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!