kindergarten 'Pattern Snakes'

As an extension to the kindergarten curriculum I had students create pattern snakes. They had previously learned AB and ABC patterns and I took that as an opportunity to do something with it. I traced and pre-cut pattern blocks using the same colors (I got a pack of card stock which had all the same colors in it except for beige which I bought separately by the sheet for like 20 cents a piece at A.C.Moore) As a class we discussed wavy lines vs. straight lines. I showed them the book Snakes; Long, Longer, Longest' by scholastic and had them draw a wavy line across a 12" x 24" piece of white paper as a guide. We then spent 1 session practicing pattern making with our pattern block cut-outs and 1 session gluing them down making sure the pieces were touching and following the wavy line. They used to shapes for the head and tail that were not part of their pattern and then we discussed what kinds of setting you would draw a snake in. The lesson was also a good opportunity to review shapes with the students.

Next time I could also have the students trace and color snakes instead of pre-cutting them out. I had a blister on my thumb for 2 weeks after all that cutting! Also, this lesson makes it really easy to differentiate because for those students who are advanced you could have them create their own pattern and for those who need more reinforcement, they could write out their pattern before doing it.

All in all the lesson went really well and I'm very pleased with the results!

Kindergarten 'Spooktacular Haunted Houses'

For Halloween I used the theme of haunted houses (which every child loves to talk about regardless of age!) to teach primary and secondary colors. To initiate the lesson I taught them the two songs. The primary color song is sung to the theme of '3 Blind Mice' and goes as follows:

Red, yellow, and blue
Red, yellow, and blue
They are the pri-mary colors
They make up all the other colors
Red, yellow, and blue
Red, yellow, and blue

The secondary color song is sung to the 'Cha-Cha' and goes:
Or-ange, green, and pur-ple
Or-ange, green, and pur-ple
They're the secondaries!
They're the secondaries!

For the secondary song I even have them form a train and cha-cha around the room. It's very cute and it really helps the information stick. I'll ask them weeks later what the primary colors are and they'll remember!
Following that introduction I give them shapes I've previously cut out and let them arrange the house. Despite the uniformity in the pre-cuts, its amazing to see how varied the results come out. The next time we met, we reviewed the colors and I read them the book 'In the Haunted House' by Eve Bunting, this sparked a ton of ideas for what they could draw or add to their house. After making a list of their ideas and drawing a few examples (of shutters, ghosts, bats, smoke, brick, ghouls, etc) I let them have at it with crayons and they had a ball! The picture I'm posting is a mini-display I did for my office. (I share an office with the PE teacher, technology teacher, and Spanish teacher because we all push in to classrooms)

Note: the shabby sign the tech teacher put up on the bulletin board exclaiming 'all about me haunted houses' is incorrect and only got put there at the behest of my principal. :)

Kindergarten 'Season Tree's'

Here is the first lesson I did with my two kindergarten classes. I had them color 4 strips of paper using the side of a blue crayon for a background. I then had them use glue sticks to glue on the trunk and branches. We had to discuss where the branches go on tress, on the top like a hand, because surprisingly many of them tried to make two arms, two legs, and a head! I used Eric Carle's 'The Tiny Seed' to discuss the colors and characteristics that are associated with each season and then finished by sponge painting the colors for each using our 4 pieces of blue sky as a guide. Overall the lesson went well, although I will say, looking back I'm not sure I'd do sponge painting as a first lesson of the year with kindergartners, boy did they make a mess!

A word...or a few

Where to start! My last post was too long ago. I've been so busy getting acclimated to my new school that I've really haven't had time to write, but now that I feel like I've got a better hold on things I'm going to start to try and post regularly again. SO I'll start from the beginning.

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

While reading some posts from the Getty listerv I came across a comment made by a fellow art teacher based on, as she put it, 'the quilts of Gee's Bend'. Immediately my interest was peaked because I am currently planning a lesson based on Faith Ringgold's 'Tar Beach' so I've been thinking of different ways of creating a patchwork quilt effect with my first graders. After reading the post, I googled 'Gees Bend', thinking it was a person. As a matter of fact it isn't a person at all, but a group of women from southern Alabama who create beautiful abstract quilt designs. They have a pretty interesting history as well. Here's an image from their site:
1.) Allie Pettway | Housetop, 1970-1975 2.) Annie Mae Young | Bars, 2003 3.) Annie Mae Young | Blocks, 2003 4.) Annie Mae Young | Housetop, 2002 5.) Annie Mae Young | Housetop Center Medalion, 1970-1979 6.) Katie Mae Pettway | Housetop Variation, 2002 7.) Linda Pettway | Blocks and Strips, 2003 8.) Lola Pettway | Housetop Variation, 2002 9.) Louisiana Bendolph | Blocks and Strips Medallion, 2003 10.) Lucy Witherspoon | Housetop, 1985 11.) Mary Lee Bendolph | Bars and Blocks, 2003 12.) Mary Lee Bendolph and Ruth P. Mosely | Bricklayer

Here's the site itself:
http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/quiltmakers/index.shtml

Yes, another site to visit

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/

A fellow blogger's site with loads of information and lesson plan ideas for elementary grade art projects

2 sites to share

The first site is one that I originally wanted to post in conjunction with a sculpture lesson I was planning on doing, but the lesson never materialized (due to various time constraints and materials) but here's the link anyways. It basically discusses the importance of clay and children. It isn' t scholarly material, but it's interesting nonetheless.

http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/clay&kids.htm

The second is a great site for art lesson ideas when you are on a budget. It gives a huge list of projects you can create from recycled materials (a.k.a garbage) it has everything from tinfoil, to toilet paper roles. I LOVE IT!

http://www.kid-at-art.com/

Rubrics

According to the requirements of my principal we have to include a rubric next to our bulletin board for the project we've shown. It's not a pretty bad idea, and lucky for me I do some form of rubric with every lesson I create, so the request isn't such a big one. However one of my colleagues told me about rubistar which is a free website specifically for making rubrics. Pretty handy, especially if your in a quick pinch for a a basic rubric.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

1, 2, 3 Magic

The first two hours of school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week and this week were spent doing beginning of the year assessments for most of the grades. While proctoring for the tests I happened to come upon a book by our behavior intervention specialist called 123 Magic for Teachers: Effective Classroom Discipline Pre-k-8th grade by Dr. Thomas W Phelan and Sarah Jane Schonour. Being that I had the time, and it was very quiet I started to thumb through the book. I've been having some serious behavior issues in most of my classes including physical attacks by students on their peers, curing, crying, students chasing one another around the room, not sharing, arguing, and name calling. All of which make the fact that they hardly settle down long enough for me to get a sentence out pretty minor. Needless to say maybe this book will help, because frankly, I think I'm going to need all the help I can get!

The book is based on the idea of two types of behavior, 'start' behavior and 'stop' behavior. Start being doing your work, cleaning up, putting things away, transitioning, etc. Stop being, talking, yelling, fighting, getting out of your seat, etc. Both of these behaviors are handled slightly differently with 'stop' behaviors using a 1,2,3 couting method to redirect and make student take responsiblity for their actions. This counting coupled with what the authora call a 'no talking, no emotions' approach on the part of the teacher should, in theory, work. So, instead of disucssing matters with students (most matters, but of course, some matters will need to be addressed and discussed) that you simply do not get emotional, launch into a verbal tyrade, and just be fair, unbiased, and consistent. Easy right? Sure...25 yelling kids, art supplies, 45 mintes, nooo problem!


In addition to that in chapter 3 the six types of manipulation and testing behaviors exhibited by students which include badgering, tempertantrums, threats, martyrdom, buttering up, and physical tactics. Many of these are used in conjunction with one another and will happen in the span of 1 encounter. Unlike most books I've read, the examples given in this book are pretty true to form and as I read I was thinking to myself, 'yup, that's happened to me', or 'that reminds me of student x in so and so's class'.

Don't get me wrong I"m by no means plugging this book, I haven't even given its approach a test run yet, but I figure its as good a place to start as any, and after reading it, it gave me a glimmer of hope that I might tryp a managment strategy with a chance of it actually working. I'm going to try it tomorrow on one of my first and third grade classes. We shall see....

Back in the saddle again

I suppose you could say I took the summer off, (even though I taught summer school). Now that we're already 3 weeks into September, I am fully back into the swing of things again. Working at a new school in a new place is stressful to say the least, but so far I think given the challenges facing me, I'm adjusting pretty well. This year I'm teaching art to grades k-5, in an urban school. I don't have an artroom, have about 400 bucks in supplies, and have a small closet and cart (which I have since labeled with a large bright 'The Art Cart' sign. I have a pretty large task ahead of me, instructing students who have never had the opportunity to have art in their curriculum before. The biggest obastacle? Classroom management. Not only do the students not know how to handle materials, but set up and clean up is pretty new to them as well, coupling that with their rambunxious behavior and short tempers, its a pretty tall order to get them to even listen to me.
Alright, I know I'm kvetching, but I've got some pretty good lessons lined up and am not going to take anything less than success as an outcome. Up till now I haven't completed any projects with the students so for now I'll show you some images from my summer cartooning class. This was a 6 week course taught to 6-9th graders in cartooning. My main focus was to have them create a large storyboard size finished project of either a comic strip, series of comic panels, cover art, or one large panel cartoon. Here are some of the finished results:

Seeing Songs

No, not 'singing songs', SEEING songs. What a great idea for an exhibit! Below is a link to the website artdaily.org and to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston MA. They have an exhibit up and running in the museums Foster Gallery from July 1st to February 21, 2010. After reading the exhibits review I was reminded of my college days. I'm pretty sure the assignment to draw a picture based on a song that your art professor gives you is a staple of the undergraduate fine arts curriculum, despite its commonality, its teaches a pretty damn good lesson! Bring the idea of art to music, or music to art, at the high school or lower school levels, art teachers repeatedly see and use music tied into art throughout their teaching. Lessons based on Kandinsky or Matisse and jazz, Pollock's action paintings and painting to emotion (what better and motivator, or should I say companion to action paitning than music?), Keith Harings break dancing inspired sculptures, and lest we forget Greg Percy's 'Songs in the Key of Art'. Even 'body sculpture' where students move their bodies into groups of living sculpture based on the rythm and tempo of the music being played is a popluar mainstay of a cross curriculum between art and music. I think some of the best artworks come from musical inspirations, and I'm sure if you asked musicians, some of their best songs were probably inspired by some form of visual art. The author of the review put it well by saying that the visual artists turn "something arbuably intangible into a visual form". What's a better way to study and learn about the artistic process than that?


http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31957&int_modo=1

http://www.mfa.org/

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since my last post. Actually its been 2 1/2 months! I've been busy lately. In addition to working for the Boys & Girls club at nights, I've been lucky enough to land a great leave replacement position in an absolutely FANTASTIC school district teaching middle school art. What's even better is that I teach 2 classes of advanced level 8th great art and the kids are superb artists! What's ironic is that I started this blog to post all the wonderful art related things I've been doing and to share my ideas with those who view the blog, but I've been so swamped with art that I haven't had time to post! Needless to say I think after 2 1/2 months I have enough materials to make at least 20 entries or so. Even better I'm teaching a cartooning course this summer, something I've never taught before, so I'll be able to post a whole new crop of interesting items once I get going with them. For today I"m going to share with you a great quote I happened to come across as I was cleaning out a desk at work today. It's pretty long but its awesome.

Sol Lewitt's advice to Eva Hesse in a letter dated April 14, 1965:

" Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder, wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, gasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, rumbling, rambling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning...searching, perching, besmirching, grinding grinding grinding away at yourself. stop it and just DO...trust and tickle something inside you, your "weird humor." you belong in the most secret part of you. don't worry about cool, make your own uncool...if you fear, make it work for you -- draw and paint your fear and anxiety. and stop worrying about big, deep things such as "to decide on a purpose and way of life..." you must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. then you will be able to DO! i have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. try and do some BAD work. the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell."

O'Keefe's a winner everytime

Ah, the incomparable, Georgia O'Keefe. Always a favorite of the mild mannered art hobbiest and practical mainstay in art education. I've seen this lesson done many times before, its various permutations including watercolor and oil pastel renderings, , on square paper, round paper, as self portrait, as decoative motif, and even as collage. And no matter how many times I've seen the lesson it always seems to come out great.
I think part of the success of it is its vivid use of color and its archetypical subject matter. (Most of my students were able to draw pretty good flowers just from their imagination, but they lacked the formality and sophistication that drawing from observation gives) I wasn't really planning on this lesson, it jsut kind of happened. My supervisor asked me to do some Spring themed activities with the kids and use the artwork to help decorate the junior room. (The junior room is a giant rec room where pretty much all the 1-5 graders hang out). That request coupled with the fact that I had made tentative plans with a local bank to showcase some of the students work in their front window wayyy longer ago than I would have liked it to be. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. We spent all week making our flowers and these are some of the results. I had some pretty stiff requirements for the kids to follow, but they stuck through it, some of them even working for over an hour straight, which is pretty impressive for early childhood aged children.
The requirements were that the composition had to touch 3 sides of the page, the flower/s had to be as large as their hands and if more than one was draw, it had to overlap. The composition had to have an off-center focal point (no 'bulls-eye' flowers, I'd say), and they had to use a light, medium, and dark color scheme on each petal of the entire flower. I know this is a 'been there, done that' kind of lesson, but I have to admit, I loved it!

It's pronounced k-l-a-y

Yet again perusing through google images, I came across a pre-school art lesson based on Paul Klee's Head of a Man. The round disk-like faces were filled in with goop's and gobs of paints brushed on in only single hue and its various tints and shades. Glancing at the image I had an 'aha!' moment. Now I don't teach preschool, but I immediately liked the idea and decided right there and then to use it in a lesson for some of my elementary aged students. It was very simple, they were able to do it in about an hour. In a normal classroom I would have introduced the concepts form formally, and had them do some practice exercises with mixing paint. However, because of the laid back atmosphere of the club, and the fact that the members don't have to stay in the art room if they don't want to, I did the abridged version.

Letting them use paper plates as circle templates, they traced the circle head onto their sheet of 12x 16" sheet of manilla paper. They then drew the spae of the neck and body (a rectangle lengthwise and widthwise) and then added the eyes, nose and sometimes, a mouth. They followed that by drawing shapes on the head and then used whatever color they picked mixing white or black to create new tints/shades of the color. The only problem I ran into with this lesson was that 1. they rushed and many times didn't do such a good job of painting in the lines, and 2. they would mix white to a color then mix black to the first mixture muting the color and giving it a grey tone (not good). So just as an aside, make sure you reinforce and demo how to paint and handle the brush to stay within the shape parameters, and to always wipe the brush off between mixes so as not to get a dull grey. The images was finished off by chosing the faces color compliment and painting it in. Viola! Head of a man, 2nd grade style!~


The site that I got the image, which gave me the idea for the lesson is http://www.jeron.je/stARTing_points/new%20art%20pages/ks1/painting.htm
The site also has a bunch of other good lessons for the youngsters, so if you teach the little ones you might want to give it a look.

The art of...Glamour?

I love love love Marilyn Minter. Not necessarily her older works, but her recent ones. Something about the sequined sheen of a model distorted face seems oddly appealing to me (and may I add many others, point in case the Whitney Biennial 2006). Anytime I can catch a glimpse of her work it puts a smile across my face and to my delight, the other day I came across the April issue of Glamour magazine, where, to celebrate 70 years in print they ran a 'Glamour' series, where 10 of the top female contemporary artists comment on what they think glamour means to them. Accompanying the article, or perhaps the other way around, there is an exhibit entitle 'The Glamour' ( I suppose the 'the' makes it sound more official) at Lehmann Maupin Gallery NYC showing the actual works that were photographed in the article. Some of the artists featured are
1. Marilyn Minter
2. Tracey Emin (whose work I just recently saw at the Brooklyn Museum)
3. Nina Chanel Abney
4. Sarah Charlesworth
5. Mickalene Thomas (whose work.....see above)
6. Laurie Simmons
7. Rachel Feinstein
8. Laura Simpson
9. Rita Ackermann
10. Kara Walker (whose work...see above above)

Coincidentally, I go to the Brooklyn museum and see the feminist art, then read a Judy Chicago book where there is signifigant commentary on the topc of feminist art. Then I get this magazine where they have women discuss art, 3 of which are featured in the museum, and then they are also at a gallery not far from me. It's like 6 degrees of seperation only with feminist art.

By the by, the best explanation/interpretation of 'glamour' in my opinion, was by Minter, who responded to the question by saying "My definition of the word glamour? Anything that inspires fascination."

Good answer

When in Brooklyn

Last weekend I ventured into relatively uncharted territory (for me anyways) and FINALLY got my behind to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Well, let me tell you, it's my new favorite museum. Seeing Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' is a life changing experience. EVERYONE should go see it! Not only is it educational, but it is exquisitely executed, thought provoking, and even euphoric. Along with the exhibit, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art packs a powerful and captivating punch. Artists such as Kara Walker, Tracey Emin, and Barbara Kruger fill the clear and open exhibit space with a viable presence. Walking through the musuem you really had a palpable feeling of a museum that is very much with the times. Every exhibt, from ancient islamic art to the contemporary galleries were meticulously laid out and the artworks eloquently shown. I can't say good enough things about it. So, go check it out!!! (and let me know what you thought!)

PS 1 Cotemporary Arts Center

Last weekend I had the fortunate pleasure of taking a trip to PS 1 in Long Island City. I was initially aiming for the Brooklyn Museum, but didn't make it quite that far, which was just as well, because I LOVED it there. Upon entering and walking around I was a bit disconcerted, The way the sound from some various installations interacted as you walked through the dimly lit and somewhat dingy hallways gave the center a bit of a fun house feel. And after passing by the elevators open doors and seeing the neon light tubes lining the ceiling I really felt like I was in a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I have to admit, for the first hour of the three I was there I didn't really care for the place, the ultra different elements of each artwork interspersed within a relatively small space and the way certain parts of the 'unfinished' decor competed many times with the artwork, really put me off. But by the end of my visit there, I was, really into it.

A few things I particularly liked:

Leandro Erlich's 'Swimming Pool' installation, complete with wooden deck. - I love the idea of weightlessness and movement especially in an installation, so when I was able to walk under the water and look up at it, I was tickled pink. It's a great experiences for the viewer.

Gino De Dominicis ethereal and otherworldy 'alien' people. At first simply neat and shiny, after walking through the exhibit you start to get a sense that Dominicis didn't merely 'depict' aspects taht harken to otherworldiness, but that he seemlessly creates an otherworld all his own, and you can't help but get enraptured by it.

Olafur Eliasson's rotating mirror is great. After finding a comfortable position on the floor I laid myself down and staired up, watching as the giant rotating mirror changed the form and size of my body. Very cool stuff.

Borre Seathre' Again, at first, the white light bars, lazer gun sounds, and mini digital tv sets act like a repellent more than a magnet. Further into the installation the gold reflective wall tilies and phallic representations make you ask yourself why you didn't just follow your initial impulses and leave the installation in the first place. But if you can stomach the disjointed installations that precede it, the final room makes the journey all worth it. I don't want to give it away, but it's seriously one of the most awe inspiring single peices of an installation I've ever seen. If you like fantasy and Damian Hirst 'esqe' types of things. This piece alone is worth the trip.

The only three things I didn't really care for were the Minus Space exhibit and Yael Bartana's work and the James Turrell peice.
The 'minus space' exhibit is a snooze, unless your into vivid minimalist inspired works, chances are your going to find the rusty pipes, intricately cracked floors, and dust covered grates and vents of the room more interesting to look at than the works contained within it. Yael Bartana's work reads more interesting on the introductory information sheet before you see it, than when you acutally watch or listen to it. And don't wait for the James Turrell showing unless you have a lot of time to kill...and a jacket. :-)

Two tidbits of interest from the Getty listserv

The first is a link to Principles Magazine, the entire January/February issue is dedicated to arts education. Not just every principle, but everyone period, should check these articles out, they make a poignant argument for the arts in education.

http://www.naesp.org/Principal_Magazine.aspx


Also, but completely unrelated, are two great links to a fellow blogger who discusses her various travels in and around Eastern Europe. She has some phenomenal pictures of Kolams in India. Seeing as how I"m putting together a unit on India these were a great surprise to see, and they're so beautiful. Her blog is pretty good too, it has some inspiring images. It makes me want to go to India (right now!) Lol.

http://melissaenderle.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissaenderle//sets/72157612790928608

Chinese New Year (one of these days)

Happy Year of the Ox! (For all you oxen out there!) I did a great lesson with our ESL teacher, making Chinese New Year Lion and Dragon Masks using paper plates, markers, and various embellishments. For our 5 and 6 year old's we provided a face template to color in. I very rarely support the use of coloring handouts in any art lesson I do, but since I wasn't doing this one alone, and the ESL teacher bought the supplies (and the handouts) I went along with it. For pre-k the templates are a great way to make pretty impressive looking masks, but for regular elementary grades I much prefer them to draw their own. Here are a few of the results! As a follow up activity I had the kids make construction paper lanterns and two GIANT dragon 'parade floats', which were really one sided dragon banners that I hung in the junior recreation room. They were done in primary colors only and each student made a body part that I then connected together to make the whole peice. I'll have pictures up of that tomorrow or the next day. I really wanted to get into NYC to see the parade but yet again, it doesn't look like it's going to happen, oh well, maybe one of these days...

Banksy

Brought to my attention by my students, after doing a Keith Haring lesson, the went on a tear about an artist named 'Banksy'. After googling his name, I found a pretty good short (9 min) video on youtube describing him. If you like elusive British artists, better yet, if you like street art you MUST check him out. I don't think I've ever been so inspired to draw on the walls of buildings!

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0IJSOq0xg