Art Rocks!: Sketchbooks!

Day One of Art Class we always spend the bulk of the class period creating art. I personally am a bit Attention Deficit in meetings so I can't expect my students to sit in our colorful, stimulating art room and not create! We tackled some simple rules, got seats and then moved into our first projects....... the first of which was a simple piece of functional art.

It was hard keeping a secret but I made it to day one of art today without telling the kids what the cereal boxes were for that they collected.

Sketchbooks!

I'm excited because, after a 3 year hiatus, we are using formal sketchbooks again... and this time we're making them with a few simple supplies.

Zooming back a few years: Every student had a sketchbook AND I gave them all weekly drawing assignments AND I vowed to check that they completed the drawings AND all before the end of the class period/school day. It was CRAZY. Half the kids loved it and half said "ART HOMEWORK??!" and didn't complete the simple assignment. My intentions were in the right place but what a task. So, I canned it and gave out optional vacation and summer drawing prompts.

But, I really love the idea of the kids having a sketchbook and how easy it is for the kids to make them while being "green" in their art so that's what we did today.
My students made two sketchbooks today: one to keep in art class and the other to take home. The home book has 30 weeks of optional sketchbook prompts inside if the kids want to use them. Of course, they can just fill up the pages as well with drawings and writing of their choice.

I started to think "here we go, again!" as the piles of recyclables started to pour in. I have found myself in this situation all too often having a classroom filled up with "trash" or cumbersome materials. Fortunately, this is a one week project, the kids are really liking these sketchbooks and (here's the big one) the cereal boxes do not attract bugs since they are clean and.