The Monster Game

Using the whiteboards is a real blessing in many ways. Temporary drawings do not become precious and kids don't mind erasing them in order to draw something new. We used the SMART Board to play drawing games during which they learn the concept of columns and rows. Kids come up and roll the virtual die and explain to the class which column and row they will draw. Looking at the white board results gives me an immediate take on whether the child understood the cell they were to draw. (See Animoto below)

6th Grade Block Printing

6th grade classes have been working on block prints. Some of the students had to carve a fairly hard linoleum, but most got to work on the easy cut carving material. They had to draw either a bird, flower, fish, or butterfly from book resources. None of the drawings was traced because the books and the carving materials were not the same size. Students transferred their drawings by rubbing the graphite onto the carving material. They then used sharp gouges to carve away the negative spaces and leave behind the positive. Each carved plate was printed using a brayer to roll the ink onto the plate and then rubbing the paper covered inked plate with a barren. The best carving can be ruined by using too little or too much ink, so the students practiced a few test prints before using the marbleized papers.

Learning Form Through Clay

Many of our families do not have the means to have art supplies in the home and all kids need to have tactile experiences with art supplies. I try to provide at least two 30 min. classes where students just get a chance to interact with the clay with no objectives or expectation. This was done under the radar because although sound art education, I would have failed any formal observation because I didn't interrupt kids by asking questions or requiring a final product. The art room should be a social arena where kids learn to share and help each other with their personal explorations.  

Going Green in the Art Room

Second graders continued their art education with a SMART Notebook presentation about Georgia O'Keeffe and her flower paintings. Some of these students were with me last year so they recognize several artists and their works. Georgia O'Keeffe was new to them.

Now that they have a little watercolor experience with concentric circles, I thought moving into the radial symmetry of large flowers would be a good next step. After looking at her paintings, each student drew a large flower on our newly received whiteboards. It's very easy to use up a lot of paper in the "learning to draw" activities and the whiteboards are a good fit with trying to conserve resources.

 

Here are some of the first graders doing the same activity.

Rain Damage

Arizona schools are not built for rain and our roof is in very bad shape. My room is one that is a focal point for rain damage and parts of my ceiling have leaked and/or fallen several times in the past few years. This summer I purchased several new books that I planned on using as a way to integrate more literacy into my art classes. After this last rain, they turned into mush. I had to rearrange my syllabus till I can replace those specific books. After teaching for so many years, it was an inconvenience, but improv was my life for 5 years and I managed well enough. (See Animoto below)

Using the Crayola Site in the Primary Grades

On Wednesdays, special area teachers at Herrera cover two classes they may or may not normally have so that classroom teachers have the time to attend professional development sessions. This week I had Mrs. Diaz' first grade class and the students got a chance to share laptops to use the Crayola interactive painting and drawing website. The tools are exactly like you could purchase in real life but they do not dry out, break or wear down! In addition, students can have as many pieces of virtual paper as they want! This prepares them for using more sophisticated digital tools later on.

Getting to Know You Jr. High Wordles

As a getting to know you activity for my Jr. High Digital Art elective, I had the students make a list of their favorite things as a WORD document and then copy that into WORDLE. They were supposed to emphasize their name, use the snipping tool, and save to their folders. Additionally, they were to edit the color palette in WORDLE and place the design in their PowerPoint portfolio. (See Animoto below)

Beasties

These creatures were worked on by many classes during the school year and will be on display in my artroom atop my cabinets during the next school year. I really didn't have anything "cute" in the room for the younger kids except on the SMART Board so this year I'm going to cutesy it up while giving all students a chance to have a tactile activity they all need. (See Animoto below)

Another Chapter in the Paper Mache' Beastie Saga

More layers are added by various classes and the beasties become more sturdy. By alternating types of paper, I can tell how far the students get during the period. We have no windows or outdoor access so students can only add one or two layers during the 30 to 40 minutes available. (View Animoto below)

My New Art Room @ Herrera School

This was the first time I had a proper sink in my art room! I had more storage space than I'd ever had before. Ok, the tables were wobbly, but you can't have everything. It was a pretty great way to start my new job at Herrera Elementary. I begged for laptops and I made sure I got some. It was also the first time I had a SMART Board and it was amazing. I always had an overhead projector and at Holy Family I had a computer projector, so this was really state of the art equipment. (see Animoto below)