Your artwork is ready to go home!

I am so happy to share that all of the artwork we made this year is sorted, packed into your portfolios, and ready for you to take home on the day you are picking up your belongings. The only exceptions to that are the incomplete clay creations and sewing/weaving projects that were still on looms or hoops - I have all of those safely tucked away and we will start next year off with those, so don’t be disappointed! Even the bulletin board works are down and packed - whew!

Even though we missed our art show (for the first time ever!) and didn’t quite get to all the projects we had planned, we still accomplished a lot of work and have impressive portfolios to be proud of. Please take the time to go through these as a family and celebrate your progress as an artist.

Here’s a little look at the art room how we left it - I promise it will look back to normal next time you visit! 

If you have any unfinished work in your portfolio, it's not too late to put the finishing touches on and upload to Artsonia or Seesaw. Remember the High Museum is also accepting student art submissions on their Facebook gallery - just click this link.https://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2020/04/high-museum-virtual-student-art-exhibit.html?m=1

Art & Life: finding inspiration everyday (and a free resource)

Each year I challenge myself to artistically engage more students who may not have had previous interest or exposure. Many kids think that art is just about "making stuff" and don't yet feel confident with their skills in that area, and shy away. When I think about what it is that I TRULY love about art, and how I can share that, it is a much broader picture than just making. This "big picture" approach to learning about art will focus on daily life experiences and choices, and how they have inspired well-known artists and can even inspire us as beginners. I thought about a number of catchy names for my theme but what it really comes down to is life, and students of all ages can grasp Art & Life - can't get much more "big picture" than that, right? :)

                             

This picture is from art teacher Nic Hahn's Instagram - it shows how her garden was very productive while she was away on vacation. All the colors, shapes, textures, and even flavors are very inspiring, and a perfect example of finding art in daily life - her blog, MiniMatisse can be found here.

                                     

                                                 Observational drawing of living things

The root of my connection to art is just that, connection - to nature, to ideas, to others - and I am always fascinated by the way artists can communicate these things visually with the simplest of tools like color and line and shape, pencil and paper. As always, we will explore many varieties of media and techniques - painting, drawing, collage, weaving, printmaking, 3-D and tech - and how to use these tools most effectively using the principles of art. At the same time, we will keep at the forefront WHY a particular artist created in this way, WHY we are using certain symbols or representations of our own life experiences. I love seeing students make personal choices in their artworks, and learning design skills at the same time helps them to more effectively communicate as an artist.

American landscape painting inspired by local art exhibit

and student choice

Pet portraits created to raise awareness of the homeless pet

population in our own community

Frida Kahlo will be the first artist we will get to know - she shares so much of her life experience through her self-portraits, her symbolic still lifes, and even her style of dress. In an age appropriate way, we will find out how the  physical struggles of her youth and her brave accomplishments as an adult are reflected in her art.

                                   

We will kick off our theme this week with some fun introductory exercises and also a planning sheet for our portfolios that we can refer to throughout the year for inspiration. If you'd like to have your own Art & Life planning sheet, it is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store  FREE for the month of August. Now get out there and find your inspiration!

mARTch madness, Youth Art Month 2016

Week one is in the books and we are beginning week two of our mARTch madness art picks for Youth Art Month. We are voting on a variety of artworks that we regularly refer to in art class.

Round one: 1. Starry Night vs. 2. Yard Sale

Who will be victorious between Van Gogh’s painterly night sky of Starry Night and Georgia’s own Mattie Lou O’Kelley, with her Georgia countryside and brightly colored folk art? Both artworks are landscape paintings, but their moods are very different.

Round two: 3. Great Wave vs. 4. Jazz Village

These two artworks are from different time periods and made from different materials – Hokusai of Japan carved the Great Wave into wood hundreds of years ago, while Romare Bearden cut and pasted his collage in the twentieth century. Which will come out on top with the most votes?

Round three: 5. Pop Art Figures vs. 6. Mona Lisa

It’s a tough call – both of these artworks are portraits of human figures, but are VERY different in style. Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa, was created during the Renaissance and is the world’s most recognized face. Can the bright colors and bold contours of Keith Haring’s modern street art compete?

Round four: 7. Lone Zig Zag vs. 8. Little Dancer

For our final match, we have two pieces of sculpture, or three-dimensional art. Calder’s Lone Zig Zag is an abstract sculpture that is kinetic, or moveable. What do you imagine when you see it? Degas’ metal sculpture of a young ballerina is life size and very true-to-life. Which will come out on top?

For the second week, we are going a little deeper with the final four winners and doing some compare/contrast work before voting. We are also using an online voting method instead of the paper ballots used last week.

Stay tuned for our final two and the overall winner!

End of Unit 1: what have I learned so far?

Keeping track of what we have learned so far, and assessing ourselves and peers - it can be a time consuming task. I've been working on ways to make these activities not only engaging but also quick and easy. Here are some of the methods we have used and are beginning to use now that we are starting up our second 9 weeks unit - already!

First graders are using a rubric created by Artful Artsy Amy to review their favorite piece from Unit 1, then they are commenting on each other's work using symbols we created in class. Kindergarteners are also learning the Art Walk, when we check out each other's art and offer compliments.

Our first grade portfolios show our word wall progress and our media usage so far.

Second and third graders are tracking artistic behaviors and accomplishments on a chart which we will return to each 9 weeks. We also use The Art Stack critique for ourselves and a peer. 

Here are some shots of my 4th and 5th grade portfolios and rubrics, including self-portraits that show off our new facial proportions knowledge.

Each of these activities only take between 3-10 minutes at the beginning or end of a project or unit - it is not something we do every week, but it does play a big part in student ownership of learning. Keeping portfolios has created a whole new level of respect of our artwork from the students.

On a fun note, here are some pics from Reading Extravaganza, when art students were treated to a reading of "The Day the Crayons Quit" and a letter writing activity.

What's to come in unit 2, you ask? Printmaking, lots of landscapes, K-2 clay projects... and Artsonia, our digital art gallery - Stay tuned!

If any of these teaching tools interest you, please check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists .

Best Fine Arts Night ever!

Fine Arts Night '14 is in the books, and I think it was the best one to date - so much to hear, see, do! This music and art celebration is a tradition every year, but this time around the music teacher and I added a few new exciting components as you will soon see, starting with a push for families to share on social networking sites to expand our audience. We placed posters all around with our blogging,  Twitter, and Instagram accounts posted with QR codes for quick access (#dolvinFAN). We set up a live stream of the chorus concert for families to watch from wherever they were, and we could watch live from the art show at the opposite end of the building - very cool indeed.

We set up several group art stations around the show - it was really fun to see the enthusiasm for creating among the kids and parents - here are some of the stations:

 This graffiti stitching station was such a hit and it really thrilled me to walk by and see a half dozen kids at once, sitting around this burlap sheet sewing together! Such a great skill to know and a wonderful tradition to honor in this age of technology.

 Free Art Friday station - yes! Next week I will be posting the details on this one, but basically we organized a bunch of saved recyclables in the art room and the kids made themselves a kit to take home to build a monster, which will be "dropped" next Friday for our event. See the sidebar label "Free Art Friday" for a breakdown from last year.

The Selfie Spot was stolen from the Thomas Elementary Art blog and the kids were filling them up faster than my 17 yo daughter Kinsey could crank them out! We also tried a grid collage mural based on Chuck Close and Paul Klee's works - this one needs a little editing before I post the result ;). I cut all of our painting mats from the year into 3" squares for this and I fell in love with them - maybe I'll wallpaper my powder room?

 Artist Fan letters were also fun -  I expected parents to write them, which they did, but it surprised me to find a number of very sweet friend-to-friend notes, including one above for a friend in the hospital. Lainey always has the best ideas. **update - these letters are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists.

The chorus concert was called Disney Spectacular, and we all pitched in to paint a Mary Blair inspired backdrop, a premiere illustrator for Disney. I love the Mary Poppins figure flying over the moon and here are a couple of chimney sweeps that stopped by the art show post concert.

I will end the post with some pics from the art show itself and a few other shots. The frames are provided by the Artome company - they really make a professional looking show. Frames are available for purchase for $25, although the art is not for sale - it belongs to the artists! Thanks so much for being a part of our online audience!

 

What have I learned so far?

As we begin our second unit, Art is a Form of Creative Communication, I will share with you some of the ways we have wrapped up our first unit with some fun critiques. These first few photos show my second graders filling out a 3-2-1 sheet - three things I learned, two things I like about my work, and one thing I would change. After reviewing all the work in their portfolios, they filled out their own and then we paired up to share our thoughts with our classmates. They really enjoyed this and I hope they will take them home to their parents to talk about some of our art learning so far!

 

The next photos show my first graders completing a rubric about their favorite artwork from Unit 1. Once complete, we did an art walk and students could add hearts, smileys, or question marks (if they wanted to ask the artist a question)at the bottom of each other's rubrics.

 

 

 

The next two are from the 3rd grade project I recently posted about, but I thought I'd include it here too since it's relevant to the topic. First we wrote about our own, then we "art sandwiched" a friend's work.

As I mentioned in an earlier post this year, most of these critique forms were adapted from some I found on Pinterest or other blogs, so thanks again art teachers for sharing such useful ideas. You can also see on that post the rubric my 4th and 5th graders are using on a selected piece from each unit. 

Watching the students compliment each other and express their feelings in these formats has been a real treat for me, and hasn't been as time consuming as I once worried it would be. I am going to try to get some form of this in each 9 weeks!

**Update - you can get some of my newest goals and rubrics at my Teachers Pay teachers store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists