Bus Safety Poster Contest Winner

Congratulaions to LeJon Crawford are in order!

LeJon's poster has won first place for third grade in Liberty County, and is moving on to compete at the state level. Please congratulate LeJon for his work!

Portraits and More

We have spent most of September delving into the the following projects. I have included the basics tenets of the standards or artists that correlate with these projects:

Kindergarten:

1. Fish Collage
• Combines materials in new and different ways.
2. Letter Birds
• Combines materials in new and different ways.
• Added focus on letters and shapes.

First Grade: Self Portrait

• Artwork fills composition space.

• Awareness of shape, pattern, texture.

Second Grade: Family Portrait

• Landscapes with a horizon line

• Social Studies family unit

Third Grade: Portrait in a Landscape

• Landscape- foreground, middle ground, background

• Perspective- Size and Placement

Fourth Grade: Portraits (Matisse, Van Gogh, Britto)

• Landscape, still life, portrait from direct observation
• Mixes and uses color schemes.

•              Solar System science unit and Van Gogh's Starry Night

Fifth Grade: Portraits (Pop Art/ artist Romero Britto)

•              Emphasize proportion/distortion.
•              Uses color schemes in work.

The Art of Ed

I cannot find a way to add this great site to my list of blogs, so I'm adding it here. The resources have been a wonderful resource so far.

Assessment is one of this national board certified educator's strengths!

The link below fits into the Portfolio Assessment category.

Use Flickr to Create Digital Portfolios in Minutes | The Art of Ed

Blog Perspective

I am beginning my sixth year as an art teacher at Button Gwinnett, following almost a decade as a Kindergarten teacher. One of my greatest strengths is my knowledge of the World of Art. I have so much that I want to impart to my students that I struggle to keep a balance between what can be taught and what is age and standard appropriate. I used to use the teacher's edition of our art textbooks as a bible of sorts, and get frustrated when students were less than successful in a lesson. I learned fairly early that the books are more of a guide, and that differentiation is essential. 

Art teachers don't have peers readily available at school to bounce ideas off of like grade level teachers do. Sometimes I miss the opportunity to collaborate with others with the same curriculum. I am finding that the blogs of other educators allow me some of that perspective. Those blogs can be a wonderful resource. 

I'm adding a list of blogs that I really like today. Teachers and interested parents might find these useful as well.

deepspacesparkle
This site has wonderful lesson plans and tips, some of which can be purchased as PDF's. Wonderful blog!

Early In the Art Zone



Here are some August pictures of the Art Zone as it takes shape.I will add more pictures of students once I have permission to do so.



Our hairy border is constructed of dozens of paper sculptures constructed by our second grade students.









 





Kindergarten Self Portrait

 

 

 



 

 

View From My Corner

 



Making Sketchbooks: Simplified

This poster provides students with a summary of what our standards wish them to learn.

One of the visual arts standards established in 2009 in Georgia mandates a need for all third, fourth, and fifth grade students maintain a sketchbook. In a time when budgets are so tight that many school systems struggle to keep the arts funded, spending a minimum of three dollars per sketchbook per child adds up quickly!

• I've punched holes into 4 reams of 9"x12" of sulphite drawing paper for my students' journals. I am allotting 10 pages to each of my 3-5 graders.
• They are getting 5 pages of notebook paper as well.
•  My fifth graders are getting 5 pages of graph paper to be used in an upcoming perspective lesson.

I've learned much from last year's endeavor. We tried to use cereal boxes and painted paper to make our own book covers. Many were successful, yet it was very costly as far as time and space go. Copious amounts of glue left the Art room very smelly for most of August.

This year we are skipping the glue and cardboard for this project. I hope to focus on the journaling and art on the pages within our books instead.



Teacher Demo with Rubric



Our first project was focused on trying different painting techniques on 12"x18" paper. This was cut in half once dry, and students are creating their book covers with these.

Work of Fifth Grade Boy

Sample Journal Covers
Student and Teacher Created

Next week we will begin using these journals in class as we continue with new standards. I might eventually allow students to take these with them for independent use. We will keep the journals in the Art room for now.

Adding Sketchbooks to the Mix

      As an individual, I've always been great at starting a project- such as blogging- then watching it get lost in the shuffle of life. Now the new Georgia Performance Standards for Fine Arts are listing sketchbooks as something that all Art students must have and use from the third grade on. These standards state that students should begin reflecting on their art-related experiences as early as Kindergarten.
      My first reaction upon reading this was to panic a little bit. Now that I've had some time to reflect, and research art journaling for kids, I am beginning to believe that this could be a great thing!

1. Here's a way of documenting that the students hear the standards, essential questions, principles of design, and elements of art that I endeavor to teach them in a brief 40-45 minutes per week.
2. Here's the impetus that I need to keep the current standards posted where students can reference them.
3. Here's a form of documentation that seems much more manageable than keeping up with permission slips, uploading photos of student work. (I still love http://www.artsonia.com/ , but have yet to wrap my brain around the time management aspect of such an endeavor.)
4. This is a perfect excuse to begin developing myself as an artist myself. It only seems fair to me that I have an art journal if I want my students to journal about art. That seems to be a huge undertaking with a toddler at home, yet just makes sense as an art teacher. 

Once I get my third through fifth graders to bring their "source books" (some teachers call them journals) to art each week, I'll have to get them into the habit of using them properly. I have to figure out how to do this myself! I'm also going to endeavor to blog about the process!