The Paper House Lesson

Mrs. Snead has an example of a paper house she made at a workshop displayed in the classroom, I noticed right away that students always thought it was neat and wanted to know how to make it. Because of the high student interest I knew I wanted to try this lesson with a class so Mrs. Snead showed me the general procedures for cutting and folding the paper.

I chose to work with a smaller 5th grade class (one of my favorite classes!), it was sort of an experiment since the lesson had never been done before, it involved geometry and math and it took us about 3 classes to put together the house.

This class really impressed me, once they had the understanding for basic construction of the house and additions, they really took it to the next step adding pools, trees, patios, driveways, etc. What I liked even more was that they were helping each other out, it was like we were all teachers that day. It was a very hands on, cooperative learning experience for everyone. For the lawn, students used tissue paper to create grass and shrubbery.

During this project was also when I had 'the teacher moment', something they told us about at the beginning of internship that makes it all feel worth it, outweighs the bad days, and builds your confidence and desire to teach. One of the students said it was the most fun and best project he ever did, coming from a 5th grader who has been making art with Mrs. Snead really meant something to me. In general the whole class had fun while thinking critically and creatively and I could tell they were proud of the final product. That is one of my favorite parts about teaching, when students are proud of what they learned.

5th grade photography

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with three 5th grade classes doing a photography lesson. The kids were all very excited about the project.

For the lesson we focused on framing and using the camera as an artist. Students were to think about what they wanted to say about their subject. We also discussed the how the effects of lighting, shadows, and perspective can influence the visual message. We also discussed some of the features on the camera that can effect the visual message, such as shooting or printing the photos in black and white, antique, or sepia.

With one class I introduced the students to the artist Andy Goldsworthy, this class was to take photos inspired by his work by altering some sort of environment.

The other two classes we worked on doing portraits.

I pulled some images from the cameras done by the students focusing on Goldsworthy, as much as I would like to share the portraits, I think its best not to post photos of students onto the blog. I did however stumble upon many other interesting pictures on the memory cards the students took that may not have anything to do with the required assignment, however I think they qualify as interesting photography. I loved looking through all the pictures to see what students were interested in taking pictures of and to see what sort of artistic decisions they were making.

Doing the photography lesson was one of my goals for the internship, I think its really great that Mrs. Snead has brought these wonderful resources into the art classroom through the use of grants, not all schools are so lucky to have a class set of cameras and printers. Im glad I got to take advantage of this and that Mrs. Snead was willing to let me work with them.

More Soap!

Here are some soap sculptures that I think turned out great!

Silhouette Project

So, I am a little behind on updating the blog with some of the exciting projects going on in the art room. I have been putting together my portfolio and tying up all my loose ends at the internship, which has been much more time consuming then I expected.

However with all this going on, we have been having some great projects coming out of the art room!

With the 3rd graders I had been working on a silhouette project. The project required students to think about contour lines on the edges of objects to show detail. Since we were doing silhouettes, we were using black paper, so students couldn't use line or value for interior detail, instead they had to focus on cutting shapes out of the black paper with detail.

They were to first paint the background in watercolor, I decided to use warm colors for a sunset kind of feeling because dusk is when the lightening is best for silhouettes. I showed one class my example of a cityscape with a bridge and gave them free range to do some sort of landscape silhouette, with the other classes I narrowed the subject matter to palm trees.

The project was really fun and most students were successful, they really had to think about craftsmanship when cutting and gluing the black shapes onto the watercolored paper to create the scene.

Hopefully tomorrow I can make some more posts on some other projects we have been doing like the 5th grade photography, the clay slab house project, and some of the kindergarten black line paintings.

Library Show is One Of The BEST!!!

Tina and I have just returned from helping to set up the Annual Elementary Library Art Show at the Pablo Branch Library. As I stated in the post, below, it is always a difficult decision to choose the five 2-D pieces from so many excellent works of art by our students. We are lucky, however, with the 3-D work, as the Pablo Branch Library always makes a case available for our pieces. Chets Creek was able to get about 30 pieces of 3-D work into the show this year. What a wonderful representation of our young artists.

The whole show is quite impressive, at least at our branch. There are about seven schools in our area, represented at this Library. I am quite sure the at the 14 other Library Branches, the show is just as strong. If you live near the Pablo Branch, or any other participating Library, make sure to swing in and take a look at our Duval County Elementary Artwork. Then let me know what you think!!!!!! We have a very strong program as evidenced by the masterpieces on display.

Cultural Arts Week Celebration Almost Here

The dates are April 20th through the 24th for this year's Cultural Arts Celebration. We have a week of presentations and activities that will keep us saturated in the Arts and the excitement that they stir up. Each morning we will have a different event; A Violenist, A magician, The Battersby Duo, Fletcher Middle School Band, and Carribbean Sound Steel Band. During the evenings of the 20th, 21st, and 23rd, we will have student art shows on display where parents can purchase the work already matted and framed, ready for hanging. Of Course, on Friday Night, we will have our huge ARTS EXTRAVAGANZA, with many visiting artists, hands on activites, student art exhibits, PTA basket auction, and food and fun! This will run from 6:00 to 9:00 and all our families and friends are invited. Make sure to put these wonderful events on your calendar. We look forward to seeing you ALL there!

This Pics have been Picked!

It is the best of times. It is the worst of times.......Exciting as it is to get student artwork out in the community, it is one of the hardest things I have to do as an art teacher. The Annual Elementary Library Show is a wonderful venue to expose our students talents. Several Public Libraries display elementary artwork for about two weeks in the spring, showcasing some of the best works from each school. Why is it the worst of times? Because we are only allowed to submit 5 pieces of 2-D work. FIVE! How can I only choose 5 from 50 to 60 exceptional works of art by our students???? It is truly a vexing time for me, because the choices are impossible! But, after many excrutiating decisions, I have finally narrowed down to THE FIVE (one I am having trouble uploading....will try again so come back and visit).



Congratulations to all these artists!

In addition to these fabulous works, about 30 pieces of 3-D work was submitted to this show. Hopefully, they will all get in, but if not, they will be submitted to The Best In Elementary Exhibit.

Try to go by the Pablo Branch Library and see these pieces on display. The show will be installed on March 27th and should remain up for about 2 weeks.

Good Clean Fun

I had the opportunity to work with a few 4th grade classes making soap sculptures. This is probably one of my all time favorite lessons so far because they students get really into the project, and although the soap shavings get everywhere, the whole art room smells so clean and soapy!

I am waiting on the other two classes to finish their soap sculptures, but here are some images from the class that did complete the project.

We talked about abstract art, what makes something abstract and I showed them some examples of abstract sculpture. I also had the students identify positive and negative space. The students then drew out a plan that was to include at least one area of negative space, and they were to alter the soap to release an abstract form.

The project took patience, and often times the soap can break if students rush, so in those instances we had to really think creatively about either changing our plan or using some toothpicks to hold it together in a unique way.

The Sea Creatures

The 5th graders have been painting a lot of their clay projects which were sea creatures. Some classes are still waiting to paint theirs or need to finish up, but heres a sneak peak at some of the sea turtles and orcas. I am sure once the projects are complete Mrs. Snead will take a bunch more photos and post them because they are all turning out so well!

Proud of my Pointillists

I taught a lesson on pointillism to a 4th grade class for their Kids Art Fair project. I had the class 3 days in a row, which is rare, so I decided to start the project with them since it was going to be time consuming.

I showed the class a picture of Seurat's famous La Grande Jatte, and talked about the technique he used. The students then practiced drawing a still life with a vase and something overlapping the vase such as fruit or a cup. The students were to use the pointillism technique for the vase, however it was not required for the rest of the picture.

There were two students who just absolutely blew me away with their work. It was a difficult project that took patience, but I feel it is always worth it when students exceed your expectations. Take a look, I just cant believe these came from 4th graders! They are stunning!

3rd Grade Cartographers

This has been one of my favorite lessons to teach, I had some 3rd grade classes making maps in the art room. Mrs. Snead told me the students start learning about maps in 3rd grade, so I developed a lesson to reinforce what they learned.

I put together a PowerPoint to show the students different types of maps. The main focus of the lesson was what were the 3 things all maps should have. We discussed how maps needed a compass rose to tell us which direction to hold the map or to navigate the land. Maps needed a legend or map key so we could identify symbols or land features on the map. Finally, the maps had to include a map scale so we could measure distance.

I showed them weather maps and oceanography maps. I introduced vocabulary words such as cartography and we also discussed topographical maps and using contour lines. The students were to create an 'uncharted' island map that included the 3 things we discussed. The students were encouraged to name their island and were given the freedom to come up with some creative ideas for their maps, as long we were able to identify what they had drawn using the legend.

We had some really great islands, some students made islands they had actually been to such as Hawaii, others made candy island with chocolate rivers and peppermint beaches, and I had one interesting 'Kitty Island' with litter box beaches and furry hills.

All in all the maps turned out great, we kind of aged them by crumpling the maps and putting a watered down brown tempera wash over them. I had a great time teaching this lesson partly because of my interest in earth science and geography, I love being able to connect across disciplines to reinforce learning, its one of my favorite things about art, we can connect it to what students are learning in other classes.

Koi Ponds

This lesson was one of the very first lessons I ever did in my pre-internship experiences. I really liked it and decided to try the lesson with 2nd grade.

The students were to make pond scenes, we discussed using warm and cool colors. They were to blend cool colors to create the water and then to create contrast we were to use warm colors on the koi fish.

I shared with the students some interesting facts about koi fish, for instance they can live for 30-40 years, and are symbols in Japanese culture for luck, love, friendship, and masculinity, as well as being known as the warrior fish and the fish of nobility.

Koi fish are usually a mix of orange, yellow, red, white, cream, and sometimes gold and blue. They can also have black spots on them. The students were really interested when I showed them a visual with all the different types of koi fish, they are categorized by color and scale pattern, the diagram included Japanese symbols for the type koi.

This project is really great because there are so many things you can talk about, we discussed what made the project 3-d because the torn strips bulge so the project is not flat. Finally we also discussed why the project is considered to be a mixed media project. I explained how this refers to what materials we use, in order to create the koi pond scenese we used paper, glue, crayons, watercolor paint, and tissue paper.

Another Candle

Last year, a committee of teachers, parents, and staff, got together to plan a HUGE birthday party for Chets Creek's 10th birthday. It was quite a week long bash of birthday festivities. One idea, was to paint a large wooden candle for each year, depicting the theme for that year. (1-Building a 21st Century Community of Learners and Leaders, 2-Team up for Success, 3- Aim High, Take Flight, 4 - Hitch Your Wagon to A Rising Star, 5 - Puzzle Paradise, 6 - To Infinity and Beyond, 7 - Mission Possible, 8 -Lights, Camera, Action, 9 - Blazing the Trail 10-The Race is On, 11- The Magic Kingdom, Dreams Begin Here) Here, you see the first 11 (actually 10 1/2) candles with the various themes. These were painted by several people including, Kristy Sappington, Karen Willett, Haley Spooner, Hillery Theverage, Ian Forrester and myself. Believe me, I was ever so grateful to have such a wonderful group of artists to help with this undertaking. It was really fun to see candles ALL OVER THE ARTROOM being worked on in so many different styles. With oldies music in the background.....it was a real painting party. And they ALL turned out fantastic!!!! Below, is the new addition for this year..."Around the World in 180 Days." Not only does it include various forms of transportation, but features our new Mascot, Champion Chet, in the pilot's seat. Now, where it will go......I don't know. But it will mark another wonderful year at Chets Creek Elementary!

THE WALL IS UP!!!!

Earlier you read about all our old 5th graders (I say old like they have been gone forever), that are now 6th graders, returning to paint their "High 5" tiles for our wall. Well, now all the tiles are done and up on the wall, thanks to our wonderful volunteer, James Boyd. All 151 tiles have been adhered to the Dining Room wall and are looking good for our upcoming HIGH 5 Banquet, where the new section of the wall will be officially unvailed.

Here is our new section. Our Goal is to line the Dining Room walls with these beautifully glazed tiles as, not only an enhancement to the yellow walls, but a motivation to our students to strive for the honor of having their handprint, forever displayed, for all future Chets Creek students to enjoy. It is interesting that each year, the numbers of students receiving the "5" on Math, Reading and/or Science, has grown. Maybe the wall is motivating more than we think!! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

NOW WE ARE COOKIN' WITH GAS!

Meaning, of course, that things are really cooking in the art lab......with electricity.......specifically the clay pieces. We have had several of our 4th and 5th grade classes finish up their clay projects, using paint and mod podge. They are really turning out beautifully.

Above you will see 4th grade clay plaques, with open negative spaces, where the students have woven with wire and beads. Below, there are swimming sharks and jumping dolphins, completed by our 5th graders.

Our 4th graders have also had some fun designing their own form of storyteller after being motivated by the Pueble Storytellers that they observed. Here you even see and alien storyteller, passing down a story to the little alien children. Also as woman telling her cats a story. This, of course, lined up with telling a narative, which some of them had for the FCAT writes. Maybe they could actually imaging the story that these storytellers are telling. Hmmmmm.....

There is still a lot more to come as the students are finishing up with paint. The seahorses and Marlins that were shown in an earlier post, are getting ready to be finished. Stay tuned to see what comes out next from the CCE ART LAB!

Kindergarten Owls

I had my kindergarten class last week paint owls. We practiced several weeks ago on practice paper and then we painted them on the blue paper last week.



I am really pleased with how the owls turned out. We talked about the different types of shapes we use to make the body, ovals, circles, triangles, and skinny ovals. We also talked about patterns in order to do the feathers of the owls. Finally, we discussed overlapping, the branch was to be in front of the tail and the claws were to be on top of the branch.

We also painted leaves onto the branches and used oil pastel to outline and add fine details.

Clay Marlins

The next 5th grade class I worked with made marlins out of clay. These also turned out great! The most difficult part was probably the nose/snout of the marlin, if it got to thin it would probably break.

The students did a very good job scoring and slipping the clay together and I also think as a whole their craftsmanship and attention to fine detail was above average, there are a lot of great looking marlins!

I will see this class today and we will make bases to hold up the marlins. Mrs. Snead had a neat idea last week that 'mounting' our trophy fish on a wood placque would be kinda fun for a base, but we just didnt have an opportunity to try it out. We will make the base out of clay, but perhaps we can still toy with the idea of placques later on.

Clay Seahorses

All of the 5th grade classes have been working with clay, each class Mrs. Snead was doing a different sea creature to keep things interesting and to help keep the classes separated.

I took over all the classes this week and had to step up to the plate in working with clay. I thought doing a seahorse would be a neat idea so both Mrs. Snead and I got to work in trying to figure out the best way to make a seahorse out of clay.

I knew it would be challenging and I am glad the class I got to work with was small so I was able to get around to everyone quicker that needed help. As challenging as making the seahorse was, the 5th grade class really stepped up to the plate and their pieces turned out great! I was really impressed with how most of them turned out.

It was difficult because we created the body using a slab technique, and we had to continue to work with the clay in our hands so it wouldn't become flat. The body of a seahorse also is covered with a spine like texture that required a lot of skill to mimic in clay. We also created bases to hold up the seahorses, which was also a more challenging style base because the seahorse is kind of thin, but tall. Luckily through the whole process Mrs. Snead was right there to help both me and the students out if we needed it. We did perform a few "surgeries" on seahorses that broke, but its very easy to reattach clay while its still wet by simply scoring and slipping the pieces together.

I am really pleased with how the seahorses turned out and very proud of the students and myself!

6th Graders Come "HOME" to Glaze "High 5" tiles

How fun it was to see all these students who came in to paint their High 5 tiles. With FCAT scores coming in AFTER school was out for the summer, these students did not get to design their tile until this year, when they are 6th graders. I am so glad we were able to get them in, because seeing your tile on the wall is much more fun if you made it yourself. I would have hated that they would have missed designing their very last art project at Chets Creek.

What is our High 5 tile about? At Chets Creek, any student who makes a 5 on the FCAT gets to decorate and glaze a 6"x6" tile. It then gets fired and put up on our HIGH 5 tile wall, that is worming its way around our dining room. That way, they can come back later on and always be able to find their tile. It really is a cool thing AND it really adds beauty to our dining room.

What was really fun was hearing these 6th graders chat about what was going on with them in Middle School. Oh, has the drama has already begun.......funny! They thought is was fun coming back to Chets Creek as they were constantly asking of their old (well...not really so old) teachers were still here. You'd think they had been gone for years. They had a blast seeing each other again and catching up, as many are attending different Middle Schools. Even the parents, who were hanging around, were jumping into the conversation, laughing, and teasing. Some were even helping to paint their child's tile. Others were offering advice as to how they should be painted. Little siblings (at least those not in strollers) were coloring up a storm and sharing their artwork. It was, to say the least, lively in the art lab these two nights. It all made staying after school, late, a really fun experience!

I Have Learned Something New!

I was challenged by my principal, Susan Phillips, to create a wordle. I was clueless. So I sought out the help of our wonderful tech person, Melanie Holtsman, to help me out.

Wordles! Sounds funny, looks cool. And all ART! Taking words and creating a cloud, where the words you use most often are the biggest. This is a great way to see what words you use A LOT. This can be quite telling about the focus of your written word.

When I look at mine, I at least see that I talk mostly about ART and STUDENTS, which is good as that is the focus of my blog. Fun seems to be a decent size as well, that's good too.

What do you see in my wordle??????

I tag Hallie Spooner, Terri Woodlief, Mary MacKoul, and Betsy McCall to try this out!

Intern Update

So things have been going pretty well with the internship so far, this coming week will be the first week I fully take over all the grade levels (I’ve been picking up 2 grade levels each week). I am excited and nervous; the most difficult thing so far has been adjusting/wrapping my brain around Mrs. Snead’s class schedule.

I have been doing a lot of water coloring with the kids to help them finish up their Kids Art Fair projects. I have also really enjoyed helping the 5th graders work with clay. On Monday I am going to start a clay project with a class, we are going to attempt to make seahorses. I know it will be a challenging task, but I think we can do it. I have also had the chance to teach my ‘spacescape’ lesson again, which gave me the opportunity to try a different approach after reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the first run through. I was really pleased how excited the students were about the subject matter of outer space.

I also had my first observation by my supervisor last week. She came in and observed me teach water coloring to Mrs. Ossi’s class. They were wonderful and my supervisor said she was very impressed and that I am performing right on target, which is great news and certainly a confidence builder.

The first grade sleepover on Friday was also really fun to be a part of, I love how spirited the school is, and coming into school in pj’s was fun. In the art room we had the first graders making book covers, it was great to see so many parents and teachers getting involved. I really do feel so lucky be at Chet’s for my internship.