What is Happening in Art? Let the School Know!

Next year I plan to share with the school what is going on in my classroom via a bulletin board outside the art room. At this year's NAEA conference I attended a workshop on promoting my program to my school. Art teachers are loners and hermits. We stay nice and quiet in our little rooms cleaning brushes and pugging clay. We need to let the school know what we are up to. We need to spell it out for them. I plan to create a bulletin board using butcher paper and share what lessons we are doing, what multicultural and interdisciplinary connections are being made, contest info, and articles that promote art education. I'm hoping that by doing this I will excite students, inform my peers and administration, and catch the eyes of parents who may lend a helping hand in the future.

Fishbowl Multimedia Project

Art Lesson
Fishbowl Painting
Grade 2

Resources: teacher exemplar

Materials:11”x14” fishbowl templates, pencils, crayons, watercolor paints, watercolor brushes, and buckets for water.

Objectives: Student Will:
-create an underwater composition.
-choose the elements that will go into his/her fishbowl.
-draw various sealife.
-create a wax resist painting.

Procedure:
Day 1: Student will view teacher’s exemplar and listen to the steps of the lesson. Student will draw in pencil the sea creatures and elements of his underwater composition as he chooses from a demonstration made by the teacher on the whiteboard. Student will begin coloring his fishbowl.
Day 2: Students will review the teacher’s exemplar and steps of the lesson. Student will finish coloring his underwater scene in crayon. Student will paint his fishbowl with watercolor paints. Student will participate in a gallery walk to assess the finish products of his peers.

Assessment: Rubric

Chinese Dragon Mask Lesson Plan

Art Lesson
Chinese Dragon Mask
Grades 2-4

Resources: teacher exemplar

Materials: cut construction paper strips, markers, paper plates, craft sticks, glue, stapler, scissors, staples, and construction paper.

Objectives: Student Will:
-create a Chinese dragon mask.
-collage papers to create a 3-d composition.
-choose a color scheme.
-learn about Chinese culture.

Procedure:
Day 1: Student will choose his/her pre- cut construction paper strips, and fan fold strips for added effect. Student will glue paper strips around the edges of the front of one plate. Student will glue the second paper plate to the first plate with the craft stick, handle in between. Teacher will staple for reinforcement. Student will draw and cut out "ruffly" part of head (to hide the plate) and glue to back of paper plates which are stuck together. Student will color dragon face coloring sheet with bright colored markers. He will cut out and glue to center of back of paper plates, on top of "ruffly" part. Student may add horns or bells or noise makers to the dragon puppet.

Alternative: Students glue face, strips, and “ruffly” part of the head to a sheet of construction paper as a collage composition.

Assessment: Rubric

Kandinsky for Kindergarten

My kindergarten students had so much fun with this project! I showed them a powerpoint on Kandinsky and Abstract Art that was geared for their age group. Then we picked out our four favorite colors of crayons to draw geometric shapes, imaginary shapes, overlapping shapes, and various types of lines. Afterwards I did a demo on watercolors and how to keep them shear and bright. They painted and had a great time!

Just a Friendly Reminder...

As art teachers from time to time we forget what inspired us to teach, so remember to create your own art too.

Winter Self-Portraits

4th and 5th grade students created self-portraits using pencil, mirrors, and 11"x17" white paper. They drew a hat and sweater to wear, colored themselves with oil pastel, and cut out their self-portrait. They glued it onto a blue sheet of paper and added snow flakes around themselves. I really like that this lesson teaches drawing skills and is a great holiday lesson without touching upon any holiday in particular.

Rut

I've been teaching at the same school for four years now and found myself desperately needing to change it up.

Some things I did to start getting out of my rut:

*purchased materials I've wanted to use, but never did.
*got some new lesson books
*redecorated the art room (the kids are real excited about that one)
*started blogging again