2nd Grade Choice Drawings

Here's a sample of some 2nd grade choice artwork from the end of the year. Hope it makes you smile like it does me!

This student added construction paper details to contrast the crayon.

This student worked on developing different values to make his wetland drawing more interesting.

Working on blending colors with marker.

One of my mini lessons at the end of the year was on portraiture. Several students gave it a try!

Fireworks stands have been popping up which means that my summer is half way over! I'm racing to meet the deadline for publishing artwork on Artsonia and I don't think I'm gonna make it. Choice based art turned my students into prolific artists. Next year I may not try to photograph EVERY SINGLE PIECE because it was hard to keep up with. This is just one more thing to ponder before I head back to school August 6th... 

1st-3rd Self Portraits

Last fall when I opened my drawing center, I pointed out the box of mirrors available for students to use. We briefly reviewed portraits vs. self portraits and then we moved on. I have been amazed at how many students chose to use the mirrors to observe and draw. Second graders chose self portraits more than any other grade. (Some kids even set up mirrors just to watch themselves draw other things.) Here's a sample of some of the 1st-3rd grade choice self portraits from first semester.

This portrait reminded me of de Kooning's Woman paintings, like Woman V from 1952-53

This student actually got her eyes in the right place! Score!

Positive Self Portraits

Positivity is important! I firmly believe that a positive attitude will serve you well in life, and that includes being positive about YOU! I don't know if it's from teaching in a low-income area or if things are just changing in our culture, but I notice even young students with negative attitudes and negative self-image. I had wanted to let my 3rd graders try out printmaking so I figured a positive image self portrait would be a good assignment. 

To get students thinking about positive character traits, I went to a Sesame Street music video I had saved on Pinterest. The video is called "What I am" and is performed by Will.i.am and the monsters. 

Sesame Street has some great videos that I like to use, like this one about the primary colors.

Before the students drew, we talked about filling the space and a bit about facial proportions. I didn't want to go overboard with facial proportions... I want students to look, but I don't see why we have to go for photorealism here. Sometimes their self portrait schema shows more personality than a "correctly" drawn portrait. In most classes, the students finished drawing their portraits by the end of the first day. In the second class period, I gave a printmaking demo. When the students were done transferring their self portraits to the polyfoam plates, they inked and printed. They practiced once on cheap white paper before choosing a piece of construction paper with a color that fit their personality.

Cookie sheets are my new favorite inking trays for school. I had ordered some big blue trays a couple years ago, but didn't realize they had a diamond pattern. The texture is not ideal for inking. I put one tray in the middle of each table and the students take turns with the brayers. I'm hoping to buy some more brayers next year but even with two per table (5-6 students) the wait time isn't that long.

On the third day when the prints were dry, the students used sharpie and/or construction paper crayons to add positive words that describe them and some doodles if they wanted to. When I sat down to make an example, I was having a hard time making a list of words to describe myself. I thought some of the students might have trouble too. To solve the problem, I gave each student a sheet of paper on which they wrote their name. The students left their name papers in their spot and the students walked around the room to write positive descriptors about their classmates. I encouraged them not to write "cool", for example, if someone else had already written it. I was impressed with my students when we did this. Even the students that don't really seem to fit in had nice things written about them. Of course we had the basics like cool, smart, funny, etc., but I also saw "good reader", "creative", "flexible" and some others that required a bit more thought.

 I ended up missing several Friday 3rd grade classes for check ups, so those students used crayon for their self portraits instead of printmaking. I didn't expect my sub to manage ink! I actually prefer the look of the portraits with more color but I'm glad the other classes got to try a new medium.

I think the funniest words I saw written on self portraits were "weird" and "dangerous". Those were written by the students on their self portraits! 

2nd Grade Self Portraits

My 2nd grade students spent 2 class periods toward the end of the year on these observational self portraits. We talked about facial proportions, I gave a demo, then the students looked in mirrors to draw. The first class period was spent exclusively on pencil drawing. In the 2nd class period, the students added color with colored pencils and color sticks. Self portraits can be tricky with kids... Some work really hard and some don't want to put in the effort because they are content with stick people. These are some of the portraits by students who really worked hard and didn't give up.

(The drawings are on 6x9 inch paper. I asked the students to aim for just head and shoulders to fill the space and checked the size of their head before they continued.)

Blonde hair can be confusing... especially when it's that blonde that's almost white. In this case, the student's hair was actually a lighter color than his skin so we tested some colored pencils and came up with a solution. On an unrelated note, the last portrait here demonstrates the most common problem for my 2nd graders: they colored the white part of their eyes a dark color. Hmmm...

I had ordered enough little sets of Crayola's Multicultural Colored Pencils that I could put a couple sets at each table. That would have worked great, if the students could keep the sets together. I get so frustrated with things like that- it should be easy, right? So, tired of sorting colored pencil sets when students did not put them away properly, I turned a plastic chips container into our new mc colored pencil storage. I cut the front of one box off and used packing tape to attach it to the container so it's easily identifiable. Now the students have to come up to choose their skin and hair color, then put it back when they are done.

1st Grade Wild Self Portraits and Wild Thing Costume

 This is a project that had a few nice results, but was overall very frustrating for me as well as the students. First, we looked at some Abstract Expressionist paintings and talked about how the style looks wild. I started by projecting Lavender Mist by Jackson Pollock and asking the students to just look and think before they said anything else. Then I asked them to share observations or opinions. Some said it was pretty while some said it was "nothing" or definitely not Art. If they said it wasn't Art, I asked them why. I told them it's ok to have different opinions but they should think about the why.

Source: nga.gov via Katie on Pinterest

I showed the first class a video of Pollock painting but they were super bored so I just showed a photo to the rest of the classes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Katie on Pinterest

We also looked at a de Kooning painting so I could show them an abstract style where you can still pick out some recognizable features.

Source: nelson-atkins.org via Katie on Pinterest

Up to that point, everything was going ok. My plan was for the students to make Abstract Expressionistic paintings the first day that would serve as the background for cut paper self portraits. The painting was pretty messy, and there was a clothing casualty when a para's white sweater got paint squirted all over it, but not too bad considering what they were up to! I put out tempera paint in the primary and neutral colors. I got smarter after the first class and took away the black paint.

Naked person with 3 toes...

In the second class, I demonstrated cutting and gluing construction paper shapes. I showed the students how they didn't need to cut out the part of the body that would be covered by clothes since it wouldn't show. I think only a few actually did it how I showed them and just made the arms and legs stick out from behind the clothes. Even after tons of reminders that it wouldn't show and things like "you only have 5 minutes left to work so make sure your self portrait has a face and clothes", I ended up with LOTS of little naked people, thankfully not anatomically correct! I think I can usually figure kids out but I just could not get inside a 1st graders' brain and understand why they couldn't let go of having to make the whole body then put clothes on it. I guess because they know their bellies are under their shirts in real life so they have to be under the shirts of their artwork. I dont' know. But none of us were enjoying it enough to add another class so we called it good practice with cutting and gluing and moved on to something else.

I also just realized that I never posted the Halloween costume I made for my son. Now do you understand the Where the Wild Things Are kick I was on? I thought about making a Charlie Brown costume but decided that would be too easy. :) 

I eventually decided to make my son be a wild thing. I painted bleach stripes onto a brown zip-up hooded sweatshirt then sewed some cheap brown furry fabric onto the hood. I cut slits in the fur so it would fit around the felt horns I made. I really just cut two layers of the horn shape, sewed it, then flipped it so the seam was on the inside. I kind of popped it open with my finger before pinning it down and they really stayed standing up great. They are actually still standing even after being washed since it's a fun jacket now. The pants were a little trickier. I started with a base of brown sweatpants and covered them with layers of a cream colored fabric cut to resemble the texture of the wild thing's legs from the book. I used fabric glue to help hold it in place while I sewed. I had to sew it by hand and I'm glad I checked it before sewing all the way down because there was a problem: I forgot about the elastic in the pants! When I sewed on the fabric it made the pants way to tight to pull up. So, not willing to give up, I pulled off the layers I had sewn on, sewed them together separately, and added velcro so I could just wrap it around after we got the pants on. I also added a furry looking feather boa from Hobby Lobby (my happy place) to make the tail. So in summary, it took a lot of time and problem solving, and probably didn't cost less than a store bought costume, but I'm pretty proud of it. My mom always made our costumes and I've always wanted to be that kind of mom.

Creative Photography

I'm starting to work on my master's degree through the University of Nebraska at Kearney.  They have an all online Master's in Art Education program!  I was really excited when I read through the required courses, I could see myself using every sing one of them.  After that, there was no way I could do curriculum and instruction.

I'm enrolled in Creative Photography for the month of June. It has sometimes been a struggle to find time with a 6 month old, but I'm making it work!  I have to give myself little pep talks like I do with my students. 

Inner Monologue:

This is hard.

Duh.

That doesn't mean you can't do it! 

Anyway, thought I would share some of the photos from my first assignment which was about aperture and self portraits.