Art is...

I finally got all of the "ART IS" posters assembled and hung around school. Every kid from first through fifth grade made a letter with warm colors inside and cool colors outside. It was a way to have kids jump right into making some art after going over rules the first day. I have a few extra "K's" and "A's" from kids who just copied my example  on the board instead of  doing their assigned letter.... but overall this was a great, quick project with a big result.

Art is self expression

Art is literacy of the heart

Art changes people and people change the world

art is the language of the soul

A work of art is an adventure of the mind

art is exercise for the imagination

Art is finding beauty in unexpected places

Art is not what you see but what you make others see

Welcome Back!

I'm a bit belated with back-to-school room setup pictures, but better late than never. I headed back to my room around August 20th to start setting up. Then we had a whole week of professional development at the end of August. Kids started back to school on the Tuesday after labor day, but we only had 2 half days and then 2 off for Jewish holidays. I didn't get to see students on those first half days. So FINALLY this week my blue art room was filled with little creative bodies and minds.

 Our class sizes went up slightly this year. Instead of 21-23 per class there's now 22-25. It doesn't seem like much except that my room is so small, it's hard to fit any more. Last year my tables were arranged to fit a maximum of 23. Now I have a regular set up for 24, and have to pull a table out to fit one more kid on an end to fit 25. All my tool set ups are sorted for 23, so I had to get additional white boards, scissors, etc. Above you can see a sampling of Kindergarten self-portraits. I offered no exemplar, and just instructions that their picture had to have their name and a drawing of yourself. We also sang "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" as a reminder to draw ALL of our body parts. The pictures at left reveal more advanced Kinders who already know to use shapes and realistic color as well as a ground plane in a drawing. The two center ones show stick figures and the start of shape figures, but with little color choice. The majority of the Kinders are at this stage. The two at right are my low level Kinders who are still in the tadpole figure stage with arms and legs coming out of the head, and another who did not make a figure at all, but is still in scribble and bangdot stage. It's so revealing! I have a girl who just turned 6 today and many who I'm sure just turned 5 in August.

The rest of my kids are doing a letter design collaborative project that will spell out an "ART IS.." quote. I gathered tons of them and printed them out as posters for my bulletin board. Each kid will make a block or bubble letter with contrasting warm and cool colors, and I will assemble them when they are done to hang in the hallways. After this each class 1st-5th will move onto another text-based design. It's a great way to ease them into making art. They know their letters- they don't realize they are drawing when they design letter artworks. And they have a chance to get used to various materials before they have to make something remotely representational.

 Not too much has changed in my room- except for a few classroom management and instructional aids. I bought a coqui scraper instrument to use as an attention-getter when kids are getting noisy. I told them not to "Wake up the frog!" or they'd lose their stars:

 Lost stars result in silent time. But if they keep their stars they earn a sticker on the chart for the day:

When they reach a color bar their class gets a prize- to be negotiated. I'm exhausted from the first full week on my feet, and from repeating the rules 22 times. I've only had 3 kids whose behavior was truly difficult. Out of 500, that's not too shabby. The distribution of students among the classes feels really good- splitting up some problem relationships. And since I know the kids better this year, I can start the year off so much more easily. Like I know not to put THAT KID next to that OTHER KID, and I know most kids names already.


I'm hoping and praying to have a good year. If the first week is any sign, it will be.

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.

All is Calm

This week has been overwhelming with great highs and deep lows. On Tuesday I pulled together final details for the holiday concert decorations, and on Wednesday we put them all up and had an amazing concert. My artclub made all the elements for our backdrop panels and made origami stars to hang about.

  I know teachers are all proud of their students, but as a specialist teacher I get to know the entire student body. At first I thought having to go to the concert might be a bit of a drag (It's a school night and I taught all day, put up the decorations all afternoon, and helped manage the kiddos as they lined up for the concert), but then seeing all of "my kids" up there made my heart swell up with joy and pride.
It's also been a week of finishing projects. My 2nd, 3rd, and 5th graders have been working for weeks on paintings, mosaics, and sculptures. We FINALLY got them finished! It's simultaneously satisfying and frustrating to call "Time's UP" on a project. Not everybody works at the same pace. Some are done on time and do well, others could really use another week to make it even better, and still others think they're done when really they could push further.
My 5th graders completed their letter sculptures and worked in groups to plan displays. Some were able to create words to display together, others made acrostic poems. Here's a word I pulled together from a variety of 5th graders:

I offer this word because of the deepest low of this week. After teaching all day and staying after late to hang artwork etc, I got in the car and heard the news on NPR about the shooting in the elementary school in Connecticut. When such tragedies occurred in the past, I felt sympathy as a parent for those who lost their children. But now as a teacher, I imagine what it must be like to be in the shoes of the teachers who had to respond to such an emergency, trying to stay calm and strong for their students while feeling panic and fear. They are heroic. I pray for the children and teachers and parents of Sandy Hook. I hope they find calm and comfort again soon.

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.

Rainbow halls

Tonight was Back-To-School Night! So I made sure we had some art on the walls just in time. I ended up putting the kids' self-portraits up in 4 different spots around the building. The classes are all mixed up (getting the art back to them will be a feat!!). Having them all together makes even the not-so-finished ones look good.

 I loved hearing the kids as they walked by while I was hanging the work- "Hey! There's Mine!!!"

 Three of the installations just have rainbow layouts, but one in the 2nd floor hallway has a hidden message-"SEE".

It's so great having all this bright color around the school. I can't wait till we finish some more projects and I can start filling some more stairwells.

Some of the other teachers even popped by my room to compliment the work-YAY!



Portraits and Self-portraits

What a week! Every class that saw me this week practiced a fire drill- very important since we're all the way up on the 3rd floor. With one 5th grade class, we were about to do our practice run when all of a sudden the REAL fire alarm was going off!!

Despite having to spend time practicing we still had time to finish our self-portraits. I asked kids to review their work and check that they had used a variety of materials, had an interesting background, had added a few extra details this week, and had their NAME on it. It will be so exciting to put these up on the wall next week in time for our back-to-school night. Here's a hodge podge of efforts from the "red" table from various classes:

 As this was the first finished project, I wanted to make sure that kids who finished at different rates would have plenty to do. So I took the Frida Kahlo and Mona Lisa posters that I had first use to compare and contrast the differences between a portrait and a self-portrait, and pinned them to the wall with two empty speech bubbles attached. I asked kids to imagine what the two ladies would say to us or what they would say to each other. They were invited to get a paper from the free-draw table and create a Frida and Mona cartoon for me. At the end of the week I sorted through the submissions and picked a winner from the 3rd grade, using his idea to fill my speech bubbles. Frida says, "Mona Lisa, Why did you smile in your picture?", and Mona replies, "Frida, I'm not telling because nobody knows!". His original submission included an extended series of "pleases" and "Noooo!s". I also chose a few runner-ups who will receive a little prize, and gave all kids who had made a thoughtful submission a few extra points on their projects. I was really excited that a few children brought back submissions they had done for homework!!

For my little ones, I introduced the free activity table for those who finished. I have paper, crayon boxes, "chunky rainbow" crayons, plastic tanagram shapes, and wooden pattern blocks. It was beautiful watching them have free creative time, drawing, arranging shapes, and building. One 1st grader called me over to see what he had made with the blocks, and said, "Look Ms. Elcin, I made YOU!":

What an excellent validation for me that he had learned the idea of portrait and self-portrait, and also that my students are beginning to feel comfortable with me as their new art teacher!