Whoops...It got a little busy...

So summer is for playing catch up... and for an introduction to my plans for next year.

HOLD UP... I am getting ahead of myself though. I have 7 month of really cool art projects to show y'all first.

So... where do I even start?!?! These projects are going to be in no particular order...

I will start with one of my favs... Visual Journaling!!

 

The 5 photos above are from my own personal journal. I love the process of collecting, cutting, combining all different mediums and ideas to formulate a new piece of art work. Here lies my artistic passion. The sky is the limit with visual journaling...

My Upper School class blew me away with their journals this past trimester. Here are a few of the highlights...

What vision these girls have! (Yes, I had a class of all young ladies! Lucky me.)

3-D Family/Season Trees

Are you ready for total and utter cuteness? I hope so! This project turned out way better then expected! I seriously love when you try a project for the first time and it actually works out awesome!

In second grade, students learn all about different life cycles (seasons, plants, animals, etc.) They also do a family study and read Tomie dePaola stories. In art, we create a family tree with images the children bring in from home. The past few years we have learned how to draw a non-broccoli tree and added a season to one side and the photos to the other. It was not the most creative, but it was a valuable lesson and the kids enjoyed it!

I found this website on good ol' pinterest. Thank you for showing this project in photo form:)

In progress trees

Students created their trees using a RECYCLED paper bag, added a season with tissue paper, and then their family photos! It was hard for the kids to twist the paper bag, but it was great for hand strength! I helped them when they got tired, but the kids were able to do most of it by themselves.

I love the end result!

What a sweet family keepsake!

Together We Can Make a World of Difference

Here is how we kicked off the school year... I am so thrilled to have FINALLY created a collaborative project that also reflects my philosophy as an art teacher. I have been wanting to create something, anything with whole school. Since this was the first year attempting, we keep it to K-8. Next year, perhaps we will go for K-12!

Kim, the 7th and 8th grade art teacher did a beautiful job explaining the project...

The students in kindergarten through 8^th grade created artworks of their hands from recycled materials, and combined them all together to make an artwork of the world.  Each hand artwork is unique and created with thought and care, just as each of our students are unique individuals.  All of the hands were combined into an artwork of the world, visually conveying how we all can join together and contribute to something bigger than ourselves.

Through this creative process the students were able to explore the many repurposed journaling materials and treasures that can be found in the art rooms, which are perfect materials for creating unique and sustainable art pieces. The art program at Woodlawn provides students with the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to incorporate sustainable practices and materials into their own art.

Below are pictures of the “Together We Can Make a World of Difference” collaborative art piece.

The final product...

Yay for recycled art!

name tags...

Where oh where do you start with Kindergarteners? Well I like to dive right in with my first project (well technically my second proejct)...

Name tags! Kinder kids start off learning the letters of the alphabet. So, I do a couple of projects that go hand in hand with letter learning.

I write each student's name on a piece of cardboard. They get to decorate the letter with different kinds of "stuff"... I have things like pompoms, feathers, string, noodles, pipe cleaners, beans, etc.

We look at the letters and how we know they are letters. What an outline is? What happens if something goes outside the letters? We also go over liquid glue use. How much is enough? What does too much look like?

The kids do a great job with this project!

More with letters soon...

tar beach....

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold is a wonderful, beautiful, and magical book. The 4th grade is studying slavery and later in the year will be looking at Civil Rights Movement. This book is perfect for showing the enchantment of a little girls imagination and tie in the Civil Rights Movement.

Even 4th grade still likes to have stories read to them. And I take every chance I can to read to my students. I just love the look on their faces when the hear the words and see the images. So I started off by reading them Tar Beach. 


Next, the students created them self flying. I showed them a few ways of drawing a flying self and did not limit the angle in which they were flying.

After they were finished drawing themselves, the students could choose anywhere they wanted to go or fly over! I had them mark off a boarder before drawing their backgrounds.

Once finished with their place, they added wallpaper pieces into the boarder. This gives the final touches on creating the quilt like feel the book has.

Go fly...

Up next:

Slavery Quilts!

dreams...

So, I am the type of person who has the cra cra craziest dreams ever! Ask any of my many roommates... most mornings I wake up and say " I just had a really weird dream."

So... on this particular day of summer camp I had one of those "I just remembered my dream" moments. Thus this little project was born.

I had an age range from Kinder to 3rd graders in this group at camp. I was not sure if this project would work... but of course, I showed no fear and went for it.


The kids had to choose a dream they could remember and create a mixed media collage. I was surprised and very happy that even my kindergartner had a dream she remembered! Some kids were concerned with the fact that they could not remember everything. I told them to make it up if things were a bit hazy!

I let them use magazines, paper, tempera, watercolor, wallpaper, and other stuff I can't remember right now. They could use really anything 2-d they wanted.

Art inspired by kid dreams...

 Kinder

 3rd grade

3rd grade

p.s. this is not the last you will hear of my weirdo dreams!

a pleasant surprise...

I am NOT one to do holiday themed projects...I'm just not into doing projects related to Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc.... But this year I took on the challenge of creating the art for the holiday show and for a local library... Here we are Mid November, 75 degrees and we are talking about snowmen and poinsettias. Oy vey!

For the 5th grade class, I gave them 4 choices for their project:
snowglobes
poinsettias
snowflakes
and
nutcrackers...

I put out bins of scrap construction paper, tissue paper, wall paper scraps, ribbon, and yarn. I told them they had to collage the option they chose. We talked about what a collage means and I gave them some examples of what they can do. Very basic. I wanted to see what they came up with...

Yes, there was an art room explosion of every type of paper... but...

 

These projects are starting off awesome!!

It could have something to do with the fact that the doors of the art room are open letting in the beautiful 75 degree weather... these are the most unique holiday projects I have seen (I may be bias though)

Finish product coming soon....