Week of 10/10/2022 - UTK, K and 1st grade fall art

 UTK, Kinders and 1st grade students came back for week 2 of art. We created fall themed art using the element of art - line.

UTK students drew their hand with pencil on watercolor paper and traced it with a black Sharpie marker. I am so glad one of their teachers comes to my class to assist me with students. We made sure their fingers were spread out so they looked like branches when they traced. We then added curved lines around the branches, filled them with lines and added color with crayons. Blue watercolor for the background to finish works!

 Kinders practiced lines on black paper with metallic markers - I love watching their excitement as they use the different metallic colors!!  We used color card stock paper to create different leaves, fill them with lines and glued them on the other side of the black paper. Students filled the empty black spaces with more lines - great practice drawing and understanding lines. 

 

After practicing drawing different leaves, 1st graders created leaves with pencil, traced them with black Sharpie and added line patterns. We used bleeding tissue squares in warm colors inside the leaves and in cool colors outside the leaves. It was fascinating for them to watch how the tissue paper when mixed with water gave out color on to the paper. One student's work will be displayed at the Urban Collective conference in downtown San Diego next week!

 

 

Week of 10/03/2022 - UTK, K and 1st grade self portraits

I finally got to see the students from UTK, K and 1st grade this week! The UTK students bring back lovely memories from when I taught preschool to the 4 year olds!!

 The common theme this week was self portraits and it was exciting to see how I could differentiate it for the 3 levels.

UTK students created self portraits inspired by the style of Todd Parr. We read his book "Be Who You Are" which talks about being unique and accepting yourself for who you are. His illustrations are characterized by flat, bold colors. I had traced a pencil circle on each canvas for students to use as a starting point. Students created a pencil drawing of how they wanted their hair and features, outlined them with a Sharpie and used crayons to color them. I had the chance to do some music and movement with the students at the end of class :)

Kinders created a self portrait inspired by Lego people. We looked at Lego figures and compared them to see how they are different from us. I had yellow rectangles cut from construction paper. Students cut the corners to make them rounded and added features after I showed them several examples of Lego heads with different expressions. We then added colorful hair, body and a frame using black Sharpie marker. Students added color using crayons to complete their work.

1st grade students created their self portraits after looking at the book "I like myself" by Karen Beaumont. Their works were created using a black Sharpie marker on white construction which they cut and glued on a color card stock. They added a frame using colorful strips and drew a scene to complete their works.

Week of 9/26/2022 - 4th and 5th grade - part 2

 4th and 5th graders returned this week to complete their work from the previous week.

 4th graders added watercolors to their Nate Williams self portrait. It took about 20 minutes of the 1hour and 20 minute class. After completing their works, we moved on to the element of art - Line. We practiced drawing 18 different kinds of lines. Students then created a mug with card stock, added line patterns and used paper strips to create unique handles.

Nate Williams inspired self portraits

 

 

 

Mugs with unique handles

5th grade students also finished their Lisa Congdon inspired works and wrote an artist statement to complete this lesson. We then moved on to practicing different kinds of lines and looked at Madhubani art from India. This folk art originated about 2000 years back and is being practiced to this day. We created a fish drawing and students were encouraged to use a variety of line patterns and vary the thickness of lines. We used watercolors to complete works.

 Lisa Congdon inspired works

 

Madhubani art from India

 

 

Week of 9/19/2022 - 4th and 5th grade

 I started my first rotation with 4th and 5th grades this week!

4th grade created self portraits inspired by artist Nate Williams. This is a perfect lesson for beginning of the year - it helps students start the year with a positive self image and helps me get to know about them through their art. 

Each student created a mind map of words based on the prompts I gave them - 3 adjectives they would use to describe them, favorite people, favorite things about school among a few others. Once done, students create an outline of a head and added an eye, nose, mouth and hair/ hat. They then added the different text from their mind map using different fonts - I gave each student samples of fonts. We will continue working on this next class to complete it. 

5th grade students created art inspired by the works of artist Lisa Congdon. We looked at her art, engaged in a turn and talk, class discussion and noticed that she uses text and symbols. Students created a mind map of words using prompts I gave them. On a piece of watercolor paper, they each drew lines to create 8 boxes. They drew a symbol for each of the words from their mind map and added a positive quote. Students started outlining with Sharpie markers and will add crayons and watercolors to complete their work next class.

Week of 9/12/2022 - Line

 2nd graders created line sculptures this week! We read Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman - it is a great book that talks about a variety of lines with great illustrations. We practiced drawing a variety of lines on paper first. Students were given 1"x12" neon colored paper strips and cardboard. I showed students how to fold a paper strip on each end to make "feet", use glue stick on the feet and press them on the cardboard and hold them for 10 seconds. We made a curved line, zigzag line and diagonal lines together after which I had students look at their paper where they practiced lines and create their own. Students were completely engaged and came up with interesting works!

I encouraged them to explore overlapping lines, turn their sculpture in different ways to see if there were empty space where they could add paper and also join strips to create long lines.

3rd grade students combined lines to design their own motifs and used them on their paper weaving. We first practiced drawing different lines and I demonstrated how to combine 2 lines to create motifs. Each student designed 4 motifs and picked 2 of their favorite. I had implemented this lesson last year with construction paper - some students had a difficult time weaving and the paper faded very soon. This year I used card stock  and could see the paper was stiff and helped students weave better. They had more control with the paper during the over and under process.

 Our local news channel NBC 739 visited my classroom this week and filmed my teaching and interviewed Russ Sperling, the VAPA director for San Diego Unified School District, my principal Derek Murchison and me. This was regards to Proposition 28, a November ballot measure which would guarantee funding for arts education in California.

 

I had the opportunity to present Kolam art at the Arts Empower Mega Conference organized by the San Diego County Office of Education this week. Participants created Kolams with rice flour and received resources on how to teach this lesson from kindergarten to 5th grade as well as combine works to create a collaborative Kolam.

I also had the chance to attend artist Rafael Lopez's session - he is a brilliant muralist in San Diego and a children's book author. Some of his books include "Just Ask", "Maybe something beautiful" among many others. He demonstrated his process for designing and painting murals and answered questions we had.