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!

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)!

fourth grade: anti-bullying campaign.

I've been wanting to incorporate a type of digital or photography lesson into my curriculum for some time, but due to lack of technology for a full class-size, I have always stuck to tradition means of making art. This year, my school purchased a set of 10 iPADs that can be checked out by a teacher and be used by the students. I used this to my advantage and being inspired by a blog post I saw and the artist Barbara Krugar, I had my fourth graders band together and create an ANTI-BULLYING CAMPAIGN POSTER! The wall is an inspiration and so many fourth grade artists are proud of their work. Many people have stopped in their tracks to look at the wonderful wall of inspiring and positive ways to prevent and put a STOP to BULLYING. They have the whole school talking about these incredible compositions.

my fourth graders:

1. came up with a short, inspiring, and positive anti-bullying slogan
2. designed several different thumbnail sketch compositions for their photo idea
3. used props or models in their photograph and took it with an iPAD
4. learned about cropping + filters and chose their favorite B+W filter for their photo
5. glued their red-text slogan to their B+W photo

Here are a couple of their fantastic ideas and masterpieces!