music and harmony...

5th graders got introduced to the Watercolor Studio for this project! They began by making six different Artist Trading Cards practicing several watercolor techniques - wet on dry marks, wet on wet washes and blending, crayon resist, salt, rubbing alcohol, and pen and ink designs.

Then we discussed HARMONY as a Principle of Art. We compared Harmony in Art to Harmony in Music! We also explored several different ways to use COLOR as harmony in their artwork, such as warm/cool colors, analogous, triadic, and split complementary!

For this challenge, Artists were to create a piece of artwork using the drawing, collage, and/or watercolor studios that showed HARMONY, with a theme of MUSIC. We also talked about how to tie in the principle of Rhythm and all of the elements from our previous lessons. I'm so impressed with their solutions... :)

wild rhythm...

Fifth graders began this lesson by talking about Andy Goldsworthy and his temporary nature artworks. After talking about visual RHYTHM, comparing it to music, and finding the ways that Goldsworthy used rhythm in his artworks... artists practiced creating visual rhythms as a group using craft supplies (like popsicle sticks, seeds, wood shapes, beads, etc). We took pictures of these temporary artworks, and then artists filled out an Artist Statement describing what they did and how they showed RHYTHM.

Then we started our final challenge... WILD RHYTHM!

The goals were this: create a piece of artwork using the drawing and/or collage centers that demonstrates VISUAL RHYTHM. They were reminded to think about all of the Elements of Art that we discussed in our last project - especially focusing on SPACE.

Check out the amazing projects:

artist trading cards...

Through my Pinterest-ing, I've found a ton of information on Artist Trading Cards and was so excited to try it out this year with the 3rd graders! Artist Trading Cards are 2.5" x 3.5" artworks that can be traded with any other artist in the world... 

We decided to make Mixed Media Self Portraits. We studied a lot of different art techniques when making these. We began by talking about harmony and painting our paper using colors we thought looked good together using a watercolor wash. 

Then we learned about rhythm in art, and made white prints on top of our colored paper using Styrofoam printing plates that we drew our own rhythmic design on. 

We then used collage to create our clothing… for this part we watched a really cool video online about a four year old girl in Ohio, nicknamed Mayhem, that designs clothes out of paper! Her designs have become so popular through her mom’s Instagram account, that she’s been featured on The Ellen Show and she is now helping J. Crew design a kid’s clothing collection! You can find her online by searching “Fashion by Mayhem” - she was our inspiration! 

Lastly, we painted the skin and hair details, trying hard to mix and match colors to show our own uniqueness the best we could. We did not include facial features because we were hoping to keep an abstract-ness to the portraits. Didn't they turn out so cute! 

After they were done, we signed the backs and sent them off to Mrs Hahn's 4th grade artists in Rogers Minnesota! And my artists were thrilled to receive this back soon after: 

Thank you Hassan Elementary School - we love our new artworks!

what our choice-based classroom looks like...

I've had many people ask how my room is set up now that I am doing choice-based art, and so I thought I'd share some pictures! This concept is only a few months old in our classroom, so we're still adding and changing things around when we see the need... but this is what we have so far:


The first thing I did when I decided to begin Choice-Based Art is make some posters... I was introducing a new concept of making their artwork "WOW" - a Wonderful, Original Work of Art - so I put together a poster, inspired by one I found online, listing some things that they should make sure they have before they turn in a project. I also made a poster to show the steps they should take in making their artwork - Plan It, Make It, Reflect On It, Share It.

After a week or two using choice-based art, I realized I needed an example of what WOW might look like... so here it is:

We began with the Drawing Center... so far, this center has pencils, erasers, rulers, crayons, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, permanent markers, mirrors, and texture plates. Our white paper is stored in this center as well, and we also have small baskets for taking supplies back to the table if they have a handful.

Collage was the next center we opened... colored paper, scrap boxes, scissors, glue, paper edging scissors, texture rollers, colored mosaic squares, and hole punches currently fill this center. My goal is to surround the center spaces with examples of how to use those materials... the students are just starting artworks about texture so they'll be able to use the Paper Sculpture poster soon! :)

Next to open was the Painting Center...

The painting center began with just watercolors (and remains that way for the younger groups)... but now has tempera on the orange table for the older students. This center also has paint shirts, paint brushes in different sizes, paper to protect the table underneath their paintings, and water bowls. It's also conveniently located near the sinks for easier cleanup!

The Clay Center is opening this week! I'm sure it will evolve and change as we go, but so far the supplies are on a cart near the kiln room door. Artists who are using clay will get a Masonite board to work on back at their table and a ball of clay out of the green bucket. Any tools that they might need to create their art piece will be available on this cart as well.

This area is what we call our Inspiration Station... it's filled with posters of famous artwork, tons of children's books, how to draw books, wooden manikins and 3D shapes... anything we can think of to give us some inspiration for our ideas. The students are encouraged to look through the items here when coming up with a plan for a new project.

This bulletin board is constantly changing... under each grade level is a list of standards for the year. I move the star to show which standard we are focusing on for each project, and hang an example underneath. Some of these examples are mine, and some are student's work. This area is a great reminder of what our goal is, and inspiration if an artist is in need. :)

These last two pictures are routines that we were using before we began Choice-Based Art... but are still important. Artists have jobs assigned by table color (and the crayons can be moved so jobs are changed throughout the year), and Art Room Noise Levels... I found this idea on Pinterest and love it. Does it give me a super quiet room? Unfortunately... not usually. But the kiddos know what Spy Talk is, appreciate the visual, and usually try hard to keep it there. :)

"Make Great Choices!" was something I added to my room at the beginning of the year, before we began Choice-Based Art, because it's something I always say (to my school kids and my kiddos at home)... and when I was collecting pictures to show of the room, it occurred to me that it now fits perfectly with our new way of learning!

Also, I think it's important to note, all of the centers are organized and clean in these pictures because of the mini-Artists in this room... not me! They know that if the center is a mess, it will be closed when they come back next week. This is great motivation to not only clean up after themselves, but also to help each other. :)