Always looking for more ideas

This has been a great year so far, and it is hard to believe that the semester is almost over! Here are a few things we have done recently. I love it when I find new ideas and they work. :o)

I had my junior high students do this assignment. It gave them the opportunity to get to know the elements of art. It was also a great project to take up extra time we had.

The 1st grade class did this project. I'll have to take some pictures of the ones they made because they are adorable! It is called "Looking out the window". I found it on another website. I'll post it on here when I find it again. We took about 3 weeks to complete it. But it was very fun.

New Ideas

Some time this spring I went to an ACSI Art Festival. There was some great artwork. I got some great new ideas. Here are a few of them.

This one was neat. I've done something similar to this. The students get one picture to glue onto their paper and then draw around it to create one picture. I love these projects because the students come up with so many different ideas. When I did this kind of project I really emphasized that the students needed to think of something unique to draw. My students know that they are not to copy a friend sitting next to them. Original work is very important. (If I remember correctly a 2nd grade student did this piece)

I was very impressed with this piece of art. This was done by a 3rd grade student. He or she used oil pastels. I wish my school could afford this art medium. This is something I could totally do in one of my classes. I think I would spend one class time talking about Picasso.

I love the color the student used in this artwork. They are bold and bright. I tried something like this with the 6th grade class last year, but it didn't work so well. I might be a little over critical. We did it a little differently though. I had the students draw a profile and then connect that to a front view of their head. (It is hard to explain at the moment) On the profile side of the face the students used chalk pastels that represented what their faces actually looked like. On the other half of the picture the students used markers to draw things that they liked or ways to describe them. Once finished they cut out the shape of their head and glued it onto a piece of construction paper. Some of the students put a lot of effort into it and they turned out really well.

A Few Fall Art Projects

Most of these pictures are my samples, but the kids did a great job making the projects thier own. I love to see how the students interpret the projects I give them to do.

Did you know that Oct 30th is National Caramel Apple day? The 3rd grade class created thier own paper caramel apples. They were all different flavors. I wish I had pictures to show you thier own work, but you can imagine.

Once again this was a 3rd grade sample. A couple of the kids made a Christmas turkey with red, green and white yarn. We did this project and another turkey at the same time. This was actually a last minute project that turned out great.

I love the bigger turkey in this picture. I'll post more pictures of this project. The 1st graders did an excellent job. My mom actually wants to keep the sample. :o)

The 6th grade class didn't do any projects for Thanksgiving, but we made a collage to pay attention to warm and cool colors. They did a great job. (Again this is my sample)

I love this project. The 5th grade class did this one. And this is a student's piece of artwork. The girls in this class did an exceptional job. They really put effort into this project. The boys were a whole other story. :o)

This is another of my favorite projects. We took white glue and outlined a picture of a leaf. When the glue was dried we painted the paper gold. Later the 4th graders rubbed brown shoe polish over the paper to give it an older look. They turned out beautifully. The class really liked this project. It is so encouraging when the students put effort into the projects I have planned.

Walk-a-thon

Well, this is my first big accomplishment as an art teacher.

The school is having a walk-a-thon this Friday to raise money for the school. Several weeks ago the committee asked me to help each class make a banner for the rally they were going to have. They did not give me very much notice, but I am happy with the outcome. Here are pictures of the banners the classes made. I sketched them out, added the text and the kids did the painting. Great job kids!!

(I can't really take credit for this one. Mrs. B did this with her class. But they did a great job!)

By the time I had the 5th grade make their banner I was all out of ideas.
So they came up with this idea on their own. I was very impressed.

It was great to see how excited the kids were.
And now that these are all done I don't dream about banners anymore. :o)

New Blog

Well, I decided to start a new blog in order to keep track of the art projects my students do in their art classes. I really love teaching art, although there are times when I don't feel very qualified. But the Lord has been so gracious to me. I have found some incredible books and websites with great ideas on them. I'll post some of them as the year goes on.