2015-16 in review:8th grade

I am going to miss this class so much! Out of 80 students, about 10 of them applied for CAPA and 7 of them got accepted and will be pursuing the arts in high school. But even the other 90% of this class were engaged and open to exploring their creativity. Our 8th grade curriculum explores the art world from Abstract Expressionism up to Contemporary art practices. As the culminating year of art, I expect these students to use their previous knowledge and experiences in art to help them create work that is expressive, personally meaningful, and communicative. I offer my 8th graders much more freedom to use the studio space and tools as best suits the work they are trying to create, and I keep projects more open-ended to create multiple avenues of artistic exploration.

An early project in the year was Op art. Students looked at work by Vincent Vasarely, Bridget Riley, and Edna Andrade and analyzed their various approaches to creating optical illusions. We talked about how the brain perceives color and how easily tricked it is, and how to achieve illusionary effects through repetition, contrast, and proportion.  

After demonstrating a few techniques, students selected one or more to pursue. Some students wished to reproduce existing illusions, while others tried to combine effects into a single composition. This is absolutely a lesson I would continue to use in the future, both for its effectiveness at teaching or reviewing art elements and principles and for the high level of student engagement when they see how easy it is to trick the eye! 

I told myself at the end of last year that I wouldn't do papier mache again or wait so long in the year before starting clay with my 8th graders. I had every intention of doing a Pop Art project in clay instead of trying to do giant papier mache sculptures.....

But then I had this crew of kids ask me, "When are we going to get to do those big sculptures like they did last year??!" From day 1, they were begging to do sculptures, and so I caved in and started hounding the lunchladies to save me cardboard. Students looked at the work of Claes Oldenburg and Robert Indiana for inspiration, and after demonstrating how to construct forms in cardboard I let them choose an everyday object they would like to  reproduce. Many of them went for a trompe l'oeil effect by keeping the scale consistent to real life, but others went more extreme in scale. The attention to detail on some of these was incredible- the toast in the toaster above is removable, and the chair below looks so much like my original purple rolling desk chair that visitors to my room tried to sit in it!! As an extension on this project, once the sculptures were complete I had my students consider how context changes meaning. They took their sculptures around school to set up situations to photograph. For example, the giant toothpaste tube was photographed in the bathroom sink with yarn "toothpaste" spilling out of it, and the giant diamond ring was used in photos with students posing for a fake proposal. 

The problem with papier mache is how long it takes to complete a project, but it was worth doing it again this year to see my students excited to build and play with context.

We look at a lot of Andy Warhol when we talk about Pop art, and his work and process helps us flow into Photorealism and the use of technology to help make art.

We do a grid enlargement focusing on values to show how Chuck Close works, and talk about pixels. Then students took selfies, which we manipulated in Photoshop to posterize and isolate the value layers. Students used their posterized selfie as a reference to paint their monochrome self-portrait, where instead of drawing values they had to mix paint values. Then they created a background to reflect aspects of their identity or personality, choosing to paint, draw, or collage around their portrait.

After exploring identity in self-portraiture, we turned to focus on beliefs and how art is used in activism and to persuade viewers to see the artist's point of view.

We looked at artists like Francisco Mora who worked at Taller de Grafica Popular in Mexico doing woodcuts, and talked about why artists use printmaking to spread messages very quickly (the original "social media"!). Students brainstormed ideas around a few activism areas such as human rights, animal rights, and environmentalism. It warmed my heart to see that some of my students decided to explore LGBQT rights, Mental Health, and Civil rights in this project as well, which told me that they felt safe in the art room to explore the things they cared about beyond the simple parameters I had set out. We had very interesting conversations about how to compose positive messages that would make people think rather than make people turn away or react in anger.

I allowed students to work on their own to make a small piece or work in groups to make a larger piece (haha- they thought teams would be easier, when really it was harder!!). I demonstrated how to carve and gave demos on some different ways to ink for multiple colors. Finally we created displays grouping the works by activism themes. I hope this project gave my 8th graders a taste of activism and a seed of compassion that may grow as they become adult citizens of our society.

Our final project of the year ended up being clay. Note to self- DO CLAY EARLIER IN THE YEAR!!!!!!!! My 8th graders finish school an entire week earlier than everyone else, and the week before that they have all kinds of rehearsals for graduation and trips. Suffice it to say, trying to squeeze clay in at the end was madness. But oh, what beautiful work came out of it!!!!

I asked students to research an artist that they liked to use as inspiration for a lidded clay box. Of course- there were about 10 Starry Nights..... (Really kids? After all the awesome art I showed you over the past 4 years?) I made all my Starry Night kids make sure their final project looked different from each others' at least! I demonstrated making a pinch pot vessel form and a slab constructed box form as well as some different approaches for making lids. I showed them various artists from the clay studio who had made boxes that seemed to have been inspired by other art, and we talked about what it means to be inspired by something versus copying something. The wide variety of forms, lid techniques, and decorative elements, both sculptural and painterly, was truly impressive. 

I am very proud of what my 8th graders accomplished this year, and I hope they carry forward with them a love of art, an awareness of culture and media, a critical eye, and a unique voice. I have a feeling they are going to do great things!

Names, Names, Names

It only took a month...

 Sixth graders completed their radial name designs with analogous color schemes. The had to design a square, flip and trace it four times, outline the pencil lines in sharpie and color with analogous color scheme. Most of them came out AMAZING, and the kids were excited with the results. I wanted to show this one because it had a moment of problem-solving.. the student messed up his radial symmetry on the tracing stage and figured out how to cut it apart, rearrange, and reattach the quadrants to achieve radial symmetry.

 My seventh graders made their names pop out in one point perspective, shading the perspective lines for atmospheric perspective, and added backgrounds to increase the sense of space. I loved how James, above, put his name in a wrestling ring.

 These 2 were my superstars. Really good craftsmanship and creative backgrounds. Gabby's on the "road of life", and Gianna is a superhero...

 My eighth graders used Alexander Calder as inspiration for a name sculpture. They had to illustrate each element of art in their letters, than use hinges and slots to connect their pieces into a 3-dimensional work of art.

 Making the letters was excruciating.. some thought it was boring, others went over-the-top in their craftsmanship and took forever. But once they got to the sculptural stage they got way more into it and thought it turned out to be a really interesting project. They are all over the school now, and we've gotten lots of compliments.

It would be fun next year to maybe do this as a group project with one massive sculpture per class or grade....
My kids are settling into our routines and I've made some good connections- especially with my 8th graders (oh, I was so worried....). If the rest of the year goes this well I will be one blissful art teacher!

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)

Animalia

You really can't go wrong with animals. Kids love them. There's so many to learn about. And you can tie art and science together by talking about animals, habitats, life cycles,etc. You can also tie in to social studies by looking at where in the world different animals are found, and how people around the world make art about animals because they are beautiful or scary or symbolic.  Here's a look at some things we've been working on K-2 in My Blue Art Room (and we've been so busy the poor blog has been a bit neglected- on the other hand, we're in the PA top 10 on Artsonia right now... guess where my energies have been directed....)

 With Kinders we learned about different habitats and landscape and drew a background picture for where our animals could live.

 Then we painted some textured paper ala Eric Carle after looking through his Animal Alphabet (hey literacy connection!). Finally we learned how to tear shapes out of paper to create animal shapes, making sure to choose an animal that would match our habitats.

 I asked students what was in their picture and wrote down their sentence. I love hearing their descriptions. I like to use titles or one sentence descriptors as an introduction to art writing- something very important to me.

 First graders started their "Art around the world" unit, and looked at Australian Aboriginal dot paintings for inspiration. We talked about what animals lived there and how they are very different than animals in other places because of how they developed on an island continent separate from other continents.

 They used an animal picture resource sheet for reference and chose which Austalian animal they wanted to paint. They then painted the interior of their animal shape a solid color.

 The next week I showed them a short animation of a dot painting and we talked about how the dots could create patterns or camouflage for an animal, or how the dots in the paintings could show how an animal moves or where it has been (tracks). The dots create a sense of movement.

 Seeing the video really helped them be more thoughtful about why they were making dots. These are much larger than the ones we did last year. I also asked them to come up with an interesting title for their work and I went around with a sharpie again to neatly write their title and name. I've had requests lately from teachers for names on the front so they can see whose art is whose when it's on the walls.

 Finally my 2nd graders have just completed their Oaxacan-inspired wood animal sculptures. We read "Dream Carver" by Diana Cohn, and then planned an imaginary animal to create.

 Then we assembled wood blocks and shapes to create an animal form. Above is a "Rabbit-Deer" and below is a peacock.

 We spent one class period on painting a base coat over the whole sculpture.

 Finally, we added feathers, googly eyes, and painted details to complete it. Students also wrote a short description by completing sentence starters: This is a_______. It lives in________. It's special because____. Sentence starters are great for prompting younger kids' writing about their work. Whereas older children can respond to a question. There's a certain skill to turning a question prompt into a response- my younger kids tend to think they have to copy the question and provide a one-word answer. NOPE! Complete Sentences please!!

More animals are on their way.... Spring is in the air.....

2nd grade Oaxacan-inspired sculptures

At the beginning of the school year as I unpacked all the goodies in my new art room I could not BELIEVE how many boxes of wood shapes I found, both left over from the previous year and on my hand-me-down supply list from the previous art teacher. I couldn't imagine how so much wood could possibly be used in one year. I put a dent in the boxes with a mobile project I did with 2nd grade early in the year, but now we've nearly demolished the wood supply with our latest project: Oaxacan-inspired wood animal sculptures.

 It's so hard to choose photos to share, because their sculptures all have so much character. We started off by examining examples of Oaxacan wood sculptures- especially how the forms, colors, and markings of the animals were exaggerated from real life. We considered adaptations an animal needs to live in an environment and selected features from known animals to create an imaginary animal. Students drew a sketch of what animal they would like to create to finish off the first art-looking and art-planning day.

 On the second day, we pulled out the wooden shapes and noticed their forms- most of which were in the cylindrical or rectangular prism category. I asked students to pull out pieces and play with the arrangement of forms a bit before deciding how to construct their animal. They were also asked to pay attention to how their pieces connected- the more surface area touching between 2 pieces, the stronger the attachment would be. We used tacky glue for this step because I shouldn't find where I hid the wood glue!

 On the third day I asked students to choose 1-2 colors to paint a base coat on their sculpture. After 3 classes of messily painted sculptures, I limited the 4th class to ONE base color! On the fourth day we looked at the Oaxacan sculptures one more time to remember how they were decorated. This time we used skinny brushes and added pattern details like stripes and polka dots. We thought about how some animals try to blend in to their environments with camouflage colors and some animals have warning colors to show they are poisonous.

On our final work day, students had an opportunity to add some final details with feathers, beads, googly eyes, and sequins. They were asked to be RESTRAINED in their choices and not go overboard with the doodads. They also created a written description and a drawing of their animal in its environment to serve as a label for their sculpture when they go on display. Their written description had to include what animals they combined, three things their sculpture had, and explain how their sculpture was or was not like Oaxacan sculptures
This project is a real winner- students got to work in 3 dimensions and use a lot of creative problem-solving as well as connect to concepts in science.  The process and product are nicely balanced, and the final pieces are amazing!
 PS. For good photos of sculptures, hang a piece of black construction paper so it is half on the wall, half on the table and place the sculpture on top.

3rd grade Pop-up Landscapes

3rd grade has just completed their landscape genre project which focused on background, middleground, and foreground. To make understanding of the different spaces very literal, I thought it would be fun to physically separate them and make a pop-up landscape. We started with a map to cover a foundation piece of chipboard, and used the roads and boundaries within the map to inspire a horizon line for the background of a landscape. Students then created a middleground layer from construction paper, and then foreground elements. To emphasize a sense of space, students were encouraged to draw things tiny in the background and large in the foreground. They were also challenged to make something happen in their landscapes like Grant Wood did in "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere", one of the paintings we looked at for inspiration.

 We had a paper spring folding contest before assembling the layers. Photos don't really do justice to these pieces, because it flattens them out. In reality, these images really pop-out, and the small foreground pieces even quiver in the air currents or when jostled. Students had a choice of what kind of landscape to create. My original example showed a mountainscape, and so it was a popular choice. Although the range of animals included bears, rabbits, wolves, squirrels, and even monkeys.

 Seascapes were another very popular choice- probably because many of my students enjoy going down to the Jersey shore in the summer, and it's familiar. I can just imagine Ocean City in the boardwalk scene below, which includes a ferris wheel and cotton candy vendor. 

Another favorite landscape was the EXPLODING VOLCANO. About half my boys did a version like this, many of which included screaming villagers fleeing from the lava. (Could it be that they remember my Pompeii story from when we did mosaics? Dream on Art teacher)

At the end of the lesson I gave students a sheet of lined paper and some sentence starters on the board so that they could write a description. They had to give a big idea sentence: "My picture is about...." . Then supporting detail sentences: "In the background,....", "In the middleground,...", and "In the foreground,..." Finally they could conclude with an opinion about the project: "I thought this project....."

After writing, they glued the papers to the back of the project. I really like having them write about their work. It gives them extra writing practice and an opportunity to express themselves in multiple ways. Although they groan and protest ("But this is ART class!"), I tell them artists have to write ALL THE TIME and to get used to it. It was also one more way for me to assess their understanding of the key concepts of space and landscape. This lesson is definitely a keeper- all the other classes in higher and lower grades kept asking when they would get to do it!

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.

Name Mandalas

 Hooray! My 5th graders finally completed their name mandala projects! Can you believe these took 5 weeks? Some people are doing more talking than working I think....

 Students measured out half lines vertically, horizontally, and diagonally on a 12 inch square. Then they wrote their name into a triangle that was 1/8 the paper dimension. Their name was transferred and reflected around the square to create some interesting mandala shapes.

 We learned about analogous colors, and how to blend and shade with colored pencils. Their finished mandalas are beautiful- well worth the time they put into them I think.

Next up we're doing a 3D letter project to extend the exploration of type and math connections. We started off with a lesson in one point perspective to make a 3-D looking letter. After drawing their letter 3D and shading it, they had to figure out how many planes their sculpture would have. For example, a 3D letter M would have 14 planes or facets!
I'm not sure if this ties in directly with their current math lessons, but it sure doesn't hurt to make explicit cross-curricular connections whenever possible.