Beautiful Christmas Gift

I have to post this beautiful Christmas Angel that one of my 5th graders did for me for Christmas. Very talented!

3rd Graders

3rd Grade working hard on creating their own city landscapes!

4th grade SCREAM Projects

We learned about Edvard Munch and his famous paint the Scream with 4th grade. We then put our skills to the test and worked with blending paint and using overlapping colors. For fun, I took pictures of each student and they took the place of the screaming figure in the famous painting. They looked AWESOME!

Artistic Elf on the... Ceiling

We had Elf on the Shelf make an appearance in the art room last week. We were learning about abstract art in first grade so he decided to do an abstract painting himself. GO ELF!

ArTy PaRtY

As an incentive for using leadership skills and good manners and behavior skills, I gave the students Dojo points each time I saw them based on their performance that day. If the whole class was able to stay at a 95% or higher, I threw them an ArTy PaRtY at the end of each semester. The kids were able to bring in food. I brought my popcorn machine and hot chocolate fixings and they had a blast with their free create day! Great way to end 2015

Here are some of my 3rd graders

December Artist of the Month

Blanca is a very hard worker and is a great example of a leader. She is dedicated, participates in class and is very active in discussions. She is eager to learn and is always on task. Great Christmas picture Blanca!

3rd Grade Musical Collab Projects

Our 3rd graders recently preformed a musical with our music teacher about Lewis and Clark. PTA asked if I could have each 3rd grade class do a painting within the theme of the musical. I had them do a small part of a mountain landscape to go with the theme. They then auctioned each piece off to the parents and raised $200.00! What a great way to involve our school families with our PTA.

4th Grade CD Weaving

5th Grade "The Scream"

Each fifth grade student got a piece of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. They duplicated their portion of the painting on a large 12 by 12 square in oil pastel. I then hot glued each piece onto a large black piece of paper and cut out the face of "The Scream" I hung it from the ceiling. The students where able to stick their faces through the scream and took pictures as if they were apart of the artwork. Great addition for the Halloween month and super fun for the whole school. 

Novembers Artist of the Month

Sammy is a first grade student. She is a joy to have in class and she has shown great growth and improvement in her artistic skills this early in the semester. She participates in classroom discussions and is very quick to come to the rescue when another classmate needs help. 

Art Classroom Setup

Here is a look at my art classroom setup. If you have any questions or comments please post below!

October Artist of the Month Kayla Best

October Artist of the Month Kayla Best

October Artist of the Month

Kayla Best

4th Grade Mr. Mace's Class

Kayla is a bright and cheerful young lady. She shows a true love for art and always tries her hardest in class. She asks the right questions and contributes to class discussions about art. She always has a smile on her face and is a great leader and helper in class. Great job Kayla, you're growing everyday!

Kayla's Questionnaire 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P4IPUdQnrkd2UxVjM3MW5XNWc/view?usp=sharing

Lascaux Cave...Dun Dun DUUUUUN!!!!

     Let’s Go Spelunking! Okay, so for this project I did a whole classroom transformation so the students really got the feeling they were inside a cave. This was a lot of work, but completely worth it because the students LOVED IT! For this unit, each grade level is learning about the famous Lascaux Cave in Southern France. If you don’t know, this cave contains some of the first drawings man has ever created…!!!WOW!!! I know right? I used a lot of the LARGE colored paper to cover my walls, desks, chairs and ceiling to give it that cave effect. I then found a YouTube video (which I will post below) of a cave that was reordered for 12 hours. It gives you the creep water dripping noises and the lighting is FANTASTIC! I went to a Halloween store and bought an awesome fake fire torch to use as a camp fire in the middle of the room. The kids had to enter the “cave” by going under a table that I had designed to look like a cave. All of the windows and doors where blacked out. I had the fire going, the projector, and a couple of lanterns. We all had to sit around the fire.

     So for each grade level we talked about cavemen and what their lives had to be like in order to survive. We talked about caves and how they are created, and then we got to the cave drawings. We talked a lot about what they used to create the drawings, where the drawings where in the cave, and what they drew about. After this we got a flash light and looked at some of the “cave drawings” I had done on large paper that I hung from the ceiling. We all looked up at the cave drawings and discussed what animals they saw and what the people were doing on the cave walls.

     We then took a virtual tour of the actual Lascaux Cave in France (I will post the link below). For the 5^th and 4^th graders I had a worksheet that they filled out along with the tour which I will share as well. The younger kids talked about what they saw in the cave the colors the cave people used. For k-3^rd grade we read the book “The First Drawing” by Mordicai Gerstein. Each class got to draw (in chalk) on the cave walls in the classroom. They had to draw like cave people, so no hearts or rainbows here.

Lascaux Virtual Tour:

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php#/en/02_00.xml

     Each grade level had a different project for this unit that still connected with their standards for art. When they finish their projects I will add more pictures but for now I will add my examples that I did to show them what they would be doing.

K- Drew pictures of animals and people, cut them out, and then pasted them onto a brown piece of construction paper. Then they crumbled up the paper to make it look like a piece of rock.

1^st- Pinch pot caves. They began with a normal pinch pot and then cut out their entrance to the cave in the side of the pot. They added cave drawings, texture, and then glazed them with the colors of the cave.

2^nd- Cave slabs. Second grade made a slab out of cave then carved (sunken relief) pictures of cave animals, arrows, and people into the slab. They then made the edging of their slab really jagged and ruff to resemble a cave. We glazed the piece of slab with cave colors.

3^rd- Cave Stories. The student wrote a story about their life as cave people. They told a short story, wrote the story on a brown piece of paper and then tour it and crumpled it up to make it look old. They then took a large piece of paper (2ft long) and illustrated their stories using oil pastels. They had to make it look like cave people drew it.

4^th- Woven CD’s- students wove using a CD as their frame work.

5^th- Woven blankets. The students wove blankets by using a cardboard frame I made. 

Animal Coloring Sheet 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P4IPUdQnrkWU02RHRpb19LaEE/view?usp=sharing

Animal Coloring Sheet 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P4IPUdQnrkdEw3eC1kOUhmOUU/view?usp=sharing

Movie Questions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P4IPUdQnrkdzBhSThfSU5UYms/view?usp=sharing

PowerPoint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P4IPUdQnrkeENGcnZCOU40Qkk/view?usp=sharing

Tinted Color Wheels (5th Grade)

During this project the fifth graders explored the creation and use of color in our everyday lives. They were able to learn about primary, secondary, intermediate, and complementary colors as well as the use of tints, shades, and values in order to create a full color wheel. The students were able to demonstrate all they learned by creating their very own color wheel that displayed each color and the tints and shades of that color. After demonstrating their knowledge of the color wheel, each student selected a repetitive design that complimented their color wheel. They replicated that design in each slice of the color wheel.

     During this lesson the students discovered artists such as Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko that are famously known for their expressive art that utilizes the elements of color. Through these artists the students discovered how color is used to create contrasting compositions and optical illusions. 

Warm and Cool Landscapes (3rd Grade)

In third grade we started off the year by discussing color and how it is used to depicted different feelings and emotions. We then talked about what made up a landscape painting or piece of art. In order to demonstrate what the students learned, they created their very own ocean landscapes and used warm colors in the sky and cool colors in the sea. They were able to pick their own designs they wanted to add in the ocean.

van Gogh Sunflowers (1st Grade)

Known for his unique painting style and cultural influence, our first graders discovered how to identify Vincent van Gogh’s brush techniques throughout his artist portfolio. We dissected his unique Landscape paintings, portraits, and still life paintings that are now coveted by national museums around the world.

     For this project the first graders created their own vase of sunflowers by incorporating mixed media into their artwork. Mixed media is the use of multiple types of mediums such as paint, paper, and pencil. The students used watercolor paint for their background and table top, construction paper and construction crayons for their vase and decoration aspect of the piece, and then tissue paper for the sunflowers to create a three dimensional aspect to their artwork. Though structured with a common objective in mind, each vase of flowers resulted in the unique characteristics of each student.

Learning Lines (Kindergarten)

For a fun activity with my kindergarten classes as we discuss the different types of lines, I have created a game called musical lines. On the floor I taped different types of lines down with masking tape (zigzag lines, vertical, diagonal, horizontal, and curvy. The students all line up in a single file line and I HIT THE MUSIC! I tend to use salsa music since most people can not help but bust a move when the beat comes on. The students start dancing and they start following the lines all around the room. When the music is turned off they have to freeze. Once they get the hang of the freezing part of the game I incorporate the musical lines part of the game. When the music shuts off I spin an arrow and whatever line the arrow lands on is the line that has to go back to their seats. So if the arrow lands on a zigzag line the students on that line have to return to their seats. The students really love the game and it is a fun way to help them learn the different types of lines.

Artist of the Month

Each month I will choose a student that has demonstrated excellent leadership skills in the classroom as well as artistic skills on their artwork.

This student's name is McLane. He is in 3rd grade and is an excellent student, leader, and artist. He is an excellent helper in the classroom, he shows great leadership in helping others when needed, and has demonstrate advanced artistic skills in his artwork. Congratulations McLane... you're a rock star!

Warm and Cool Post-Assessment

As a fun way to get the students excited about telling others what they have learned in art I have chosen to start recording some students to see if they can recall what they've learned so they can be movie stars. The kids LOVE IT!!!

Viewers

Hi Viewers,     I just wanted to take a minute to please ask to comment, share, or suggest new art ideas, things you would like to know or see about our classroom, or any successful lessons you have conducted as a teacher! Let's get this artistic community growing! Thank you and have a blessed weekend.Jessica Crane 

Dale Chihuly 4th Grade

This year I wanted to start the fourth grade classes off with an exciting artist. Dale Chihuly was an obvious choice to get this year going with a bang. We are located near KC, MO so we also have access to see his artwork live at the Kemper Museum located in our downtown area...PERFECT!

I started off this lesson by introducing Dale to the class. We talked about his artwork, style, and impact on the art community. I then was able to show an amazing video (which I will post bellow) of Dale working in his studio creating blown class artwork. The kids LOVED IT!!! They got so excited and wanted to know if they were going to be doing glass sculptures... uh no! I explained that it could be very dangerous to blow glass and that they needed more art classes in order to learn that skill.

We then talked about the art principle pattern and form. I had each student create a repeating pattern on a coffee filter. We then sprayed each filter with laundry starch which ran the colors together and made the coffee filter firm in order to hold an organic form. I had each student fill out their own art label with their name, class, and grade and then we glued those to a black piece of paper. After the projects dried the students pasted their filters onto the black piece of paper. We were able to create our own Chihuly inspired art exhibit.

Kindergarten Colors

When Kindergartners enter elementary schools their minds are blank canvases for us to paint upon. The first lesson I wanted to help my Kindergarten students master was COLOR. You can do so much with color and the students love to dive into any art project that is colorful. Within two weeks my Kindergarten students were able to tell me the primary colors, secondary colors, identify each color by name, and name all six colors in order on the color wheel. Their last assessment that allowed me to evaluate what they retained from our lessons was for the students to create their very own rainbows with all six colors in order. The students learned about the rainbow, used the Smartboard to review the color wheel, and created beautiful representational artwork. 

What Do You Do With An Idea? 1st Grade

This is a great lesson to begin the year out with in order to get your first grader's creative juices flowing. I used my document camera to read "What do you do with an idea" by Kobi Yamada to the class. 

This is a great story to read to all students in order to fuel their ideas and individuality. After this I gave the students a scrap piece of paper and prompted them to create their very own invention! We talked about what an invention was and what made them unique. Then they invented new and exciting creations like time machines, cars that were also boats, new types of animals, ect. During the next class I prepared egg tracing templates for each student. When they came into the class I had them choose the color of the egg from our story out of constructions paper and then they traced and cut out their own egg. The transferred their inventions from their scratch paper to their egg. We then cut out wings, attached them to their eggs and then titled each invention on the wings of their egg. 

  

First Week of School

The first week here at Luff has been full of so much excitement! Check out our kindergartners showing off our color song!

In order to help the Kindergarten classes learn the color wheel in order, I created a dance and song that they absolutely loved to preform. Every time I step into the cafeteria during lunch they all yell, "Mrs. Crane..." and begin to sing the color song.

"The Color Song"
Red, Red, Red
Orange, Or-Orange
Yeellloooow
Green
Blue
PURPLE!

!Welcome!

Welcome to my art classroom blog! I am a first year elementary art teacher. I teach grades kindergarten through 5th grade at a public elementary school. This blog is designed to track my adventure as a first year teacher and the success of my students through their exploration of art! I encourage each of you to ask questions, share your experiences or ideas through this blog.