Week of 12/12/2021 - Kinders and 1st graders

Kinders created polar bears as we used a variety of lines to create shapes for the animal's body. We used the element of art, value to add to the background using cool colors in oil pastels and black Sharpie marker. Students pressed the pastel gently to make light areas and hard to make darker areas thereby creating value. One polar bear - so many variations!

                                

1st graders created Northern lights - we used oil pastels on black paper to create lights in different colors after looking at photos and having a class discussion. Students used different oil pastels and created value by pressing the pastel to create areas from dark to light. They also created snow covered mountains and added silver tempera paint for stars and snowflakes. Each student wrote a poem by filling in blanks - they wrote 5 colors of lights in their work, how the Northern lights made them feel and what it reminded them of. We created a word list and students picked words that worked best for them to complete their poems.

           

Week of 12/05/2021 - More 4th and 5th grade art

This week 4th graders created foil sculpture inspired by artist Toshihiko Mitsuya. Each student practiced drawing stick figures in different poses and picked one pose to work with. Using 2 pieces of aluminum foil, students created the head, arms, neck, torso and legs to depict the pose chosen. They then used glue to fix their sculpture on to a base and create a shadow using a black Sharpie marker.

                                           

5th graders created digital identity self portraits - each student created a list of what constituted their identity based on prompts I gave them. Using Google drawing, they created an outline of their hair, mask, eyes and eyebrows. Using a variety of fonts and font sizes, students added the words from their list to complete their work.

 

                                                                                      

 

Week of 11/28/2021 - Digital art

This week back after Thanksgiving break was a busy one - 4th graders worked on I-pads to create digital designs using radial and mirror symmetry. I had 2 students share one device so they could help each and problem solve. This lesson was inspired by the tiles present in Islamic architecture where geometric  and organic shapes were combined to create interesting radial designs.

                  

5th graders created a word sculpture - each student picked a word 5 letters or less, drew block letters on paper, cut them and added lines and shapes front and back. They then used paper strips to prop up each letter and arrange letters in an interesting way on a black base. I also had students fill out a reflection page to write something new they learned and something that was challenging for them in this lesson. This lesson was inspired by artist Jaume Plensa who combines letters from different languages in interesting ways. One of his sculptures titled "Source" is right here in downtown San Diego!

                      

             

On Friday, visiting artist Michelle Montjoy brought 2 circle looms to work on looping with 5th grade students. We used the t-shirt yarn we got ready during Thanksgiving break. Students worked in groups of 4 to loop the yarn around the pegs. They also used their Chromebooks to take photos of something interesting of the loom, yarn or the looped yarn. Students completed the lesson by working on a written piece. This was a fantastic day and I can't wait to hang up the finished installation in our school library! A BIG thank you to Michelle for coming and spending the day with us!

                     

                                                           

Week of 11/21/2021 - Making changes in my room

This week I worked several days in my classroom making some changes, now that I had close to 3 months to reflect on what was working and what I needed to improve.

Word wall - This was originally hidden behind the Promethean board and could be seen only from one side of the classroom. I moved it up to the ceiling to make it accessible to all. Below are before and after photos.

       

I also realized students needed more visual supports when it came to elements of art and I had a large window space that I had been wanting to put to use - curtains were the perfect solution. I purchased inexpensive curtains from Target and created lines with names on one, shapes and value on the other two! They are marvelous in the sense I can expand the curtains depending upon what I need for students to use for a particular lesson!

                                            

I also had an awesome group of parents that volunteered to cut t-shirts that 5th graders had donated to make yarn in preparation for visiting artist Michelle  Montjoy's visit the following week. We got so much done - teamwork makes the dream work!

                                                                  

I also added color to my walls using paper and flannel pieces - I had received a donation from a community member and had used some for a lesson with first grade before and had some left over to cover the gray walls.

I glued together several pieces that the entire 1st grade students had been working on. Each student had glued paper strips on a rectangle piece of white paper to create lines and wrote 1 word that came to their mind when they thought of school. My plan was to glue these on to a wooden panel close to the 1st grade classrooms so students could see it when they walked by and also update/ freshen the art on this panel that had been created several years back. this should be finished 1st week of January and I can't wait to see it hung :)

                                                             

Week of 11/14/2021 - Conference week, half days

This week our school had half days for conferences so I picked up the afternoon classes for PE prep. I had a mix of different grade levels and was able to implement some special projects with them. Here are some examples!

 Kinders created a collage of bottle caps, wooden pieces, buttons and paper strips. I first had them arrange the paper strips along the edge of a rectangle piece of cardboard to create a frame. They had the entire class to glue the materials and it was awesome to see how engaged they were for close to 45 minutes. The pieces took 2 days to dry after which I added a coating of Modge podge to secure the pieces. I was happy to display pieces on an easel in the classroom.

                                                

1st grade created florals inspired by artist Terry Scopes - we looked at the artist's examples, practiced drawing a variety of flowers and leaves. Students then drew a vase and combined flowers and leaves of their choice to cover their paper. We used oil pastels with water colors.

                                                                      

The K/1/2 mod/sev class painted with marbles - the students enjoyed rolling the marbles in paint and rocking the cardboard box side to side to make the marbles move and make lines on paper.