School's out, Summer's here! 2020

I wanted to write one more blog post about this school year's end before summer kicks in! We had two drive by parades, celebrating our graduating 5th graders, and one celebrating the retirement of our data clerk extraordinaire, Nancy Adams.

  

I was super excited to find this cute sign in my yard from my awesome admin team! I had to share the space with my son who is now a high school graduate.

 
I got to visit some of the Teams meetings and some of us even drew together! 

I loved seeing all the amazing videos created by Megan Endicott, our music teacher, and Brad Agnew, our parent yearbook creator - thanks for the many hours you put into creating these memories for us! I loved seeing the thank-yous from the kids.

  And the art was still coming in - here are a few highlights from the final week. 

All 3 Phillips brothers submitted artwork to the High Museum's student online gallery - so cool!

   

  

I cleaned my room and distributed all the portfolios to the homeroom teachers - all 26. 

Happy summer everyone - stay safe and have fun - I've got more "dog training” to do 😃. See you soon! 

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

Summer Sketching

Looking for something fun to draw this summer but short on supplies? Here are two fun sketching activities that require only a pen, a catalog from the recycling stack, some sidewalk chalk and a little sunshine. All of these activities were found on Pinterest.

Summer Sketch #1 - catalog characters

Look through some old housewares catalogs and add your own cartoon characters in the space using a sharpie. 

Pictures from Doodlers Anonymous

Summer Sketch #2 - shadow tracing

This works best either early or late in the day when shadows are longer. Find an interesting shadow and trace it directly on the concrete with chalk, or place large paper on the ground and trace with pen or marker for a longer lasting work of art that can later be painted. If no paper and paints, snap a photo of your chalk drawing for your sketchbook.

Picture from Palisades Preschool

Picture from NYTimes

Picture from TeachKidsArt blog

Calling all student photographers...

Attention Dolvin photo club members and any other Dolvin student photographers, send me your best summer pics and I will publish them right here before school starts. Club members can use our Shutterfly account - look for the "summer 13" album for uploading - and non-members can email your pics to me at knighth@fultonschools.org. Looking forward to seeing your best summer shots!

So it's a little late, but my photo club kids had fun documenting the signs of spring around our building a couple of months ago. Here are a few highlights...

Hehe, Leenah got this one of me as we were heading out for our last shoot. 

Here are two pics I shot from my front porch this summer, the spiderweb in the morning and the froggie in the evening.

From start to finish

One of my absolute favorite parts of my job is seeing each year begin and end. The beginning of every year is always filled with promise and challenge, while the end is full of accomplishments, relief, and the anticipation of a revitalizing summer. The pace of teaching is so strenuous - with about 750 students each week coming into my room, expecting a dazzling art lesson each and every time - there is never a time to be bored or resting on your laurels. The 8 weeks or so we get for summer each year are critical for recharging our teacher batteries. I think I would also be happy with the year-round model too, with built in breaks throughout the year, as long as there is at least a 6 week summer. I just can't imagine a job for me that seems to never end - I love that feeling of a fresh start.

As I close out this year, I am very proud of the accomplishments we achieved in and out of the art room, including our first attempt at Free Art Friday and personally, making it through a year of much transition and change in the professional side of my teaching. We also connected with many students around the country during our Valentine's Day ATC exchange. I am looking forward to a few new ideas, as I am every year - gotta keep it fresh! - including the possibility of expanding ATC's into APP's (Art Pen Pals) and sharing more work in the community.

Enjoy your summer everyone. Recharge those batteries and share what is exciting you for the start of next year... I'd love to hear from you.

This is a (blurry) photo of me with my son Mak, who just finished his 5th grade walk on his last day at our school before he moves on to bigger things at middle school. Next year will be the first year for me to drive to and from school each day by myself - weird!

Packed Portfolios

Parents, as you unpack those backpacks, here are some tips for what to do with all that artwork the kids made this year and has hopefully made it home in good condition. Check out the following two posts from last spring on storing and displaying your favorite pieces from this year.
http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2012/05/portfolios-parent-feedback-appreciated.html
http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2012/05/another-suggestion-saving-student-work.html

Have a wonderful, restful, exciting summer! Let's do it's all again in the fall.

A bite out of summer

This adorable illustration by artist Ben Javens was the inspiration for our last week of art activity. I had originally seen this image on Pinterest, then I saw a lesson similar on "Lessons from the K-12 artroom" blog and I thought it would be a perfect drawing for the last week of school and the start of summer. I added the option of a watermelon wedge for the non-corn enthusiasts (can there be such a a thing?) This was a "draw with me" style lesson, as I have discovered that open-ended lessons are nightmarish during the last days of school, but I did encourage personal choices in the details, patterns and color choices. It was a great review on geometric shapes and overlapping, and the kids find step-by-step drawing very relaxing. Happy summer (eating)!

My demo board after steps are complete