Kindergarten - Shape Collage/Line Painting

Kindergarteners are learning a lot about shapes and lines this quarter.  They made their first collage and took their first jab at painting in elementary school art class in this one lesson!  To simplify things, they only used green and yellow paints (which I pre-mixed with white to better show up on the black paper) and painted their little hearts away.

Interactive Whiteboards, cont'd

Well, I have to say, the SMART board has been amazing so far!  I'm using it daily, even if just for simple things such as showing images and being able to "draw" on the pictures to point out certain parts.  I've also used it to put up the lesson directions and used the bottom portion of the screen to demonstrate drawing parts of the lessons.. or even have students come up and share their drawing ideas.  However, I then erase all the examples before students get to work to help curb some students' urge to copy.

Here's a lesson I just started with my 3rd graders.  Part of their art curriculum for the 1st quarter is drawing 3D shapes and demonstrating an understanding of foreground, middleground and background.  I combined the two objectives together:

I am excited about the drawings that they have started.  They've come up with great ideas on how to use the 3D shapes in their space scenes.  I will post pictures when they are finished!

Interactive Whiteboards

I stopped by school today to check out the "state" of my classroom.  The beginning of the school year is only a few weeks away, and I will be out of town for part of that, so time to think about getting things ready.

Anyway, I was so thrilled to see that they've installed my new SMARTboard and mounted my projector on the ceiling!  I frequently used my projector, so it is more than nice to have it off the cart and out of the way.  I've checked out a SMARTboard to use a few times, but now that I have my own, I  can use it all the time.  Does anyone else have one of these?  In what ways do you incorporate it into lessons?

As you can see, my classroom isn't ready for me, otherwise.  Hopefully it will be soon!

4th Grade - Burlap Pouches, Pillows and Purses

I had a huge box of burlap sitting in my room for the past five years.  I am not sure why it took me so long to use it, but I'm really glad I did!  I had some PTO volunteers (thank you, thank you, thank you!) cut the burlap into 8 inch squares so I had two pieces for each of my 4th graders... that was about 230 squares!  The students had their choice of what they made with their two pieces, but they all needed to show me they could stitch a picture or words on at least one piece, and show me they could sew the two pieces together.  They didn't necessarily need to be sewed on all 4 sides - it just depended on what their final product was.  

The very first lesson, however, was learning how to tie a knot!  With all the yarn and color changes, I just knew I couldn't be the sole knot-tier in the room.  Therefore, we practiced and practiced again before we began!  It was definitely worth the time.  

Here are some of the in-progress and final textile masterpieces:

Goodbye 2010-2011 school year!

This is belated post, as our last day of school was May 27.  It was such a GREAT school year and I was very sad to say goodbye to my wonderful 6th graders - they were a really special group!

Here's one of the classes earlier in the year after they were finished with their masks:

The last week of school I always play a end-of-the-year trivia game with my classes.  This year, we played Jeopardy style on the SMART board.  I used one of the templates on the SMART website and filled it in with questions about things each grade has learned this year in art.  They always have a fun time "competing."  We also play team pictionary if there is time.  These game days are VERY helpful since the art room needs to be packed up and cleaned every May.

The week prior to trivia, there's also a bunch of kiddos done with all their assigned artwork asking the age-old question, "What do I do now?"  This time around I asked them to create something special for one of my friends that's serving in Iraq.  They LOVED this task and made a lot of great paintings, drawings, letters, etc...

My Kindergarteners enjoyed playing "pass the drawing" instead of trivia - just another name for a collaborative drawing that they pass around the table...

I had a "Just Dance" party to thank my 6th graders that did Safety Patrol all year.. we all crammed into the art room, pushed the tables to the side, and danced away!

And, last but not least, everyone always enjoys the absolute last day of school and FIELD DAY!

4th grade - Tallest Tower Contest

My 4th grade students are very energetic, enthusiastic and competitive so they loved this sculpture contest.  I have a big tub of index cards that I save from year to year for it.  The rules are that they can work by themselves or with a partner.  They don't get glue, tape or staples; just the index cards and scissors if needed (but not to be used in the sculpture).  They have 20 minutes to build the tallest tower and it can't be leaning against anything.  At the end of the 20 minutes, I measure them all (i also won't measure any before time is up, it has to endure that long)!  It's entertaining to watch the towers that get immediately tall and then usually end up falling over before time is up.  It's a good time to talk about structure, balance and also "slow and steady wins the race."

Art show compliment cards

I've been a bit absent the past couple months.  Honestly, I'm not sure where the time went, but I know it was very busy!  I have a lot of great pictures ready to post, so hopefully I'll be getting back into the swing of it soon.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share these compliment cards written to artists who entered something in our school's art show.  Actually, they all enter artwork, all wrote compliment cards to someone else, and all got at least one for themselves.  Come to think of it, that's where my time went!  When writing these compliments, I wanted them to stretch beyond, "I like it," or, "it's cool."  They had to say more.. they had to THINK!  I even had the kindergartners do it, which was precious.  They dictated to me what they wanted to say, I wrote it, and they signed their name and did a drawing of the artwork. 

Here's a few of my favorites that either made me laugh, smile or both: