Line, Color, and Shape!

Students in the Bancroft Art Room have been busy this year so far!  We have spent the first month of school really focusing in on three elements of art; Color, Line, and Shape!

 Students in the Bancroft Art Room have been busy this year so far!  We have spent the first month of school really focusing in on three elements of art; Color, Line, and Shape!  The photo above shows some line studies we did focusing on naming and drawing at least six different kinds of lines!  Some of the lines we discussed are: Bumpy, Zig-Zag, Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Wavy, Curly, Curvy, etc. 

 LINE PARENT CHALLENGE: While walking around your community, ask students to look around and find different kinds of lines they see in the environment of your community!

Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade were challenged this year by beginning our projects with a lack of color.  We explored the concept of art made only in black and white.  Above, you can see a series of different shades of grey cards laying on the tables, students had to organize these from darkest to lightest.  Next students were challenged to create an abstract piece of art which included the 6 shades of grey from the color cards they put in order.  I found students have a much larger appreciation for color after doing this assignment!! 

Students in earlier grades, focused on the story mouse paint in order to review the primary(RED, BLUE, YELLOW) and secondary colors(ORANGE, PURPLE, GREEN) and how to mix secondary colors from primary.

COLOR PARENT CHALLENGE: Parents, can you encourage your child to complete a drawing but only in pencil?  Encourage your child to push soft, medium, and hard, to achieve three different shades of grey.   

 

Last, but certainly not least, we have focused on SHAPE!  The two images above are self-portraits by a Pre-K 3, and Kindergarten student.  We have been focusing on using shapes to draw ourselves.  We read the story "One" by Kathryn Otoshi in Kindergarten to learn about being a good friend.  On the right, you can see a student illustrated how they could be a good friend if someone fell down at recess!  

SHAPE PARENT CHALLENGE: Parents, when your kids are drawing at home, or anywhere outside of school, challenge them to really focus on shapes they see all around them.  Students know that if they can identify a shape, they can draw anything they want!  Please encourage the practice of looking for shapes to draw at home!

Art Room Organization, Routines, and Procedures!

I frequently have teachers ask me about how I organize and lay out my room.... so rather than frantically scrolling through my phone, and showing tiny pictures on a tiny screen, I figured why not do a little Classroom 101 post!  So here goes! 
 

Above is an overall view from my desk, it looks a little crazy because I did the Panoramic view with my iphone to capture this shot.  I find it a blessing and a curse to have those red cabinets and counters around two sides of my classroom.  I love them for laying out all supplies, but I hate them because they would be more space for students to work if they werent there.  You can see on the counter, each supply has it's spot and there are always 6 containers of each supply ready to go.  This makes it easy for students to get supplies they need and put them back.  This has stayed the same the past three years, and I found that really helps students know the routine.  Theres a small carpet area along the right side of the room for Early Childhood Classes.

Here's the rest of the room, the painting center and all it's supplies are on the left.  The board partially hidden behind the door is where I now have emergency sub plans, seating charts, district standards, and project learning targets available at all times.   Organization is key!

I've found that posting school norms, and our daily learning targets are key for students to succeed.  I constantly refer back to our voice level chart, and learning targets to help students check in with how they're doing.  Each table is a color for early childhood classes to help teach colors, and direct students to their seats.  Finally, there's my wish list bulletin board.  The lower right has an art room volunteer sign up sheet which has been great for recruiting parent volunteers this year!!
 

You may have noticed on my bulletin board with voice levels and learning targets, I have a poster of our visual timer.  I bought this used GraLab 360 on ebay, and it helps students budget their time. Yellow means lesson, Green is independent work, Orange is a clean-up warning, and Red means Clean up Now!!  Students use this to track their time in the room and I find they are cleaning up without being reminded by the third or fourth week of school!

Hopefully this gives a look into the art room at Bancroft and hopefully there's some useful ideas, tips, and tricks in there others can use for their classrooms!