eagle art crew 2015-2016

My small after school art club is up and running this year with 16 phenomenal little artists! We meet once every week for an hour and a half and create incredible works of art. Due to the small group, I get to do more interesting and in-depth art projects and techniques I wouldn't normally get to do with a large group!

I'm really excited for this year. It's my third Eagle Art Crew and I have learned so much over the past two years perfecting my program. I still have a long way to go, but this year's group is so talented!

Each year I provide my EAC members with a hardbound sketchbook and a baggy of quality art supplies to help them start off on their adventure as an artist. The sketchbook and supplies are for the student to use as they create and do their weekly sketchbook assignments and warm-ups! This is something my students always look forward to. It makes them feel special and like a REAL artist!

I always start off our year with a self-portrait project. The kiddos at this age are starting to discover who they are in our world and self-portrait helps with their awareness! This year's project is super fun and exciting.

We used the iPad to take "selfies" and printed them out. We only cut out the face!

We then created a big playing card using LARGE white paper and a smaller black paper. The faces were glued down and we started our zentangle designs in our Kings & Queens' robes. Students are allowed to add any personal and meaningful objects into their drawings. I have figures holding paintbrushes, basketballs, pets, and more! 

The EAC kiddos are really enjoying this project. It's a keeper! I can't wait for the remaining year where we make spirit guide ceramic vases and paper marbling experimentation with much much more!

fourth grade: Georgia O'Keeffe poppies

Every year my 4th grade puts on a beautiful Veteran's Day Musical Performance in November. This year I am hoping to join in on the festivities by making one of the most iconic symbols for remembering; the poppy.

In art, one of the most famous paintings including a poppy was created by artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. My 4th graders each studied her along with some history of why the poppy is so important to us. We talked about how O'Keeffe used exaggerated, vibrant colors, harmonious blending and gradients, as well as ZOOMED IN cropping of her artwork.

Each student made their very own practice poppy in their sketchbook where we studied VALUE.

The next time we met, I introduced to them concentrated liquid watercolor and very special water color paper. We drew our ZOOMED IN poppy drawing and set to work focusing on harmonious blending between red, yellow, and water.

You see that little white cup there? That's salt. The little artists LOVE making "magic" happen with the crystallization of sprinkling a little pinch of salt over their watercolors. We talk a little about the science behind why the salt does this to the colors and then they go to town!

silent art auction 2015.

Here are the pieces of art I worked on with each class for this year's Silent Art Auction at our Family Fine Arts Night! Each grade level creates a different piece and each homeroom class makes a piece of art to go on auction for their class. Each one is unique and special; a collaboration between myself and each student in that homeroom class.

I start off by making a bulk amount of grade level "backgrounds" I only captured the process of my 4th grade fish bowls, but I do this with every grade level; 6 skies, 7 branches, 7 fishbowls, and so on.

My kindergartners create their very own version of Wasilly Kandinsky's Circle Painting. This collaboration piece works into my district's grade level artist lesson.

First Grade uses their fingerprints to create balloons floating up into the sky! I collaborated with them by painting a sky and an object floating with the balloons!

Second Grade also uses fingerprints to make it look like fireflies are stuck in a jar! This was one of my favourite and most popular pieces at the art auction this year!

Third Grade creates a cartoonie backyard bird to perch on a branch.

Fourth Grade is making little pet fish to put in a homeroom bowl!

Fifth Grade is creating an abstract geometric painting.

I was so excited to have these go out for auction! I am hoping to utilize Google Docs next year to digitize the auction to allow bidders to see the artwork and bid before the big event! This will also help create more time for the auction to raise money for our amazing art program here at school. The auction and art night was a huge success and I'm so glad I do it every year to showcase my little kiddos' artworks.

2015 district spring art show!

Tonight is the night! My school along with all of the other wonderful visual arts programs in our district get to show off the best of the best and all that they did this year. It's a night where our little ones all the way through to the high school level get to show off all of their accomplishments for the year! I'm so excited. I snapped a few pictures of my school's set up to share. 

You can see the BIG set up in the background. A lot of ground is covered with many school. Elementary is set up around the exterior of this giant room/center and all of our junior high and high school is gathered and displayed in the center. It is an amazing event and I am so excited for tonight. It is always an impressive event.

The end of the school year is always a big one for my visual arts program, so it is nice to check one item off of my to do list! CHECK! Next up, completing homeroom class silent auction art and setting up for my big gallery walk and family art lesson. Until then! 

2015 district-wide spring art show.

Howdy friends!

I am off on another adventure with my little artists. Many of my fellow art educators probably know the troubles of what I am about to talk about today: selecting artwork for district shows and displays. It's that time of year again where I try to rush my students to complete projects so I can choose the very best of the best to represent our school at our district visual art events. I'm required to select twelve (Only TWELVE!!) pieces of art. Do you know how many students I teach? Just around 800. Of those 800 students, each makes about 4-6 pieces of art during the school year. Calculate..calculate....Let's just say that it's a lot of artwork to choose from.

It's a very difficult process for me. PROCESS being the key word here. I'm a huge advocate for elementary artists to experience the importance of the process of creating a piece of art. The adventure and experience of getting to work with clay, paint, colored pencils, oil pastels, etc. while problem solving and making mistakes to get better and better each time they re-experience the medium. Often times I see majority of my students succeed, but other times I have upset and disappointed little artists. I find myself reminding them that elementary art is not always all about the outcome, but the process that my student artists get to experience.

Regardless, it is a requirement for me to select a total of 12 pieces of art. I go about my usual selection process of going by class and project and pulling artwork I feel best represents the quality here at our school. I'm really happy with my choices and outcome of my school's district display:

Fifth Grade

“Irish Chirp”

Papier-Mache 

Fifth Grade

“Spaingland”

Papier-Mache 

Fifth Grade

“Indigo Sunset”

Oil Pastel

Fifth Grade

“Heaven Skies”

Oil Pastel

Fourth Grade

“The Bully Reporter”

Digital Photography

Fourth Grade

“A Warm Embrace”

Digital Photography

Third Grade

“Mr. Nature”

Colored Pencil

Third Grade

“Mother Nature”

Colored Pencil

First Grade

“Rainbow King of the Jungle”

Mixed Medium

First Grade

“Roarbow Lion”

Mixed Medium

Kindergarten

“Three Little Cats”

Mixed Medium

Kindergarten

“The Cat's Meow”

Mixed Medium

I hope you all enjoyed this year's Spring Art Show selection! I am so very proud of each of my hard working artists and am so glad these select few get to experience what it is like to have their artwork in a matted gallery setting! These little artists even got to title their very own work! They are so creative with what they came up with!

Until next time (psst...it'll be all about my silent art auction pieces + my big FAMILY FINE ARTS NIGHT)!