Pictures from my last day at Dolvin

I had the best celebration I could have ever imagined! Thanks to all the students, teachers, and friends who made my retirement celebration so special. It started with an escort to my room - the most far away in the building - by my sweet friend Mr. Maloy. Then it was nonstop hugs, hand-drawn notes, and even a parade planned by Ms. Noles and Ms. Shaffer with students chanting my name! Next came the party in the media center where I received lots of love and a beautiful award. Miss Pratt and the hospitality committee did a terrific job of putting out a yummy snack spread with a Snoopy theme - my favorite of course. My friend Rita baked the perfect cake and my friend Jeff, former band teacher at Dolvin, drove up to entertain us on the piano. The student chorus serenaded me with Here Comes the Sun led by Ms. Young. Finally a few of us went for a few toasts and stayed for some music bingo down the street. The next day my family took me to Seaside Florida for some R&R. I can’t thank everyone enough for such a great day. Here are some special pics:

“I am an Artist” - Youth Art & Music Month

March is the month we celebrate the Fine Arts in our schools each year - unfortunately we have not been able to have our traditional art show and musical performance the last few years, but this year we were able to do a simplified version. Sometimes simple can be very effective! I knew that this would be my last art show at Dolvin so I talked the theme over with Ms. Young, our new music teacher, and we decided to get to the heart of the matter - that we are all artists. 

We spent some time in our art and music classes going over all the different ways that we can create. We also learned the ASL way to say “I am an Artist” which was fun and new for most of us. Every student produced a self-portrait that illustrated their artistic endeavors and they were all on display in the halls during the final week of March ( and during my last day parade!) In addition, Ms. Young taught the kids to make Flipgrid videos of their talents and these were displayed on monitors in the building and QR codes  were posted for accessing the videos on devices. We were able to see students demonstrate their dancing, singing, cooking, acting and other skills. The classroom teachers were very helpful in hanging these hall displays and everyone was very proud to show off their visual and performing arts! 

Retirement Reflections

Hi readers - I am so sorry that it has been almost a year since my last post. I was diagnosed with a serious illness last summer and have been trying to balance school with medical treatments. I will be retiring on March 31 in order to fully focus on my health and recovery. I have had the honor of teaching at Dolvin Elementary for 26 years and a total career of 30 years, so as hard as it is to let it go, it is time.

I want to thank all of you who have followed my blog posts since the start over 10 years ago. I started it to have a new means to show off our work in the art room and make connections with our local community as well as other art education networking. Since then, social media has blossomed and other forms like Instagram have come to the forefront for ease of use and access. I will keep my blog available and will occasionally post updates since it is like an ongoing scrapbook. My primary platform from here on out will be Instagram and you can find me @smartestartists. I will also focus on growing my TPT shop- yay!

Many, many thanks for all the interest and support over the years - I am incredibly proud of my career and grateful for the opportunity to make my wildest art teacher dreams come true. Best wishes and all my love!

Mrs. Hope Knight and the Smartest Artists

K-5 Embroidery - spring ‘21

We have been stitching up a storm this spring in all grade levels. My youngest artists start out with plastic needles, burlap, and yarn to sew a running stitch, and each year we add some steps to the process. My older students can select from a variety of stitches for their designs and can embellish their work with buttons and beads. We also move to a finer woven cloth and embroidery floss. We all feel a sense of accomplishment when we view our progress each art class. Take a look!

Monet in a Minute

This is a lesson I do almost every year - it is a great one day artist study that packs in lots of curriculum content and is always successful. I usually do it with paint, but this year we tried crayon instead for my at-home friends to be able to participate as well and I may even like them better! Monet’s Impression:Sunrise 

The lesson is available in my TpT shop: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists

Putting everything in PERSPECTIVE

Grades 3-5 have been trying different perspective techniques in their artwork to creat the illusion of space. These are lessons I return to again and again because they offer some personal choices and connections for the students while giving them technical experience.

Let's start with third grade - they researched and selected a bird whose habitat is here in our state of Georgia. We drew the birds in great detail because they were in the foreground of the picture, and then to create an atmospheric perspective we used watercolor and the wet on wet technique to create a blurry, out of focus background, much like a photographer might do.

Fourth grade made drawings called "shape explosions" which help them practice connecting shapes to a vanishing point using a straight edge.

Fifth grade went a step beyond and made drawings using two vanishing points on a horizon line, called two-point perspective.