Art Club Fundraiser

The elementary Art Club will be selling assorted colored roses from January 18th-February 5th.  Roses will be $2.00 a piece or 3 for $5.00.  

Collaborative Poster Project

At the end of January, our school will participate in "No Name Calling Week."  To support this cause, every grade made posters that discussed what it meant to be kind.  Here are a few of the students examples.

Winter Projects

Laurel Burch Cats!!

What do you do with recycled paper towel rolls and newspaper?  You make paper mache sculptures, of course!  Third grade used recycled materials to create Laurel Burch inspired cats.  Laurel Burch was an amazing American artist that started her career off by making jewelry.  She loved incorporating animals into her artwork, especially cats!  

Third grade incorporated the art elements (line, color, shape, and pattern) into their work and some had time to make tiny kittens :)  

To learn more about the artist, Laurel Burch, click on the link below: 

http://www.laurelburch.com/about.html

Third Grade Pine Trees and Northern Lights

A student recently told me that she created a wheelchair for her barbie.  I was curious about this and asked her what she used and why she decided to make one.  The student told me that she used old train cars for the base and a broken chair to create the wheel chair.  Then, she told me a story about one of her dolls.  The legs kept falling off on one of her favorite barbie dolls, but she didn't want to simply throw her away.  Then, she had the idea to make a wheel chair because she had never seen one before for a doll.  That's when she started creating her idea. 
I am always impressed by our students.  What a lovely, thoughtful design. 

Elementary Musical!!!!

I am so proud of our elementary students and our amazing music teacher, Miss Songer.  Miss Songer works so hard and is so passionate about her subject.  Fourth grade made these wonderful carolers for the Christmas musical and I love how they turned out!

Fourth grade is pretty amazing!  They created these awesome 3-dimensional paper sculptures and incorporated several of the art elements and principles.

 Third grade learned about the artist, Laurel Burch, and painted these wonderful cats!  I love how expressive the faces are.  The students added different patterns to enhance their work.  Well done, artists!

Fifth and sixth grade made these beautiful tree art works!  Fifth grade learned about shadows and sixth grade learned how to weave.  

Students are always bringing me in drawings and I love sharing them with everyone!!!  This artist is a fifth grade student and she made a bunch of Christmas drawings that have a bit of humor to them:)

Holiday Projects:)

 
Sixth grade created these beautiful candy canes!  We re-visited shading and tinting and used oil pastels to create a three dimensional look.  We also watched a really cool video about how candy canes are made!   Click the link below to see the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpnsAm-FQag

Kindergarten and first grade made several projects using the art element, shape.  I love the way they turned out!

Drawings From Students

I absolutely love getting artwork from the students.  It really shows me that they love art and are practicing outside of school.  Paige is in sixth grade and she always has art for me to look at.  She is super talented and I just love seeing what she will come up with next!  Look at all the detail on that dragon!

Elf news:)

Juniper was stuck all night in my display case!  Thankfully, he wrote a note to inform everyone.  Sorry buddy!

Tis the Season!

I love this time of the year and I think it is fun to incorporate the art elements and principles into holiday projects!  Sixth grade used oil pastels to create value on their candy canes, giving them a 3-D look.  

First grade are making doily snow people.  They are using the art element, shape, to create clothing on their design!  I can't wait to see their finished work!

Classroom Management Tips!

A lot of people do not realize how much organization an art room needs!  Here are a few things I do in my classroom to keep me organized and to maximize the time spent on making art.

 I name all my tables after famous artists!  It's easy for me to call tables up to clean up/line up/put their art away AND the kids enjoy the names because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after some of these artists. 

I always have paper covering my tables for easy clean up and it lasts a couple of weeks.  Each table also has a box filled with supply, which is beyond helpful.  I keep pencils, crayons, markers, glue, erasers, and pencil sharpeners in each box so I do not have to get out a ton of supplies every class.  

 I color code and label almost everything!!!! 

 I keep drawers for every grade.  Besides sketchbooks, I usually keep unfinished projects and absentee work inside.   

 Grades 2-6 all have sketchbooks this year.  It is important for the students to put their ideas on paper before they attempt a final drawing.  In addition, students will be writing reflections, self-assessments, and more inside! 

 When a student is done with their project I usually send them to my "Done Early" section.  It has cross-word puzzles, word searches, small project ideas, and plain white paper to keep students busy while the rest of the class is finishing their work!

Art books for the students to read if they finish early!

 The BEST idea that I ever had was to separate my bulletin board letters into ziplock bags.  I recommend this for every teacher!!  

 

A few of my art files.  I like to separate worksheets, assessments, rubrics, etc.  I also have a file for animal pictures, artist information, and art club.   This is very helpful when I need to find something quickly!

A peek at my room right now:)  I like to say it's organized chaos in there, but I always feel good when my room is together:)