My first experience with weaving was during student teaching and it was amazing to see a class of usually rowdy 3rd Graders settle down so completely while they were engaged in this activity. It is a tactile project that allows the students to relax and either focus on the work or engage in quiet conversation once they get a rhythm going. Unfortunately, I chose a yarn assortment that I bought from one of our only source catalogs and the yarn had a rough texture. Some of the yarn had multiple strands that did not weave smoothly but the kids didn't complain. For that I was grateful. (See Animoto below)
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)
First and Second Graders are learning about the art element of line. They worked with a SMART Board activity and personal whiteboards to show understanding and their recognition of various types of lines. We have already looked at the types of lines used by artists Miro and Mondrian, so we are building on that knowledge. (See Animoto below)
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.
After simple cartooning exercises using a SMART Board game, I decided that it would be fun to do something inspired by a current holiday movie with really cute elves. As an early literacy connection for very young kids, I had them turn a simple block capital letter into an elf. Later I put them together into holiday greetings so they could see how they could be used.
Second graders applied what they learned about vertical symmetry to the drawing of butterflies. They had played symmetry games on the SMART Board and drew butterflies on whiteboards before they used colored pencils and paper. By that time they were more confident in their freehand drawings and had a sense of mirroring from one side to another.
Second graders read the book ISH by Peter Reynolds and then drew their own vase of flowers. No one was afraid to start because we did it on whiteboards so they knew they could wipe it off and not waste crumpled up paper like Ramon did in the book. The whiteboards are a good way to practice drawing "ishly."
Students in first and second grade got a chance to use watercolor to paint their big flowers similar to Georgia O'Keeffe. We looked at O'Keeffe flowers on the SMART Board then drew large flowers on whiteboards. They had a demo on proper brush care and how to clean the water prior to working with the watercolors.
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.
Due to the generosity of some very kind people, I now have replacements for the books that were damaged and back on track for primary literacy integrated into my art lessons. First Grade students read along with the book, The Dot by Peter Reynolds which I scanned into SMART Notebook so everyone could see. The story supports the idea of art making as well as the art element of shape. There is also a language arts connection when I ask the children to tell me how the main character feels, what might happen next, who the main character is and to identify the setting of the story.
We then looked at Kandinsky's Concentric Circles. The concept of concentric circles will come in handy later in math so it is a great integrated curriculum connection. At this age the kids soak up quite a bit so I throw a lot at them and see what sticks.
As a pre-painting activity, I had the kids draw concentric circles using markers. I would have used individual whiteboards but I did not get mine until Friday. During their next art class, they used watercolors to paint their circles. These are the more successful ones. Many of the children simply need more experience with painting since there is a lot to remember about the amount of water and paint to use, what happens when you lift up your paper vertically, what happens when you spill all the water in your rinse container, etc. The children are also not all at the same developmental level in art and may not yet be capable of doing what others can do. We will do this same activity again during our next class just to get more practice being around and interacting with the materials.
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)
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.
I wanted something that would let the kids work with metallic water colors and a crayon resist. The book "Rainbow Fish" not only dealt with the concept of sharing, but the fish shape is one that is fairly easy for primary students. Students learned to share materials, how not to have a bad hair day with their brushes, when to change out the rinse water, and how to carefully put their wet work on a drying rack. (See Animoto below)
Zentangle seems to be the rage now but art teachers have always taught pattern as an element of design. These first graders watched a bit of a Zentangle lesson, sketched dragonflies from SMART Notebook, and followed along with me as I drew projecting with a document camera. I was not thrilled with the markers we had. Next time we will use bullet tip, not chisel tip. Some of the kids would have done a better job with thin markers but I didn't have any of those either. (See Animoto below)
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)
Students did not have very good scissor skills. Test pushing administrators do not understand how many hours of basic life skills they cut because they want classroom teachers to focus on testing. They did their best but some bears had to be fixed before they could be sewn. Some of the kids showed real patience in their stitching and I was very proud of that. Everyone loved the display! (See Animoto below)
Most third and fourth graders worked very hard to master stitching and applique work. Their bears are coming along nicely and even when stitches have to be redone, students have been taking it in stride. This not only teaches them patience, but also resilience. (See Animoto below)
Fine motor skills are something we embed into the lessons and if we get a fun little object or drawing afterward, that is just icing on the cake. Skills embedded in this lesson were tracing shapes, cutting out shapes, gluing shapes to a stick, sorting colors and shapes of foam pieces, adding embellishments to the stick puppet, and using the stick puppets to interact with classmates. There were lots of directions to follow along with these basic skills and not all children are developmentally capable of all of the skills to complete the task successfully but adding embellishments usually can cover up for that fact. Everyone was successful in their own way and got a chance to practice skills not always taught in the classroom anymore. (See Animoto below)
Students experienced cooperation during this basic sewing unit because they had to help each other while tracing the bear template onto the felt. We did this because pins would have been difficult to force through the pattern. (See Animoto below)
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)
