2015-16 in review-5th grade

My Blue Art Room has had quite a hiatus! When last I blogged here I was just starting my 3rd year of teaching and beginning a new position of middle school art teacher. Now, here I am finishing my 4th year of teaching and 2nd in middle school. I'd like to get back into the habit of reflection and sharing here. Technology changes and social media changes, and I've spent much more time interacting with other art teachers on Facebook than doing the long, slow practice of writing about my work.

So, here we go.

The end of the school year is when I pass out the portfolio of work back to students and ask them what was their best piece and worst piece. It gives me an idea of which projects are worth doing again or not. My school's art curriculum is structured strongly around art history, and I try to connect with contemporary art and artists whenever possible. I've also tried to develop lessons for my middle schoolers that will have a significant level of choice and individual expression. 

5th grade

• My museum: Our 5th graders were lucky to have the chance to visit the Barnes Foundation at the beginning of the school year. To prepare them for their trip we learned about Barnes'symmetrical ensembles, the job of a curator, and the different genre of art. They arranged their own museum galleries using printouts of some of the images from the Barnes collection, and drawing a 1 pt perspective room with museum details like lighting, signs, visitors, and guards. When complete, they critiqued them by deciding which museum they would most want to visit and why.
  
• Masterpiece Mashup: Delving in further into the collections at the Barnes, my students talked about what art they liked best, and selected 2 images from postcards from the Barnes to mashup into their own unique masterpiece. Although.. it appears that this one was sparked by arms and armor and a George Segal from the PMA-my postcard collection must have been a little mixed up. hen complete, the students decided how to display their masterpieces in a Barnsian ensemble. (ps-I hate oil pastel.)
  
• Hex signs: Taking one last inspiration from the Barnes, we explored hex signs. When Barnes couldn't import art from abroad during WWII he turned to local handicrafts for his collection. Since our state standards require us to introduce PA art and artists, this hex sign project was perfect. These symbols are found all over Southeastern Pennsylvania on the barns of PA Dutch farmers. My students were eager to share their experiences seeing them on trips out into Lancaster county. We were also able to learn radial design, geometric shapes, and color symbolism.

• Self-portrait monoprints: This is one of my favorite projects in 5th grade, because printmaking is so much fun. We combined monoprinting (markers on plexiglass laid over photo printouts, traced, and printed)and texture rubbings for the backgrounds) We talk about emotional color and mood. Some students enjoy utilizing more than one of their prints to express different sides of their personality.
  
• Still-life relief prints: our printmaking adventure continued with foam relief prints. I let students choose to draw their own object or use a magazine image for inspiration. They carved their foam and printed. Those who were ambitious carved for a reduction print or cut out part of the foam for a puzzle block color effect. I liked how the process allowed for differentiation. It was simple enough for my lower students with levels of progressive difficulty for my higher students. Some chose to alter their prints by coloring them with colored pencils as well.
  
• National Parks landscape stamp design: I've done similar versions of this project before. Sometimes it's famous landmarks, or state symbols. In honor of the anniversary of the National Park system this year, I assigned each student a different National Park to research. We went to the computer lab and researched images of the landscape, the animals, and the plant life to use in a stamp design. This was an opportunity to connect with science and ecology, as well as with social studies and geography. One class did this project as a watercolor pencil painting, and another did it as a photoshop collage. The digital versions were much more successful and related with the concept of design.
• Face jugs: I found an excellent video on PBS History detectives on Edgemont, SC pottery to introduce my students to the tradition of face jugs. I also shared a video read-along of the story of Dave the Potter. Our face jug project even tied back into the Barnes collection and his African Masks. (I love it when I can tie together all sorts of connections in a project!!!) I taught my students to make a pinch-pot base and coiled body for a simple pot, then scoring, slipping, smoothing clay to attach the features. This is the first time in K-8 our students get to work with real clay, since there is no kiln in our elementary building. When complete we used our jugs for a cereal or OJ breakfast and talked about what forms are better for which purpose.
  
• Narrative Collage: For a literacy connection, my students learned about storytelling in art. We looked to Pieter Breughel for inspiration, then created a magazine collage with a setting, character, and action.Once complete, students chose to write a story to accompany their picture or to draw a before or after picture to show sequence, cause and effect, or problem/solution. My students really struggled with the collage aspect. I think next year I should try it as a cartooning unit instead,
  
• Art History Zine: I don't get to see my 5th graders during PSSA testing due to rescheduling, so while they were with my sub I assigned each student an artist throughout at history to research. They had to find an image, 3 biographical facts, and a quote. I tried to select a range of women and men of a variety of cultures fora diverse selection. Students then drew a comic book-like bio page using their research for reference. Once I got them back I photocopied each student's page, and had them choose up to 5 pages they would like to use to make a small zine. They origami-folded each pamphlet and glued them together into a book with covers. They made a title page and book review on the covers, as a final touch. I also sent home permission slips to see if my students could have their work donated to our local zine library- the Soapbox. I created one big 20 page zine using the images they drew to donate. I liked how this project involved research, cartooning, book arts, and public art ideas.
  
• My Philadelphia Story: My students were invited to participate in a public art project that will be installed at the Philadelphia International Airport. I visited the studios of Matthew Alden Price and Won Kyoung Lee to learn more about it. Then had my students draw pictures and bring objects to donate that reflected their experience of the city of Philadelphia. The Phillies, The Eagles, the Mummers, softball, skateboarding, bike life, and dance are the things my students love the best about their city.
• My favorite genre: to conclude our study of various genre of art and techniques this year,I challenged my students to select what type of picture they preferred (portrait, still life, landscape, narrative, abstract, or public) and the 2D medium they preferred (pencil, marker, paint, pastel) to create a final personal work of art. This one started as a still-life of a duck decoy, but then he added the pond and reflection around it. I was so proud of my students and their engagement in this final project. Many reported this as being their favorite project because they really felt like artists making decisions.
  

I'm pleased with how the 5th grade curriculum has developed. I understand the big picture and purpose of how the projects to together and use an essential question to drive the learning. I believe we will continue to work with these themes next year. I would like to do more observational drawing practice with next year's 5th graders to bridge the awkward middle school belief in drawing ability. They don't THINK they know how to draw. They need more opportunities to try. I've shared 10 of the 13 projects we did together in 5th grade this year. Two years ago I lamented how little work we'd accomplished in one year. In comparison, this year 5th grade art was a brilliant success!

One month in

So...Middle School rocks!
I am so happy in my new position. I have ENOUGH planning time to ACTUALLY DO MY JOB. This is huge, because in past years I had very little prep time and was staying after school for at least an hour or more every day to catch up on grading, photographing work for artsonia, and hanging work in the halls. I've even, for the most part, had enough time to write my lesson plans while at school instead of bringing them home over the weekend. I'm happy and my family is happy because they actually get to see me and I'm not super stressed out all the time.

Middle Schoolers are funnyyyyyyyy. I love my kids and their questions and stories and jokes, and generally behavior has been pretty good. I've only given one demerit so far, and had to yell only 2-3 times. I haven't cried out of frustration or exhaustion. I've laughed a lot and worked through some difficult behaviors with a good sense of humor.

Also in middle school, I can expect them to do a lot more with writing, vocabulary, and image analysis. We've got a routine going called "Quiet 5", where they come in, get their sketchbooks, and immediately get started on a quick warm-up activity. It's really helped with behavior and learning concepts. Just hearing me say something does not instill it in their brains. But writing things down, and drawing examples is working, and I can tell because of the quality of their written reflections at the end of projects.
Here's a glimpse of what's been happening in My Blue Art Room (which isn't blue anymore, but whatever, it's lilac now but I'm not changing the title of my blog, so plbbbt!):

My 5th graders made a name collage ala Ellsworth Kelly by collaging the letters of their name, measuring a grid, cutting the pieces apart, then puzzling and collaging them back together in a random way. They learned about contrasting and complementary colors, We also talked about emphasis. Not everybody got that, but the student who made the one above did! She added the black diamond to make her letters feel pulled into the center. I took all the squares from a class and combined them into collaborative displays like the one below:

 My 6th graders learned about radial symmetry and created these name mandalas. They first drew their name to fill a tissue paper square, then repeated it in all 4 corners. They also learned about analogous colors and selected a limited palette for their designs. I have them arranged in the hall to flow through the colorwheel.

 I haven't photographed any 7th grade projects yet, but we're doing 1 point perspective with their names. And 8th grade is reviewing the elements of art and using the letters of their names in a Calder-inspired stabile sculpture.

Here's a glimpse of what's coming down the pipeline: 5th grade colorwheel paintings, the grade 2 -pt perspective lego paintings, and 8th grade fake advertisements. Did I mention I actually have time to do things like make new exemplars?!!

And my favorite part is when my 8th grade portfolio prep group comes to visit me at lunchtime twice a week! We are currently doing pencil drawings of still-life objects. This crew is planning on applying to the Creative and Performing Arts High School which requires a portfolio audition, and I'm trying to give them time to prepare. They have to be done by  December, which will be here before we know it.

I miss my little guys at the elementary school, but so far so good with middle school kids. (as long as I can manage to keep a straight face)

Happy New Year!

 I went back to school on Tuesday after an extra long Winter break (so great when Christmas is on a Wednesday!). Of course, we're suffering through the coldest weather I've ever known in my entire life... about 1/5 of our students were absent yesterday!

 With my remaining Kindergartners, we looked at the Firework art of Cai Guo-Qiang as well as some fireworks photographs I'd taken on New Year's Eve.We talked about the sounds, sizes, and colors of fireworks and even watched a short video of fireworks in reverse!

 We made hand motions to mimic the sound and expansion of a firework explosion, clap...and going out from the center in a radial motion.

 We used oil pastel on black paper, noting that you can't really see fireworks if they go off during the daytime. As students finished up I asked them to count how many they had drawn and to notice if they were big or small.

 At the end of class, each table group got to come up and make a fireworks show saying "POP!" for their small ones and "BOOM!" for their big ones. I really love this project... it's quick, fun, related to student experience, kinetic, auditory... the best!

I have to share this construction by one of my 4th grade boys. He had finished his stained glass project early, and had time for free choice (a 4th grade rarity). It seems appropriate for this Happy New Year post as it's an awesome Chinese-inspired dragon. I loved how he surrounded it with water diamonds.
I hope the rest of the school year continues as easily as the beginning has been. Happy New Year, everybody! Have a creative year blessed with highly engaged and well-behaved students! (We can dream, right?)

That class that is always ahead!

My first graders have been working on a texture and landscape project. First we did leaf rubbings, then leaf observational drawings, then a landscape background with a horizon line, and finally painted a tree to glue their leaves onto. 

 However, my first graders are a very mixed bunch, and what I'm able to get done with one class is impossible with the next. I don't lie projects to take too long, but if a class can't listen and follow directions things take longer. These trees are from my Tuesday class. They spent a day on rubbings, a day on drawing leaves and backgrounds, and one last rushed day on painting, cutting and gluing leaves.

  It was terribly rushed on the last day, so with my Wednesday class I only did backgrounds and trees- saving cutting and gluing leaves for our pre-Thanksgiving half day. Thursday's class I rushed them through to finish up knowing we'd be out this week, but Friday's class were already a week behind from a previous day off and only got to paint this week.

 So that means when we get back from Thanksgiving I'll have 3 classes ready for a new project and Friday's first grade will have to catch up. But, oh, that speedy Tuesday 1st grade!! Since they completed their trees last week, I had to come up with something for them to do. We talked about different kinds of trees, different seasons, and how sky needs to touch the ground.

 Their drawings are absolutely charming. At the end of class we sorted the pictures out by season, and I asked the kids how they could tell which picture was which season. The flowers, butterfly, and few leaves in the picture above says Spring.

 The sun, beach scene, and short sleeves teel us this palm tree is in summer.

 The orange and red leaves in the tree above make it Fall above. The snowman and star on the fir tree below tell us it's Winter.

It was one of those lovely art days with some kids who were thoroughly engaged in their work. I kind of wonder how this project would be different for kids who live in rural or suburban areas where trees are not so rare. Or for kids in desert areas where they see no trees at all. My urban kids were very excited to draw and touch real leaves and to think about those wondrous trees.

The Elements of Art according to 4th grade

Last year I had 4th grade do a hidden name project with lines, colors, and patterns. It took way too long due to using colored pencils and 12x18 paper. So I decided to revamp the project. It's still a hidden word (possibly a name) but this time with an emphasis on the elements of art.

 Students studies the elements through examples on my bulletin board and also through videos on "The Artist's Toolkit". They wrote a short word (name, favorite activity, or some onomatopoeia), then divided the space into 6 sections. Each section was supposed to illustrate or emphasize a different element of art (Line, color, shape, value,pattern, shape).

 We used marker, crayon, or colored pencil on 9x12 paper. Was the project any shorter? NO!!! ARGHH!! I think it's just 4th grade. They're either too chatty and distracted, or on the flip side they're too detailed and slow. I need balance!

For the most part, they finally got it and the resulting abstract works are visually exciting. We've moved on to OP ART, and the kids are loving it.

African inspiration

My 1st and 5th graders have just completed projects that explored arts originating in Africa. My curriculum calls for study of Egypt in 1st grade, and it took me a while to come up with a good project. Most of the projects I've seen out on the internet seem more geared to 3rd grade and up. But I was inspired by some pictures of Scarab jewelry I found on Artstor. 1st graders looked at Ancient Egyptian art including the pyramids, the Book of the Dead, scarab beetles, and hieroglyphics. I did a directed drawing for the first time and was amazed at both the success rate and the variety among the drawings that resulted:

 I've never been a big fan of directed drawings, but the kids REALLY enjoyed it, and were really confident in their projects. The freedom and individuality I love came in when it was time to color their projects with oil pastels. We talked about how scarab beetles have bright, jewel-like colors that reminded the Egyptians of their sun god.

 Afterwards, we looked at hieroglyphics, and the kids wrote out their names in Egyptian symbols like a cartouche. Finally they carefully cut out their beetles and attached them to the background using pop-up foam adhesive tabs so it looks like the beetles are crawling over the walls of the pyramid tombs. I hung them up, and they're freaking out the teachers left and right =) This is definitely a keeper lesson for next year!

 My 5th graders have just completed a long unit of printmaking inspired by the Adinkra cloth of Ghana. We learned how Adinkra cloth is printed, usually in honor of someone who has passed away, using symbols to represent their character. Students brainstormed 5 personal qualities and copied 5 traditional Adinkra symbols that best matched them, and then combined visual elements from each to develop their own personal symbol. I demonstrated how to carve a stamp from easycut linoleum using a gouge (which some were a bit nervous about- including me). The kids did a fabulous job carving their blocks (no injuries!! YEAH!!) and then printed them on both paper and fabric.

 The prints on paper were cut up, some traded among students, and collaged back together with some patterned paper. Their fabric prints are being turned into pillows with an extension of the project to learn some sewing skills.

This is the last project of the year for my 5th graders, as we only have one more day together. Next year they're all moving up to our upper school... I'm really going to miss them as they were my favorite grade this year. I can't imagine my first graders someday being as big and mature as my 5th graders, but it will happen before I know it. My first year as a full-time teacher is almost over, but hopefully it's the start of a long career!

5th grade positive/negative bicycles

Way back in September I saw this project over on Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists and it's been stewing in the back of my memory all year. Since my 5th graders finally finished up their portraits and were familiar with the enlarging process, I thought they could handle this bicycle composition project.

 We started looking at artists who have depicted or used bicycles in their work- like Duchamp and Ai WeiWei to think about what bicycles represent (freedom, youth, speed, independence, "green" transportation, etc.). The noted how bicycles create very interesting positive and negative space thanks to their interesting forms and construction. Students selected a copy of a bicycle photograph to work from and then cropped it down so that at least one part of the bicycle was touching 2 edges of the paper. Most of the students selected the wheel for their compositions, but the most successful compositions were those that focused on the gears and frame. After cropping they were left with images about 3x4 inches and they had to enlarge their pictures and draw them on a 12x 18 inch paper.

 Once their drawings were complete, they painted the positive bicycle shapes in black tempera, trying to make a bold, graphic effect with smooth edges to the lines and shapes.

 Finally we reviewed color harmonies, and students selected either monochrome, complements, or analogous colors to paint their negative spaces in watercolor. Analogous harmonies were the most popular- especially blue/purple/red for some reason!

We finished these up just in time for the end of the marking period! I'm debating about what to next with them. I want to display these in a way that makes connections from picture to picture, and it might be fun to have them decide how they should be arranged. Understanding the importance of exhibition is a part of the state standards, and making them decide how to display it would be an interesting collaborative process. The challenge is just to do it in a way that involves all students.

Update: So, faced with the reality of how few weeks are left I couldn't bear to lose time on an activity that might not be totally successful. I found a happy medium to my display problem by pulling a student helper out from the class to help hang the work and make choices on the arrangements. I've gotten sooo many compliments from the teachers and students on how great this project was. Here's the display:

5th grade Value and Unity

 Hallelujah! The 5th graders have completed their grid portraits!! It was a feat, getting through measuring grids on our photos and project papers, and figuring out how to match box for box. Some struggled through the whole thing, but others really focused and persevered to create some impressively realistic portraits. I think 5th grade is the earliest age that can handle this kind of project- I usually see this process used at the middle and high school levels. So considering the developmental challenges of this project, our success rate was quite good.

 They didn't come out quite how I expected, because once they were done shading their faces and erasing all the grid lines, there was a desire to change the background somehow. Some students simply cut out their portrait and glued it down to a colored piece of paper. Others decided to add a background in colored pencil or crayon. While these additions seem juvenile in comparison to their skilled portraits, I think the combination reveals their confused position between childhood and adolescence.

 These background additions also show some more personality, and provided more choice options to how the final piece looked. Speaking of choice, students had lots of options. They could copy the photo, enlarge the photo, distort their image by using a wavy lined grid, or start with a collaged section of their photo to extend and complete it. Whereas the images above are all 9x12, the drawing below is 12x18. Very few students chose the distortion option. Finally I asked them if they would want to have their self-portrait on display or not. I know how self-conscious this age group can be, both about their bodies and their skills, making this a doubly potentially embarrassing project to have on display. Strangely, some of the best portraits were ones I was asked NOT to display. Maybe they don't want to show off either.

 As students completed their portraits at different rates I had another simple project waiting in the wings. A recent visit for a meeting with fellow art teachers at Tyler yielded a stack of waste lithograph prints that the print department was getting rid of. I thought we'd use the grid concept one more time for assembling an image. I cut the prints into 2 inch squares, which disrupted any realism and left only interesting patterns, values, and lines.

 I asked students to select 9 squares and puzzle them together to create a new image- making sure that no two squares that were originally together remained together (we were not trying to reconstruct the old image, but create a new one). Next students paired up to share their collages and brainstorm ways that their pictures could be more unified. I asked them to use black and colored sharpies to connect and unify the squares in order to lose the grid. They had to extend the lines, patterns, and values across the squares to blend them together.

 At the end of class we brought all our collages up (some students made more than one) and they students pointed out which ones felt the most unified or complete as a single image. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much students enjoyed this exercise. Even my students who often seem the most demanding and helpless worked independently and successfully on this project. I believe it was because they had to be choicemakers more than imagemakers for this project. It was an exercise in aesthetics really, with only a little bit of added embellishment.

 My students seem quite comfortable with abstract imagery. Even the Kindergartners and first graders understand the artistic possibilities of line, shape, and color. Realism seems to cause anxiety in the art room. I think this project could also work successfully with magazine collage squares in color instead of the black and white prints.

Next up I think we're going to do some compositional work in 5th grade, cropping a resource image to find a new composition.