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?)

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!

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!