Flowers...? AGAIN?

I've had the same flowers and vases in my classroom for the past 3 years now, and I really couldn't stand to put my students through drawing them yet again. So this year I got creative! I've collected random clear glass jars, vases, etc. and rather than flowers, I put succulents and moss inside with pebbles under the soil for some extra details. 

Rather than forcing students to draw exactly what they see and exactly how they see it, I asked them to simply draw some things they saw however they wanted to arrange them on their page (we discussed composition within art).  We recall last year, how we learned every mark comes from lines, which create words, and lines, which create shapes.  To the right, you can see a student who really enjoys drawing realistically, and so she drew just what she saw using only a black ultra fine point marker.


Why use a black marker?  Because in art there are no mistakes.  Students come to me once per week or per 6 day cycle, and are exhausted by always being pushed to find or read the "right" answer.  I explain to students that in math and reading, yes, there is a correct answer or correct word. A-R-T always spells ART, that won't ever change, but when they're in art I want them to understand there is NO RIGHT ANSWER.  This is their release, their time to break free from the pressure of needing to be right, and by using a black pen which you cannot erase, they learn that "mistakes" or "mess-ups" are in fact art.

 Above you can see a student who has chosen to draw the vase, and does so with excellent technique!  You can also see another plant in a glass as well as one student who chose to think outside the box by drawing a flower and imagining the pebbles from the bottom of the glass swirling around and into the flower.  Now that's imagination and creativity!  If this is just the beginning of my students hard work this year, I'm already ecstatic to see how I can help them blossom and develop their skills even further!

First Days of School! First Days of School!

 As I toss and turn anticipating the first day of school with my students, I cant fall asleep! And then...

"ONCE UPON A TIME A FEW MISTAKES AGO, I WAS IN YOUR SIGHTS, 

YOU GOT ME ALONE, YOU FOUND ME, YOU FOUND ME.....

NOOOOO, NOT THE SOUND OF MY ALARM CLOCK!! 

(and yes I admit, my alarm clock is "trouble" by Taylor Swift!) 

SNOOZE BUTTON, WHERE ARE YOU?! 

"CUZ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN, 

SHAME ON ME YEAH...TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE...."

OKAY OKAY FINE, I'M UP! 

So, maybe my wake-up wasnt that dramatic but the minute my feet hit the floor, the excitement settled in... I get to see my students today!  Summer may only be roughly 8 weeks, but I feel like my students change SO much in such a short time!  Every morning I greet students as they walk into the building.  This builds a relationship with all my students and their families that I truly value.  So I bet you're all wondering what happens the first week of school in art right?

  Self-Portraits!

Shifting back into art usually starts with self-portraits in my room, we discuss the  different lines we know, the different shapes, and apply them to drawing a person.  This is a great activity because it's something we go over multiple times every year, so all students are comfortable and it's nothing new or intimidating for them.  Above you can see a student drawing himself, notice his attention to detail through drawing the sharks on his shirt that he is wearing that day(last year we really worked hard on creating more unique compositions through the addition of details!)

The rest, honestly, I can't put into words so take a look at some of the rockstar self-portraits below from across grade levels!

 

NEWSFLASH! NEWSFLASH!

Blogging on Labor Day Weekend?  I know, crazy Ms. Foy, BUT I just received some exciting news on my e-mail!

The Bancroft Art Program just won $100 to Blick Art Supplies!

How? Might you ask... well it all started with the discovery of the smART Teacher website! 

This is a website which is the equivalent of a candy store for a kid but to an Art Teacher!

On this site, art teachers from across the world post all sorts of handy documents like lesson plans, bulletin board ideas, fundraising ideas, rubrics, classroom organization tips, the possibilities are endless....

So, blick art supply hosted a challenge, and every teacher who submitted two lesson plans with student work examples would be entered into a drawing for one of six $100 gift cards!!

AND WE WON ONE!

Check back for a post about what the art program gained due to this generous opportunity from The SmART Teacher and Blick Art Supply!

Summer of an Art Teacher

Summer vacation a major perk of being a teacher (or so most of society thinks) and to some extent, it is a great perk, but it's not all fun and games.

So here's a glance into the summer of this art teacher..... 

 

June 21: SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

 

June 22-24: This was a crazy few days of moving all my things into my new place in Virginia.  I only had about two days to move because on June 25 I was headed to......

June 25-July 1: FLORIDA! 

    Alright, so this clearly looks like fun and games, which it was, but everyone deserves a vacation right?  I went to Florida for about a week to visit my best friend who I have known since the SECOND GRADE!  She lives there now, and we spent a week at St. Pete's Beach on the west coast celebrating her birthday and just relaxing on vacation.  As you can see I also got a chance to brush up on my photography skills during our days exploring... St. Pete had so much beautiful nature and wildlife, I could hardly put my camera down! 

July 4, 2013: A True Capitol Fourth Experience

The fourth of July brought me back to DC and what better way to celebrate than going to the National Mall?  I began my fourth by celebrating with an old teacher from work who was in town to get married.  It was great to see her!  I then headed with my sister and brother-in-law to the Capitol where with some help from a great Capitol Police Officer, we got all the way up to the actual Capitol steps and balcony area to relax and watch the concert and fireworks.  It was a great concert, and the fireworks were great as usual too! 

 

 

 

 

Now, let me pause right here... I'm realizing this really does all look like fun and games, I should probably add that roughly 3-4 days per week I have been reporting to the central office to work on some after school program curriculum as well as do some coordinating for the art department.  This is a great experience for me to have some leadership and curriculum writing skills not only at a school level, but at a district wide level.  I can't lie though, when writing curriculum for after school, I usually do a fair amount of drawing and coloring the project examples! Okay, now back to the fun and games..... 

July 6-July13: Minnesota

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and for sure, there are TONS of lakes.  I had the opportunity to travel to Minnesota with my boyfriend, Paul (many of you parents may recognize him as the Art Auction security/bartender) to see where he grew up, went to college, and meet family and friends.  We hit the ground running by going to the Mall of America, the Mall of America Aquarium, Bunker Beach (waterpark), The Minnesota Zoo, Lake Calhoun, the Sculpture Garden, and tons of restaurants and attractions in downtown Minneapolis.  It was a great trip where I got to see some amazing art, and meet some wonderful members of his family. Of course, being fair skinned, I managed not to get sunburned in Florida, but got rather sunburned in Minnesota!!  

 

July 13-August 2: Now my summer winds down, I spent alot of time working on New Teacher Orientation Presentations, helping our new art department specialist settle in, and refining the after school art enrichment curriculum.    

 

 

   

August 2-August 5:

You guessed it! PITTSBURGH!! I took Paul to experience Pittsburgh for a weekend since he had never been before.  We went to a Pirate's game, Primanti Bros, Kennywood, Mt. Washington, Station Square, South Side, and Shady Side.  You may or may not know I went to Carlow University for my undergrad degree and loved every minute so of course, I loved returning to see how campus has changed.  It was a great jam packed weekend, my only regret is that the incline was not operating so we didn't get to go up to Mt. Washington on it, we had to drive, but overall it was a wonderful fast end of summer trip.  

 

Don't worry, the fun doesn't stop there!!! 

 

August 11th: I travel to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th Birthday! 

 

August 15th: I meet the new art teachers to the district! 

 

August 19:  WEEK ZERO BEGINS! That means back to work to get ready for the year!

 

August 20:  I GET KEYS to the new place I am moving in Virginia!  

(moving during the beginning of school is no fun, but oh well)

 

August 21:  Art Teacher Day!  I get to go to the museums to learn how to be a great teacher!

 

August 26:  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! I am so excited to see all my students and their families again!

Basic Shapes Turned into Masterpieces!

 

Early childhood art education tends to be one of those topics that many art teachers in their beginning years are just at a loss to handle.  I know I was a mess my first year.  I couldn't decide if I should just let them go free and create?  Or force them into tracing pages to learn their shapes?  Or just let them mix paint all the time?  And then something just worked one day, and it was the use of BOOKS to introduce and inspire students to create art.  

So here's how it works... This project was using the book "Up Close" by Gay Wegerif.  Studentsbegin by coming in and sitting quietly on the carpet.  While reading the book I like to pause every now and then to ask what they think the animal is before I turn the page to reveal the actual animal.  After we finish the story,  we go over the basic shapes that were used to make all of the animals in the story...square, rectangle, triangle, circle, semi-circle.  I then explain that at their table there are all of these shapes pre-cut and glue sticks for them to create their own animals today.  Students are given their papers one by one and head to a seat to begin.  Towards the end of class students received a white crayon so that they could add any final details they wanted.

I hope you enjoy the wide variety of animals students made as pictured above!!

Helpful Hints: I've found students get a bit restless at such a young age after about 35-40 minutes of art and so I usually try to have a basket of books for them to read so if they finish early, they know they have the option of sitting on the carpet quietly and reading.

* looking for more great books to inspire young artists?  Check out the Great Summer Art Reads Page to see a list of the books I use in my classrooms!

"Hey! But...Where's the BLUE?!"

Artwork Inspired by Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds

 A fellow art teacher recommended the book Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds and as soon as I read it, I thought of this project!  The story begins with a young artist in school whose class is painting a mural.  She decides to paint the sky portion but when she rummages through the paints there is no blue to be found!  

"How can we paint the sky with no blue paint!?"

* This is a question asked in the book itself, and at this point, I stop reading the book so students have the opportunity to solve this artistic challenge on their own!*

 

 This is the key question I posed to students in order to complete this project.  Now, of course we first reviewed our earlier unit on architecture and those famous examples found in our city.  Students first drew their cityscape in black crayon.  After finishing the architecture of their piece, students got watercolor palettes and were shocked to find that I had covered all the blue with tape so they could not use it!!  

Needless to say, they were able to use their creative minds and problem solve a solution.  Really, the end results featured here show you exactly how they solved this artistic challenge.  As students completed their work I finished the story so they could see how the main character Marisol solved this challenge.  Students were excited to see that they solved this challenge the same ways Marisol did and using the same colors!  They thought about the different times of day(just as she observed the sky at different times of the day) and were able to think of the night sky, sunrise, sunset, rainy days, sunny days, windy days, and much more!

I'd like to congratulate the awesome work by these first and second grade students!  They really impressed me with their artistic problem solving skills! 

                               

 

Diving into Printmaking!

While exploring printmaking in college, I can't even  begin to count the number of times  slipped and cut myself with a linoleum cutter.  And for this project, I was putting that exact same tool that I had encountered difficulty with at the age of 20, into my third graders nine year old hands.... I just kept thinking to myself.... 

"Are you CRAZY Ms. Foy?!?"

Needless to say, I had to really think this whole process out.... 

So we started with simple instructions clearly posted on the board.  I spent a shortened class we had due to an assembly actually going through this entire process step by step prior to beginning the project with them.  This really helped my students understand not only the process they were about to explore, but the safety measures with this project.  

  

As students began to prepare for cutting into their EZ-Cut (a softer version of linoleum), they again had to go back through safety instructions with me and sign a paper acknowledging that if at any time they are not demonstrating these precautions, they will stop their project.  Overall there were three basic guidelines...

1. I will stay seated at all times and never point the cutter towards another student.
2. I will always keep my hands behind the blade, and always cut away from myself.
3. If at any time I am not cutting or need to move from my seat, the blade will be safely resting on the table.

Once finished cutting, students took turns rotating through three inking and printing stations.  Two students showed an amazing natural eye for the inking and printing process and quickly became my assistants.  Those two students took on leadership and taught and supervised every other student in inking and printing their piece.  I think one of the things which simply amazed me, was one of these students hardly spoke English, and yet she so quickly grasped and became a leader with only watching, and my English instruction! 

 

My inking stations were made simply by taping down two overhead transparencies onto the table.  Students used a rolling pin or extra brayer to push down for even pressure when printing.  We also made a list of all students, so that everyone had a chance to print.  As students were called up to print, the remainder of the class completed a reflection page. 

 Students did an amazing job on this project and in regards to my safety concerns... we had ZERO injuries.  I have learned so much about my students within this project, even those who I truly told myself that I was out of my mind for putting a sharp object into their small hands amazed me with their maturity and mastery of this process. 

A few of our printmakers even had their prints displayed at the Azerbaijan National Flower Day festival!  Check out that post HERE!

* This process turned out to take roughly 3 class periods and required additional help and participation by two amazing classroom teachers.