Pure Creative Expression - 4th grade

The end of the school year is coming on quickly!  My district has six half days left starting tomorrow!  Where did the year go?!  So many creative goals accomplished and so many more I ran out of time for!  Friday was the last art class for this group of 4th graders until next year...  My challenge to them was to create something with any or all the materials they had at hand.  I put out markers, glue, scissors and cut up painted papers on their tables to start them out...  On the back table was a plethora of art supplies they could also choose from should they wish! It felt like an episode of Iron Chef! Here's your ingredients, what can you do with them!

The kids eagerly set to work!  Some exclaimed as they were working that this was one of the best projects we did all year!  They loved the open ended creative exploration of ideas!

This student created a three-dimensional form!

The bottom ring/stand was grass and the horse was attached to it!

Another three-dimensional piece...

A bird in a nest form made of overlapping heart shapes!

This piece evolved into this...

She incorporated the Q-Tips that other classes had painted with!

This piece had many evolutions!  It started out as an abstract oil pastel sketch.  She wanted to try painting white over it to see what happened...  Other colors were then painted over that...

This was the end result!

Some painted realistic pictures...

Some created collaged, multi-media pieces...

Some pieces started realistic and then became free and more painterly...

This phrase sums up the entire creative experience! 

I can't remember where I found this picture on line...  If it's yours please let me know so I can give you credit/link back!

This mess at my desk sums up the chaos of the past two weeks!

All those pieces have since been finished and are off my desk!

This is a recent creation I made to cart my stuff back and forth to school.

I wanted to have a tote that said, "Warm weather is finally here!"

This is what left of the table signs!

They have definitely seen better days and are ready to be disposed of!

On another note...

Thursday I took my daughter to upgrade her phone (she decided she wanted a smart phone instead of a new laptop for her 8th grade graduation gift).  She walked out with a new phone and I walked out with an iPad!  I had planned on getting one over the summer but...  After upgrading our phone plan Verizon made me a deal I could't pass up!

Now mind you I am the farthest thing from being skilled at technology however, I plan on creating one lesson for 3d, 4th and 5th grade for next school year that incorporates them having to utilize the iPads we have at school (21st Century skills people...  Not that I have any...  LOL).  So I will be playing around with different apps to see what I think will work for my art program.  Personally, I don't find making art  this way interesting at all.  I actually need to be able to dig into what I'm creating with both hands.  Don't get me wrong...  It's interesting...  It just doesn't get my creative juices flowing!  I think it has interesting aspects for some art history next year and I am checking out different museum apps. We shall see...  :)

If you are still in school like me have a good week!  If your out for the Summer...

I'm jealous! 

Enjoy!

Mrs. C  :)

Inspired by the Art of Andy Goldsworthy - 5th Grade

Collaborative student piece

One cloudy (and later very rainy) morning a class of enthusiastic fifth graders, their teacher and their art teacher went into the woods and created art in nature from nature.

Before we left on our adventure the class became very familiar with the art of artist,
Andrew Goldsworthy.

They were fascinated by how he would build these arches!

I found several video clips of him working in nature on pieces.

If you do a google search there are many to choose from.

As the kids worked some amazing pieces began to form...

Each piece evolved...

This one was a snake curled up in the grass...

I saw a dragon's head...

They worked with colors...

These students created a snake out of leaves that curled around the tree and branches.

The only thing holding them together is water.

They were amazed how well spraying water on the leaves held them together!

Only natural items could be used...

Water and earth clay were used as adhesives...

This is the leaf snakes face...

Some of the kids really wanted to create a stone piece but were limited by what was available in the space we were in...

I love the use of the smaller, lighter color stones in the spaces between the large rocks.

The students were able to create some great pieces before the rain started to come down upon us later in the morning.

By doing their own pieces the kids realized that sometimes an idea works and sometimes it does not.

An idea is an evolution of trial and error.

The school year is quickly coming to a close...

We have one full week and six half days and then we are done!  

In that time I have SGO paperwork to finish up, two rooms to straighten up, end of the year paperwork,  

finish handing back student work, final grades for 900 plus students and project planning for a summer art program.  This summer I will be working with our school's summer care program to teach art to our summer care kids one day a week. The ages range from K-8th grade.  I know all the kids and it will be  creating art for arts sake! (yeah!) I'm excited to start.  I am planning a theme for each week.  Our first week will be Art in Motion!  

Mrs.C  :)

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"Mrs.C...

Kindergartener:  "Mrs. C, everyone must know you're an art teacher when they look at your feet!"

Mrs. C:  "Why...???"

Kindergartener:  "Because you have art teacher toes!!!"

Mrs.C:   :)

5th Grade iPhone & iPod Sketches

My fifth grades recently finished up their pencil sketches of iPhones and iPods.

The lesson was the old re-draw the missing part of the picture....  One of my main objectives of the lesson was getting the kids to look, I mean "REALLY" look, at what they were drawing.  We spent one class on how to look at what they were drawing.  I kept saying, "Look at it, draw, look back at it again at your sketch and compare."  So many of them found that they were not really looking at what was in front of them as they were just assuming what was there.  That was a big "AH HAH!" moment for the majority of them.  The other main objective was to get them to create all their color with just their pencil, lights, mediums and darks.  Now mind you, we were using student grade #2 pencils since we don't have the luxury of really nice drawing pencils.  However, they did great!

I gave them a choice of either the picture of the iPhone or the iPod.  I told them that I chose both pictures carefully and that they both had their challenging points.  So many thought that drawing the iPhone was going to be a piece of cake!  Once they started, they realized that it was not just a big rectangle!  I went over how to get the apps to look flat, that was something a lot of them had trouble with.  Once I demonstrated and visually showed them in small groups how to draw the angles on how to see all the parallel lines again they had another, "AH HAH!" moment!

These took us about three to four 30 minute classes to draw.

When they were done I had them fill out a self-assessment.

I'm really happy with how they turned out.

The kids put a lot of effort and pride into them.  

Have a great week!

Mrs.C  :)