New home for the Imagination Station

Due to the Corona Virus, the PS 23 Imagination Station will be operating from my home. The students will continue to receive lessons on Google Classroom. I will use this blog as my classroom "closet"of sorts. I'll leave miscellaneous articles, videos and links for extra inspiration. Everyone stay safe out there and keep creating!

Wow, the year is flying by! Already the New Year for civilians. For teachers it begins in September and ends in June!
Here are a few pics of the mural that I have been working on with select 4th-5th Graders. I chose the theme of Keith Haring, and the kids and I brainstormed ideas of how to add elements of the art studio into the full mural! They did a fantastic job, working endless hours and always up for the challenge and touchups!
This is the fourth mural that I have been fortunate to receive permission for. The next mural will be themed around the Library in some way, though Im really not even sure what it will look like yet!!
As always, thanks for looking! Happy Holidays to you and your family, Brian

2nd Grade: Observational drawing/Intro to Landscape

For this lesson, I started with a introduction to various lines. For Second Grade this is just a refresher to the element. They began with a collage with horizon line in their art journals. We reviewed a chart of lines that they cut out of black construction paper and assembled into a fall tree.
Next we ventured outside to a great tree in our backyard for observational drawing. Again the emphasis of this lesson was on line work and using shading to show volume in the trunk and limbs.
We ended this unit with a intro to landscape. We again used a horizon line to separate land from sky. Then the students used pencil to sketch a tree as we had done previously outside. They were also shown how to create space by making the trees appear smaller as they ascended up the landscape composition. Phewwww, that was a mouthful. Enjoy all and good luck with your students or children!!

Representational Art: Line and Shape to create Cityscapes with Space!

For these two class periods, the First Grade students were introduced to Cityscape. We began by reading the book Tar Beach and discussing how the city is depicted with shapes. The students were shown that buildings close to us appeared to have the largest windows. We then noticed that buildings that were overlapped appeared further away with smaller windows. The buildings that were behind all others were the farthest distance requiring nothing more than dots or slashes. This is an introductory lesson to space and use of shape! The students have now been introduced to Abstract and Representational art, and are able to recognize that the artist is arranging shapes and lines in a thoughtful and intentional way!

Manipulate This...Paper Sculpture 1st Gra

Once the dust settled on this past month of Sept, the 1st Graders dove head first into Line and Shape. Often I have started with drawing or painting, but this year I went the old dependable and always exciting project...Paper Sculpture!
The students began with a demo on how to manipulate the strips into straight, zigzag, curved and wavy lines. Next came folding and attaching shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. These were all shapes and lines that we worked with last year, so just a good refresher.
They began by working in small groups collabortively, the ones that struggled had additional help from other stronger students. Next period they colored to create patterns on individual oaktag. They did have pattern examples on their tables that I provided.
Finally the students attacked their own sculptures after a quick smart board lesson on Day 3. Honestly I just googled 'Line and Shape Sculptures' and we had discussion of similarities and differences with their own attempts.
The ones who finished early had the time to apply torn pieces on top of the paper strips to create a bit more detail. Sure made them feel accomplished out the gate for the school year!!
*The attached picture is a handout I recieved at a Blueprints for the Arts workshop I attended with NYCDOE (these workshops are great, and freeeee!!!). It shows how this and many other activities in the Visual Arts align with the Standards for Mathematical Practice (COMMON CORE, yikes).These are our ammunition when asked why the Arts are relevant in kids school days...another words why they should  pay you to teach it.

Well, its good to be back.
I had around thirty posts 2 years ago and was fortunate to have a bunch of page views. Soooo, people either liked it or not, but they were looking!
Here I am teaching elementary art for the twelfth year in the same room at the same school. I came in this year and everything looked dull and unexciting as I unpacked materials and moved furniture. This made me gloomy, so I'm sure kids are not going to feel any happier about it.
One solution? Paint lots of furniture and old boards lots of bright colors and give it new life!
It felt better and a few teachers noticed the color brightness as well!
I am certainly looking to challenge myself this year with new projects, bulletin boards and materials. This will surly lead to some failure, but learning from these experiences are how I grow as an art teacher professionally and mentally.
Anyway, I hope to be posting new projects this year. I will probably get around to 2-3 projects a month, all of which will be PK-2nd. The Dance teacher was given the upper grades, so It'll be the little ones for me.
Thanks for checking out this return blog, I hope to share with you successes and utter defeats as I give another year of elementary art curriculum!

1st Grade: Color Unit

For the month of November, my first graders have been learning about colors. We began with the Color Wheel, describing how it is useful for artists. The Color Wheel helps us identify secondary colors (orange, purple and green) that are between the Primary Colors (red, blue, yellow). This is the main focus as the next lesson is about mixing the Primary Colors on a plate! The students also learned how the color wheel can show us complementary colors which are opposite of one another on the wheel, and warm/cool colors.
For the first lesson, they traced a circle and used a ruler to make six pieces of pie. I had examples at each table so that the colors were added correctly. They also were asked to write "The Color Wheel", "Primary" and "Secondary" with the colors being identified. Hopefully some of this will stick in their artistic memory!
The next lesson is about color mixing. They have had a lesson already about basic paint procedure and brush cleaning. I put the 3 Primary colors in a triangle and basically ask that the secondary colors are mixed between them. They need to be given a demo, certainly emphasizing the need to keep some of the primary colors left for the painting! Once completed, the plate should look like a color wheel, with the Primary/Secondary pattern all the way around!! They love this and seem to understand once the plate and color wheel are shown side by side.
For the third lesson, we discuss the artist Piet Mondrian with his wonderful abstract artwork. The students are shown how he used different placement of black lines. They are introduced to Vertical, Horizontal and Diagonal. They are each given 5 1" strips of black construction paper and asked to arrange them to create large shapes. Next, I passed out Primary colored oil pastels, and suggested to color in several shapes. This is a good lesson as it covers math concepts and color elements in one short period! Sure hope you enjoy and be sure to encourage discovery with your young ones as well!
Mac