Young Artist Statement

Have you student give artist statements no matter how old they are.  This is my first grade mini talking about the work he did in Mr. Hammer's art class.  I was impressed with all the detail and know if we look back at this work in many years, we might not understand all the thought behind it.  Here is a brief description digitally.  I asked him how long he worked on this piece and he said for weeks (4 hours).  I wanted to honor that by asking him to present and explain his work.  It's even more fun with younger mini's because you never know what your going to hear.  Kids art and their perspective of the world is worth documenting.  

Hand Shadows

Hand shadows were created by 8th grade students.  I'm working on an article for SchoolArts Magazine so I hope to share more about this project that way.  I wanted to provide some digital project samples for anyone who may read the article in the future.  More project samples can be found at our flickr site.

Can you see the turtle?

These are birds... Can you see it?

In the image below you will see a mistake that some students made.  Be sure to have the bottom the hand drawing, and shadow go to he bottom of your composition.  This will prevent the floating hand situation as you see below.

This video will allow show you how I taught students how to draw the hands.  

Student Samples of the Two Point Perspective Tree House

Love the way these tree houses turned out!  Please see the previous post to see how I taught the kiddos and other inspirations for this project (click here).  Here are other examples of from the rest of the class. (click here)

Blow Art-- Artist Trading Cards

It's spring so our numbers were down with track and tennis in full swing... but our art club had it's final meeting of 2012/13 school year.  We did some 'Blow' art.  You can use a lot fo different mediums with these cards, we are using ink.  And then we turned our color blobs into art.  Thanks to all my Art Club kids this year!  We had a great time!

Speed dating in Art Class

We did a little speed dating today in class.  Spring is in the air but don't worry mom and dad... it's not what you think.  For the students warm up, I asked them to draw 4 ideas for their food sculpture that we will be making soon.  After about 5 minutes I explained that they are going to go on a speed date.  They will need their art packet, a pencil and some 'charm':)

I line the kids up in two lines facing each other.  I make sure they know who their first date is by going in the middle and 'introducing' them to one another.  They have to share one, prompted thing with their date and then write an idea off from the other persons warm up.  When students change partners I give them a new prompt for them to share with their new date.  Some ideas include...

• Complement their outfit
• Tell them what flower they would like to get on their second date.
• What is the favorite filling of a box of chocolates.
• Who do they most admire.
• Where do they see themselves in 5 years.
• If given a choice for their next date between a quite walk on the beach of sky diving, what would they choose.

 The kids love this (I love it too:))!

When I 'ding' the bell, this means the first person on the right side goes to the back of the line and the rest move down.  They repeat this process 10 to 12 times.  It takes no more then 10 minutes.  Perfect, and fun way to generate ideas.

If you have an odd number in your class, I call them the third wheel.  They stay at the end of the line and take the same in a triangel group.

For other ways to generate ideas, please see my past posts (click here)