ARTventure DC: Session 1 Museum Trip!

As a final camp experience, we ventured out to The National Gallery of Art in downtown DC! We ventured onto the metro and impressed other riders with how orderly and quickly we all got through the turnstyles swiping our metro cards during the AM commute!  We walked from the Archives-Navy Memorial metro stop and arrived just before the museum opened in time for a story about visiting the museum...

Once the museum finally opened, we traveled inside through the marble hallways and stairs.  We were approached by a museum staff member who made a point to come over to tell us that we were one of the most responsible, and respectful group of campers he had seen in the museum!  Campers spent time looking through some landscapes(one which had the Parthenon painted in it which we looked at Thursday!).  Eventually we wandered to the room which I find kids are always fascinated by; the room which holds the Shaw Memorial.  We picked up  a handy little kids guide which talkes about this piece, and found the corresponding pages...

The favorite prompt/question for this piece was about imagining and sharing what sounds you would hear in this piece of art.  Campers got very creative with this and built off each others ideas! After about an hour and a half exploring the museum, we headed back to camp!

Thanks to the AMAZING Ms. Monica for documenting our day at the museum with her camera!  I find on field trip and travel days I always forget to take pictures... and here's a rare thing you wont usually see on this blog... a picture with me in it!!! 

THANK YOU to the amazing parents and campers of ARTventure DC session 1!  I had such an amazing time with you all!  Teaching, creating, and learning with these kids is an amazing opportunity and I'm so glad I get to see some of my students year round and help their love, knowledge, and skills within art continue to grow!

ARTventure DC 2015: Art Around the World, Part 2!!

As promised, here comes some more ARTventure DC fun from session 1: Art Around the World!

For this project we set up outside of the normal ARTventure DC Studio, because things were about to get REALLY messy (because where's the fun with no mess?!).  Students used cooked spaghetti noodles to splatter paint in the style of artist Jackson Pollock. Campers quickly realized how tiring this method was, and were blown away at the concept that some of Pollocks pieces were larger than they were!! Here's some great final pieces!

The following day at camp we jumped into Architecture and the way buildings look.  Campers looked at iconic architecture from Greece, Italy, France, India, and related it back to pieces of architecture here in the U.S.A.  Campers were then sent to create their own piece of architecture using: Cardboard, Q-Tips, Popsicle Sticks, Hot Glue, Tape, and Oil Pastels. 

One final activity we did, well actually I hadn't planned on doing this, but the campers gave me the idea... we had an ART SALE!!!! 

How did this work? Well here goes:

1. Each camper started the day with $10 (play money). 

2. Campers could award to others, or receive extra $ for being role model artists.  

(for example, Margo found 2-3 pieces of Ian's legos he was missing, so Ian shared that he thought she deserved $3 extra for being such a great friend, all the campers agreed, and Margo of course accepted)

3. Campers created 6 drawings which they felt would sell and priced them according to the value they thought they were worth. 

4. Campers gathered in a circle, laid out their creations, and moved any pieces the did not wish to sell, behind them.

5.  We looked for 3 solid minutes at what we hoped to buy... there was total silence...

6.  We went around the circle signifying with a raised hand that there was a piece someone wanted to buy.

 

Now, as time went on campers realized in order to buy they also have to sell, so we allowed negotiations to be made which was an interesting process some art dropped from $10 to $2 while other pieces went from $6 to "I'll just take all your money". At the end of the day, it was possibly one of the most intense and focused moments of art camp, but one that the campers begged to do for the rest of camp!!!

ARTventure DC 2015: Art Around the World, Part 1!

ARTventure DC 2015 has BEGUN!  

Some of you may recall seeing posts last summer about the mini summer camp I run, called ARTventure DC. Well, we have changed the format a little bit this year, to less travel, more arts experiences, and session one was AMAZING!  Above, you can see the camp location is the beautiful basement of a Bancroft family's house, which is the perfect location for imagining, creating, and of course, making a mess! 

 Filled with campers the space looks great!  Camp runs from 8:00-12:00 Monday through Friday for three weeks throughout the summer and on Friday we travel to an art museum to see the work and artists we have learned about throughout the week. This week the theme was "Art Around the World".  We focused on a particular artist or style from countries like the U.S.A., Australia, Japan, Italy, India, Greece, and more!  

Here are our 2 of our projects!  Check back soon for more! 

Japanese Wood Block Prints

One day, we travelled to Japan to look at the way they created art through printmaking.  We talked about the various methods of printmaking and materials, and realized that woodblock carving was a very challenging process.  So instead, we used styrofoam plates and a dull pencil to create our own image.  While campers worked on carving their image, Ms. Monica and I made some prints with color of plain plates(seen above, middle photo).  Campers then used the brayers to ink and print their own images.  Check out our results! 

   Campers had a small 2inch by 2inch square to first practice their carving skills on, and we decided to print each others small squares to make a collaborative piece of art.  Check out one of our collaborative pieces below!(even Ms. Monica and Ms. Foy made squares to print!)

The next day at camp, we learned about various Abstract and Pop Artists from the United States!  We got alot of inspiration to create jumbled up works of art like Jasper Johns, and  shape focused art like WassilyKandinsky(okay okay, we know he wasn't born in the U.S.A., but we still loved his work!).  Just a few of our creations are below! 

 

 Another artist we learned about was Jackson Pollock, have you seen his work?  He used his the force of his whole body to paint flinging his paint across the canvas....well to get a little inspiration and an appreciation for his hard work we painted by flinging...... SPAGHETTI across our pages..... 

Check back later this week to see our SPAGHETTI ART!!!!

 

Palm Pilots, Flip Phones, Keyboards, and Beyond!

   Second grade has been focusing this year on drawing from observation, and in a very realistic way this year.  For our current project, I decided to flip their minds upside down, and have them create an abstract piece of art inspired by Pablo Picasso.  We discussed the way Picasso took an object, person, or place, and mentally took them apart and re-drew/painted them all scrambled up.  We decided to do the same, but with technology! 



I have some awesome parents at my school who donated computers, cell phones(flip phones!), floppy disks, palm pilots, and much more for me to physically take apart so students could draw them in an abstract way.  Now, I like to think 27 is not that old, however I sure felt old trying to explain what a palm pilot, floppy disk, and film camera was. The kids were convinced the palm pilot was a GPS, and the cell phones were never actually functioning but toys like they had as "little kids".  Overall, they found it hilarious to hear me tell about this "big stuff" as they called it, and I'm sure they now think I was alive when there was only black and white tv.... but oh well! 

Check out the progress of our abstract, technology themed projects!

(we are still working on filling in with watercolor pencils!)

Amazon Adventures Ahead!

Kindergarten ventures to the amazon with the Magic Treehouse Series used for the Tools of the Mind Curriculum. In art we created amazing mixed media collages about the Amazon! We broke the project down into four days....
       Day 1: Amazon Environment 
             -I can teach Ms. Foy about the Amazon.  
             -I can create a collaged rainforest with  
              shapes.
          Day 2: Animal Drawing
            - I can teach Ms. Foy about Amazon    
              animals. 
            - I can use lines and shapes to represent an
              amazon animal. 
         Day 3: Animal Coloring
            - I can teach Ms. Foy about Amazon
              colors.
            - I can use color to represent amazon
            animals.
         Day 4: Collage Day
             - I can teach Ms. Foy about the Amazon. 
             - I can create a collage. 
 


   I always start kindergarten students off with a learning target of "I can teach Ms. Foy..." because it really gives them a feeling of ownership and leadership in the art room.  I start with a thumb down, and every fact a student shares my thumb moves up, once my thumb is all the way up (4-6 facts later) that means we have met the goal!!

Check out the AMAZING results from our project!  These pieces were created with construction paper, glue, tissue paper, colored pencil, pencil, and  playcolor sticks!

ARTventure DC ENROLL NOW!!

Hello Parents! 

    ARTventure DC has just a few spots left for each session this summer! Check out the information below and please e-mail msfoysartroom@gmail.com to enroll or ask any questions!   You do not have to be a Bancroft student to attend,  artists from the greater DC area are welcome as well to enroll!!

Exploration Day! BUILDONG/CONSTRUCTION!!

Students in fourth grade are currently exploring the possibilities through a full choice based arts lesson! Within full choice based arts classes, students are designing, and implementing their own art projects.  A choice based room may look like total chaos because there's so many different things happening all at once however, I have found that choice based teaching opens up and raises my students motivation, excitement, and focus during their time in the art room. 

Students hadn't gotten the full experience of constructing three dimensional forms and ffigures, so the last class before spring break, they received a challenge.  They were to work in their table groups to construct a piece of architecture.  Whether it was a house, a museum, an office building, apartments, was up to them, but it had to be three dimensional.

Many students initial reaction was "This will be easy."  or "This is going to be AWESOME!!". 

  Here's a look at how they did!

At the end of the class, we came together to assess our structures.  Students did an open reflection about what went well, what was challenging, and how they would execute their plans differently if given another chance.   I prompted student learning from one of my favorite "fill in the blanks" you might say from Harvard's Project Zero....

         "I used to think _______________________   
                          but now I think_______________________."

The following were reflections from students: 
  " I used to think this was going to be easy, but now I think it's alot harder than I thought!"
  " I used to think using glue would hold all my pieces together, but now I think using tape and hot 
    glue would be best"
  " I used to think I was going to use clay for my next art project, but now I think there is a better art 
    supply than clay to use." 
   " I used to think that building with cardboard would be boring, but now I think it's the best for
     making a building"
   " I used to think the clay only went flat on the table, but now I think it can stand up, it's just hard to
     make it stand up!"
 
Students used this experience and the reflections in order to pause and reflect on the project they were designing for themselves.  Many students made proper changes and adjustments to the supplies they were requesting based off of this experience...Another choice based classroom success!!!