Artist~Teacher... tishalou

Our guidance councelor put together a great program to celebrate our diverse heritage. Each of the specialists teachers taught special lessons that week to tie everything together. Here is a little preview of what went on in the art room...
Here is the bulletin board I put together to show off my student's hard work.

Kindergarten traveled to Japan to design kimonos - we read Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegaki.
1st grade made Australian Aboriginal Dot Paintings after reading Animal Dreaming by Paul Morin.
2nd grade went to China and created traditional brush paintings.
3rd grade made the Egyptian profiles as discussed in an earlier post.
4th grade made Day of the Dead skulls out of wire after watching this great video. It is actually a British Airways Ad but I love it - and the fact that it is in Spanish and they have to read the subtitles is a bonus!

I just finished up a lesson with 2nd grade that I have been teaching for a couple years now. I think it started out as a Fairfax County lesson and I have been editing and adding to it. First we start out by looking at Grant Wood's American Gothic.

I have set up a Flikr image that has everything I want to discuss and links to other facts...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15230787@N06/5090280059/ just roll over the image to see them all.

We have fun looking at and discussing parodies of the painting. This can bring up some interesting conversations. The pitchfork brings some great responses. Last year I asked what it was used for and someone said - "for an angry mob" this year one of my quiet little blond girls said: "to kill people."

Next students have to draw themselves with a friend or family member. One person has to overlap the other and there must be clues in the background that give hints to what the people are doing.

As students begin to finish I give them a worksheet that they have to write about what is going on in their picture. Then they will switch with a partner and they must write about the other person's artwork. I stress that they are not to try to guess what that person was drawing - they are to bring their own memories and experiences to the drawing and write about what the drawing reminds them of or what memory it brings up for them.

Students sharing what they wrote about each other's drawings.

The worksheet is from the book Talking About Student Art by Terry Barrett it is in the Davis Publications' Art Education in Practice Series which my professors used in Grad school. A lot of great stuff in them!

Love the pool details in the background.




priceless!



Illuminated Letters

I did this lesson last year with much success in a square format. I blogged about it here. So this year the main difference was the Original Works 8 x 10.5 size. I had them make a border the width of the ruler. We used regular colored pencils and metallic paint. The metallic looks a little odd in the final reproductions on the magnets (which is probably why they suggest no metallics. :-)
Some really go the idea of shading with the pencils - pressing down hard in some areas and not so in others. I really emphasize the idea of the vine wrapping around the letter and show them how to make it look like it is really wrapping and not like a striped barber pole.
The B is my son's - He did a great job for being Mr. I Hate Art (which he says just to get to me). He's got it whether he wants it or not!

 I wish we had finished with the sharpies - but we ran out of time!

Y Tree with a Family Story

We talk about the four seasons and what a tree looks like in each of those seasons. We talk about the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees. (Virginia Standards of Learning for first grade Science 1.4 Life Processes).

Next class they come in to complete their tree stories. I remind them to fill in all the peek-a-boo spots so their coloring is nice and solid. For the final touch we use white to make clouds in the sky. Then they pick from several colors to paint their sky with watercolor. Even though they did it last year on their dream houses, they still think it is magic when their clouds appear in the sky.

Last year's Y Trees on Artsonia