There's always something going on in the art room.

One of my goals this year is to post more often. So far, I've not done so well with that goal. (Or as the kids would say, EPIC FAIL!) I think I figured out the problem, though. I tend to only post about finished projects. Between photographing work, writing the post, and attaching the lesson plan, it takes quite a bit of time. During the course of a day, I only have so much time, and the blog often gets pushed to the back of the list of priorities. My new plan is to update more often with random things that are going on in the art room, much like I do with my Instagram feed. These posts will be quick and easy.

One of my favorite third grade projects is going on right now. Collagraph quote prints. My 3rd graders are working really hard to get their printing plate ready to go. We'll start printing this week. As I was unloading the drying rack, I just noticed that every single piece I saw was outstanding. 

I also have a student teacher from The Ohio State University who started recently. He has taken over a couple grade levels so far and is working on self portraits with 2nd grade. Day one of his lesson involved some practice and one girl totally knocked it out of the park. She is supremely talented and is a very, very sweet girl on top of it. Great work Zoie!

It's Voting Time!

It's that time of the year again, folks! The fine people over at The Art of Education have just announced their finalists for blog of the year. There are a whole lot of super amazing blogs that you can vote for, but I sure hope you'll vote for Thomas Elementary Art. Somehow I won last year, so I now feel like I'm defending a professional sports title. (It's the same, right?) Let's go for the repeat win! You can even vote once per day!

Click here to vote!

Cardinals - Charley Harper Style

If you're reading this, you likely know that I don't do holiday art. It's not my style. Winter art works just fine, though. This is the second year I've done this project with my students. It is based off of a few topics and comes together very nicely. 

The project focuses on the state bird of Ohio, the cardinal. Cardinals are a type of bird that stays around in the winter, so they make for a good subject of a winter themed project. We also study Ohio artist Charley Harper. If you're not familiar with Harper, his career focused on graphic artwork about animals. If you haven't ever seen any of his work, you should definitely check it out. 

The coolest part of this entire project had to do with my Instagram feed. I try to post something every couple of days on my classroom Instagram account. It's a quick and easy way of sharing when I don't have time to sit down and write a whole blog post. I posted the picture above during the school day. When I got home that night, I realized that the official Charley Harper Art Studio had commented on the post! Huzzah! At their request, I wound up sending them several more examples that were then posted on their Facebook fan page. My students were amazed that their work was being recognized by the studio of a famous artist! 

Download the lesson plan for this project here!

New Counters, Happy Art Teacher

 
It's not often that the art room gets something new other than art supplies. A short time before break, I learned that, to my complete surprise, the counters, shelves, and sinks in the back of my room would be torn out and replaced over winter break. Huzzah! I then realized that I would need to move EVERYTHING out of the old one- including 900lbs of clay. 

A job that could have been a big hassle wound up being beneficial. I went through all of the materials that had been sitting on those shelves for years and wound up being able to give away, recycle, and throw away several items that I hadn't used the entire time I've taught at Thomas. (Hamster bedding…really?) I came in over break to put everything back. I ACTUALLY HAD EMPTY SHELVES. Yeah, you read that correctly. Holy cow. 

In all, I'm super happy with the new shelves and counters. The arrangement stayed exactly the same as it had been and I'm hoping to get some doors on a couple of the shelves to keep it neat. I'm psyched! Hopefully everyone else has an exciting start to 2015 as well!

1st Grade Rockets in Space

This isn't a new project. I just like it too much to get rid of it. The end results are super cool, it reinforces basic skills with three types of media, and my first graders love it. That's why I teach it year after year. 

Space is one of those topics that almost all kids love. I get into some basic space knowledge with this lesson and also spend some time describing several images of space shuttles/rockets/etc. I then allow the students to get into their own artwork. 

I typically post my full lesson plan, but this one is simple enough that I'll just post the steps right here. Enjoy!

Check out cool pictures of planets and spaceships and watch an awesome space shuttle launch. 

Each student uses construction paper to create a space ship.

On 12x18 paper, students draw at least three planets and color them using crayons or colored pencils. 

The "space" part is painted with black tempera. 

Stars are painted on using the handle end of a paintbrush.

The spaceship is glued on to finish. 

3rd Grade Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal artwork is fascinating to me. As an artist, I have always been fascinated with the process of making art as much as anything. I enjoy printmaking because of the preparation and thought that goes into a piece before final artwork is ever made. When I think about the process that went into the early Aboriginal art, I'm always amazed. Whenever someone makes their own paint simply to create art I'm impressed. 

I've taught this aboriginal project for several years and have changed it bit by bit every year. Originally, the students drew and painted an animal on one paper, then did a dotted background on the same paper. That later changed to drawing the animal on a separate paper and adding color with oil pastel before attaching that do the dotted background. This year, I went a similar route with the animals, but changed the background. First, I made it smaller. I went from 12x18 to 12x12. Kids get overwhelmed with the amount of dots they used to have to make. I wanted to simplify that. Second, I allowed students to create some decoration on their backgrounds with cut paper. This further reduced the amount of dotting that was required. I really like how the work turned out this year. I cut at least one full day from the project by making the dotting less complicated. I'll add that on to one of the new projects I came up for later this year. 

Download the lesson plan here!

4th Grade Abstract Tint Painting

Before I do anything else in this post, let me tell you how proud I am of my 4th graders. They absolutely killed this project. When it comes to detailed painting, I never know quite what to expect. These 4th graders once again did some absolutely amazing work. 

After starting out the year with the totem pole project, 4th grade students were itching to do some painting. This project let them go nuts with just that. We talked about abstract and non-objective artwork and looked at several examples. After that, students used whatever method they wanted to design an abstract composition. I only asked that it have overlapping shapes. 

The painting portion of the project consisted of using two colors and their tints. Of course we got to break out the mixing trays; this is always a big hit. Kids just love to mix paint. It's simple. 

The project was finished with some black lines around the original shapes that had been drawn. Students chose between doing this with paint or black crayon. I think the project turned out wonderfully. 

Download the lesson plan here!

Yearbook Cover Vote at Thomas Elementary

Even though the yearbook won't come out until May, students at Thomas are hard at work creating cover art. The yearbook cover contest is an optional out of class project for all students PK-5th grade. I got a ton of entries and narrowed it down to the top 8 for students, teachers, and blog readers to vote on. The link below will take you to a Google form to vote. It will take you 30 seconds even if you haven't had your morning coffee. 

*The voting is now over. Thanks to everyone who participated!

2nd Grade Egyptian Cats & Dogs

Here are a few images from a recent 2nd grade project. If you're a long-term reader, you'll know that we've been doing this project for the last several years in 2nd grade. Students are absolutely intrigued by Ancient Egypt and really enjoy the project. 

Not too much was different this year in terms of technique for this lesson. I swapped out oil pastels for colored pencils. My students have better control with the colored pencils, but they just don't have the nice pop of color the pastels provide. I'll probably give them a choice next year. Enjoy!

Students use a rough hieroglyphic translation
 to write their name on their work.
They think that part is super cool!

 Check out my lesson plan here!

Writing about Art

A couple of people have recently asked me about my use of artist statements in my classroom. This post is for you!

We all know that art classes aren't only about making art. As teachers, we want to help our students grow into thoughtful adults. I think using a little writing at the end of a project is a great way to have students practice their writing skills and also inject some self reflection into the lesson. 

Let me tell you how I feel about assessment. Meh. There. I said it. I'm not a big fan of it, although I understand why we use it. I originally started using a little self assessment form that students attached to the back of their artwork. They would circle different areas depending on how they thought they did. I would then circle what I thought. I didn't like that system because too many kids circled only the highest or lowest grades even if they didn't really apply to their work. 

I have slowly developed artist statements that are different for each project. The format is pretty similar across all projects, but the content is different on each artist statement form. I include a combination of fill-in vocab as well as open ended questions for students to answer. It makes assessing vocab-based and reflection standards much easier and efficient. Here is an example from a recent 5th grade personal logo project.--->

Simply including a space for a name and teacher save me from so much nameless artwork. (I have no idea how some students manage not to have their name on their work after 3-4 classes of a project.) The artist statements are taped to the back of the finished artwork. In this particular case, it's taped on the back in such a way that it hangs down below the artwork allowing viewers to read what the students have written. I'll make these 2-3 per page so I can quickly photocopy them and not use too much paper. 

The big question is this. What do you do to include student writing or reflection in your classroom? I'd love to hear all about what you do. I'm sure there are a ton of you doing something way better and far more rad than this.