Grade 4: Radial Designs

4th grade just finished their rotational/radial designs this week. I have another class and a half who need to finish but they all worked really hard on these. 

Using color pencils, my students created a design using simple lines and shapes. Just like last year, the designs, color schemes and overall product was as individual as my super star artists.

I am really, really proud of how focused and hardworking my students were to achieve their results and with absences and days off galore, I am particularly impressed with how so many students took the initiative to complete their designs outside of class. 

Here are some of my 5th grade girls Curating the display. (Not sure what I'd do without them!)

... And yes, that's Devin behind the glass.

Grade 3: Value Words

In third grade, we've been working on monocramatic value studies. For this project, we selected a positive word that could fit inside of 4 square spaces.

They learned a super easy way to draw block letters and set about drawing the letters. I have to say, I was happy at how excited some students were to draw their awesome block letters. Next, they selected a color to make tints and shades from. Most students used a color that was different from their value puzzles  (see earlier post).

However they spin it, monocramatic color schemes are so pleasing to the eye and the range of colors is impressive! 

I joked with this talented student that she was so focused (and so close) to her project that she could probably smell the paint and good thing she didn't wind up with paint on her nose. 

"Hope" and "Love" were fairly popular words. The kids wanted to do "Swag" but the focus was more on positive vs. just fun/cool words.

So, now my value making masters are set for the next challenge. 

Random Mumble: Hands off this Day of the Week

Every year, there's always a particular day where your classes never seem to meet normally. As always, this year, it's Monday. 

Between holidays and half days and whatever else, I am feeling very territorial about my Monday classes because I will barely see them this second half of the year!! Now we have snow on the horizon threatening to take what days I do have. 

Mumble, mumble. We're all in the same boat as Special Area teachers- just gotta roll with it- but it's tough!

Teen Studio= Best Night Ev

Last week began my first Teen Studio class.... it was a perfect mix of art making, laughter, candy, good conversation and reminiscing. We spent an hour and a half together creating slab lanterns and sculptural roses. I honestly couldn't tell you which project was more fun- they balanced each other so well. 

It was great working with current students and catching up with students I've had in school before. I enjoyed the special quality of seeing my girlz outside of school and in the beautiful studio space at The Painter's Loft Studio. 

Till Next week!

Grade 2: Winter Cardinals

Early last month, the super second graders finished these gorgeous paintings of cardinals. Using the iPads, we viewed cardinals and learned about the types of foods they like to eat. We reflected on how excited we are when we see a red bird fly by-- it's always a cool sight.

                         

We analyzed a cardinal and figured out the many different combinations of simple shapes that make up its body. From there, my lovely students set out to draw their cardinals and built an interesting composition using trees in the backgrounds. 

One of my favorite parts of this lesson is always in the branches. However, this year, I really enjoyed watching my students explore mixing colors to make the scene feel cold. They shared lots of ideas- even among classes- and I think they turned out beautifully!

Keep up the great work 2nd grade!

Random Mumble: Thanks Deep Space Sparkle!

I'm so tickled that the amazing Patty Palmer from Deep Space Sparkle featured my Cezanne lesson plan on her page this week!

With Cezanne's birthday on Monday, she did a post on "Cezanne Inspired Lessons". Patty is an incredible art teacher and blogger. 

Here's the link to her full post:

http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2015/01/16/happy-birthday-paul-cezanne/

Have an Artful New Year- My New Year Wish!

Happy New Year to you all! Thank you so much for making this blog a part of your lives in whatever capacity you need. I appreciate hearing your feedback on posts and seeing many of this blogs lessons circulating on the Internet and on Pinterest!

My wish is that each of you have an Artful 2015 filled with learning about new trends in art, exploring new materials and enjoying creating art in the company of others!

This month, I am super excited to begin teaching art classes at local studio- The Painter's Loft. It has been something that I spoke with the Owner, Cindy Laliwala about close to two years ago but never came to be. I wrote a tiny bit of curriculum for her and participated in a really fun "girls night" painting party and am now excited to teach 2 classes for her this month. 

The first is a 7-10 year class with a focus on clay, drawing and painting and the second is a sculpture class for middle and high school students. 

If you are local to Pennington, NJ, check out her website at www.thepaintersloft.com

Tots on Tour: Reindeer Collage

When I walked into the East Gallery, I stopped in my tracks and then proceeded with a huge smile today. In all of my years teaching my monthly Tots on Tour class, I've never been in such a gorgeous space! Our normal art room in the Education Center, which is nice, is under renovation/expansion until early 2015. In the interim, I am running classes from other spaces at GFS for a few months. Today, we are in a huge space with leather couches, amazing floors, beautiful murals and surrounded by windows. Breathtaking. 

Tots on Tour is always a fun time. Here are 5 young artists all set to work.  They look like models in their pretty clothing- 2 for Crew Cuts and 3 for Gap Kids :) We had to put aprons on to protect those nice outfits!

I read a story to the group with the best backdrop and demo-ed our mixed media lesson about reindeer.

It was a smaller group today with the first morning session. To be expected with the holidays looming- but we had great conversation about all sorts of things from animals to reindeer and fried zucchini. 

Here is Nina writing her name on her work so nicely. 

Talking to the children, meeting so many neat parents and working with a fantastic group of volunteers makes each month magical. Grounds for Sculpture IS magical. Carrie and I talked about how we have to stop and just be mesmerized sometimes because the grounds have changed so much since we joined the staff. Things are so different but the heart is the same- beating hard and glowing in a way unique just to GFS.

For the project, we created a wet-on- wet watercolor background using my fav liquid watercolors. We added collaged papers into the background and created a reindeer with assorted paper. The paper crimpers munched the legs to give them texture and all pieces were glued down. 

My favorite part of today was actually observing one of the children excitedly take pictures with her camera while on our tour. I thought how awesome her parents were to give her a camera so that she could view the grounds (with which she is very familiar) with a new lens.

Last month as the 5th graders explored GFS with their cameras, I found myself really valuing switching up perspectives and empowering children to adventure and capture their perspective via photography. 

Have a great weekend!

Grade 3: Leaves, Lines and Repetition

I love this lesson as it touches on many subjects that I enjoy (fall leaf colors, repetition, warm/cool colors and resist). Last year, we worked smaller- on 9x12 horizontal paper. This year, I bumped the size up to 10x16 and we created a vertical composition that had between 3-6 leaves. 

 We discussed warm/cool colors, line, repetition, contour lines and fall leaf colors for this project that couples oil pastel and watercolor. Originally, the cool colors were to be in the background and the leaves were to be painted in fall/warm colors. Last year, I was quite impressed that my students asked to use their artistic license and deviate away from this plan. I had just designed this lesson and was curious as to how it could change into a better lesson.

 I had a boy walk up to me with a straight face and say "Mrs. Johnson, I feel that I need to use just a touch of warm colors in my background. I think that it will make the painting look better..." This year, I mentioned to students to use the colors that they felt were best at the right time but to utilize cool colors as much as they were inspired to. Some students even added in black with great success. They excitedly asked my opinion of their use of color. I love discussing art with children in a way where it's a consultation and they know that their opinion about their art matters the most. So, taking risks, and use of artistic license is what they did and I am, yet again, quite pleased with the results.

Grade 2: Architectural Prints- Skyline Reflections

Here is a project that we completed quite some time ago that was a ton of fun. 

We read one my favorite stories 'Iggy Peck, Architect" and then explored drawing and making prints of simple city skylines that we created on styrofoam.

I modified this lesson based on one by an Art Teacher named Mrs. Hare who teaches older students. We painted our backgrounds with watercolor and discussed warm and cool color schemes. While the backgrounds were drying, students worked on drawing their cities being sure to cram the buildings in close to each other with as few gaps as possible. 

Demonstrating using the brayers was fun and each table had their own set-up to make the printmaking process a comfortable one with little waiting. 

Sleeves up!! My second graders thoroughly enjoyed inking, pressing and pulling their prints. They flipped their design upside down and pulled a second print to create the reflection on the cool colored portion. 

Grade 5: Red Clay Spoons

Discussing functional art and texture, my 5th graders made these cool looking spoons today using red clay.

I love hand-building in clay because it serves as a reminder of just how powerful our hands are as a tool. 

I began the demo by showing the students how to create the bowl of the spoon and techniques for shaping/smoothing the inside. This was the most challenging part and I was interested to see how each student made this part their own. Next was creating and properly securing the handle which had to have a texture on it. It was neat seeing how my students created such unique spoon handles and added some really awesome characteristics to the handle and positioning of it. We poked a hole at the top of the spoon handle so that we can add a pretty ribbon to them when complete. 

Next week we will explore some beautiful glazes that I've been waiting to pull of the shelf.

Fun Day!