Sketchbooks!

Day One of Art Class we always spend the bulk of the class period creating art. I personally am a bit Attention Deficit in meetings so I can't expect my students to sit in our colorful, stimulating art room and not create! We tackled some simple rules, got seats and then moved into our first projects....... the first of which was a simple piece of functional art.

It was hard keeping a secret but I made it to day one of art today without telling the kids what the cereal boxes were for that they collected.

Sketchbooks!

I'm excited because, after a 3 year hiatus, we are using formal sketchbooks again... and this time we're making them with a few simple supplies. 

Zooming back a few years: Every student had a sketchbook AND I gave them all weekly drawing assignments AND I vowed to check that they completed the drawings AND all before the end of the class period/school day. It was CRAZY. Half the kids loved it and half said "ART HOMEWORK??!" and didn't complete the simple assignment. My intentions were in the right place but what a task. So, I canned it and gave out optional vacation and summer drawing prompts. 

But, I really love the idea of the kids having a sketchbook and how easy it is for the kids to make them while being "green" in their art so that's what we did today.
My students made two sketchbooks today: one to keep in art class and the other to take home. The home book has 30 weeks of optional sketchbook prompts inside if the kids want to use them. Of course, they can just fill up the pages as well with drawings and writing of their choice.

I started to think "here we go, again!" as the piles of recyclables started to pour in. I have found myself in this situation all too often having a classroom filled up with "trash" or cumbersome materials. Fortunately, this is a one week project, the kids are really liking these sketchbooks and (here's the big one) the cereal boxes do not attract bugs since they are clean and.

Cut!

Fold and cut

Add a binding

Pages and rubberband so that more pages can be added easily

Mrs. Drake checking out the sketchbook

Welcome to Bear Tavern You Grand Old Ox (featuring the Ox Selfie Cam)

How often do you have an ox at your school to paint? My guess is never. That's because out of the many artsy animal parade that have crossed the globe, the ox is a bit rare. You will see more dogs and horses but the ox was chosen by the new Hopewell Valley Arts Council Committee because it is " a symbol of the Valley’s agricultural heritage, teamwork and enduring sense of community, the ox, an historic reminder of Hopewell Valley’s farming tradition, was chosen as the icon of the HV Arts Council’s public art event. Today, a team of oxen is still used to plow the fields and haul heavy loads at the Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell Township, uniquely connecting the past and present."

Photo courtesy of the Arts Council (there were only 2 oxen on our delivery truck FYI)

Our ox, who is yet to be named, was delivered to the school by a team of energetic, fun people yesterday afternoon. Honestly, if they had more deliveries to make, I would have asked to go along as it really seemed like a lot of fun. The first graders were coming out of the gym at the time from recess and were the first people in the building to see the ox come through the doors.

It was quite exciting,

Ok, so there is a celebrity in the art room now... Eight feet long and weighs 75 pounds.....(tell me your secret!)....

Cast of fiberglass for the Arts Council, is hollow so therefore very light. The ox is quite easy to move around. 

The Bear Tavern students and staff have been intrigued by this special new community member. It's only white but quite interesting to look at. Stop by and see. 

We are going to paint the ox to look very earthy cool by using cool colors on one side and higher contrast blue/white on the other with zentangle designs. 

We will paint the base colors during van Gogh art night on March 31. 

Keep you posted!

The Lady who got the selfies' started!

 

Art Teacher Shopping Trip for OX PAINT @ Jerry's Art Supply
from Left) Gillian Beck, Gay Hong Hua and I.. Not Pictured: Kathleen Belton who was there shopping with us earlier on.

Hopewell Elementary Art Teacher, Ms. Hua with their ox on Friday

All Grades: I Am Collages

Such rock stars! Here are my 4th graders working on their first project of the year in early September. All grades created mixed media self-portraits that were completed for their parents to admire on Back-to-School night. This project was a collaboration between the media specialist and me. We modified a project that I saw on a photographer's web page about a project that she did for her sons class. She took photographs of the children and had them write personal statements to incorporate into a painting that they made. I enjoyed watching my students work and enjoy scavenging for supplies, using materials as they chose to and ultimately telling the school some special things about themselves. In addition to black and white photos and text, my students created beautiful backgrounds and then got into the spirit of collage adding all sorts of materials to their final product.

I will see what I can do about posting the finished self-portraits considering photo permissions and all.

Bear Tavern Earth Day 2013

What a chilly, windy Earth Day! We stayed mostly inside to create art for Earth Day with the exception of some classes drawing on the pavement with sidewalk chalk.

I am a huge fan of green art and using everyday materials to create installations. Our bottlecap mural a few years ago was our first "green" installation at Bear Tavern. We collected caps for 8 months before creating our bottlecap mural.

This year, we created mandalas heavily inspired by artist Virginia Fleck. We aimed to reduce the amount of plastic bags going into the ground by reusing them to create several wonderful mandalas. Our school community brought in an extraordinary amount of beautifully colored plastic bags that were cut up for the kids to use today.

Virginia Fleck is so inspiring. She's such a nice woman and I am looking forward to sending her some pictures of our finished designs.

We also snuck in some large leaf paintings towards the end of the day.
I really love all of the art created today and am glad that I can restore the art room to "normalcy". For the past week I've had plastic bags all over getting them prepped for the kids today.

I felt pretty happy to hear students say things like "I want to be an art teacher when I grow up!" and "This was so much fun!"
Some people wonder why I do so many projects each year and the answer is "because it's my job...and I love art".
 Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time today and to the staff who assisted in prepping for the event... I couldn't have managed with out you...thanks for making today a fun one for our kids!

Leaf painting....I'm in love

I love this leaf painting

3rd grade boys laying out strips

Students working on a mandala with help from Mrs. Majkowski

Students brainstorming ideas

Virginia Fleck "Dot Mandala"

End of Year Folders

1st grader

As much as I am looking forward to a wonderful summer, I am also looking forward to next school year. Looking at some of the projects going home as I clear out the display art that has been in the hallway and around town, I am reminded of the school year that is coming to a close. Every student has made a large white folder decorated as they wished to hold all leftover art to take home.

2nd Grader

Exhausting but worth it!

Can you believe that we started and finished all SIX of these 8"x10" paintings yesterday at TGG??! I am surprised myself considering that we were working on individual projects at the same time. 


These paintings were collaboratively completed by my 1st through 5th graders (all hands on deck) and will be framed and given to the six 2011-2012 HVRSD Teacher of the Year recipients. Each year a teacher is selected from each school in our district. 
The paintings will be given out on Monday, April 16th at a small reception being held for the recipients at Toll Gate. 
I chose the tree as the theme for these paintings because each recipient has shown characteristics that trees possess.... strong, unique, important for our environment & beautiful.


The 3rd, 4th and 5th paintings from the left were made using the kids fingerprints.

Sneak Peek @ Art Room Mural and Collaborative Circle Paintings

I am surprised that I am up posting right now as today was an exhausting day. The kind of day I would not trade for anything but I am tired. 
The art room was double booked all day today and will be again tomorrow to make sure that all of my 1-5 grade artists are able to meet Will "Kasso" Condry, Muralist, to view him painting a mural in the art room "live" and to participate in a collaborative circle painting project that I am running. Busy, busy, busy. 
All that were in the art room today know one thing with certainty---> Will Condry is quite incredible.
Before I fall asleep, here are a few photos from the day. 

Update: June 28, 2013. This blog post has been VERY popular due to Pinterest and has generated thousands of page views for this blog since Dec. 2011. If you create a project inspired by this post, please share your results and link back! Have fun!

I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THESE CIRCLE PAINTINGS

.....and now..... Kasso mural sneak peek...and he's not nearly done....

He painted in these expressive circles the "skeleton" for this section of the mural in minutes. 

student asks a question to Will Condry while he paints