This Year's "Ish" Artwork

Here is a sample of this year's 2nd grade "Ish" artwork, inspired by the book "Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds. Some were finished with crayons, some with watercolors, and some with marker, but they all started the same way- drawing directly on the paper with sharpie. Why? So that the students have to let go of being perfect. If they make a mistake, they have to find a way to make it great. 

I love the balance of composition in this one!

This 2nd grader is obviously interested in cosmetics!

Abstracted plant

YAM Bulletin Board

I'm a big fan of Peter H. Reynolds' books. They have great messages for kids about creativity, taking chances, and solving problems. Each grade at my K-3rd school completed a project inspired by one of the books. Kindergarten and 3rd grade students made dots, 2nd grade students made "Ish" drawings, and 1st grade students made Sky Color paintings using a wet-on-wet watercolor technique. My bulletin board says:

In Art class we learn to...

Take Chances

Persevere

Make Decisions

Be Confident

Solve Problems

Communicate

Happy Youth Art Month!

I reused the Ramon from "Ish" I made for last year's YAM bulletin board (Happy-Ish Youth Art Month) and added a Vashti from "the Dot" and a Marisol from "Sky Color" to complete the scene. Having the characters on the bulletin board reminds the students of the stories and it was honestly just a lot of fun for me to imitate Reynolds' fun style of illustration. :)

My YAM art show entry was a dot made by a Kindergartener. His learning statement said: 

 I made all colored in circles. I used markers, crayons, and paint. We all made circles but mine was different because I kept going and adding stamps and coloring it in. It was fun putting paint on it. I'm proud of it.

The background of the bulletin board was painted by a couple of 1st grade classes with "sky color"- no blue paint!

The last step was a sign describing the student projects and how they related to the book characters on the board.

Happy-Ish Youth Art Month

Happy Youth Art Month! I was passing back artwork when I finally got an idea for my K-3rd grade YAM bulletin board. (I had to run back to the work room to pull artwork back out of teacher mailboxes...) I painted Ramon from Peter H. Reynolds' Ish on a piece of poster board, as well as a sun. 

 The words are painted directly on the white butcher paper. I really wish the butcher paper was a bit more opaque. It bugs me that you can see where the layers overlap but hopefully with all the other stuff going on, nobody else notices. I think people walking by on Friday probably thought I just had a really shaky hand when I started painting. I was trying to match the writing from the book. :)

After I painted the message, I connected the end of the last word to Ramon's pencil. This reminds me that I need to make a little sign- Mrs.Morris YAM Book Recommendations or something that will explain Ish. Somebody said "Happy-ish? Like sort of happy?"

I hung students' Ish drawings around the bulletin board. A few weeks ago, K-2nd grade students listened to and discussed Ish then made Ish artwork. They drew directly with sharpie so that if they made a mistake, they had to make it great and couldn't erase! Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the one class period project. It would be great for the first week of school. The drawings below were made by Kindergarten and 1st grade students. Enjoy!

The story of Capture-Ish: "A caterpillar who is broken-hearted because his friend captured him and is taking him to a zoo." Great vocabulary for a Kinder!