Kindergarten paper molas

Kindergarten artists used a mola technique of stacking shapes from small to large to practice their cutting skills. A mola is a textile art from Panama that involves sewing layers of fabric in this way, as seen here from molamama :

Some classes used photos of themselves in their designs and added extra shapes, keeping to the spring theme. 

Highlights from our art show - Fine Arts Night 2016

Our chorus concert and art show - also known as Fine Arts Night - is always a fun end of year event at Dolvin. We had another fantastic turnout, with lots of proud faces and families. Take a look! 

 We started working on the chorus concert backdrop a couple of weeks in advance - luckily art and music classes are neighboring so kids could take turns working on it in the hall during their specials time. 100 Years of Broadway was their show title and they had some amazing performances.

We continued our tradition of promoting the Free Art Movement! Some of my 4th and 5th grade students made Free Art to share in the form of coloring books and free art flyers - these went fast! The idea for these came from some awesome teachers in the Facebook art teacher group - Mrs. Abreu's art class and http://pretendstudio.weebly.com/free-coloring-book.html - thanks for sharing!

The art show itself is made of a variety of pieces made throughout the year - each student selects a favorite piece from their portfolio, after discussing what makes a good choice: craftsmanship, completion, pride, appealing to the audience of parents : ) . The Artome company does a great job of framing and displaying our show, and offering parents the convenience of purchasing a frame with some profits benefitting our art program. The art belongs to the students and is then returned after the show.

Many parents and students wrote FAN letters to the artists, which were collected and will be delivered next week. I offer this letter template for free on my Teachers Pay Teachers site,

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

It's a fun way to give and receive feedback!

This friend got hers the very next day!

We also had a hand painted backdrop for photos, made by some of my 1-2 kiddos.

Thank you so much to all the volunteers on our Fine Arts Night committee- your help made everything work out so well!

We have lots of techies at our school and they made it possible to live stream the chorus concert, which was happening on the opposite end of the building, down at our end in the Commons. Before and after the concert, we showed a slideshow of our Artsonia gallery - no preparation, just a click of the mouse, thanks to Artsonia!

Now it's time to send everything home - my closet is overflowing! I hope all the families enjoy seeing the work the students bring home in the next weeks! Let's do it all over again next year!

7 Mindsets Mural & FAN reminder

My 500th post!

***UPDATE: student illustration coloring sheets and mural plan now available for you here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Character-Ed-illustrations-7-coloring-sheets-bulletin-board-plan-2615668

Tomorrow night, Thursday May 5, is Fine Arts Night, so don't forget to come on out and see the fantastic art show! Also unveiling tomorrow night is our completed 7 Mindsets mural in the main hallway. It has been a work in progress all year as we studied each monthly mindset.

The design was inspired by my own childhood - I was always excited and energized by designs I saw on tv shows like Schoolhouse Rock and The Electric Company. Here are a few more pics from the progression...

Here are the first notes and thumbnails

A draft for projection

I made coloring sheets for each mindset so the students could join in

The real deal...