A Walk on the Wild Side!

We have been having lots of fun DISCOVERING in the CSES art room.  That is because all of the k-5 unit plans were centered around the big idea of Discovery.  In this unit, I provided students with "mustard day" lessons where they had the opportunity to discover various art mediums and art processes through experimentation and exploration.  Since we are all new to each other, it was great to start off the year with the understanding that it is perfectly great to experiment, make happy mistakes, and get a little (alright maybe a lot...) messy because that is how we DISCOVER new things and learn.  My favorite Chinese proverb is, "Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand".  I truly believe that all of the CSES students gained a lot of understanding of the art making process and what it is to be an artist during this unit.  

Below are some images of the VERY fun art making that took place during our Discovery unit. :)

Discovery of color theory and the oil pastel and watercolor technique

I love these K-1 drawings... no rules just pure expression!

:)

Second through fifth grades discovery various painting application tools and textures that can be created by using them alone and together. 

In action!

Loved this awesome texture created by one student using a mix 

of all the application tools.

Students also learned a lot about color theory here.  What colors mix well together... which ones make mud when mixed... and which look great together when just laying next to one another (complimentary colors).

The next lesson was focused on a fun abstract expressionist artist named

  Jackson Pollock.  We discovered him and his unique artistic process through using with Smart Board with a cool website called JacksonPollock.org.  Students could create a collaborative "drip painting" like Pollock did using their finger tips.  Every student in the class walked past the Smart Board, leaving their mark of their movement... just like Pollock did as he walked over his canvases!  SO NEAT! 

Then we discovered ways to create our own Pollock-like abstract paintings using some very odd materials... marbles and forks!

Kindergarteners discovered textures through finger painting and texture stamps.  We had some great textures created here!!

Then on to our printmaking discoveries...

K-1 explored printmaking through creating bubble wrap prints! I need to get an image of the prints created with these... but here are some of them prepping the "printing plate"!

Second and third grades created styrofoam printing plates and fourth and fifth grades carved linoleum printing plates!

Today was our last "Discovery" unit day and when I told students this they all said "Oh man!" with disappointment.  We all loved the freedom of experimenting with materials and making many new discoveries along the way! Of course I explained that Discovery is a theme that will go on throughout the entire year together because we will constantly be learning new techniques with new art processes and new art mediums as we create large artworks that spanned over a few weeks time of art making.  But I think the students and I both agree that Discovery sure was the perfect big idea to start off a wonderful school year together in the CSES art room!

Now on to the new big idea... keep tuning in to find out what it is! ;)

A Year of NEW!

I am so ready!!

Every year I look forward to setting up my art room.  New art supplies, new themes, new unit plans, the list goes on and on! This year is even more new because I have moved into a new to me classroom at a new school where I will teach new students and build great relationships with new families and colleagues.  New is so exciting!  While setting up my room, my excitement grew bigger and bigger and I began to really feel at home in my new environment.  

The first big project I tackled was the hallway bulletins.  I am in charge of the 6 huge bulletin boards in the main hallway right outside of my room.  I am so happy with what I came up with for this year.  I plan to hang artwork right over top of the paint spills which makes them even more awesome!  I found out after I was done with the bulletins that our school mascot is a dolphin named Splash... how fitting!? :) 

I also have this large horizontal bulletin on the other side of my door in the main hallway.  I decided to make this my artist spotlight bulletin.  My thought was why keep the artist of the month themed bulletin inside your room when you can share art smarts with everyone who passes by?  

Since I am the new art teacher and I know students and parents may be wondering more about me so I decided to make the first artist spotlight on myself.  This way I can briefly share images of my own artwork and facts about me as an artist and art teacher.  I will only keep this up until Back To School night to introduce myself and then get focused on the famous artists! ;)

What art teacher wouldn't love this room?  I am extremely grateful to have huge windows with a lot of natural light, a great view of the school garden, tons of storage and counter space, lots of sinks... and I can't forget a SMART BOARD! This is what I will get to walk into every morning... I love it!  I have a total of 8 tables in this classroom and I have them labeled by color and in order of a color wheel.  We have primaries and secondaries and the center table is gray.  One table, the one with the multiple colored mobile hanging above it, is my demonstration table.  Thats right!  I get to have one whole table designated to demonstration and supply distribution... yay!!

Here is the opposite side of the room where I have the smart board and a chalkboard easel where I plan to put the magnetized words from the word wall and other instructional posters.

Here is an image of the word wall.  It is magnetic so it lends itself to being interactive.  I love this word wall!  

  

I don't have classroom "rules" really but I do have these expectations that help keep our art classroom community running smoothly.  We will go over these the first class and I will refer to them when necessary throughout the year.  I got this idea from the beloved Pinterest here.

Another great Pinterest idea is this color coded art job display.  The jobs are adhered through velcro so I can change them up if/when necessary.  I had some variation of this last year and I changed them every week.  I think it made the jobs confusing for some students so I am going to try not changing them very much and see how that goes.  This way students can become experts on their job and feel pride in being responsible for that specific task.  I will keep you posted on how this works.

Here is my "I CAN" statement display.  Each picture frame has a specific grade level associated with it and I can use the dry erase marker to write their I can statement for that lesson.  Students can reference this as they come in to figure out what they should be able to do by the end of the lesson that day.  This is another inspiration from a general education classroom teacher on Pinterest.  

Here is the front of the classroom where I have a large dry erase board, storage, and a stationary island where I have my cutting board and self-healing cutting mat.  The island was scratched up and the color of it did not go with the decor so I covered it with black bulletin board paper and my favorite quote from Pablo Picasso.  I plan to pin student artwork here when students bring me little surprises of drawings they have done at home.  These surprises always make my heart sing!

Behind the island I have a bookshelf with books that students can look at if they finish early or that I can reference during lessons.  I also have my Mustard and Ketchup day magnets that I can post whenever we have a "Mustard" (must finish) day or a "Ketchup" (catch up) day in art.  A new addition is my "where does my art go" poster that I got from this pin that helps students know where to put their work at the end of class.  The "Draw Light Until You've Got It Right " visual is another great addition this year.  I have always said it to students but after seeing this pin on Pinterest the lightbulb went off... why not make it a visual reminder all of the time?

This was the last task I tackled because this bulletin is just so large that I did not know what I wanted to do.  But as always the more I brainstorm, the better my ideas get.  Last year I started planning a curriculum map where each grade level's units would be centered around one big idea.  The first big idea of this school year is Discovery.  In the center of this bulletin board is the big idea display where I will post the big idea and my four essential questions to go along with it.  Right next to this display are artworks that relate to the big idea.  As the big idea units wrap up thought the grade levels, I will change the display for the next one.

Another focus I have this year in my curriculum is giving my students the tools to be able to really look at and talk about art.  I am finding more and more aids for helping me in this focus, but this display is a good start.  To the left I have this display to give students good vocabulary to use when describing what they see.  To the right of that, I have steps to help students when critiquing artwork we may be looking at.  The steps are inspired by this pin I found.  I am interested to see how this endeavor unfolds!

On the opposite side of this bulletin, I have the Elements and Principals of art.  These are essential for students to acknowledge when it comes to looking at artwork and creating it as well.

I know that all of my hard work setting up my new art room will pay off during this exciting new year!  I can't wait to start meeting all of my little Dolphins starting tomorrow on the very first day of the 2013-14 school year!!

LET'S GET ART SMART!!!!!