Pointilism Art lesson, 3rd grade

After looking at pointilism and mosaic, my third graders were encouraged to create a small picutre that they would create in pointilism.  They used a small 9x9 colored peice of construction paper and tempera paint.

Recycled Tube Art lesson

Last year a parent donated a TON of small tape tubes to the art room.  I love when parents offer me stuff, but I wasn't sure about what to do with them.  I decided to have the students create ANYTHING they wanted with their tube. Well let me tell you, this was very hard for the students!! They are so used to having a topic for their lessons, and doing this as the first lesson after summer break made it even harder!! Some students really loved it, and went crazy with it, and some just were stuck!  I gave the students a variety of supplies to use, various papers, beads, pipe cleaners, etc.  I even pulled out hot glue guns to help stuff hold better.  I didnt let little kids use it, but my 5th graders were allowed to.  They handled that quite well.  Here are some photos of what they did....

Clay Food Art Lesson, 5th grade

Last year I decided to stray away from the typical coil pots that I have done with my fifth grade.  One of my students asked if we could make clay food, and I thought that would be a great idea.  We looked at some famous contemporary artists who have used food in/as the theme of their art, and started from there.  We use various methods to create our forms, depending what the food is.  After the clay was fired, they just used tempera to add the color, an modge podge to put a shine to it.  The clay food was a hit! The students an teachers loved to see what was made!

Outer Space Scenes, 1st grade

Space scene lesson, 1st grade.

I have done this Space scene lesson a ton of different ways, and I am not totally sold on if I like it or not.  They students draw out their scenes with pencil, and then color it in with oil pastel.  Once that is done, they use tempera cakes to paint in the sky.  This worked well as long as they outlined their work first.  After that was dry, they took a new 9x12 pice of white to create their rocket ship.  They used crayon and marker to add details and color, and then cut it and glued it on their page.

Back to creativity lesson

Great easy intro for the year is having students create a simple "All about me flag".  They contain symbols an designs related to themselves.  I end up stringing them all throughout the artroom for decoration.  They end up really looking fun when they are all hanging up!!

I need another art teacher to help!!!

I am looking for another art teacher who might be interested in creating a "virtual" art show with me this year.  We could trade artworks virtually from students between grades 1-5.  Using an ipad, we could also skype with our classes an share ideas about some lessons that we teach. 
If someone out there is interested in this please let me know!!!! I want to write a grant that would fund an ipad for the artroom.  This would let me skype with another artroom in the US or other.  I would also allow for the artworks to be shared.  Contact me at maryann.rodin@westg.org for more information.

Chardon shootings are TOO close to school.

When I was pulling into the parking lot Monday morning, I happened to turn up the radio.  Rovers morning glory show was talking about a "gunman" in the school.  Where were they talking about,?  I waited a minute, was this local or national???  Then I heard them say Chardon HS.  Chardon?  Thats literally ten minutes down the road!!!  No way.  Then I heard them say a life flight has been sent and landed at the Walmart.  I got out of the car and decided I better get into school to see what was going on exactly. That was when i saw the next life flight over my head.  I was freaking out.  We ended up putting our school on high alert, because at that time, the shooter was not caught.  I was sick about it.  All day we had to wait to hear details as they came out.  We couldn't talk at lunch because I think we all thought we would start crying.  Chardon is like our "sister" district.  We have the same demographics as them.  We have common friends and families there.  This was horrible.  I lost it on the drive home to where I live.  This week has been so emotionally draining, and each day we have heard of another victim passing away.  I knew when I heard the first victims name that I had taught in my old district with a girl with the same last name.  I knew in my gut they had to be related.  Sure enough it was confirmed to me this morning that the first victim was her nephew.  I am so sad.

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What kind of name is that?

After seeing the many great art teacher blogs, I have been inspired! I have decided to start blogging about my great job as an elementary art teacher. I have decided to name the blog after the often annoying skeleton that was donated to the room long before I started this job. I assume we inherited him from the high school science dept., but I am not sure. He is a great tool for drawing figures, but around October every year the kids start looking for a glimpse of him from behind the back storage room door. I decided that this year it was due time to make him a little more abstract."you should paint him, Mrs Rodin," one of my third graders said last week. What a great idea! Now I have to decide how?