a "squirt" of blue to change the value for each step.

The following week I reminded them that far away things looked teeny-tiny, and close-up things looked really big. We talked about all the things we might see in a winter landscape and they drew in oil pastel. Of course, some kids are super excited for Christmas and there were Christmas trees and Santa's sleigh flying through some pictures. Mostly there were bare-branched trees, snowflakes, cardinals, and snowmen. They are really adorable pictures, and I can't wait to hang them in the halls. We have a holiday luncheon on Friday, but part of me would like to skip it and just totally refresh all my hallway displays! Oh well, one more full day and a half day till break!

Collaborations and Displays

I'm a big fan of collaborative art-making as well as the visual of lots of little things making a big thing. So here are 3 ways I've incorporated those ideas in projects my students have made recently.

 My first graders learned about texture and the parts of a tree. They traced their hand and arm to make a branch, filled it with bark texture by using line variety. Then they did leaf rubbings to use the texture of a leaf to make a rubbing-print. The leaves were cut into an organic shape and added to their "tree branch". Once all 4 classes were complete, I combined all their branches into a huge tree overarching the doorway. I wish I could paint on the ground and add the root system too! All their little pieces added up to an impressive display (note to self- don't use poster putty on the glass in the winter- too cold and it doesn't work!!- this all fell down because of a big temperature drop the day after I put it up, but scotch tape to the rescue).

 The 3rd graders' pattern fish we made a while ago were arranged down the stairwell into what looks like a big fish chasing a little fish. One of the 3rd grade teachers said, "Great! We're just talking about predator and prey in science!" While this wasn't specifically a collaborative project, having a creative way to display the work transforms it into something even more interesting.

The art club finished their "Dale Chihuly" inspired "chandelier" by combining all the tissue-paper papier-mached "snakes" into one splayed mass. I hung it in the stairwell, and have heard all kinds of comments. Usually it's, "WHAT is THAT?!" The only trouble with this kind of collaborative work is that the individual pieces can't be redistributed back to the students to take home.

I think collaboration is a vital part of learning about art. Students feel more connected as a class because they are working toward a greater goal. Every person's contribution is valuable. Contemporary artists often work in a collaborative mode, and therefore students get to experience working methods of artists today in an authentic way. As a teaching artist, I also feel that my own artistic voice is expressed with that of the children, which is very fulfilling.

Art Club does Chihuly

Today was the best art club afternoon so far! We looked at Dale Chihuly's glass installations for inspiration. It was fun hearing the kids guess what materials his chandelier was made out of (MACARONI?). Then we created our own twisty colorful elements out of aluminum foil and papier-mached tissue paper. The thin paper allows light show through, as well as some of the sparkle of the foil.

For the papier mache adhesive I've been using Elmer's art paste, which is basically methyl cellulose- seriously slimy stuff! The kids were all grossed out by the texture, and it's a little hard to clean up. However, it's easier to mix up than wheatpaste and is way cheaper than using white glue. I'm doing papier-mache with my 5th graders too, so my hands are in the stuff all the time. Ick!

I can't wait till next week when we'll wire these up and decide where to hang our "chandelier". Maybe we'll make some plastic bottle "glass" sculptures too.

Time and Pace

All of my classes are in the midst of projects, so no blog-worthy pictures this week. We also had a schedule disruption with a mid-week day off for the holiday. It's interesting seeing what impact schedules have on the experiences kids have in the art class. I already feel like my 4th grade project has taken too long, and I'm very ready for us to move on. I thought my first graders would be done this week too, but realized nobody was ready for painting yet. There's got to be a balance between pace and creative attention. Moving too fast through a project makes the art little more than busy work. Moving too slowly can cause frustration and lack of interest in why we're doing an activity. I want our projects to be rich in exploration of ideas, provide enough time for all students to have an opportunity to accomplish something successfully, but also keep us rolling through the year with lots of artistic experiences.
In Art Club, I offered the kids a chart of possible activities- they voted, and the most popular item was stuffed animals! Guess what we're starting off with next week?