YAM Art Show

The Art Education Association of Indiana puts on a wonderful art show at the Indiana Statehouse each March (Youth Art Month). This art show is a great way to highlight talented young artists and to make them feel special. Our state superintendent, Glenda Ritz, was our keynote speaker last year, and will be this year too! I love how much she supports the arts.

Each AEAI member art teacher can submit 5 artworks from each school they teach at. Here are the five pieces from Carroll Elementary. I think these beautiful artworks wonderfully showcase the talent we have in this small, rural community!

Kindergarten:

1st Grade:

3rd Grade:

4th Grade:

6th Grade:

Rainbow Fish!

In the past, I have generally left only drawing lessons for substitute teachers. However, I have had so many competent subs, that I've recently started leaving painting lessons. The subs seem to like this more, as do the students! One very successful sub lesson I have recently used with kindergarten and 1st grade is the Rainbow Fish.

I make the students at each table share one paint set (4 students per table), which makes things much less messy, with less clean-up. Since they paints I've been leaving with this lesson are "special" glitter paints, the students don't mind sharing! When we use something special, I often have less of it, and the novelty outweighs having to share.

Before my sub arrives, I set the supplies out for her, and hide things that shouldn't be used. I usually put the paints that she needs in a bin on my chair, so they won't be missed. I also borrow all of the library's Rainbow Fish books, and leave them on my chalk ledge.

Here are the instructions I leave with the lesson for my sub:

Rainbow Fish

1.       Before class, put the white paper on the supply table.

2.       Point out the Rainbow Fish books on the chalk ledge, and ask if any students have read them.

3.       Tell the students that today, they will get to create their own rainbow fish.

4.       Ask each row, one at a time, to come to the supply table and get a white paper.

5.       Once back at their seats, have the students write their name and class code on the back of their paper with a pencil.

6.       Have the students look for a black crayon, and hold it up when they find one. (Students who are missing black may borrow one from the bucket on the supply table.)

7.       Place picture #1 on the blackboard with magnets, and have the students draw it.

8.       Continue with each successive picture, and assist students as necessary.

9.       If time allows, color the water blue with a crayon, and paint the fish with glitter paints. Water cups are on the counter by the sink, to the right. Paint brushes are in a cup on the counter. One paint set per table; students will share.

10.   At the end of class, art goes on numbered shelves to the left of the window if dry; if wet (i.e. if you had time to paint), on the drying rack on the door to the closet.

Here are some finished pictures created entirely with the sub, from grades K and 1:

Here are the paints the students use:

Here are my step-by-step drawings that are included with the sub lesson. I hope other art teachers can use this sub lesson with your own students! It has been a complete success so far; students have even talked about how much they loved making a Rainbow Fish when I've seen them after the sub day!

It's Art Show Time!

Every year, I love letting my students participate in the Tippecanoe Arts Federation's annual youth art exhibit for Youth Art Month (March). This year, I feel like I've hardly had any time to get ready! We've had eleven snow days so far, so many classes are way behind in creating art. While some of my favorite art projects have not happened yet, I think I still got a nice selection to showcase art at Carroll Elementary. Here are the pieces going to the art show this year:

Kindergarten:

1st Grade:

2nd Grade:

3rd Grade:

4th Grade:

5th Grade:

6th Grade:

1st Grade Snowflake Bulletin Board

After putting art on my bulletin board in the hallway, I often have trouble sorting all the pictures when I take them down! The students are required to put their name and class code on the back of all their art, but so many students forget one or the other; if there's no class code, I have to figure out which Lindsay or Payton it is; if they forgot both, the chances of them getting their art back becomes pretty slim!

This week, I tried something different: each 1st grade class had the same art assignment, but on a different color of paper. Then, when I take down my bulletin board, it will be easy to sort them. Also, the students will easily be able to pick out which ones are from their class! Here is this week's bulletin board:

3rd Grade Starry Night-Inspired Paintings

Starry Night is one of my favorite paintings to teach about! I think I have blogged about it every year since I started teaching; well, here we go again! :)

By the time we got to Starry Night this year, my students were already familiar with Van Gogh because we had already painted sunflowers. I began by talking about many elements and principles of art in the painting. I especially like to point out the contrast of warm-colored stars, moon, and lights in the windows of the buildings against the cool-colored sky and town, cloaked with the blueness of night. There is movement in the sky; it seems to be swirling! The element of line is very strong; everything is composed of brush strokes.

Then, the students got to paint their own version of the sky; I gave them lots of freedom this year, letting them paint it however they wanted. I showed my own example painting, which used dotted lines to emulate Van Gogh's brushstrokes, and I demonstrated on the blackboard how dotted lines can make a shooting star or a brightly shining star. But, after the demonstrations and ideas, they could paint in any way they wanted.

The second day, I began by giving each student a postcard of either a Van Gogh painting, or a Vermeer. I explained the stylistic differences, and had the students figure out who painted the picture they were given. Then, each student went up to the blackboard and attached their postcard with a magnet to either the Van Gogh side or the Vermeer side. Then we further discussed differences between the two artists that the students noticed as they saw the many postcards. After the postcard game, the students finished painting their sky.

The last day was for making the town. I had the students cut buildings and trees out of black construction paper. I know this doesn't quite match Van Gogh's town, but I like the effect of the black town silhouetted against a lively sky. I demonstrated many ways to make trees and houses, and fancy buildings. It is much easier to cut a square, triangle, and rectangle, than trying to cut out the shape of a house with a roof and chimney all at once.

Here are some finished results, as well as the bulletin board showing many of the paintings all together.

Look; it's the big dipper!

1st Grade Tigers

During my color unit with 1st grade, I do a painting with each of the secondary colors. This year, I did tigers for orange. In the past, I've done pumpkins for a fall painting; but I switched it up this year, and was really delighted with the results!

The first day of painting tigers, the students mixed the red and yellow paint. Then, I guided them through the basic shape of a tiger; they had very few choices, besides the size of the tiger, its location on the page, and how its tail was positioned. 

The following week, the students got a plethora of choices; I first showed them how to draw a tiger's face, and then demonstrated how the stripes could look (sometimes the tip of the tail is black; sometimes not. Often tigers have no stripes on their stomach. Some tigers have skinny stripes, and others have stripes shaped like a long, skinny triangle).

Then, the students chose where their tiger would be. In the forest, in the mountains, in a circus? Endless possibilities!

Primary and Secondary Colors with Kindergarten

I love teaching about color theory. In kindergarten, my students recently learned about primary and secondary colors. We began my making a gumball machine, based on Wayne Thiebaud's painting Three Machines. The students traced a paint tray for the top part with pencil; then they traced over the pencil circle with a black crayon, and drew the bottom part of the machine with black crayon. I gave them a choice on their gumballs' price. Then, with watercolor sets, the students painted. I gave them 8-color Prang watercolor sets to assess if they could find the primaries. Most of the students really understood well, and used only the primary colors as I instructed.

Then, the students learned about the secondary colors. I showed Henri Matisse's The Purple Robe, and selected students to come up front and point to secondary colors they could find in the painting. Then, the students painted a flower vase, loosely based on the vase in the painting. The students mixed one color each day; first orange, then green, and lastly purple. Each day one part of the painting was completed, using this example as a guideline:

Here are a few of the students' finished pieces:

Throughout this unit, I used colored stars for assessments. I punches them with a die cut, painted them, had them laminated, and attached magnets to the back. Then, I would give each student in a row (my tables are in the three rows) a star, and they would go put it on the blackboard, either on the side labeled "primary" or the side labeled "secondary". Then, the next row would get a turn, etc. Due to a small kindergarten class this year, I have only 6 students per row in most classes. It works out perfectly!

Up next in my color unit is the importance of color, with Audubon cardinals. But, I'm not going to post pictures of this year's cardinals because I did last year, and you can see them here.