Art Club

Here are some great landscapes that were created in Art Club.

We discussed Landscapes and Space along with one point perspective. You can see that in their houses. After drawing their landscapes out with a pencil, students then used oil pastels on small parts of their landscapes, then used watercolors to paint in the rest. Using a several different watercolor painting techniques.

Art Club

WOW! This year is flying by, the first quarter is almost complete. And my first Art Club of the year is over :(
What a great group of artists! We learned how to draw from observation, and made bowls for the local Empty Bowls event. These bowls will be auctioned off to help raise money for families that are less fortunate during the holiday seasons. Here are some pictures of some of the artists at work. Pictures of the bowls will be posted soon....after the glaze fire:)

Sunset with Sailboats

2nd Grade students learned about Color and Space. First students talked about color and color mixing, while they painted their sunsets over their ocean. Then we talked space when they put the collage of sailboats (among other things) in silhouette into the picture. All I can say is "WOW"!

Shape Houses

 

1st Grade students learned about Shapes. We created collage houses using paper. The students never cease to amaze me:) They all are doing the same project yet everyone makes something that looks different and creative!!

Kindergarten. Shape and Word Families

This summer I took a Reading class and it truly opened my eyes to the literacy epidemic that this country is facing. To fix this problem more then just the reading or classroom teachers need to be involved in promoting literacy, EVERY teacher should be involved, yes even the Art Teacher :)

So with literacy in mind I tweaked my Shape Lesson that I do with Kindergarten students every year. Before with this lesson students would learn about simple shapes and create a "Shape Book", in their book we would create animals using simple shapes, such as Circle-Turkey, Triangle-Mouse, Oval-Fish. The students would collage these animals, so not only are they learning how to draw these shapes but how to cut them out. This is also an opportunity to discuss how we use our materials the correct way, like scissors and glue.

After the tweaking... we not only are learning about simple shapes and how to use our materials. But now we are learning about word families. This year I concentrated on the -AT family. So now we are creating Oval-BAT, Rectangle-MAT, Circle-CAT, Square-HAT, and Triangle-RAT.
Here are some pictures from one class and their success in making their "Shape Book"... Enjoy!

Rectangle-MATS



Oval-BATS



Open House

Well the school year has official begun! I think I have met all of the students and now I have gotten to meet all of their wonderful parents too at Open House! It was great to talk to parents and tell them about the art program and about our wonderful art fundraiser where we will be working with the company, Square 1 Art. Square 1 Art is a fabulous company that takes your child’s artwork that we do in class they then print that artwork on all kinds of amazing products such as, water bottles, tote bags, necklaces, coffee mugs, and so many more! Be on the lookout for the Square 1 Art order forms coming in November. Orders come in December just in time for Winter Break!

Here is what your child will be learning about and creating for their Square 1 Art project:

Kindergarten:  Will learn about the Element of Art Shape and words that are in the “–AT” family, such as CAT, HAT, BAT…you get the picture. They will collage with paper and glue that objects and then I will select their best piece for their Square 1 Art project.

1^st Grade: Will learn about the Element of Art Shape while they collage their own house or neighborhood.

2^nd Grade: Will learn about the Element of Art Color and color mixing as well as Shape, when they create a Sunset with Sailboats.

3^rd Grade: Will learn about the Element of Art Shape and Complementary Colors while they learn about the Cuna tribes people from Panama when they create a Mola.

4^th Grade: Will learn about the Element of Art Space and Landscapes while they also learn about the Florida Landscape artist the Highwaymen.

5^th Grade: Will learn about the Elements of Art Space, Shape, and Color. While they learn about artist’s George Rodrigue’s famous subject “Blue Dog”.

I will be posting pictures of artwork as we go so be on the lookout!

10 LESSONS THAT ARTS TEACH By Elliot Eisner

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source  and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

 10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.

Just wanted to remind everyone why the arts are so important! 

New School Year Approaching

I am very excited about the upcoming 2011-2012 school year. I am moving to a new school this year, San Pablo Elementary! I so happy to be a part of           "The Energy of the Beaches", as a lifelong beach resident, I am thrilled to be teaching in my own backyard!

 This blog is a new endeavor for me this year and I hope to share with you new information about art education along with what I am doing with my own art classes and fun art related activities and websites.

To get those CREATIVE juices flowing for the new year I found this great video.
Made by Greg Gallo a Connecticut art teacher.