Monsters

In this lesson, Kindergarteners are using their imaginations to create monsters. We created texture from our shoes and used clay to create very unique monsters.

Bully Free Week

During Bully Free Week every dressed in a certain way to stand up against bullying in school. One day was tacky day (bullying is just tacky!) Another day was crazy hat day (bullying is crazy!)

Movie Maker Workshop

I attended a Windows Movie Maker workshop this week. We also worked with Macro photography. I ended up making a practice video with some of my shots. This might be something I could work on with my fifth graders, the only problem is having enough cameras for all of them!

Expanded Still Life

It seems that my greatest lesson ideas are always for 3rd graders. This lesson is no exception. Students observed and participated in a Smartboard lesson about still life. They were challenged to find a picture in a magazine that could be part of a still life. Then it was demonstrated for them how to expand from that magazine picture to create a still life. I loved the results!

Landscape

Students learned how to interpret foreground middleground and background using their own landscape drawing and magazine pictures. My students love to look through magazines, so giving them the opportunity to add magazine cutouts to their art really inspired them. They had to use their knowledge of size to place their magazine cutouts in either the foreground (larger images), middleground (medium sized images) or the background (smaller images). This example is from a third grade student.

Georgia O'Keefe Value Drawing

I was lucky enough for a teacher to let me borrow a cow skull for this project. Having this for the kids to observe while they were drawing was a wonderful thing.This picture is an example I made for the students. We looked at the cow skull paintings of Georgia O'Keefe and discussed how she created the skull and the background. Before beginning their drawing, I demonstrated making a value scale. Each student made their own value scale and then were encouraged to use it to create a drawing of a cow skull. I demonstrated drawing the basic shapes of the skull to start their drawing and how to use the value scale to help with shading. I could see a huge difference in the way my third graders were drawing after they were introduced to value.

Home

I would like to begin with a positive: In September 2007, one of my talented art students declared, "I'm home!" upon entering the art room. There's nothing like a genuinely kind child to brighten your day.

Oopps

I am having to recreate my original blog! I have neglected posting information and have forgotten my username and password. So I am reposting past posts and adding new info soon!