A Short yet Busy Week

Although I only taught 4 classes and Art Club this week, this was probably one of the busiest weeks we have had all year. After starting out the week somewhat normally, Wednesday all of my classes were cancelled because of our school-wide music practice for the Spring Music Program. After another all day practice on Thursday, the music program was held at 7 that evening. I am always impressed by the work students do! Not only do students sing, but they play instruments and create rhythm through using movement and their body. Lastly, Friday was probably the busiest day this week...Field Day. Things went wonderfully again this year. Students were able to participate in 10 different events and had a fabulous time despite it being sooooooo HOT!!! I think it was around 95 degrees yesterday :(

Things are slowly starting to wrap up in the Art Room. Many students are starting to finish their final project of the year. In fact, next week is our final studio day and the last chance for students to finish things up before our last class of the year, which we will use to clean things up. I am hoping that I get the chance to take pictures of everything that the students are working on before they take it home! Everything is looking so good and their art really reflects how excited they are about the upcoming summer break :) Anyway, here's what we were up to this week....

K4: No class this week due to music practice

K5: No class this week due to music practice

1st: With our ocean backgrounds completed, students began drawing and coloring their "Best Artist in the Ocean" animal using oil pastel. We will be adding our animals to our backgrounds next week.

2nd: Students began drawing and coloring their "fancy fish" this week. After drawing them lightly with a pencil, students added color using colored pencils. Students were given four goals for this project...
a. To create a fish with fancy details/accessories
b. To use pattern somewhere on their artwork
c. To layer their colors in at least one area
d. To create a neat artwork that clearly reflects planning and good craftsmanship
I think things are looking good so far! Many students had just began coloring last week when it was time to clean up. As I stated above, students will have time next week to finish these artworks up before taking them home.

3rd: No class due to music practice

4th: With only two students needing to finish up their Op Art Cubes, most students spent Tuesday working on their "All About Me" hands. A few students were able to finish, but much like other classes, they will need another class period to complete their creations.

5th: I am happy to report that every student finished their design for their quilt square. They were able to not only draw it, but get it all colored in a class and a half. This took a lot of focus and determination on their part! With them putting in so much hard work, they will have an entire class period next week to work on sewing and embroidering techniques. 

6th: No class due to music practice

Art Club: With our party coming next week, this week was our last opportunity to work. The older students, just coming in from field day, spent their Art Club meeting this week relaxing and drawing summer inspired pictures that will be in the office during our break. The younger students finished up their ice cream sculptures by adding their toppings and "sauces" created from slightly watered-down acrylic paint. I LOVE how these have turned out! They are so cool and even somewhat realistic. I had several students ask me yesterday why I didn't have them in the freezer!

Only two more weeks to go until summer break, but still lots to do!  

Sorry For Posting Late

Well, I am posting a little later than expected. If you read my post last week, I shared with you that my family would be coming into town for Mr....I mean Dr. Chance's graduation :) My family was initially planning on going home on Sunday, but we ended up hanging out with them until late yesterday after, thus the reason I did not post like I had promised.

I guess though it is better late than never. This update will be a little different than normal. I will include the usual update, but toward the end of the post, I will share a recap of our 3rd Annual Art Show!!! On to the update....

K4: In preparation for our new monster sculptures we will be creating, the K4 students sketched ideas of what they think a monster would look like. There were the usual vampires and werewolves, along with several monsters that students have seen in the movies and on T.V. I can't wait to see how students will react this week when I give them a piece of pool noodle as the base of their monster!

K5: Since I arrived in South Carolina 5 years ago, I have waited for the opportunity to teach about Ernest Lee, or as many around here know him...The Chicken Man!!!! I love his art! It is just so fun and festive. With the end of the year quickly approaching, I thought that now would be the perfect time to discuss this famous local artist. For those of you who do not know the Chicken Man, he paints really cool, brightly colored, funky chickens. Now, he does paint other things as well, in fact, my husband and I own one of his awesome fish paintings, but he is most known for the chickens. He has been painting them for around 30+ years and has reportedly painted around 15,000 chickens for people around the city. He still paints daily and you can go and purchase one of his artworks from Mr. Lee himself downtown.
For our Chicken Man inspired paintings, students worked last week on choosing materials for the 5 different parts of their chicken: the body (fabric scraps), the comb (felt), the beak (felt), the wing and tail (feathers), and lastly the feet (scrapbook paper).

1st: To wrap up the year, I decided a couple of things. First, I wanted to begin to incorporate the Principles of Design into our last artwork and secondly, I wanted to create something summery. If you haven't found or read the book "I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean", by Kevin Sherry, you need to! It is hilarious! After finding that book again on my shelf, I knew that was what we needed to do. I asked students to think about their favorite ocean animal and then to imagine that animal creating art...aka their "Best Artist in the Ocean". This weekend, I will share our backgrounds and how we incorporated emphasis into our creations. Here are some of the sketches they created to start the project off...

2nd: Going along with the ocean theme or as I am calling it "Summer Celebration", I decided to continue it into the 2nd grade curriculum for the end of the year. After discussing the Principles of Design variety and pattern, students began sketching their ideas for our "Fancy Fish". I was cracking up at some of their ideas! So much fun!!!

3rd: This past week was a finishing day for the third grade. Students completed the final details on their artwork, as well as any critiques and journal entries. They are now ready to start a new project tomorrow!

4th: Fourth graders are still hard at work on their Op Art cubes. Some students began finishing theirs up this past week and assembled them using simple, clear Scotch tape.

 5th: To kick off our new project, students learned about quilts...I even showed students pictures of the National Quilt Museum and the National Quilt Show, both located about 20 minutes from where I grew up. It is really interesting to me to see how far quilts have come along from their traditional beginnings to ultra modern designs that look more like paintings. I was so happy to see students sharing my enthusiasm and interest!
Because we only have 3 real studio classes left this year, we really don't have the time to create a real quilt square using fabric and sewing techniques. Instead, we are drawing our favorite school memories and then will "sew" yarn around the edges of the square when the drawings are completed. 

6th: With the Art Show approaching, students used Wednesday of last week to add their final details to their Palmetto Trees. Now that we are all finished with our paintings, it is time for tie-dye!!!

No Art Club this past week :(

The Art Show was a hit again this year! In a similar style to last year, I chose one artwork to represent each student at our school. We partner again with the SpringHill Suites to put on this year's show. They set up the room and tables for us, in additional to providing some delicious food for all those who came to the event and Dr. Mr. Chance and I set up all of the art. I was really pleased with how things looked this year and very proud of all the accomplishments that students have achieved! I wish so badly that we could leave everything framed for a few more weeks so every family could see what we have created this year. But alas, all good things must come to an end...all the work has returned to the Art room and students will be receiving all of their projects Thursday to take home. Below are a few pictures of this year's show. Hopefully by the end of this week, I will be bringing a photo book to school to share all of the wonderful artworks and pictures I took!

Happy Easter and Spring Break

Hope everyone is having a super Happy Easter and a great start to our week and a half long break! As I mentioned in my previous post, due to the start of our break, this past week was a short one. I was only able to have my classes on Tuesday, and two of them on Wednesday. Despite the excitement of the upcoming break, students were able to get a lot accomplished! Here's what we were up to this week...

K4 and K5: Because of the school-wide retreat Wednesday morning, I decided to give students a break from our normal project. Additionally, I didn't think it was fair for students to start a totally new project and try to remember everything that we had discussed over the break. So for a short one day project, I decided to read students the book, Elmer by David McKee. At the end of the book, all of the elephants celebrate "Elmer Day" in which they decorate themselves in bright colors and patterns. After reading the book, I asked students to create their own elephant and decorate them for "Elmer Day"! 

1st: Students are finishing up their Cubism inspired collages. I believe that there are only 4 students that need to finish after we get back from the break. As soon as they finish, I will be posting pics of our finished creations.

2nd: Students in 2nd grade are also finishing up their projects. Similar to the 1st grade, there are a few students that need to finish. I will be posting pictures of all the finished projects when we return from break. For now, here are a few of the completed Hundertwasser houses!

3rd: No class this week :(

4th: I'm sorry for sounding a little like a broken record, but the 4th grade is also finishing up their current project. I will be posting pics of their finished photos after the break as well. Since many of the 4th graders only had a few details to add to their photos on Tuesday, I decided that we were going to start our new, mini project....Op Art Cubes! They will be continuing to work on these for the next couple of weeks.

5th: It is crazy how much I have said the same thing in this post, but the 5th grade is in the same position as most of the other grades...finishing things up. Again, there are a few students that need to sign their prints and add a few last details, so I will be posting their finished prints after the break.

6th: No class this week :(

Art Club: No meeting this week :(

As you can probably guess, I will not be posting this upcoming Saturday. My next post will not be until May 3rd after we return to school. I hope that everyone has a fantastic rest of their break! I cannot wait to hear about everyone's adventures and fun!!!