On “The Block” with Romare Bearden

Ahhhh, my first post as a middle school teacher! Pretty exciting. 

My 6th graders are currently working on a collage project with me. We are looking at the master of collage, Romare Bearden and his piece, “The Block.” Their goal was to create their own block out of their everyday experiences and places they go. We don’t live in a huge city so they had to be creative and “collect” the places that are important to them. 

We first did an artist study to learn about Bearden and what influenced him. Then they looked closely at “The Block” on The Met’s website to see all of the amazing details and interactions that Bearden observed and was intrigued with. After inspecting his work, they created sketches of what they wanted to include in their own block. 

We are creating our collages using a 28″X11″ piece of poster board and magazines. I can’t wait to see and share what my talented 6th graders create!

There’s no place like home…

Just a few pics of the NOrth Carolina projects we are working on! Love them all!

Rudolph’s Crazy Cousin

Meet Randy, Rudy’s crazy cousin. It’s okay – we all have them.
This is another great art/writing activity that I found HERE!  We made our reindeer today and though I did get started on the glittered noses, we will have to wait and finish next time while we write about them.  We made the reindeer and after gluing them together, we put them on a Christmas scrapbook paper patterned square.  I am offering red glitter or black glitter for the noses.  Some of the kids started naming their reindeer as well.  Examples: Crazy Connie, Wrinkle, Icky Nicky Nacky Nook, and Harris. Ha!  Funny stuff.  I’ll post some more pictures as we finish!

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board

I love this quote about gratitude and think it is a great reminder for the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m really hoping to focus this year on giving and having more experiences rather than material gifts. My child does not need every toy she sees or wants and the same goes for me (shoes and home decor are my weaknesses.) Let’s be grateful for what we have and spend more time and money on living.
Oh and aren’t those pumpkins and cornucopia miniatures beautiful? 🙂

Haunted Halloween Houses

Third graders will be starting these haunted house collages next week. I’m looking forward to seeing how they personalize their own!

Around the classroom…

Here are some new things I have going on in my classroom.
I now post the “I can” statements on the board for each grade.

I also have a Free Draw Challenge. It’s a list of challenges for them to do if they have extra time and want to “free draw.” In the past, I let them draw whatever on their free draw paper and sometimes I would get nice drawings but most of the time I would see tic tac toe or them writing their name or a bunch of scribbles. This gives them a choice while still keeping them focused on a complete picture.

This is a new page of challenges for Fall/Halloween.

And this last picture is not a new thing but I laminated it and hung it in a different spot. I think it’s so pretty. I have four more color wheels to laminate and hang around it.

5th Grade Patriotism

I found this lesson on The Smart Teacher Smart Exchange through Facebook. My 5th graders just started this week and they are really doing well with it. We discussed Jasper Johns and his artwork and then looked quickly at the history of the American flag.
I gave them each a half of a piece of newspaper – not newsprint but a real sheet of newspaper. They decided what flag they wanted to draw, sketched it in pencil onto the newspaper, and then traced everything with sharpie. I posted a page of patriotic pieces like the pledge of allegiance and the star spangled banner, my country tis of thee, and America, the Beautiful. They chose snippets out of these to write on their flags.
Next week, we will finish with that and then paint. I’ll be posting more pictures as we continue.

Henri Rousseau Jungle Collages

This is another lesson that I’ve been doing for years but have never documented.
Second grade discusses Henri Rousseau and how we can use a combination of our imaginations and real life to put together a composition of something or some place that we’ve never seen before.
Everything is made from cut paper and they always turn out so colorful.

 

Collaged Carapace

I’m really excited about this project. Mossy is a beautiful book by Jan Brett and I can’t wait to see how the kids use their imaginations to put together a collage on their turtle’s back.
The first day, we will read the book and have a little discussion on collage. We will paint the black circles and then add the yellow spots with a brush. Time permitting, we will sponge paint the carapace with yellow and green to give it that mossy look.

The next class we will be using some painted paper to create the beautiful garden of flowers, mushrooms, and plants that grow on Mossy’s back. I’ll update as we go! 🙂

One of the first grade teachers wanted to use her students’ Mossy turtles as a writing activity. Their stories were so cute!

Gratitude Cafe

Inspired by Jason Mraz and his thoughts on gratitude…

For the Thanksgiving season, my second graders discussed miniatures and how important detail can be in a work of art. They created miniature cornucopia collages and they turned out so vibrant and cute and I love them. With our crazy schedule in November, I have one Kindergarten class that is finished with one lesson and if I had started the next lesson with them this week, they would get even farther ahead of the other classes. So I decided to do a Thanksgiving Painted Paper Turkey. It’s a one-class deal and they turned out so great! Check out the results along with the colorful and thoughtful board they were hung on. : )

A cool new DIY border I saw on Pinterest! Just take a long strip of bulletin board paper and cut into long 3-4″ wide strips. Accordion fold and scrunch then carefully pull apart and re-scrunch as you’re stapling around the boarder. It looked much better than I thought it would and it was way easy!!