I Like to Move It, Move It!

Students pose for each other in order to practice gesture drawing. Students need to work on human proportion or they will stagnate at a stick figure/lack of movement stage in their drawings. This playful approach allows the natural growth of this skill. (See Animoto below)

First Graders Figure Drawing

I can't emphasize this enough, but children need concrete instruction in figure drawing or they will eventually struggle and give up drawing people. They need to understand the relationship of body parts and their proper proportion. They won't master this but it will give them a sense of what is correct when they see it. (See Animoto below)

Calligraphy: An Introduction to Beautiful Writing

There is a lot of debate about teaching cursive writing because of the use of computers. I do not want to see writing skills such as cursive and calligraphy be lost just because we use computers. Lettering is an important hand skill and I loved introducing it to students. Oddly, female students skewed towards Italic with its rounded strokes and the males skewed towards Old English with it's boxy strokes. (See slideshow below)

Calligraphy Stack

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Getting to Know You Prezi

Students in the Digital/Studio Art Electives will use Prezi to create a Get to Know Me presentation where they will share their favorite things, goals, etc. This is part of the community building we will be doing. Today was our first day and I shared my 30 Things About Me presentation with them so they could also get to know me as a person. I look forward to really getting to know my students and create an environment where they can learn and explore their own creativity along with technical skills. Ms. Strehlow Prezi  (See Prezi below)

New Gimp Assignment for Digital Art Class

How2 fixurpix2

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Fourth Grade One Point Perspective Designs

3rd and 4th graders got a taste of 1 point perspective and learned about 90 degree angles, using a 30/60/90 triangle as a checking tool, and to create parallel lines with a grid ruler on graph paper. Some of the 3rd graders found it challenging enough just to hold down a ruler and construct straight lines while a few sailed through the entire concept. This is the kind of thing that just takes some more practice till they "get it." Here are some of the 4th graders and their finished designs. (See Animoto below)

Fiber Arts: Needlework Basics

Some of the 5th and 6th graders chose to work on embroidery samplers and it has been fun to revisit some of the basic stitches with them such as the chain stitch and cross stitch. (See Animoto below)

Painting Techniques Day One and Two

Kindergarten through 4th grade students are learning how to handle different types of brushes and experiment with different painting techniques. We began with the care of watercolor brushes; learning how to clean them and prevent paint contamination. We will do several such explorations before actually trying to paint something. (See Animotos below)

Kindergarten Paper Weaving

Introducing the concept of weaving which used to be a classroom activity since teachers are discouraged from taking time from a focus on testing. I know many primary teachers who used to like to teach weaving geared towards holidays. Holiday crafts are also discouraged. (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)