Projects from Maternity Leave

My son was born the Saturday after Thanksgiving (4 months ago today!) so I didn't go back after Thanksgiving break until the end of January.  I was excited to look through the projects that the students completed while I was gone.  Most were new projects that I had never tried with students before.  Some are keepers "as is" and some will need to be reworked if I try them again.

December

One of my examples

4th-6th Grade students finshed or started "name doodles" or other projects that incorporated words.  The name doodles turned out great!  I left several examples with different variations for the other word art but I may not have done a good enough job explaining.  Or the students just might not have fully understood.  I could tell from some projects that the individual students "got it" but others either didn't or maybe were trying to take the easy way out.  I forgot to save a few photos of student work but I do have some of my examples.  It might be worth trying again.

Another of my examples.  Including my random thoughts!

Kindergarten students made collages inspired by Mondrian's paintings so they could practice squares and rectangles (part of my SMART goal).  Here is my post about the project last year.

1st grade students did follow the leader penguin drawings.  I stand by follow the leader drawings or "I draw, you draw" as being fine in moderation.  I think it can help drawing be less intimidating when students see me model the thought process and breaking pictures down into lines and shapes.  It's also good for practicing listening skills and following directions.  I always allow the students the freedom to personalize!  I saw lots of students added other penguins and creative details in their backgrounds.

2nd grade students learned how to shade spheres and reviewed cool colors.  The students made drawings of snow people on cool colored construction paper with pastels.  I intended for oil pastels to used but my sub couldn't find them and used dry pastels instead.  I think it might have actually turned out better, sometimes the dust looked like snow!  I wasn't prepared with fixative or the substitute of hairspray (even though my drawing professor would do the alive equivalent of rolling over in his grave!) so I just had to warn the teachers not to carry the stacks of artwork against their sweaters since the drawings were messy.

3rd grade students tested out a new project for me.  I don't know whether to call it a collograph or something else.  If you know what it would technically be called, please let me know!
Day 1- The students drew snow people on cardboard and then traced their lines with bottled glue.
Day 2- The students put paper over the top of their glue drawings and rubbed with crayon to make the image show through.  I could tell lots forgot to hold the crayon on it's side and ended up pressing too hard while some didn't use enough pressure.  It's always a challenge so I put in my plans to let them practice on computer paper before making their final prints.  Since I wasn't there, I don't know if it actually happened.  I would try this technique again even though it was super hard to see most of the images this time.




January
4th-6th grade students started the Jr. Duck Stamp program and finished it when I got back.  Another post about the ducks (I love ducks) is coming!

K-3rd drew self portraits of themselves in the snow then started birthday cake drawings for Kansas (our state is now 150!)

Preparing for Leave

I thought I would share some things that I did to prepare for maternity leave in case it might help out someone else in the same situation.  I think I nested at school more than at home so it is possible that I went a little overboard!  I did everything I could think of to make the transition easier on my students and the sub.  I left simple lesson plans for every project.  If I had an Art teacher as a sub I probably still would have planned everything to make sure that my goals for the year would be met... I'm not the most laid back person!  Anyway, read on if you wish!

This was a test step-by-step visual.  I made some for the lessons my sub taught.

Make a Plan- The first thing I did was map out my lessons so I could organize everything I needed to do to get ready for my substitute.  The earlier you can find out who your substitute will be, the better.  I had asked the other Art teachers in my district for suggestions on substitutes who had Art experience and gave the list to my principal.  None of those subs worked out and since there are not a lot of people with Art backgrounds, I made sure that my sub would be comfortable with the lessons I had planned.  Since I teach K-6 students, I reassured my substitute that they could handle anything the students could handle.

Gather Materials- After I had the lessons mapped out, I wrote my plans and made sure to point out which terms needed to be explained to the students.  I made an example to go along with each lesson plan, showing the steps whenever possible.  For some projects, I made step-by-step illustrations.  For others, I photographed each step of the process as I worked on the project and either put the pictures into a handout or a PowerPoint presentation.  For a more complicated project with my 4-6h grade students, I photographed the creation of my example, step-by-step, and recorded my voice explaining the process on a PowerPoint so the sub can press play and it will be like I am there demonstrating.  I put together any PowerPoints or images that the substitute would need to show and burned them on a cd for easy access.  I made sure that all the lesson plans and examples were easy to find.  On my last day at school, I had everything else done so I ended up with time to get paper cut down for every project.

Labels- I realized that my substitute would be someone who was not familiar with the Art room so I typed labels for all of my cabinets and storage areas with a list of the contents.  (I also noted in my lesson plans where the supplies for that project are stored.)   I made sure that my sub would know where to store projects that were in progress and where to store completed projects so that I could photograph them for Artsonia when I returned to school.

User Manual- I also typed out a “user manual” that includes an explanation of my Art Expectations, classroom management information, beginning and end of class procedures, fire/tornado/lockdown drill procedures, seating chart explanation, and names of people to ask for help in case a question comes up.

Back to School 2

It was a pretty good first week back at school.  Hard to not be with baby but once I got to school and got busy, the day went fast and things seemed pretty normal.  I only heard a few times "Mrs.Morris, you look different with your baby not in your belly!"  Well I would hope so! :)

It's amazing how many catalogues accumulate over 8 weeks!  Cards from students on top.

Back to School

One of my Kindergarten classes made drawings that their teacher mailed to me!

Tomorrow I go back to school.  I am thankful that I was able to take 8 weeks to be home with my baby but I know returning to work will be a huge adjustment for all of us!  I was able to visit both schools with baby last week and stop in some of the classrooms to introduce them.  I guess some of the younger students were really concerned because they thought I had been in the hospital the whole time!  The last time most of the students saw me, I looked like this:

I bet I will get some interesting reactions this week!

I will also have several projects to post after I photograph them.  My sub is not an Art teacher but she can follow a lesson plan and has great classroom management so I know she did a great job.  I can't wait to look through the rest of the projects (I peaked at a few last week) to see how the lesson plans worked out.  I will also be posting tips on preparing for maternity (or other) leave since I have had a chance to talk to my sub and see what helped.

It's going to be hard to leave this face!