Show Me the Mona: THIRD GRADE

Showing posts with label THIRD GRADE. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

art at the fair...

We were given the opportunity to display some of our artwork at the Williams County Fair this year!

All grades are using Artist Trading Cards this year... as practice for techniques, as projects, and as "free art" when finished early. I gave each student a pocket page protector to store their cards in, and throughout the year we will be participating in ATC trades with other students at Bryan City Schools, other schools, and throughout the world!

These are the 3rd graders' ATC's from their first day in Art... one student drew a line on the card, then they passed them to their left, and another student finished the drawing using their imagination. I was so impressed with their creativity! Didn't they turn out great?!

Fifth grade started out the year reviewing the Elements of Art - Line, Shape, Value, Form, Texture, Color, and Space. They created these accordion books to show a sample of each Element. Throughout the semester we will be focusing on the Principles of Art and how the Elements are used to accomplish these, and then at the end the Principles will be drawn on the back of the accordion books!

And, finally 6th graders are learning about World Facts and History combined with the Art Elements and Principles, so we connected the theory of Pangea and the continents with Puzzle Pieces that were inspired by our own personal interests. We focused on using the element of Space and principle of Contrast to create a visually pleasing composition. I loved learning more about my new artists through these artworks!

Thursday, May 28, 2015

texture...

Second and Third graders ended the year learning about texture!

We talked about the difference between Tactile and Visual Texture, looked at a bunch of examples, and then got to work! Their only direction was to show me either visual or tactile texture (or both!), and they had a choice of drawing, collage, paint and craft centers. And the third graders were thrilled to be able to use the clay center for this project, as well.

Check out these amazing examples of texture in art!

Clay and Feathers! Great textures!

Love when my artists find a creative way to combine centers!

We're happy that the snow is gone... but love this soft little snowman!

Look at all that detail!!!

GREAT use of the texture plates in the drawing center!

WOW! Lots of hard work went into this big guy!

The cool colors make this artwork POP!

What wonderful perspective!

Can't get over how cute she is. Great use of drawing and craft centers!

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!

Thursday, April 2, 2015

exploring choice-based art...

For awhile now, I've been researching a way of teaching art known as Choice Based Art, or Teaching for Artistic Behavior. The idea behind it is that students are given the responsibility of deciding what their art projects will look like, instead of a "cookie-cutter" approach to learning about art. They decide which materials, and often subject matter, will be best for their artwork. They are given a chance to explore, experiment, and problem solve. I was intrigued by the idea, and after a ton of reading and learning... I decided to jump in and see how the students at Paulding Elementary did with choices.

So beginning this past January, I opened the first two centers - drawing and collage. I decided to do a modified choice, meaning that I would require that the students create an artwork based on a standard and/or theme chosen by me. So each day, I begin by introducing a new art concept, and possibly a new center, and then the students choose the path that they would like to take to achieve the standard that is being taught .

I wanted to ease the students in, since they had a lot of learning to do about the routines of the centers, so I made our first lesson themed around food. Because... who doesn't love food?! I figured it would be a familiar topic, in a not-so-familiar learning environment. So, the kiddos' got an introduction to the materials that were available at each center, they viewed many famous artworks that were based on, or featured, food in some way, and I did a demonstration on how to create a collage'd fruit bowl... and then they were given their task of creating their own artwork about food, with a focus on details.

What a learning experience! So many students were floored by the idea that they could use anything that was out at the centers... "I can use the glue?! It's okay to use the oil pastels?!" I had some new tools that they had never used before, and of course these were popular with a lot of students. I had fully expected most students to use the collage center.. because it had the glue and scissors... but many surprised me with choosing drawing. Many others decided to combine the two centers for a mixed media artwork. And I'll be honest... I feared the chaos that could come with elementary students and choices. But it was anything but chaos. It's been INCREDIBLE!

After this first experience with choice-based art... I am in love. The students are in love. It is so nice to let the students lead with their own ideas about what the artwork should look like. I was fascinated and impressed by so many of my students who came up with solutions to the problem I gave them with something I never would have thought of! It has made the students more responsible (they also have to take care of their centers, materials, monitor noise levels, etc to be able to earn a new center!), and has given them a new confidence that's hard to explain... and it's given me a new-found respect and sense of pride in my students and what they can accomplish.

Just look at these outstanding artworks completed by Kindergarten through Fifth grade and be amazed with me...