Scared but Excited

Have you ever tackled a project that scared you?

I saw a neat idea for abstract sculpture on Use your Colored Pencils and instantly connected it to our unit on color. 

Today the students are finishing their abstract color mixing projects...

(We reviewed the color wheel and introduced abstract art.  Last week they created a glue design of white glue on black paper or black glue on white paper.  This week they used chalk pastels to finish their images.  I only gave them the primaries but they were required to use all 6 primary and secondary colors in their image.)

Next week I will introduce a lesson on abstract sculpture with a focus on tints and shades.  We will talk about Alexander Calder and his abstract sculpture.  They will then create an abstract sculpture with a minimum of 5 different sections.  The students will be required to paint each section a different tint or shade of one hue. 

What scares me ...

 Keeping track of  parts.  (5 parts to each sculpture x 279 students)

Finding room to store 279 sculptures while they dry.

Good thing I am so excited to continue our discussion on abstract artwork while studying the idea of tints and shades!

Re-Used

I missed the last 8 weeks of school last year being on maternity leave.  While gone I had an awesome sub who did a great job covering my classes.  However, there were  a few lessons I really wanted to get to teach myself.  And today my 5th graders started my first "re-used" assignment from last spring.  They started their Henri Rousseau Jungle Collages.  They loved the National Gallery of Art's website dedicated to his jungle paintings.  I love that it really helps them see background, middle ground and foreground.  Here are some of their starts... I can't wait to see how they finish them.

What have we been up to...

It never fails that once things get rolling I feel like there is always something more to do if I want to keep ahead of the kids.  I had been meaning to post each of these lesson plans but time just doesn't seem to be on my side for that.  So here is a BRIEF recap of what my kiddos have been doing.



  My Wednesday kids have been doing contour line drawings.  We started with practice during class and finished with the assignment of 4 finished drawings as homework.  This was one of my kiddo's homework.  I couldn't find one place where he lifted his pencil!  We are drawing animals in contour line and then adding boots.  I saw a cute project on Kid's Artists so in honor of the new Puss in Boots movie coming out this fall.  (I can't wait as he was my favorite Shrek character and it will be a great date with my 6 year old.)

I have had the book Only One You by Linda Kranz for a few years and have been pondering how to use it for a project.  Thanks to a post by Art Project Girl, I finally got it.  These fish drawings are what my 5th graders are doing this week.  We have maps testing so everyone is coming in a different order.  This project is quick and easy but still reviews line and pattern for the kids.  To finish them they will add some life advice and color only one fish.





This is one of our Awful Alphabet Creatures.  We read the book The Absolutely Awful Alphabet by Mordicai Gerstein.  The students then were assigned a letter to turn into a creature.  We spent a lot of time discussing craftsmanship and how to color the image completely and nicely.  I was so happy to see how creative they could be on their first project.  It really has me happy to see what this year will bring.

My 6th graders are working on their Salvador Dali Surreal Animals.  We looked at the animals in Dali's paintings and then they created their own dream-like animals.  We have some animals with Dali's long, skinny legs, we have some that are combo's of two different animals and we have some that are a combination of almost every animal.  They are finishing them with watercolor.  We are focusing on using light colors (lots fo water) and building up layers. 

It is so nice to have the year up and going.  Hope everyone else is off to a great start to their school year.

Organization

Seeing almost 600 kids a week takes some organization... here is what is working for me. 

Each student has a Manila folder in which they store their notes, sketches and small class projects.  They are stored in these plastic milk crates by class code (ex M1 = is Monday, 1st period).  My "handout" table knows to come into the room and hand out their classes folders.

The front of one milk crate also has Free Time Artstuff.  This is where I keep word finds, grid pictures, design coloring worksheets and free draw paper.  When students finish a project early they know they can head here for something extra to do. 

The students large artworks are stored in these flat racks in the back of the room.  They are also sorted by class code.  Students are not allowed to hand in work unless it has their first name, last name and class code on it.  This makes it much easier to hand back art show work ... just divide it up by class code.

Wednesday Project #1

This year we have our PLC meetings on Wednesdays.  That means I get to see every 6th graders for a "bonus" quarter on these short days.  This is much better than last year when I saw random kids for a quarter. 

For our first "bonus" class meeting we were lucky enough to have two days back to back (I am seeing my Thursday classes this quarter) since I had covered the "get to know" you stuff the week before.  So we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and head outside.  We started by looking at the artwork of Julian Beever, the Sidewalk Picasso.  I assigned each group an artist and artwork and we headed outside and got to work creating.  It was a lot of fun to see them work together (and it was great that Walgreen's had a clearance sale on chalk because they used a lot of it).  Check out our Monet's, VanGogh's and Dine's... 

We were hoping they would last through the weekend but a surprise rain shower on Thursday night finished them off.  At least the kids had a great time making them...

Schools Days...

Well we are up and running...

I love this time of year for so many reasons.  The weather is getting much nicer, my life is getting back to a routine and all my school kiddos are super excited to be here. The things I don't like include the non-stop talking I have to do and not being able to snack all day :).

These first days are always filled with "how-to's" and "get to know yous".  I always cover a who I am, how the artroom works and what my expectations are with an powerpoint.  I share with the kids that for listening to me now, they will get to work on artwork next week.  It pays off big time to be thorough in my expectations from the start. 

Summer Break

School starts next week... already? Like always summer goes really fast.  As teachers the "end" of summer is bittersweet.  I will miss the time I have to spend with my three kiddo's but I am also excited about heading back to school and meeting all my new kiddo's. 

Here are my "at home" kiddo's...

 

This summer we caught some caterpillars

and are waiting for them to come out of their chrysalis.  It has been so much fun.  I am thinking it is fitting as this time of year fills my stomach with "butterflies."



I can't wait to meet my 300ish new 5th graders and to see the returning 300ish 6th graders.  The classroom is slowly coming together.  This year they stripped my floor and so it has taken longer than usual for me to get back at it.  I have spent the last few days laying out my plan for this year.  I started a storage system for all my ideas and I am thinking it will be a good thing. 

In the past I have tabbed pages of my magazines and printed off websites.  This year I am tearing the pages out of the magazines and writing on them with sticky notes.  Then I am filing them my subject/concept.  Hopefully I won't loose them and will be able to find them quickly when I need them.  :)