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)

Using Whiteboards to Learn About Line

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)

Fractions, Percentages, & Degrees, Oh My!

Fourth graders learned something about radial symmetry along with degrees, percentages, and fractions while creating designs that were one quarter of a circle. In an effort to recycle, the circles were CD labels that were of no further use. They also learned how to use a protractor during this 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)

Intro to Paper Mache'

First graders got a chance to see the Chicago Cows, the Milwaukee Beasties, and the Holy Family Bears in their Prezi introduction to paper mache. We will be doing something akin to the beasties in the first and second grade classes.
Stuffing plastic grocery bags with crushed up newspaper was the first step to creating our beasties. Tactile activities are important and paper mache' is a cheap alternative to clay. (See Animoto below)

1st & 2nd Graders Learn About Radial Symmetry

We learned about vertical, horizontal, diagonal, radial symmetry, using pre-glued squares. I had SMART Board activities we did as a group prior to creating the designs. I use a SMART Board presentation as often as possible when introducing a new concept. There are many interactive tools that make it fun for the kids to come to the board. (See Animoto below)

K-2 Students Explore Paper Tape

Students in primary classrooms often come to the art room with no scissor or gluing skills. This is mainly because classroom teachers are discouraged to spend any time on creative projects and encouraged to focus on testing.
Paper tape is a quick and easy first gluing and cutting medium. It frees the kids up from worrying about perfection and gives them a nice way to work together socially through sharing. (See video below)

S

Line and Geometric Shape via Piet Mondrian

Today 1st through 4th graders looked at one of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian's compositions which was primarily black vertical and horizontal lines and primary color blocks. These students didn't have that much experience with rulers so this was also a chance for them to practice ruling straight lines. Students were to make a design similar to the one shown on the SMART Board using markers. We also did a compare/contrast activity on the SMART Board using the interactive vortex to sort organic and geometric shapes. We had previously explored a work from Spanish artist Joan Miró whose work used the same color palette but more curved, thin lines and organic shapes. (See video below)

Shape and Form: The SMART Way!

Students in Mr. Ortega's 1st and 2nd grade class participated during the demo portion of today's lesson about shape and form which was presented on the SMART Board. After that, each of the students went to laptops in the art room where they used the interactive notebook files to test themselves by sorting the forms from the shapes. It does tend to get a bit noisy when learning is going on! (see noisy video 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)