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)

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!!

Thanks Kinders!

Yes, it's a hand, but it's NOT a hand turkey! My Kinders combined a bunch of different skills in this project. Painting lines instead of drawing them was a fun challenge.

 Careful coloring between lines instead of scribbling. We're not 4 years old anymore!!

 Using scissors in the art room for the first time and learning to cut around shapes was a HUGE challenge.

 The kids were asked to draw something they were thankful for inside their hand. So many stick figures! Guess we need a people-drawing tutorial soon.

Kindergarten amazes me in its range of skill levels. I have kids who paint, color, and cut skillfully, and others who have a hard time controlling paint brushes, crayons, scissors, and glue.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm tremendously grateful for all the wonderful children who walk through my door excited to try new things or get to work!

Speedy 3rd graders

 I might chalk this one up as BEST PROJECT EVER. We compared 2 abstract paintings (both entitled "SPEED" to identify ways artists create movement with line and direction. Then we brainstormed "FAST" things. Students had to draw, cut out, and glue down a fast object in silhouette, and then use line variety to create a sense of movement across the page. We compared the idea to the contrail a plane makes as it crosses the sky.

 We had lots of birds (like my exemplar), many rockets, some vehicles like cars and jet skis, some fish and lions, and even a tornado or two!

 Best of all, we managed to get through a lesson from intro to completed project in one class period, and it reinforced the line quality we'd just completed studying while introducing movement. No, BEST of all was how super engaged everybody was. The brainstorm of FAST things helped everybody find an idea, and it had plenty of room for creative interpretation. The only trouble was with 2 or 3 kids who weren't confident in being able to draw or cut out their objects.

I love how exciting these look! I asked kids to just write me a note about what they made (in case I couldn't tell a bird from a plane). The surprise ending was seeing how many kids wrote more than a note, since they are getting used to the expectation of writing about their art. WIN!

BOO! 3rd grade does positive and negative

Positive and negative space is a new concept for my 3rd graders. Inspired by a local cut paper artist, I thought this project would be a simple 1-2 class project. We first reviewed line quality and "Stole a line" from a series of images in a powerpoint (kids drew on whiteboards building a composition with lines they saw in the images). We practiced ruler skills and measured out 2 inch marks at the top and bottom of our papers, then connected the dots across the page with various types of line. So far so good.

But whoah! Was I not prepared for the low scissor skills of this group of 3rd graders. Did we never pick up a pair of scissors in 2nd grade???? Students had a real challenge following the lines they drew with the scissors to cut them out. Of course, some had drawn amazingly detailed, fussy lines that any adult might find a challenge to cut out. I even had some kids break down and nearly give up because they felt they weren't good with scissors. Magic art teacher to the rescue! There was a box of special scissors (loop scissors that all you have to do is squeeze ad they spring back open) that I NEVER pulled out last year, but they are wonderful for some of my special needs kids with OT issues. Of course, everyone wants special scissors...

 Once the strips were cut apart they were arranged on contrasting colored paper (kids chose their color), leaving some negative space in between the strips to make new shape lines. Gluing is another challenge...

It was perhaps not the most exciting project ever, but it brought to light some interesting skills issues. The challenge level was huge for some of my students- but maybe that's why this was a good lesson for them. It took some ids 3 entire 50 minute class periods to finish! Others did an amazing job of careful cutting, arranging, and gluing and finished in one and a half classes! Go figure.

With the odd rate of completion on this project I had a bunch of kids who needed a new activity. This being Halloween week, I let them have a "freebie"- a project I would not grade and that was just for fun that they could take home immediately. It was not REALLY just for fun though- it was a super extension of positive and negative space by creating stencils!

Kids cut out a "spooky shape" from scrap paper, placed it on black paper and brushed white or orange color stick from the center outwards. I have no chalk- it would have been easier I think.  After stenciling they went back in and added details as well as a "spooky message".

 Kids were encouraged to share stencils, and some discovered that both pieces of cut paper (positive and negative) could be used to shade either the exterior or the interior of the cut shape.

 This was an excellent, quick, high-engagement lesson... mostly due to my kids thorough obsession with all things Halloween. I'm not a big fan of Holiday art in art class- the classroom teachers do holiday crafts with them, so I don't feel it's necessary. But it does get kids engaged.

 Happy Halloween everybody!