End of the Year Projects

With the end of the year approaching, I have a lot of end of the year projects coming to an end. In other words, it is a busy time.

Mr. Graves class took their first trip to the Smart Museum this week. Since weather issues prevented us from going to the first two trips, this will unfortunately be their only trip to the museum this year. Ms. Nadel’s class took their first trip to the museum this week. As part of the Art in Focus program, the third graders are beginning the process of looking at artwork, discussing it, descrbiing it, and interpreting what they see. In the classroom, the students are almost finished with their Joan Miro inspired animals. Mr. Brown and I expect to finish these with them next week, and I hope to have them on Art Sonia by the end of the week.

Above, you can see pictures of the students character design display. Now, the students are re-imagining their characters in three-dimensions. They have all been given the same template, and they are adjusting their character to fit on to this template. The challenge is to make their character work on this template even though the shapes might be different. This week, they are drawing their character on the template and will begin cutting it next week.

Above, you can see a picture of Ms. Kaiser’s class Smart Explorers final event held at the Smart Museum. A big thank you to the families that attended and congratulations to the students that presented their work. It was a an enjoyable evening. Mr. Rowell’s class will have their final event on Monday, May 18th. I look forward to seeing everyone at this event. In the classroom, we are finishing up the students context pop-ups. Next week, the students will begin working on their final project for the year…mosaics.

The 6th graders began work on their monochromatic portraits this week. The students had their picture taken and then adjusted the picture on the computer. They adjusted it in a way that their face was left with only 4 colors: black, red, yellow, and white. Next week, they will be tracing the shapes of their face in preparation for transferring their picture to a larger sheet of paper.

Also, I have been working with both 4th grade classes to create poem videos. Almost all of the students have recorded their voice and found music and pictures for their video. Ms. Finke’s class has begun compiling their video in Adobe Premiere Elements. Ms. Gorman’s class will begin this process next week.

Also, the 5th graders have been working with Ms. Kaiser and myself to take pictures of 5 important objects to them. Over the past two weeks, the students have brought cameras home to take these pictures. This week, the students will select their 5 best pictures and reflect on their choices. These images, along with their picture, will be compiled in a video that will be shown as part of the Adobe Youth Voices program at the Museum of Contemporary Art on May 29th.  Ms. Kaiser and I are very excited to show off their work!

Until next week…

Athletes!

In the middle of getting things prepared for the African-American History Fair tonight. The 6th graders have been working on some excellent video presentations of famous African-American athletes. I’m looking forward to premiering them tonight. One of the videos can be seen above.

The 3rd graders are in the middle of their non-objective artworks. They have listened to all three songs and sketched non-objective drawings in their sketchbooks. We have talked about how non-objective artwork uses the elements and principles of art like line, shape, pattern, and repetition. Next week, the students will pick one of their sketches to eventually paint.

The 4th graders are finishing up the portrait part of their high contrast portraits. The first part of this project was transferring their completely black and white portraits on to another piece of paper using carbon paper. Once they traced the shapes of their face, they filled in the shapes with a Sharpie marker. Soon, the students will be adding Spring themed tissue paper around their faces.

The 5th graders have finished finding pictures for their foamcore sculptures. The students could either find a number of pictures they liked or try to follow a theme like finding pictures that only show people or animals. After testing, they will begin gluing their pictures on to foamcore and creating a sculpture. We will be spending a lot of time talking about craftsmanship and producing something of quality.

Above are a couple example of the Rube Goldberg inventions the students finished recently. If you get a chance, look at some of their work on the wall next to the media center. The students are now finishing up their designs for their Frank Llloyd Wright inspired tiles. They have begun to transfer their final designs from their sketchbook on to a larger sheet of paper. I have been struck by the level of ambition for some of their designs. After testing, we will begin using large black strips of paper to create the basic design for their tiles.

One last thing…I found the quote below in the latest issue of Wired magazine. I thought it was pretty interesting considering I think many people feel that art and design requires a lot of freedom:

In fact, the worst thing a designer can hear is an offhand “Just do whatever you want.” that’s because designers understand the power of limits. Constraint offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth and innovation.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Update on After School Program and The Normal Stuff…

I thought I would give a quick update on the after school technology program. The students are making children story videos. Many of the students are learning a lot of new things for the very first time. The students are beginning this process by learning how to find images and create images for each “page” of their story. My main concern with this program is exposing them to new technologies and new processes without getting terribly bogged down with the outcome. Sometimes, I feel that it is important that learners get to experiment with these new technologies without having to follow too many constraints. A lot of great learning can take place during these moments.

In fine arts, the 3rd graders are just about finished with their biomorphic sculptures. This week, they drew the shapes on styrofoam and then cut them out. They also began attaching the shapes together to create their sculpture.

The 4th graders are finally getting to the point where they are putting their child labor poster designs on the screen. The pictures above show the students beginning that process. Next week, we will finish putting the designs on and then use a special paint to make the screen “work”.

The 5th graders are at different points with their weaving. Mr. Rowell’s class is done with this project, although some students still need to turn their weaving in to me. Ms. Kaiser’s class will have one more day to work on it in class before we take the weavings off the loom. Their grade for this project will be on the midterm. Next week, we will begin a project I call tint and shade pixels. We will be doing something similar to this project from last year.

The 6th graders are all at different stages with their embroidery. A handful of students have already sewn their pillow together while some students are still emborideroing their designs. I expect that we will still work on this in class up until the winter break. The grade they will receive on their midterm will be determined if they have come prepared to emboider their pillow every day.

Until next week…

Back At It

I had to shake the rust off a little bit this week after not being the “official” teacher for over 5 weeks. Regardless, I am happy to be back in front of the students. While some might view having a student teacher as “easy”, any good teacher will tell you that it is hard being away from the business of teaching.

In fine arts this week, the 3rd graders continued creating their voting posters. By making these posters, the students are learning a lot about what makes a successful poster design by deciding on what colors to use, how to place things on their paper, and what information to include. Our goal is to have these hanging by the morning of November 3rd, the day before the presidential election.

The 4th and 5th graders are either finished their logos this week or will finish them next week. These will be put on Art Sonia and you can view the gallery here. Above, you can see a few examples.

The 6th graders finished up their emotion paintings. They will soon be writing a story, poem, or song that explains why they are feeling the way they are feeling. These will be hanging in the hallway very soon.

First quarter grades are coming up in just a couple weeks, so the projects above will be the last projects they do before the end of the quarter. I am expecting everything to be completed by that point.

Also, we started a video/technology after school program this week. Our first “project” is to create an animated children’s story. The students were busy writing their stories this week on Microsoft Word. As a reminder, we will not have class next week. When we return to class on Tuesday, November 4th, we will begin looking for and creating pictures for our stories.

Until next week…

The First Long Weekend

Technically, it is the second long weekend, but Labor Day always precedes the first day of school. It never really seems like I am getting a “day off”. Anyway, Ms. Fischer is about to enter her last week here at Murray. The 5th and 6th grade students have finished their artist trading cards. The students were allowed to take them home right after the project, and we have put them on Art Sonia. Both grades are now working on a short project based on the artwork of Yoko Ono. Each student wrote down directions for making an artwork that would be given to another student. The students were given some freedom on the how to write the directions, but they could only use paint, scissors, and glue as the materials.

The 3rd and 4th grade students have finished their contour line sculptures. They are also on Art Sonia. Now, the students have started a gesture drawing project. A gesture drawing is a quick drawing of a model’s pose. The idea is to quickly draw the shapes and position of the model.

If you have any questions about your child’s midterm, please contact me at the school. Thanks.

Finally, I am offering an after school video and technology class. If your child is interested, please see me for a permission slip.

Until next week…

The Gradebook

As some of you might now, we are using a new grading system this year called Gradebook. With any new technology, you have a learning curve. Since we have midterm grades due this week, the curve is certainly steep but it has to be done. Speaking of grades, all students in Ms. Kaiser’s, Ms. Gorman’s, and Mr. Brookin’s class will be receiving a “B” for the midterm. The beginning of the year schedule meant that we could not finish their first project. Since Ms. Fischer and I did not want to rush the project, we felt this was the best solution. If you would like to no more about your child’s progress, please contact me.

The other 5th and 6th grade class have finished their artist trading cards. Some of the examples are above.

Also, the other 4th grade class has finished their Alexander Calder Contour Line Sculptures. Check them out above. All of this work has already been or will be posted on Art Sonia.

Until next week…

After School Video and Technology Program Now Being Offered!

First…an announcement. I am offering a video/technology after school class starting on October 7th. The class is on Tuesday and Wednesday and will last until after school ends in early March. If you need a permission slip, I have them. I hope to only give these to students who are interested. Have your student please see me.

Ms. Fischer is finishing up her second week of teaching. That is a picture of her working above. The 3rd and 4th graders are in the middle of working on their Alexander Calder contour line mobiles. This week, they began shaping wire into one of the contour line portraits they drew during the previous 3 class periods. The 5th and 6th graders are in the middle of creating their 3 artist trading cards. They are applying the skills they learned last week to the cards they made this week. I plan on putting all of these artworks on to Art Sonia next week.

Also, in case I did not mention it, I have a download page where you can download and install free/open source programs. These are all programs I have either used myself or checked out. In some cases, I have used them with the students. They should install easily on your home computer, so if you get a chance, check them out.

Until next week…

Almost Ready

As the school prepares for another year, just wanted to let you know about fine arts and technology this year.

The parent letter for fine arts is available on my blog here. I will be doing all of my communication through this blog. I want to be as informative as possible without using a lot of my paper in my ongoing quest to be as green as possible. Mr. Brown and I will also be welcoming a student teacher this year. Ms. Karina Fischer will be with us for seven weeks. Mr. Brown and I will be teaching for the first two weeks while she observes, but then it is her show. She comes to us from the School of the Art Institute and we are happy to have her.

Also, I am hoping to get off and running with more technology integrated projects early on in the year. Keep checking back here for more update…

See you on Tuesday!

Reflections on Scratch

As I have mentioned before, one of Mr. Brookins reading classes worked with a programming language called Scratch. The students wrote a narrative for Mr. Brookins and were asked to make a storyboard based on that narrative. The storyboard was then used to create an animation and game using Scratch. The program is not easy to learn and in the end, the students just did not have enough time to complete this project during the time we had allotted. So, we decided to make it an extra credit project.

That does not mean we were not happy with the outcomes. Some of the students did a lot of amazing work. If you click on the image above, you will be taken to one of the games. Or, to see some more of the stories and games, check out the student gallery. As a lot of students found out, programming requires you to almost over think what you are doing. You have to tell the program everything you want it to do. It does not just happen automatically. If you want something to “show”, you need to tell that object to “show”. If nothing else, I hope the students learned that you can do some pretty amazing things with the computer other than look for music and pictures. You can still download Scratch from my blog, and it would be a great program for the students to work with over the summer…on a rainy day that is.

Scratchin’ It

I wanted to begin today by talking about the Scratch project Mr. Brookins writing/reading class is working on. Last week, the students wrote narrative and drew storyboards in preparation for animating their stories on a program called Scratch. Scratch is a programming language that could be seen as an “introduction” into the world of computer programming. It has an interface and language that is easier for a student to understand than what some might consider “normal” programming, but it provides students with a great way of understanding how to program. It requires them to problem solve and logically think about how their story is going to look on the screen. It is a tough program to really get a hang of, but I have a lot of confidence in their ability to produce some great work.

With everything else, we do not have many updates, so I will keep this brief. The 3rd graders continue to dive deeper into the Art in Focus program. Each class has now gone to the Smart Museum twice and they will both be going to the Hyde Park Art Center next week. Above, you will see some pictures from Ms. Burkhardt’s class trip to the museum this week. We are expanding their visual language (line, shape, space, non-representational…) by studying these words through activities, discussing the words while looking at artwork at the museum, and visiting the SmARTKids web site.

The 4th graders are continuing with their self-portraits. We continue to hit bumps in the road and feel frustrations, but the students who have put the most effort and concentration into their drawings have done the best job…regardless of their artistic talent. I hope they all know they are capable of success, but they really need to not only believe that they can do it, but they also put forth their best effort.

The 5th graders took a trip to the Hyde Park Art Center this week to create an ink drawing as a part of the Smart Explorers program this week. The trip to the Hyde Pak Art Center is different from past years, so I was happy the students had a chance to try out that medium. Above, you will see some pictures from those two trips. We will continue with the Smart Museum trips next week. Also, we are working on a project in class dealing with the concept of context…not an easy thing to understand…

The 6th graders are just about to finish their monochromatic portraits. They will be hanging up very soon. This week, we began a graffiti project. The students are choosing a nickname for themselves that they will be painting in a graffiti style. With this project, they will also be using an airbrush to add small details to their final pieces. Also, check out the above pictures of the mosaic…we are getting closer.

Until next week…