A Colorful WCSAT!

On the first day of art class (besides going over all the rules) all K-8 art students drew a self-portrait in a different color of the spectrum.  Students applied knowledge about proportion and used only one hue of the rainbow to draw and shade their portraits.  The backgrounds represent something that they loved doing or a place they visited this past summer. 

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Thanks to an idea I got from The SmArt Class art blog, we took our very boring and ugly portable building and added color to our world! 

An Afternoon with Monet

Third graders spent an afternoon art class creating Monet drawings.  After studying the artist's work, we drew bridges and waterlilies on watercolor paper.  Students then took pastels dipped them in water and then a quick dip in white paint and painted short moving strokes of pastel colors on their work.  To see the rest of the work see all my students' works on our Artsonia page.

First Grade Busy Cities

Many of my first lessons in the elementary grades involve the element of art, line.  In first grade we design and paint busy cities using broken, thick, thin, curvy, horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.  Then we paint our cities in bright colors that make us feel excited and make us feel what it might be like to stand on a city street.

This year I ordered Blick Liquid Watercolors and I am in love.  These paints are so vibrant and I no longer am dealing with pans that get muddy!  I also found these wonderful paint cups from Oriental Trading that work perfectly for holding our new paints.

Blick Liquid Watercolors...my new favorite paint.

I must thank all the parents again for your support.  These new paints and cups were bought with the monies that were raised from last school year's Fine Arts Gala.  We couldn't do it without you. 

We made it!

The first week back to school is filled with procedures, rules, and too much teacher talking. But then there is the smiles from returning students and meeting the new students!  The first kindergarten art class is so exciting to me.  It's their first experience with art.  On the first day, I love to read the book, Art, by Patrick McDonnell.  It is a book about a little boy named Art that loves art.  He makes all kinds of different types of lines to create his doodles.  My favorite line in the book is, "You can't stop art, when Art is inspired".

Abigail, Kindergarten

While I read the book, I have the students take their imaginary paintbrushes and make the different types of lines in the air.  Then we practice all the different types of lines into these beautiful line drawings.  It is a great opening for the rest of the year and the students know the names of the different types of lines the will be using for the rest of the year. 

Back to School

The art room is open and ready for class to begin!  It takes me a long time to move into my room.  Yes, I mean move in...every year.  Every summer the art room's floor gets waxed and move the entire room out and then back in again, so it takes a good three days just to get everything back where it belongs.  Everything is ready now, and it's time to lesson plan for the year!

What a Deal!

I just got back from Target where I got to do the first of my art supply shopping.  I always get so excited at this time of year.  I normally buy all my supplies from Blick and Oriental Trading.  Oriental Trading might be surprising, but it often carries name brands on the typical items like markers, but costs a lot less.  Well I scored big today.  I found that Target has Crayola 10 pack of markers for 99 cents.  I got almost all my markers for the school year for under 90 dollars.  I would have spent about 250 if I would have ordered online.  Can't wait to check out Staples penny sales tomorrow.

Exciting News!

I was recently contacted by Debrah Sickler-Voigt, a professor of art education at Middle Tennesee State University, about using our students' artwork and photos in her art education text book that is to be relased in 2013.  She found our work on our Artsonia site and thought it was a great example of quality work.  Needless to say, I am extremely proud of my students!  I can't wait to see where this goes.

A link to Dr. Sickler-Voigt's website