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!

Welcome Back!

I'm a bit belated with back-to-school room setup pictures, but better late than never. I headed back to my room around August 20th to start setting up. Then we had a whole week of professional development at the end of August. Kids started back to school on the Tuesday after labor day, but we only had 2 half days and then 2 off for Jewish holidays. I didn't get to see students on those first half days. So FINALLY this week my blue art room was filled with little creative bodies and minds.

 Our class sizes went up slightly this year. Instead of 21-23 per class there's now 22-25. It doesn't seem like much except that my room is so small, it's hard to fit any more. Last year my tables were arranged to fit a maximum of 23. Now I have a regular set up for 24, and have to pull a table out to fit one more kid on an end to fit 25. All my tool set ups are sorted for 23, so I had to get additional white boards, scissors, etc. Above you can see a sampling of Kindergarten self-portraits. I offered no exemplar, and just instructions that their picture had to have their name and a drawing of yourself. We also sang "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" as a reminder to draw ALL of our body parts. The pictures at left reveal more advanced Kinders who already know to use shapes and realistic color as well as a ground plane in a drawing. The two center ones show stick figures and the start of shape figures, but with little color choice. The majority of the Kinders are at this stage. The two at right are my low level Kinders who are still in the tadpole figure stage with arms and legs coming out of the head, and another who did not make a figure at all, but is still in scribble and bangdot stage. It's so revealing! I have a girl who just turned 6 today and many who I'm sure just turned 5 in August.

The rest of my kids are doing a letter design collaborative project that will spell out an "ART IS.." quote. I gathered tons of them and printed them out as posters for my bulletin board. Each kid will make a block or bubble letter with contrasting warm and cool colors, and I will assemble them when they are done to hang in the hallways. After this each class 1st-5th will move onto another text-based design. It's a great way to ease them into making art. They know their letters- they don't realize they are drawing when they design letter artworks. And they have a chance to get used to various materials before they have to make something remotely representational.

 Not too much has changed in my room- except for a few classroom management and instructional aids. I bought a coqui scraper instrument to use as an attention-getter when kids are getting noisy. I told them not to "Wake up the frog!" or they'd lose their stars:

 Lost stars result in silent time. But if they keep their stars they earn a sticker on the chart for the day:

When they reach a color bar their class gets a prize- to be negotiated. I'm exhausted from the first full week on my feet, and from repeating the rules 22 times. I've only had 3 kids whose behavior was truly difficult. Out of 500, that's not too shabby. The distribution of students among the classes feels really good- splitting up some problem relationships. And since I know the kids better this year, I can start the year off so much more easily. Like I know not to put THAT KID next to that OTHER KID, and I know most kids names already.


I'm hoping and praying to have a good year. If the first week is any sign, it will be.

percolating

It's drawing near! Back to school! I've had a lovely vacation full of art and workshop teaching and traveling, and I am soooooooooo ready to get back to school. This past week my imagination has been sparking ideas about how to plan out the curriculum for next year so that it is more sequential and flowing from skill to skill. My computer screen has been flipping between Pinterest and my Word document:

 I do not troll through Pinterest aimlessly gathering project ideas- I have project ideas and themes in mind and seek out visuals to go with them. I find it much easier to remember ideas if I have a picture to go with them, so Pinterest has been a godsend to this visual thinker. I've also started putting together boards of artist portraits, video resources,and art quotes  like the following one:

I'm so excited for the adventure of art in school this coming year. I have kept only a handful of last year's projects, and adapted or added new projects to better teach concepts. Taking on new things is a bit risky, but I have a much better idea of what my students are capable of now than last year. It also keeps me more engaged in teaching, as I'm exploring right alongside my students.

I head back to school next week to set up the room, supplies, and bulletin boards. Then we have a week of PD and greet kids on September 3rd!! Hooray!

Art teacher vacation

I've been missing reading all my favorite art ed bloggers since during summer the pace is so much slower and life seems unrelated to the classroom. Summer vacation has been a welcome recharge to my batteries, but I kind of miss my kids and the business of being creative every day with them... On the other hand, I'm not the type to sit idle, so I've been recharging my batteries in other ways too.

First off- I finished a week long graduate course at Tyler on working with special needs children in the art room. It was an intense 5 day- 8 hours a day class jam-packed with information, artmaking, and discussion. I have some insight into some of the characteristics of specific disabilities and some practical tools to take back into the classroom with me next year. I got certified to teach right before the state changed requirements to include special ed coursework in art ed- so this class filled some gaps for me.

Secondly- I've been a Pinterest madwoman, collecting new ideas for my classroom management and projects so I'm not just recycling last year's ideas. If anyone is curious, here's a link to my rapidly increasing boards.

Thirdly, I've been making an effort to get out and see some art exhibits, like "Infinite Mirror"at the Michener museum in Doylestown. This was an amazing exhibit of artists all over the country exploring patriotism, identity, tradition, and family. I bought the catalog, and hope to use some ideas from their education guide for a project or two next year.

Fourthly, I've been experimenting with some printmaking ideas I'd like to try out with 4th or 5th grade next year:

 

This past spring my 5th graders used softcut blocks and linocut tools for their adinkra symbols, and I was very satisfied with their maturity and skill with the tools. I think a more ambitiously scaled relief cut project could work. So one idea is to do a 2 color reduction print of an animal. Above is my first layer including a frame and the shape of a peacock printed in turquoise. The white negative space between frame and bird was carved away. The outline of the frame is actually the complete size of the block. I made an edition of 8 on the first layer. Then I carved back into my block to create detail.

 I didn't have any plexi in the studio, unlike at school, but here's my setup for layer 2. My carved block is on a waste sheet of paper to catch any stray marks from the brayer, a clean brayer for printing is at center, along with water-based block-printing ink from Speedball, a wooden spoon as a printing option, and an inking plate and brayer. I think organization when printing is very important to reduce mess and keep things efficient.

Et Voila, my 2 color reduction relief print of a peacock. The only problem I foresee with this project is time. It would require a minimum of 4 class sessions for my students to complete something like this, and probably more like 5. Do I really want to dedicate that much time to it? Anyone have tips for doing this kind of project efficiently?

I'm teaching some art camps at Fleisher Art Memorial the next 2 weeks, and then headed to Montana for an artist-in-residence program. When I get back I expect to plunge into curriculum planning before school starts at the end of August. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break!

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!

Kindergarten Dance Party

 The last project my Kindergartners completed was a Keith Haring inspired dance party print. We looked at Haring's work and figures, noting that they were NOT STICK FIGURES. After letting them try out a few dance poses for the rest of the class, I gave the kids foam shapes to cut and arrange into a stamp. They colored in a background, adding details for how they'd like to decorate for a party.

 Finally we printed, and students were encouraged to trade stamps to "invite friends" to their dance party. They did a great job sharing, and were very enthusiastic about the whole project. We had an extra day to fill, so we went back and added "action lines" to make it look more like their figures were moving around.

The pictures are exuberant. They show a little of how we all feel at the end of this year- happy to be leaving for summer vacation, happy to have accomplished so much this year. I have one more week with students and it will all be spent passing back artwork for portfolios. I might do it differently next year- all this artwork is a little overwhelming... I can't believe my first year of full-time teaching is almost over!

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!