Week 7: Intro to Printmaking! Reusing old and broken crayons!

For this week, I chose to do printmaking 101 with all grades: crayon rubbing! I removed the paper with a blade for quick turnaround, then gave several different lessons.
The Kindergarten were able to cut and tear shapes for both soft and hard edges, then place them under the paper for an abstract composition. This lesson focused on scissor skills for the third time this year, along with crayon rubbing techniques. They came out very nice and the students were able to identify the  shapes and the method of cutting vs. tearing.
First grade used leaves from outside the school for a nature infused lesson. We began by showing images of New England in the Fall, which they ooohhed and aaahhed! Next we watched a video on why the leaves change color from the website, Brainpop. They then traced a template of a tree and moved the leaves around to make multiple prints from the leaves. They were able to use scissors to cut and mount the trees on construction paper.
For the next class, I had them use their imaginations and place shapes under their paper and rub over the edges. For this lesson however, they had to combine the shapes to make recognizable images(abstract vs. realistic) like houses, animals or people.

The Second-Fifth Graders used rubbing plates and discussed overlapping and crayon rubbing techniques. I asked them to fold the paper into 8 separate panels, then use a pattern plate for the first rubbing. The next plate would then be either a bird or leaves, and overlap the patterns. This left us with 8 prints in total.
Next class, the students were shown how artist's mount their work. They cut, arranged and glued the panels to black paper with a border around each one. The work looked very professional and gave the students a sense of pride and confidence! Thank you for looking and be sure to recycle your old and broken crayons, there is plenty of life left in them for crayon rubbing! BMAC

Week 6: Organizing my 185 Students...One portfolio at a time!

So, I figured that this past week was as good of time as any to begin putting together personal portfolios    for all of my 185 students. This has several advantages of course, and allows for a sense of organization and sanity to the class bins which seemed to be overflowing!
This can tend to be a sensitive issue as students are fond of taking work home, though I need to collect for data and to show administrators and parents the results of my lessons. I tend to put roughly 70% of the work in folders, which I send home the contents every 3-4 months.
Each student receives a folder, and a period to decorate it. This time can be used to to review the drawing intro techniques of tracing, stencils or proper coloring techniques. They are free to color the front, back or inside. But I do emphasize that this folder will be holding their artwork, and presentation should be nice. What do you want people to think of your work when they see your portfolio?
Before giving them time to work, we visited two websites that I would like to share. The first was a site that explores several of the elements we have studied such as line, shape and color. You also can watch videos of serveral professional artists, one of which deals with our next unit, collage. The name of the website is Theartiststoolkit.com. The second website that I introduced them to was artpad.com which is a virtual painting pad. They loved the feature where you can watch the instant replay!
In my classroom, the folders or portfolios provide organization, data collection and provide assessment for grading. They are referenced with the parents during parent-teacher and give the students a sense of pride and ownership. Every art teacher has their own way of organizing the large number of student's work, this is just one example. Thank you for taking the time checking these out! Mr. Mac

Week 4 and 5: Six Techniques of Clay/ Pinch Pots

For this lesson, the students began by learning about various clay items that can be made by reading the The Potter. The students were able to see different techniques that she used to form her clay ware, which led us to the clay techniques worksheet.
The worksheet consists of 6 techniques that I find are the most important to be able to create sculptures and pots. After a teacher demonstration, the students had to show on their own techniques such as making balls, coils, pinching, poking, flattening (slab), and stretching. They would raise their hands and show me that they completed this before having several minutes exploring the clay independently.
The second period, the students learned about how to make a pinch pot. Again, this is only an intro to clay and not a unit!(Success builds confidence!) They incorporated the techniques from the previous day such as ball, poke, pinch and coil.  While the clay was still soft, they were shown how to add texture with a pencil by twisting the eraser side for dots, and carving line and shape with the sharp point.
The third period, the students were given a demonstration about using lines, shapes and pattern with their colorful paints! This reinforced our recent paint intro week, and the colors were very vivid!
Finally, the students were asked to write about the experience using vocabulary and techniques that were required to complete the project. We made a list together of materials, decoration, texture and techniques. Enjoy and have a great week!

The NYC Blueprint for the Arts: The art teachers Bible!

http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/Blueprints/VAbp2007.pdf

I remember in Nov. 2003 (my first forgettable year!) going to a training for the Blueprints that NYC had just published. They are guidelines or a road map of what the students should be able to do by 2nd grade, 5th Grade and so on. The training was at some hotel in Midtown, and sooo many teachers came. Honestly it was very unorganized and all these teachers rushed the doors and took large beautiful books called the Blueprints for the arts. The book had visual arts, music and dance (and I believe technology). There were thousands of these books, totally free of charge. Well, the trainings were expensive but my school graciously provided my funds. They were trainings to allow art teachers all over the city to understand how and why art is relevant and important to a well rounded curriculum. Over the years the trainings have become cheaper to the point of free, and I believe you have to special order the books now which are way smaller! They have provided me with information to feel confident and prepared, and I'm not sure where I would be without the invaluable trainings. Please take a look and see if this can help your curriculum in your classroom, or perhaps you want to implement some of these great art ideas into your rainy days at home! Hope this helps...Brian

Recovery to Discovery: A short video I made to inspire my students to reuse materials for art

Hey! I have been showing this video for the last few years to inspire my students to look around the neighborhood for materials that can be transformed to artwork! I have taken many classes at Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, Queens which has given me a new perspective on the possibilities of found  materials. Perhaps you or your kids can make a short clip as well to encourage recycling and reuse in the classroom or at home! I used Audacity for audio and IMOVIE for the images, enjoy!