Adventures in Clay

Disclaimer: These adorable clay critters are from the 2016-2017 school year.  

Pinch pot fish - 4th grade

Owl wall hangings - 2nd grade

Folk Art Landscape

4th grade students have been working intensely on a Folk Art project.  Students were challenged to design a landscape focusing on foreground, middle ground & background with a windy road to capture the viewers attention through the picture.  Students committed to drawing in Sharpie, thus encouraging students to map out their ideas before drawing.  Once pictures were complete, students then used water color pencils to add color.

Fall Birch Trees

This lesson incorporated abstract art and pointillism.  Students looked at images from artist, George Seurat, and discussed his technique of using tiny dots of color to create his paintings.  I asked the students to use a similar technique while making the foreground of their pictures with oil pastels.  After we laid down our masking tape trees, we pulled out fall colors from the boxes of oil pastels.  We used reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and greens, and began making tiny motions to full in the ground with dots as if all the leaves had fallen off the trees.  To get the "smudged" appearance, students used baby oil with q-tips to blend all the colors.

Step #1 - Laying down the tape trees

Step #2 - Adding a pointillism style foreground.
Half of the picture has been "smudged" with baby oil and the other half has not.
Can you tell the difference?

After completing the foreground, students then worked on the sky.  Dramatic skies were the focus, making sure to incorporate more than one color.  We looked at images of dramatic sun sets and stormy skies to help with their ideas.  We used watercolors to paint in the skies and I love how each have a different personality.

Abstract Names

Cecil Touchon is a contemporary American artist whose body of work includes collage, painting and poetry.  His typography abstractions are especially interesting, forcing your eye and mind to slow down and admire the lines and shapes of letters.

Contemporary artist: Cecil Touchon

Fourth grade students started their lesson by observing a sampling of Touchon's work and together we talked about abstraction.  We agreed that abstract art breaks aways from the typical representation of objects and explores the relationship of color, form and meaning.  I presented students with the idea of deconstructing their name to mimic a Touchon artwork and they were rearing to go!

The first step was figuring out how many boxed areas was needed for their composition.  Students were asked to write out their name (and potentially include an important date if they needed a few extra boxes) and count each letter and number.  This then became their goal number of boxes needed to fill their composition.  Next, students practiced their ruler skills by creating a horizontal line across their paper.  I modeled how to section off the paper into different size boxes until each student had their goal number.  The next step was to begin filling in each box with one letter or number.  Students had the difficult task of making sure each letter touched a minimum of three sides.  This was important so the letter and numbers filled the box and became less recognizable and more abstract.

Students busy filling their composition with positive and negative coloring

Love this student's technique!

How awesome are these!!!

Getting Started

This year I'm excited to be joining the Glover Elementary school as a part-time visual art teacher. I've inherited this amazing art room and plan on documenting the year through this blog.  The pictures below represent the expectations of the room.  

Students are expected to be A.R.T stars while in class.  It is their responsibility to come into class with a great Attitude, be Respectful to peers, materials and the classroom, and to always Try Your Best!

Students are expected to take an active part in the art room.  It is important for students to understand that the key to a successful art room is keeping materials tidy and sharing the responsibility of the distribution and clean-up process. This system has six essential jobs for students to participate in. Tables are assigned a job for the week and each week the jobs will rotate so that all students share in these procedures.  The jobs are as follows:

Supply Distributor

Supply Collector

Table Inspector

Floor Inspector

Artwork Collector

Critique

Students will be able to see what project they are working on by observing the Today's Focus board.  On this yellow and purple grid, classes are divided into grade level and examples of each project will be on display.  Standards and key vocabulary will be posted as well.  In addition, the purple Artistic Word Wall will post a culmination of art vocabulary learned throughout the year.  

Upon exiting the room, classes will have an opportunity to reflect on their A.R.T behaviors and assess whether or not the class earned a sticker for their efforts.  The above check list is a tangible way for students to see if the group followed the room's expectations.  If the class fulfills at least 5 out of the 7 expectations then they earn a sticker.  After the class earns 10 stickers, they can earn an incentive such as free time, music, or even choice of seating.

This is going to be such an exciting year of art making at the Glover School.  Come back often to see all the amazing art that will be created in Room 12!!!