2nd Grade Flower Sculptures

After my second graders had studied American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and created their own enlarged flower paintings, we talked about the difference between form and shape. We had our two-dimensional paintings, and we were going to now create a three-dimensional flower sculpture.  We used a plastic bowl as a mold to form our flowers into a bowl shape.  Students then used the slip and score method to add the stigma of their flower.  Finally, we glazed the bowls.  I used a low fire glaze, and did a combo bisque and glaze firing in one.  The colors came out bright and vivid!  Students are excited to bring these home soon!

Kinder Jasper Johns Paintings

Kinder students are studying the Pop artist Jasper Johns.  We looked at several of his paintings that included letters and numbers and talked about how you can find letters and numbers everywhere out in the world: signs, buildings, telephones, microwaves, etc.   Students then folded their papers to get a grid, and started drawing numbers or letters.

 Then the most fun part was painting!  Each student added four different colors to each letter or number, which made the works a little more abstract like Johns' style.  We talked about the science of how the water-based paint resists the oil pastel lines and sticks to the paper instead of the letters or numbers.  Check out all of the wonderful finished paintings here at Zilker's Online Museum:  http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=766073

Writing in Art Class

Writing...in Art Class?  Yes, we do it.  Not as often as I want, because I only see my students every three days for one 45 minute class, and most students are eager and excited to be painting, cutting, drawing, and otherwise engaging in the making of art - especially my students who struggle in academic classes.  When I tell them we are writing, they get much less excited, but I feel it is an extremely important part of learning about art.
As you can see from the Bloom's Taxonomy chart above, when students are creating their artworks, they are working at the highest level of thinking.  Right below "Create" is "Evaluate." Evaluating their finished pieces of art is essential so they can reflect back on the concepts we learned during the project, as well as articulate through words how they feel about their finished works.

Here are some actual student exit tickets from different grade levels.  I really enjoy reading what their favorite part of their artwork is, and seeing how they feel about their finished works.

These are also a great summary of what they learned, so when students bring home their artwork, and their exit ticket is attached to the back, parents or other family members can see some of the concept or big ideas we were learning about in class as well as enjoy the finished art work.  Look for exit tickets coming home with some of your child's artwork!