Pixelated Self-Portraits

What do mosaics and Mind-craft have in common?

Well, 6th grade students started off the school year by making pixelated versions of themselves.  Students were asked to imagine a virtual world in which they could transport to and create large scale self-portraits using only 1" squares.  The process of gluing the squares and staying on the grid proved to be exhausting, however, the results were fabulous and appeared to come straight out of a video game.

Getting started

Gluing and measuring

Making geometric faces

Stay tuned for their finished products!

The wheels on the bus go. . .

Beep, beep . . .  I love kindergarten!  How much fun are these fabulous 4 year olds!?  The first project this year was about school buses and how to use materials properly.  We read the story School Bus by, Donald Crews to help jog our memory about all the details buses have.  We then generated a list of must haves for our buses.

Once students got to their seats, I walked them through basic cutting.  We trimmed the corners of our yellow triangles to make the curves of the bus.  We turned a 3"x 12" rectangle into windows by cutting down the middle two times. We then added a door and glued all these parts on day one.  Day two was devoted to decorating the bus by outlining the bus and windows with black crayon, using oil pastels for the people in the windows, and stamping on lights using red paint.  

Busy at work adding people to their windows.

Look at that awesome sharing!

We wrapped up the lesson by making an interactive bar graph.  Each child contributed to their graph by placing a rectangle on the mode in which they get to school.  We then drew observations from the data afterwards.  

Beep beep!!!

Glue and Pastel Self-Portraits

Students from 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D made these gorgeous self-portraits using pencil, glue, and pastels. Upon listening to the book Two Eyes, A Nose, and a Mouth by, Roberta Intrater, they made a list of key features to include in their portrait. They drew their faces with pencil and then outlined the drawing in glue. Once dried, this made a raised boarder to help make definition for the face. Students then colored in their pictures with pastels and dabbled with blending techniques.

AWESOME JOB 3RD GRADERS!!!

Steady hands!

Paying close attention to the details.

So focused!

Pastel time

Gorgeous background

Love these two self-portraits and their awesome smiles.

The first round on display in the art room!

OGPS Pennants

Let's Go Orchard Garden Pilot School!  7th and 8th grade students started off their year by making these school pride pennants.  With the expectation that all our students will be fully prepared for success in college and career, what better way to show our pride than with OGPS pennants!  

Day one began with a discussion about college pennants and how they are used to boost pride and spirit.  We designed our pennants by drawing large isosceles triangles and painting them in with OGPS colors - blue and yellow.  While the students were working on their pennants, I pulled them aside and traced their silhouettes to use on day two.

Let the embellishing begin!

Love this idea of making the design 3D.

Day two began with a review of pattern and design.  We embellished our pennants by collaging blue and yellow paper strips and stamping.  Students were than asked to cut their silhouette and fill their minds with academic words that drive them to be the best students they can be.  These words stemmed from our PRIDE values.

OGPS pennants flying!

The finished results are truly motivating. Go OGPS!

Classroom systems

In order to ensure all students participate in class to the best of their ability, I've established some classroom systems to keep the students in check.  The two systems in place to help classroom management and develop student responsibility are establishing CLASS JOBS and the ARTful CLASS CRAYONS.  Both ideas have been modified from pintrest post.  Gotta love how pintrest fuels wonderful sharing.

ARTful CLASS CRAYONS

Students in Room 252 are expected to be ARTISTs.  It is their responsibility to come into class with a good Attitude, be Respectful to materials and peers, Think before their create, use their Imagination to strengthen their project, keep their work area Spic and Span and stay focused and on Target.  If the class acts up and strays from these core responsibilities, than the letter "A" in ART is turned over for a class warning.  If the behavior worsens, than the "R" is turned over as a second warning.  Should the class receive a third warning, the letter "T" is turned over and the project comes to a halt.  Of course, letters can be turned back from warning if the class is able to get back on track.  A class that stays on the word ART for for the whole class earns a class crayon.  When a class earns ten crayons, they receive an incentive.

CLASS JOBS

It is important for students to understand that the key to a successful artroom is keeping materials tidy and sharing responsibility of the clean-up process.  This system has six essential jobs for students to participate in.  Tables are assigned a job for the week and each week the jobs will rotate so that all students share in these procedures.  The jobs are as follows:

Supply Distributor

Supply Collector

Table Inspector

Floor Inspector

Artword Collector

Critique

It is crucial that you model, model, model, model!  Students need to be shown and reminded regularly how each job is expected to be done and praised for doing a job well done.  

Getting Started

As the summer quickly winds down, the school year revs up!  This year I'm excited to be switching roles at my school and returning to the Arts.  I've inherited this amazing art room and plan on documenting the year's transformation through this blog.

Before

After

Come back often to see all the amazing art that will be created in this room!

Graffiti Icebreaker

Today my Middle School elective class began with a little graffiti.  Six posters were placed around the room for students to reflect upon what they know about art both past and present.  Students could record their ideas in any way they felt comfortable; writing, drawing, sideways, bubble letters, anything goes for graffiti.  Here are the focus question and ideas:

• Art vocabulary
• What was your FAVORITE art memory or project?
• What EXCITES you about art?
• What SCARES you about art?
• What are some TOOLS that you use in art?
• Art GOALS for 2014

Each group was assigned 5 minutes per poster and rotated in order to add their ideas on each paper.  Upon completion, we looked at the common themes and discussed outcomes for this year in art class.