When I walked into a few classrooms this week, I heard, "are we actually going to make any art this time?" I guess the kids don't think the sketchbook work we're doing at the beginning of class really counts! Haha! However I'm very happy with our sketchbook activities. It helps frame the activity well, it's a great assessment check or understanding, and it helps connect our math and science and art connections more implicitly. The sketchbooks also helped during "waiting" moments when someone finished early or had to wait for the rest of the class to catch up.
In second grade we jumped into our mobile-making by creating balance bars. We did some pattern repetition exercises at the beginning of class and reviewed symmetry/asymmetry/balance/unbalance. Together we formed our pipe cleaner balance bars, following directions, and then the kids got to play with putting beads on them. They were challenged to create a pattern and balance their bar with the different weight beads. Partly due to limited selection, only about a quarter of each 2nd grade successfully created color or shape patterns. Does it balance? :
Yup!
But not everyone reached equilibrium. Some focused on one side first and then had trouble balancing out the other side. It was an interesting experiment. Next week we'll align the balance lesson with math number models by limiting the number of beads.
The 3rd grade started making their coin stamps. We started off with 3 coin symbol patterns on the board, and worked together and alone to figure out the value of each one. When we're ready to stamp we'll be making our own symbol patterns and then figuring out the values, so it was good practice. The kids had to follow directions very carefully for the process to go smoothly, and they did really well. We traced our wood coin circle onto the paper backed sticker foam, drew our coin symbol in "chunky" shapes, cut them out, and stuck them onto the wood circles. Mrs. O'Donnell's class had more time and got penny, nickel, and dime complete (except for handles), and Ms. DiDonato's class completed just pennies (complete with handles). We probably could have done more, but I goofed on my supply stocking.
The kids were impressed with the resulting stamp effect, so I think they'll really have fun with this. They noticed the reversal necessary for printing and we noted that print blocks have to be mirror images to the printed image (love sneaking extra math concepts in). Originally I wanted to do it on fabric, but I think we'll do paper- it'll be a better match with our inks.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during 4th grade's sewing session today. It's a shame, because they did a TOTALLY GREAT JOB!!! It was the easiest "1st day" of sewing I've ever experienced. Most of this is because nearly all of our 4th graders have sewn with me before in last year's residencies, and they are quite calm and well-behaved classes. So they know the drill of threading needles and knotting. We reviewed concentric and meander, and I introduced the idea of Path of Least Resistance very physically, by being silly about knocking into desks to cross a room vs walking through the spaces between desks. We sewed buttons into our compositions today to represent "obstacles" which I hope the 4th grade teachers will be able to connect to their landform lessons. With 3rd and 4th grades I've been telling the kids who like to pop up and come show me things or ask me questions that "I'm not the Pied Piper" to try to cut down on some random classroom movement. I was not this strict about it before and it's working better now- more hands raised and less following.
5th grade reviewed morning, noon, and afternoon shadows in their sketchbooks. We talked a little about prisms and color and rainbows before beginning our "Water-Color" artwork. We practiced drawing ellipses in our sketchbook because I worried they'd feel uncomfortable just drawing their water bottles from observation. I thought we could use the shadow lesson to also show color mixing, combining 2 facets of light.
Students first drew their water bottles using ellipses. Then they paired up to project and trace am/noon/pm shadows using a real waterbottle and shadow at the foot of their drawn bottle. The noon shadow seemed the most confusing to them. Students were encouraged to turn mistakes into creative opportunities, so a few of them who drew very small bottles ended up making several. Painting in the regular classroom is a little nerve-wracking for me- I don't want to get really messy in there!! But the kids were pretty careful, and the aide and student teacher and teachers were extremely helpful in keeping everybody organized and tidy. And we have rainbow hands to prove it! Luckily both classes occur right before lunch and the paintings were able to remain at desks to dry while the kids were out.
I'm very pleased so far with the integration of Art/Math/Science. I'm satisfied that my artistic goals are being met in these beginning lessons. I hope our academic goals are also being met- any feedback teachers? Feel free to comment.
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