TAB & Seasonal Artwork

One thing that people say they would miss in a TAB classroom is the traditional seasonal projects that students, staff, and families look forward to. I just wanted to share that festive artwork can still come out of choice-based classrooms! 

Last October (yes, I am suuuuuuper behind on blogging) I saw a bag of some cool little pumpkins in the produce section and bought them thinking that some students might be interested. I used the pumpkins for a demo in my 1st grade class, showing how I look at the individual sections instead of drawing a circle, and that observation helps me get the overall form drawn more correctly. I went ahead and reviewed some tempera techniques since students had been asking to paint and then I gave the students the option of taking a break from whatever they had been working on to draw or paint pumpkins or to continue with their own work. All but one student chose to paint a pumpkin. Their grade had recently been on a field trip to a pumpkin patch so there was a lot of excitement. 

I helped distribute requested paint colors and spread out the pumpkins for tables to share and then let students work. Some covered the whole surface of their papers with paint and some were satisfied after practicing the drawing. Some added scenery or turned their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and some left the pumpkins simple. The students used a traditional subject for fall art classes, but they chose how to engage with it and were absolutely delighted! I think the moral of the story here is that you don't have to "give up" special things that are important in your school community to TAB. It's about honoring the students as artists- giving them the choice and the voice to do it their way.

Bonus- if you like to incorporate other content areas, I found a great book at our local library that has estimation and counting in it- How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara. If I had more time with the students we could have cut up the pumpkins when we were finished to see how many seeds they have.

I need to remember that there are nice display cases across from the 1st grade classrooms and take advantage of it! My classroom is at the high school so I don't always remember.

One of my friends started using TAB with her youngest students last year. She does a good job of putting out challenges in her centers and she has had some really successful themes! You can see more of what she's up to on her Facebook page or her blog, Ag Wife Artist Life 

1st Grade Pumpkins

 Last fall my 1st graders learned about line and color mixing in this pumpkin painting project. In the first class, we talked about lines. EVERY time I teach a lesson about lines to my primary students, I draw the different kinds of lines the students think of on the board, then we all "draw" them in the air with our fingers. The added movement tends to help the students remember better. Next, I led the students in drawing a pumpkin. 

Here's the trick that we like:

1. Draw a large ellipse in the middle of your paper
2. Add a "banana" shape on one side
3. Add a "banana" to the other side so it looks like a hotdog in a bun
4. Draw the stem above the middle ellipse
5. Add another "banana" to each side

 Next, the students filled one shape at a time with a different kind of line in each and traced with crayon. We talked briefly about background then the students drew a horizontal line on each side of the pumpkin to represent the back edge of a table top. If the students still had time left, they added lines to the wall in the background and the table top.

In the second class period, I passed out trays with combinations of primary colors. First I gave each table red and yellow paint. They mixed orange and painted their pumpkin. While the students were painting with orange, I was preparing yellow and blue to be used for the stem and table. I prepped the red and blue paint while they painted green. It's a good idea to remove each tray of paint as the groups finish so they don't accidentally dip their brush into the wrong tray. Oh, and about the paint- I bought really cheap tempera, which I will never do again, but this project is the only time it not really being opaque worked in our favor. The students go to mix the liquid paint easily and still see the crayon through it.

I almost always give the students more choices than they had in this lesson. These are not the best example of creativity or artistic expression since they pretty much all look the same. But, it was good way to ensure that they really learned how to mix each secondary color and practiced at least 5 different kinds of lines. I'm telling myself that this is ok once in a while. Honestly, the students were super proud of their paintings even though they looked the same.

 

Kindergarten Overlapping Pumpkins

 

This is another repeat lesson from last year.  Last year I mainly wanted to do this lesson to show students that overlapping creates depth/space, but this year I tried to focus more on shape (my SMART goal).  I showed the students how to draw a pumpkin by starting with a tall, skinny ellipse.  After that, we added shapes to each side that we decided looked like bananas.  After the middle was drawn and one section was added to each side, it looked like a hotdog!  The comparisons seemed to help the students remember.  One of the Kindergarten teachers told me she asked the students to draw pumpkins in their classroom.  She was expecting circles and they started drawing the pumpkins with sections!  Then yesterday, on the Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch, they were finding pumpkins and pointing out the ellipse shaped sections!  I was really excited that they were paying attention and learning and sharing that!

Hmmm... I edited the rest of these so I don't know why they are showing up un-cropped!

This student asked if he could make a pattern in his background!  (Of course I said yes!)

Check out our Artsonia exhibit!

1st Grade Pumpkin Patterns

This is a recycled lesson from last year.  In one 1st grade class period, we reviewed AB patterns they had been learning about in math, 

brainstormed contrasting qualities of pumpkins that could be used for "A" and "B", learned how to draw pumpkins with sections instead of just a circle,

and drew and colored a row of pumpkins that make an AB pattern.

Here are some results! 

Overlapping Pumpkins

Kindergarten students learned how to make objects in drawings overlap to create depth. I drew two pumpkins and cut them out so they could be moved to show students the visual difference between drawings of objects that are side to side and overlapping. Overlapping is kind of a difficult concept for Kindergarten students! The drawings turned out really good and it was fun to see the students get excited when it clicked. Some drew 4 or 5 overlapping pumpkins! I showed them how I blended crayon colors on my example but I let them use any colors they wanted. Who says pumpkins have to be orange?