Coil Pots, 4th Grade

My fourth graders have been creating coil pots.  Students learned to create coils, and attach using the score and slip method. Since this is their first experience with coils, I also give them the option to create a pinch pot for the base.  I do this because many students struggle to create a strong enough base with only coils.  

 So far, these look wonderful. We still need to fire and glaze them.  I will post more pictures when they are finished.

Cultural Landscapes, 4th Grade

This was an art integrated lesson that was co-taught with the librarian at my school.  In library, the students researched a country of their choosing.  They also wrote about their country.  Then in art, the students drew a landscape of that country.  I borrowed a few Chromebooks and library books, so students could research the features of their country's landscape. 

Using observational skills, students drew landscapes using photos as reference. Students drew in pencil, outlined in marker, and painted with watercolors.

Each one turned out different, and the students are so proud of them!  This is one of my favorite assignments from this school year!  We will be displaying these at International Night at my school.  

Paper Masks, 4th Grade

 I have taught this lesson many times, and my students always love it.  We begin by looking at masks from around the world.  Then students construct a paper mask using paper, scissors, and glue.  I generally allow my students to create anything (animal, monster, or person).  However, every mask must have, eyes, nose, mouth, and other details.

These turned out great this year!

Beginning of the Year Self Portraits

 It's the beginning of the school year, and my students have spent the last two art classes drawing self portraits.  For this assignment, I mostly wanted to gauge their abilities, so I gave student the freedom to draw their portrait either realistic or cartoonish.
 Considering that I gave the students little guidance on how to draw a person, I feel my students did an amazing job!  My plan is to do another self portrait at the end of the school year, so we can compare their growth.

 I think these turned out wonderful!

One Point Perspective, 4th and 5th Grade.

Believe it or not, after 10 years of teaching, this was my first time teaching one point perspective to my students.  Until I saw this simple lesson on the blog Elementary Art is Fun, I have always been intimidated to teach one point perspective to young children. This lesson breaks one point perspective into simple, easy to understand steps.

While students did struggle a little with understanding one point perspective, with a little guidance, they did a great job!

Notans, 4th and 5th Grade

My 4th and 5th graders created Notions.  Notan is a Japanese word for the interactions between dark and light.  Traditionally Notans use a black square piece of paper, which is then cut to create symmetrical images that play with the idea of positive and negative space.  It also ties perfectly into geometry, since Notans focus on reflections/flips.

Chair

At the end of the school year, I had some of my fourth and fifth graders paint this chair.  This was a fun filler project to help fill time the last two week of school. 

Art Show!

 Here are some photos of our school wide art show.  Every students from PreK- 5th grade had one piece of artwork in the art show.  There were about 720 works of art on display.

This show doubled as a fundraiser. We used a company called Artome to frame the artwork.  It was really simple.  Basically, I sent artwork to Artome, which I labeled by student name, grade, and class.  They framed the artwork, and brought it the night of the show.  Artome even set the entire show up for me.  We sold the frames for $25 dollars a piece, and parents were able to take their child's framed artwork home that night.  After the show was over, Artome dismantled the entire show and mailed the unsold artwork back to the school about two weeks later.  Artome only charged us for the frames that were sold.

The art show turned out great, and we did end up raising a good amount of money for the school!  If you are looking for an simple way to do an art show for a large school, I would definitely recommend Artome.

County Art Show

Every year my county has a big art show and every school has a display. Here is my school's display for this year.

Ceramics Club

I have been teaching a ceramics club every Thursday after school.  This week they finished making boxes in the shape of cake slices.  Here are the results.

School Weaving

My school has been working on a recycling theme this year.  For the last few months, students have been learning about being Green and doing cross-curricular assignments based on this theme.   To tie into this, I had my art students collect scraps of fabric.  Most of the fabric came from old clothes, blankets, or sheets.  We then weaved it through chicken wire.  Here are the results.  

 In order to involve all students, I had each student weave one strip of fabric.  The idea is to have the entire school involved in the weaving.  The weaving will be displayed in the school when it is finished.

Ceramics Club

This year I decided to start a ceramics club after school.  Every Thursday I have ten 4th and 5th graders meet in the art room to learn ceramics.  Here are a few pictures of what we have been creating so far.

 The students have really been enjoying this club, and I have really like having time to build the student's ceramics skills.

School Play

We are still in full swing at school.  School doesn't end until June 20th this year.  However, we do have the school play coming up next week. The students will be performing Suddenly Cinderella.  I have been working hard on the scenery, and today I finally finished it.

 I am looking forward to seeing the students perform next week!

Clay Cupcakes, 4th Grade

 My students always love this art lesson.  This lesson uses the basic pinch pot method to create a cupcake.  The bottom is made in a silicone cupcake liner to create the ridges in the bottom of the cupcake.

I think these are beautiful, and my students are proud of them.

Art Show

 This week the county is sponsoring an art show.  Every school in the county had two panels to hang artwork on, and it is displayed at a local mall.  Here are a few pictures from my school's art display.

My Two Sides, 4th Grade

 I have been trying to teach differently this year.  Instead of focusing solely on skill based art lessons, I am now attempting to take a more meaningful approach to teaching art.  This year my lessons will be focusing on the theme, My Place in This World.  The idea is to have students create art that relate directly to their life, their experiences, their feelings, and their world.

My fourth graders spent about a month working on these paintings. In this lesson, students created a self portrait that shows both who they are on the outside, and how they feel on the inside.  In order to understand the meaning behind their art, I am having all 2nd through 5th graders write artist statements about their work.

I really like these, and my students are very proud of their creations.  I am still learning to loosen up my teaching style, and allow for more creativity, but I think this was a good start to this years theme.

School Starts Tomorrow

 School starts tomorrow, and my art room is ready.  This will be a busy school year because I will be teaching art full time as well as working on my thesis for my master's degree.  I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible through this crazy busy school year.

In my school, I teach 6 classes a day for 35 minutes each.  I see a total of 30 different classes each week.  Keeping track of all my students is probably the biggest challenge of my job. Organization is the key to survival in my classroom.

 I did about four bulletin boards in our hallway this school year, and here is a picture of two of them.

In order to maintain order in my classroom, I utilize a voice level chart, and students earn "Art Dollars" for good behavior.  Four times a year students get to spend their art money on prizes.

Art Show 2015

This was our first Art Show.  I decided to turn our art show into a fundraiser.  We had a company called Artome frame the artwork, and we sold each frame for $25.

By using this company, the whole process was really easy.  I labeled the artwork, and sent it to Artome two weeks prior to the show.  They came on the day of the show with the framed artwork, and even hung the artwork for me.  At the end of the show they packed up any unsold frames, and will send the artwork back to me.  This was great because it made cleanup easy, and we are only charged for what is sold.  

 Other than the framed artwork, we also had sculptures up for everyone to see.  

 Here are our 4th grade paper mache ice cream cones.

 These flowers were made by my kindergarten and fifth graders.  They worked collaboratively on this.

The Totem Poles were made by my fifth graders.  Each student created one piece of the totem, and put them together to make a large totem pole.

Clay Masks, Art Club

 I am having so much fun teaching my Thursday afternoon art club.  It is so nice having a group of students who have chosen to be in art club, and are willing to put forth a lot of effort.  These clay masks are our most recent creations.

This lesson focused on creating slabs, and using scoring and slipping to add details.

I just love their creativity!