Shooting Stars

 

 I'm not sure where I saw the motivation for this project so I apologize to the person who inspired me for not crediting them. Here's what I did:  I grabbed several of the "place mats" that were used for protecting tables during painting last year and headed to the die cut machine which I used to cut the stars.  Using Elmer's liquid glue to insure a strong tack, stars were glued into a corner of the black construction paper.  The lesson was for Kindergarten with a focus on line recognitions and appropriate line names.  Students drew a horizontal, a vertical,  and a diagonal line.  Then in between these were added zig zag lines, curvy and swirly lines.  All the lines were drawn with a white charcoal pencil.  Students then colored in the negative spaces using construction paper crayons.  The background paper was black construction paper!  This was great practice for color control and filling in the spaces.  I think the Kinders did a terrific job!

Life has been busy!

I've been absent way too long but it's not because things haven't been happening in the art room.  This month the focus was on shape, line and color across the grades.  Some of the projects are repeat project and a few were some old tried and true that I hadn't gotten to in the last several years.

Multiple projects from across the grades.

Above is the bulletin board in one of the schools where I tried to display a few projects
from each grade. You will notice spider webs done with a watercolor wash from
 Kindergarten where the focus was on line names and directions identification.  
Both third and fourth were creating observational drawings.  Fourth
 created the harvest still life and third were drawing skeletons.  For both 
grades the focus was "seeing like a scientist" and drawing only things as 
they are seen rather than what we know to be true. This proved to be a bit 
challenging for both groups so a two drafts were created for each project with
 personal and group critiques to help students to raise the bar with their drawings.

Second grade students created line/pattern leaves with scratch art paper.  This is a project from several  years ago.  I had used the die cut machine to cut out maple leaves and the left overs were filed away.  Since there were enough for my two classes, I decided to pull it back out again.  Since 2nd grade had never used scratch art paper before, I had them practice drawing lines and patterns on a small scrap of the paper first.  After mastering the technique, the stem was extended onto the leaf and veins added to created sections.  Each section was filled with a different line pattern.

Finally, a few photos of the value webs from 5th grade.  This project is a twist on one from Art with Mr. E that was popular a few years ago and you still find on pinterest.  Instead of plotting along a line and then creating the value curves, I had students draw a spider web and add value around the web.  Most students opted to add a spider using oil crayons once they were finished.  These were especially striking.  

So that will catch you up a little with the going ons.  I'll try to post a little more regularly in the future.

Kindergarten Formative Assessments

Student Project

How do you determine baseline levels for your new incoming students?  For years I have been using this project as my initial assessment of student skills.  I tell my students it is a "follow the leader draw".  As educators we call it a directed lesson.  As I begin the lesson I determine student understanding of line names such as horizontal, vertical and diagonal.  Some usually are familiar but not necessarily comfortable with the words.  I have students draw with their "magic pencils" (index fingers) in the air in front of them as I say the word for the line and then they repeat it back.  We do this for several repeats as they draw first horizontal lines from edge to edge of the paper, followed by vertical lines and finally a few diagonal lines.  Next we embark on the primary colors and shapes.  The lesson might go: color a rectangle red.  I would ask someone to tell me what a rectangle might look like before they color.  A square could be blue or yellow and the final color would be a triangle.  Each time someone shares what the shape should look like so that all students are able to identify the shape they should be coloring.  Secondary colors are introduced by combining the primary colors.  "What will happen when we mix red and yellow?"  This happens for all three secondary colors as more shapes are colored and circles are drawn and colored.  The entire lesson involves active student participation in the discovery with much repetition of words and concepts.  As they work I am constantly taking in the process and looking for struggling students and competent students.  As we all know, there is a huge discrepancy in skills with incoming Kindergartens some years.  This lesson really gives me an overview of what I need to focus on and whether students have already mastered basic skills due to PreK exposure or home involvement.

Student Project