This year in 2nd grade

My second graders have a lot of energy and curiosity. They seem to get really engrossed in details. Some of them already have a serious interest in drawing certain styles or genres of things, and they love to share their independent artwork with me. But it's also an age when I start to see a lack of confidence in artistic ability, so we have a lot of conversations about how important it is to try your best, and that practice makes you grow, and that you need to experiment and try new things. The first half of the year we work on elements and principles of art and genre, and the second half we focus on art around the world.

Here's what we learned in second grade this year:

We learned how to turn lines into shapes and use patterns:

somebody really liked stripes!

 We learned how to use a compass and ruler to draw geometric shapes,and our imaginations to make organic shapes. We learned how to blend oil pastels to mix colors and create tints and shades:

Kandinsky-inspired non-objective art project

 We learned how to draw forms like cylinders and prisms. We learned how to shade in colored pencil. We tried to make a realistic still-life by looking at the light and shadows of our objects:

 We learned how to make values in paint. We learned about background and foreground to create space in a landscape:

poor little lost bunny in the big city

 We learned about illustrations and how pictures help us understand a story. We also made a self-portrait that showed what we like to read:

 We learned about folk-art traditions in Mexico.We learned how forms can be combined to make a sculpture and how to make it strong and stable:

 We learned about fiber art traditions in Central America. We learned about concentric lines and shapes, contrast and repetition:

 We learned about art and animals in Mali, Africa. We learned how to make a stamp and how to print a pattern. We learned about prey and predator animals and how to blend oil pastels:

 We learned about architecture from around the world, and drew dream buildings inspired by famous works of architecture.

I hope my second graders keep their creative spirit and open minds as they enter third grade!

Exemplars and thinking back

Wow! So.. um.. where did that year go? I have been on summer vacation for one week after completing my second year of (almost) full time art teaching. It's a good time for reflection.
As I tidied and packed up my room that last week I pulled out all the exemplars that had been piling up in a drawer over the year, sorted them out by grade level and took a pic (with my blurry cell phone camera sadly). These show only the 2D work we did- all 3D work went home with kids and I don't have room for saving my 3D exemplars... Most of these are unfinished, as I rarely display a completed exemplar- usually only works in progress because I like to use them as prompts to see if the kids remember what the objectives are. Like, "Mine's not done yet is it? What should I do to it?" And I think the kids are more creative when they see something a little open-ended or see multiple possibilities.

Kinder

 I cannot believe how many projects we did in Kinder this year!! Almost twice as many as any other grade level. I like to keep things short and sweet with the little ones because they have such a short attention span. The kids' favorite ones were painting rainbows, drawing fireworks, and making "wild things". The teachers' faves were their self-portraits in the snow and their cherry blossom trees and origami butterflies. My favorite was pattern Elmer elephants and Wild things. I never want to do bleeding tissue paper watercolor effects ever again.

First

 My first graders were also prolific (despite their constant chatter and my doubts that they ever listened to directions....). The kids' favorites were the scarab beetle sculpture and puppet theatres. The schoolwide favorites were the family portraits and Australian animals. My favorites were the "Dot" paintings and the bug jars (although they seriously freaked out our receptionist who had to stare at a display of them across from her desk for a few weeks- and I had numerous requests to switch out to something else!!). The city collage was a flop, because their scissor and glue skills were not yet developed enough for it.

2nd

 My second graders are another chatty group, and we did not get quite as much done as I'd like, but there were some good things. The kids LOVE the Oaxacan wood carvings(not shown) and predator/prey drawings, and so did I. We started and ended the year well, but the middle part was sluggish. The value landscape was a total flop and the self-portrait reading a book was just too long. Part of the problem was all our snow days.... but I'll be revamping a lot of things in my second grade for next year.

Third grade

 I loved, loved, loved my third grade classes this year. I always see them first thing in the morning, when they are fresh and eager to start their day. I had a very creative bunch who worked very hard to do well. I think all our projects were pretty good, but the kids absolutely loved sewing and making clay coil pots(not shown). Although I loved their food oil pastels with mosaic border, the mosaics took too long. The school loved seeing their Gyotaku fish prints.

4th

 Oh 4th and 5th graders. What a disappointment.. I have a lot of work to do to figure out how to get you all more productive. Maybe we should just have silent art.... The 4th graders seemed most engaged with their impressionist landscapes and US maps/states project. I really liked their figure motion drawings and metal toolings. I did not like rotating 4 classes through papier mache projects over 3 months. I have so little space for storing sculpture. I think that papier mache gargoyle project has to go!

5th

And 5th grade. Is it me? Is it you? We never even got to make ANY sculpture this year. Definitely revamping the 4th and 5th grade curriculum. Maybe you all need to work smaller too. This might not be a fair representation though, there's at least 2 projects missing from the above photo, but still. I've got my work cut out for me.
 I'll do another reflection post with kids' art later on. But laying out exemplars was a great way to get the big picture of what each grade accomplished. Having these pictures will also help me as I plan next year and decide what to keep or toss or modify to make sure my kids are getting a quality art experience. Year 3 will be even better, I'm sure.
Is reflection part of your end-of-the-year ritual?

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.....

More portraits!

 I'm not sure where I found this lesson idea-- somewhere in Pinterest-land probably,but I thought it was a great literacy integrated project. Kids did a 4-square organizer to plan out the cover of their favorite book (title/author, characters/setting, 2 sentence summary, impressions of the book). We talked about how the information they wrote about the characters, setting, and plot should put pictures in their head and help them come up with an illustration for the cover.

 We learned about the parts of a book, and noticed where designers put all the information that makes us want to read the book. After completing the covers,we broke out the construction paper and made collaged self-portrait. What a messy, crazy room it was with paper everywhere!!! It seemed a bit wasteful, but the kids did a great job making interesting hair,slightly in relief. The books were added on,sticking out from the page. Although most of the faces were covered by the books, you can peek down between the layers to see their expressions.

 It was very interesting to see what books were chosen, and how that reflected the reading levels of my 2nd graders. Lots and lots of Dr. Seuss books were chosen, a few Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Magic Treehouse chapter books showed up, and then there were a few kids who stole my heart by selecting Alice in Wonderland and Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia.

 At their age,I might have chosen Little House on the Prairie as my favorite book series. Of course, I was the early reader and perpetual bookworm always lost in another world of an author's creation.  I hope my students caught some of my enthusiasm for reading through this project- I think kids need to see that adults love reading. Reading gets bogged down in academics and testing. I tricked them into doing a book report with this project, but for the most part the kids seemed engaged in the stories they were showing me.

For the few kids who seemed lost for an idea, I reminded them that there are ALL KINDS of books- including comic books, instruction manuals, fact books, dictionaries, etc. And I have several projects that show Minecraft and Lego building guides.There's even one or two book covers with the words "written and illustrated by" on them because a child wanted to write their own book! 

I greatly admire authors- theirs is a greater art than mine. I make pictures a viewer can explore, but an author paints a whole world of characters and story making us create the images in our own heads actively. This is a great feat....
Keep reading everybody!!

2nd grade abstractions

My second graders loved getting to use compass and rulers to draw shapes for their abstract drawing. We reviewed geometric and organic shapes and practiced drawing them. Then students were asked to use 4 geometric and 3 organic shapes to make a composition, allowing some to overlap, playing with scale, and making sure there were no empty areas leftover.

 Then they got to use oil pastels to fill in their shapes. When shapes overlapped they had to make a choice- to blend for a transparent shape or not to keep shapes opaque. They also were encouraged to make some tints by blending white on top. They love seeing what happens when colors blend together

 It's a real challenge to students' persistence trying to blend oil pastels on a 12x18 sheet of paper. I kep encouraging them to keep going back and make their color look smooth.

 We looked at Kandinsky for some inspiration (of course). We talked a bit about how in abstraction sometimes our brains make us see real things even if the artist didn't intend to draw or paint them that way. Some kids made more face-like images (and I have one absolute pumpkin: hello pre-Halloween project!) I like the one random fish in the picture below:

 The awesome part of this project is how easy it is to make an interesting composition of random shapes and colors. Kids aren't caught up in what it looks like, and they are confident about their results. I hope they can hold on to that feeling as we move forward.

 There were some interesting adaptations that came up as my special needs kids worked. One boy got very caught up in the oil pastel texture and would color thickly, then scratch away at the surface. He might have been better off using crayons. Another boy got distracted by all the shapes and kept getting stuck- so I brought over a scrap paper to cover most of his composition, outlined a single shape in the same color he'd started with and then he was able to focus on coloring shape by shape.

We held off using black pastels til the very end to prevent smudging. I asked kids to outline the shapes that they wanted to stand out to add emphasis. We compared emphasis in a picture with an exclamation point on a sentence. It was interesting to see what they chose to emphasize. For several students, before they handed it in as complete I held their picture back for them to see and check if anything was missing or needed more emphasis. I'm fascinated with how kids seem to have an intuitive sense of visual balance. They nearly always pointed out the same place I would have told them to add to. This project is a legacy from the former art teacher at the school. Why mess with a winner?

Fancy letters

Although I have a ton of super creative students, there are also those who doubt their creative abilities. I like using name and text-based art as a way to start the year for 2 reasons. First- I need to remember names!! Second- EVERYONE should be able to write their name, and if they can't yet, they need practice. Using letters to make art makes it easy for those who feel like they can't draw, and the beautiful results of seeing their gorgeously colorful names up on the walls makes them feel like they can be good at art too.

 My first graders were given 6x18 inch paper, and after reviewing primary colors and watching the OK!GO! primary color video, they wrote their names across the paper in red, yellow, and blue crayon and then made the letters 'FAT" Kids with long names had a big challenge! Then we painted 2 areas with yellow watercolor, overlapped one with red to get orange, and painted a third area red. Finally a red and a yellow area were overlapped with blue to make purple and green. The final product shows a whole rainbow! The kids love painting- but it stresses me out!! Getting 24 first graders set up, working, and cleaned up for painting makes my hair turn gray.

 My second graders also made name art, partially inspired by zentangles and partially inspired by Jean Dubuffet's abstract shape jumbles. Dubuffet only used stripes to enliven his shapes, but I challenged the second grade to make theirs even more patterned.

 We started by sketching the letters of our name- big at the bottom for a strong foundation for our towers- and smaller as they stacked up to the top of the page. I did a similar project with last year's class, except changed it from random placement of letters to a more vertical stack. Since they are used to a linear arrangement of letters, the vertical stack was far more successful than the random ones. After practicing many patterns on whiteboards, we started filling each letter with a different pattern. They are so vibrant!!

It's nice to get some projects finished up. 2nd graders who finished early got to make a zentangle on a square of paper- some kids made a ton of squares and decided to mount them together on a piece of construction paper. It was very exciting to see them determine their creative process that way!

Riding Off into the Sunset

 This architecture/cityscape was the final project of the year for my 2nd graders. We looked at various kinds of architecture before doing a found object blueprint. The prints came out kind of sloppy, so we rolled it into a space review. These landscapes were way more successful than our landscape paintings back in January. Some students got really excited about the extra details they could add to their cities, but sadly my camera died before I could get pics of everyone's projects. Yeah- my constant picture taking and uploading for Artsonia has ruined the hinge that holds the SD card and battery in place, so now I can only take pictures while squeezing the little door closed for pressure on the battery...

My last day with kids was on Thursday last week. Now I've got a few days to pack up the room for the summer. I've got lots of willing helpers, so I put up a list of jobs on the board for kids to choose from. I said to them, "you can stay for 15 minutes, or to the end of your job, and if you finish you can stay and do another or go." I figured 15 minute windows would hold their attention, and if they got bored of a job they had an out. I didn't want to force anyone to stay or do something they didn't want to do, and they still got jobs that I wanted done. Win-Win for me and them!
I haven't had a chance to review the end-of-the-year surveys yet, but I'll soon post some of the comments kids made about art class this past year.
What has been very heartening and rewarding is hearing my older kids who are moving up to middle school say how much they'll miss me and how much they loved art this year. I met a lot of parents this past weekend at a community arts festival, and also heard feedback from them about what a good job I've done this year and how happy their kids are in art class. Art class is generally a happy place to be, but it's nice to know I've kept it that way. I met with my principal and signed my induction papers this week- I have officially made it through my first year of teaching!!! Hooray!

Butterflies and Sunshine

While from the look of my blog, it doesn't look like I've been doing much, behind the scenes in the classroom we've been crazy busy. My younger grades have been doing spring and nature themed projects, which have been taking a long time! Kindergarten explored butterflies and gardens in a printmaking project. We made caterpillar bodies with beads and pipe cleaners, which doubled as bubble wands!! Then we made marker monoprint butterfly wings so that they would be perfectly symmetrical. Kids folded their paper, drew an M and colored it in. Then I came around with a spray bottle to mist their papers and they transfer printed their drawing to the other side by pressing and rubbing. Depending on how much water and how much marker, some came out great, while others barely printed- so some kids opted to draw over the print again to make it bolder. To make our gardens we did bubble prints-which to me looked like hydrangea. Kids blew with straws into a cup of watercolor/bubble concentrate to make bubbles rise up above the cup edge, then laid their paper on top. It took some experimenting beforehand to find the right combo of container and technique to make it foolproof and flower-like! After printing, students added leaves, dirt, and bugs to their flowers with marker, and I came around to staple their layers of garden/wings/caterpillar into a 3-D picture. I'm not totally happy with the results- there's something about markers I find dissatisfying. Maybe they're too common, and don't seem art-class worthy?

 My 2nd graders have been toiling over their Huichol-inspired yarn paintings. Most did suns and moons like seen in the original examples I showed them, but many chose other nature images like butterflies and trees.

 This project was extremely challenging because of the fine-motor skills required to cut and glue the yarn carefully, but it's definitely something they can accomplish. Some turned out amazingly!

 I have to buy more yarn next year, though, as I had 3rd and 2nd doing yarn projects at the same time, and we ran out of many colors by the end of it. If you need a stash-busting project, this is it- even through each child only worked a 6 inch square! To distribute the yarn I rolled 5 balls of each color so that each table had a box of colors to work with. They had to throw out scraps at the end of class to keep the boxes tidy. It's possible a lot of my yarn got thrown out as scrap, though!

The end of the school year draws near, and I'll only have about 3 more class sessions with each group. It's going by so fast!!

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.