Back to School

Back in the Swing of Things!

 The 5th and 6th graders have had four art classes so far.  The first day we got some introductory things out of the way and then the students made their portfolios and designed the cover.

The 5th graders use mirrors while drawing their self portraits.

The second day we dove right into pre-assessments.  The 5th graders drew self portraits, as we did last year and the 6th graders drew landscapes.  I will be teaching a unit on self-portraits later in the year to the 5th graders and a unit on landscapes to the 6th graders.  The assessments are in the (long) process of being graded using a rubric and then the students staple them into their portfolios.

The third and fourth days both grades began their first project of the year.  The 5th graders are learning about how to dissect and reassemble geometric shapes as they study the art work of Cincinnati's own, Charley Harper.  The 6th graders are getting a better understanding of the elements of art by making a paper cube that features an illustration of a different element on each side.

New "Decor" in the Art Room

I re-did my points system and instead of the long strips I used last year as a "game board," I made a color wheel game board to replace them.  Last year the goal was to earn three points during each class and I wasn't as good at awarding points as I should have been, and sometimes it would get overlooked.  So, now classes automatically have three points at the beginning of art class and they  keep them by having good behavior.  If they still have three points at the end of class they get to move their clothespin a space on the color wheel.  When they get to 'finish' they get a reward day that consists of taking a break from the project in progress and participating in activities and mini-art projects at a variety of stations around the room.  

I needed something eye-catching and inspirational to put on the wall above my dry erase board.  I took down an old screen and a map that were hanging there and since it is the center of attention in my room I wanted something good.  I looked on pinterest and found an idea that had the "think outside the box" quote with colored tissue paper coming out of cereal boxes arranged in a color wheel fashion.  I liked it so I used that as an inspiration to make this one.  

There's and new fire marshal in town, who is anti-curtain-curtains-in-the-classroom.  All of the teachers received the news that after inspecting our building, the fire marshal ordered all curtains to be taken down.  Remember these curtains from a previous post? I know the fire marshal is doing his job but its a bummer because I made my curtains myself and now I have to figure out what I am going to do with six panels of turquoise and black giraffe print curtains!  They're really cute but they do not match my apartment decor, so its not like I will take them home and hang them up!

This is my artsy-fartsy Warrior head.  The Warrior is our school's mascot.  Can you see the crayon, marker, pencil and two paint brushes in his head dress?  During the opening meeting on the teachers' first day back, our superintendent, Mr. North showed us a list of names.  These were names of people that had taught in our district and that stood out in a way that could be looked up to.  He said that not only were these people that can be inspirations on this list, they were right there in that auditorium that morning: all of us.  One of the people that was on the list Mr. North said bled maroon and white (our school colors) and that he wanted all of us to have that kind of pride for our district.  This Fine Art Warrior head is one new effort of mine to bleed maroon and white!  

Next week I will show you how I made an already awesome project even better!   I am so impressed with the 5th graders and their ideas!  This project features one of my favorites, Charley Harper.

Lebanon City Schools Art Show

The art show was a success.  I could not have done it all without the help of these two super heroes, my Mom and Dad!  They helped prepare, pack and hang up the art work.  Our district art show is at the high school and so I pack it all up, load my car and drive the art work over to the high school.  

All of the students did a great job of selecting their piece to be displayed.  I am very proud of them!  

Chalk Landsapes

Things have been pretty busy in the Berry art room lately!  The end of the year seems to always be hectic!  The 5th and 6th graders have completed quite a few projects.

I have been working on my SLO's and trying to pin point what lessons I want to be teach next year and include in my SLO's.  It has been difficult to figure out how to go about this, especially since I am the only teacher in my district that teaches 5th and 6th grade art.  I wanted to be able to compare notes with another art teacher of my grade level so I contacted Drew Thomas, the 5th and 6th grade art teacher in a neighboring district.  We have been able to meet a couple of times and during one of our visits he shared this project with me which I promptly took back to my classroom and tried out with my 6th graders!  I love this project.  The wonderful thing about it is that practically anything goes.  So if a student "makes a mistake" I just tell them to go with it and that there is no such thing as a mistake in this project!  

Chalk Landscapes

First I introduce my students to Robert Duncanson and I explain that he was an African American artist in the 1800's.  During this time period, for an African American to become a successful artist was quite an accomplishment.  He was part of a movement of artists called the Hudson River School, who painted natural landmarks.  I showed the students "Blue Hole, Little Miami" and explained that it is an actual place about 30 minutes from our school and if you hike on a trail you come across this and it looks almost exactly like it did in the painting, painted over 100 years ago!  

I then go on to explain that a successful landscape consists of a background, middle ground and foreground.  The screen that I project on is my whiteboard so I trace over the horizon line in the painting with a dry erase marker.  Then I trace over the line that divides the middle ground and foreground to show the students each individual section of the painting and that this gives the painting depth.

I tell the students that they will be creating a landscape in chalk pastels.  We tear a piece of 9x12" construction paper, horizontally to make the shape of a mountain range.  This will be the horizon line.  then I show the students how to color the torn edge of the paper, place the torn paper on top of the white paper and use a tissue to rub the chalk onto the white paper.  This creates the mountain range that is the farthest away.  The remainder of the landscape is made in this way of rubbing various colors of chalk off of the construction paper onto the white paper.  

Art Show Selection

This is the first year that I have had my students keep portfolios.  Every time they finish a project instead of going home the project is placed in each student's portfolio.  Last week and next week (we are on spring break this week) the students are each selecting one piece of art work to be displayed in the district art show in May.  On the day of selection all portfolios are passed out and the students are asked to lay out all pieces of art on their table.  I then instruct the students to choose a piece of art work that represents their best work in the portfolio and turn it in by placing it on the table in the front of the room.  I have signs for each project so that while the students are turning in work I can see how many of each project I will have for that particular class.  If I see that there is a low number of a project or too many of something we can adjust for that.  So far this is going very well and the students are all making great choices of work to put in the art show.  The next step will be to mount and tag all of the art work.  Each class has a designated folder that I keep art work in to transport to and from the art show (the high school).  All of the 3-D work has been tagged and is packed in boxes ready to go!

 Here are some of my students' portfolios:

 

Here is the table where the students submit their art work

                  

Notan

These are some of the many finished notan pieces by 6th graders.  It was a good one day project.  Next time I think we will use larger paper.  I only had 9x12 construction paper this time.  More about this lesson can be seen on this post.