Square 1 Art* Fourth Grade:Sea Life Ecosystems

Fourth graders begin their first art projects.

Students were introduced to the artwork of Hawaiian artists Christian Lassen. The hyper realism paintings that showed under water scenes in very bright colors were used as the inspiration for their square one art. Students learned that artists have messages behind their artwork. Lassen’s artwork tries to raise environmental awareness and teach us not to pollute our oceans so they can continue to be bright and beautiful.

Students drew in the sketchbooks. The practiced creating a ‘sense of space’ in their drawings. They focused on size, placement and overlapping. Students used pencil, then went over their drawings with sharpie. Students used crayons to color everything but the background. After finishing coloring the students used a wash of paint to add color to the background.

4-5 Classes

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Square 1 Art* Third Grade: Mr Seahorse Collage

Third grade students begin their first art project. Students first learned about primary, secondary and intermediate colors. Students used bubble wrap to mix yellow and red paint directly on their papers. This made orange and all the intermediate colors in between like yellow-orange and red-orange.

Next students paper the background, the ocean. Mixing blue and white on their papers and using plastic forks to make wave lines.

Students practiced in their sketchbooks and then drew seahorses on the back of their bubble wrap painted papers and cut them out to glue on the ocean background. Then sharpie markers were used to add implied lines of texture on the seahorses. Scraps of the bubble wrap paper were used to make sand and then paint was used for seaweed and coral.

4-5 classes

*pictures to come*

Square 1 Art* Second Grade: Fish Collages

Students first painted the background for their fish collages. Blue and white paint were mixed directly on their papers. Adding white to a color makes a tint. Students mixed the paint on their paper to look like the ocean and used a plastic fork to make wave lines in the wet paint

To create their fish, students discovered how they could use shapes to make their fantasy fish. Students drew in pencil, went over them in sharpie and colored them in with crayons. The fish were cut out and glued to the water background. Then extra details were added… sand, seaweed and coral.

4-5 Classes

*Pictures coming soon*

Square 1 Art* First Grade: Collage Garden Scenes

Square 1 Art Project

First Grade: Collage Garden Scenes

First grade students began with the Art Hunt on day one and then watched the animated video of Eric Carle’s book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’

            (find out more about these two activities in THIS post)

Students first painted the background for their garden scenes. Blue and white paint were mixed directly on their papers. Adding white to a color makes a tint. Students mixed the paint on their paper to look like a sky and clouds.

The next art class, students paint ‘art papers’ to be used for the grass and flowers for the garden collages Yellow, Red, Purple and Green construction papers were painted, letting some of the paper show through, then plastic forks were run through the still wet paint. Students also practiced drawing flowers.

Over the course of the last two art classes students cut stems and leaves from the green, flowers from the others, used some green paint to add grass, extra ‘art papers’ to add a butterfly, bee or lady bug and then sharpie markers for extra detail.

4-5 Classes

 
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Square 1 Art * Kindergarten: Sun Faces

Students did an Art Hunt on the second day to art class. Mrs. R demonstrated how to draw a few lines and shapes and then each student had a piece of paper… like this one below

And they searched around the art room while listening to some music looking for the lines and shapes.

On the their next day of art, Kindergarten watched an animated video of Eric Carle’s book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Students looked for lines and shaped while watching the video story.

The Project Procedure:
Students drew Sun Faces with sharpie marker using line and shape after a short demonstration.
Students were introduced to pattern which they are also learning about in math class. Students used an A-B-C-A-B-C pattern using warm colors to color the rays of the sun.
Students painted the center of the sun, the face, yellow and used color colors on the background. Learning about warm and cool colors
4-5 Classes


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The beginning of September

I began taking over teaching a few classes a day and then after a few days was teaching all 6 classes of the day. At the beginning Mrs. R would help to get the students attention after they entered the room and informed the students I would be teaching them for today but that we were both still available for questions/resources. The first days of teaching classes went really well. I was talking a lot so I drank A LOT of water. I never realized how dry my mouth could be after teaching all day! Now that it is the end of September I have adjusted to speaking all day and transitioning between grade levels.

Being in the art room I see all 6 grade levels once every day and see the students on a 6 day rotation. This means that without any interruptions to our schedule… for example assemblies, picture day, testing… We teach each grade level there lessons for 6 days and on the 7th day we move on to day number two of the lesson or if it was a one day lesson we begin another new lesson. This has been helpful to me as a beginning teacher because it gives me the opportunity to adjust and learn from the way I present a lesson to one group and change or improve it for the next day.

As I took over teaching the students had already begun their first projects for the school year introduced to them by Mrs. R. Their first projects are for their ‘Square 1’ art. ‘Square 1’ is a company located in Georgia, the students make the artwork on 8 ½ by 8 ½ square sheets of paper and we ship them off. The company then takes a digital picture of each students artwork, sends the artwork and a sheet of individualized stickers with the students artwork. There is also a brochure that is sent home so other items can be purchased that have the students’ original artwork.
Mugs, Aprons, Ceramic Tile, Shirt, Water bottles, Etc

The money made from ‘Square 1” goes directly to Art for supplies, materials, resources, etc!!

Sqaure 1's website: http://www.square1art.com/

Classroom Management

My collaborating teacher has many classroom management techniques she uses throughout each class and throughout the day. It all depends on the situation in the class, the grade level and which techniques have already been used in that particular class that a new technique is necessary.

As I am transitioning into teaching the classes, I am using these as well as building on other techniques I have learned during my other teaching experiences.

Here is a list of a few…

-Ring the wind chime, signals students to listen.

-One set of lights off, gets students attention. Must know that no student in the room is prone to seizures.

- A song…

            Take our your hand, shake it up, wake it up

            Do what I do and Say what I say

            I said stop (Kids repeat stop and hold hand out in stop position)

            Look (Kids repeat and point to eyes)

            Listen (Kids repeat and point to ears

            To Learn (Kids repeat and hold sign language letter L)

-Music.. when the song goes on it is clean up time, when it goes off its time to be back at your seat, quite, with heads down

-Clap a rhythm and students repeat clapping rhythm back

I know some of this might seem a bit boring, but I am also trying to use this blog as way for me to remember the little things I am learning while student teaching and also give you all a glimpse into my experience. Thanks for readings!

Introductory to Art Days

Hey all, thanks for checking out my blog after my first post. I know it’s been a while since the first posting, I have just been so busy teaching, planning, getting to know the students names and getting in the routine of getting up at 6am, but home before 5!

So, I’m getting into the swing of things but here is some information and notes about the past week or so.

My second day at KES my collaborating teacher and I had breakfast duty. We do this from 7:15-7:45 Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday. It’s a pretty good side duty if you ask me or any of the other teachers, we already have to been at school and we do not have to brave the weather… hot, cold, rain… who knows if we will see any snow this year. After breakfast duty we had two classes and then the ENTIRE school met in the cafeteria for an assembly. Have I mentioned there are about 920 students!!! The assembly was the kickoff for coupon book sales, the PTA introduced the fundraiser, acted silly on stage to get the students attention and talked about all the prizes they could win by selling a certain number of books. Prizes- key chains, stuff animals, blow up chair, time in the game truck- it apparently has Xbox, wii, kinect and every game imaginable, one student will be entered into a drawing for an ipod! Wow!

Back to our regular schedule, 4^th and 5^th grade worked on making sketchbooks for the year and practicing bubble letters once they made their sketchbooks. Then kindergarten and 1^st sat in big group… This is what my teacher calls time spent by the smart board, her rocking chair, the kids sit criss-cross on the floor during this time. Anyways Mrs. R read them the poem “The Crayon Box that Talked” and then after that she did some quick drawing from the rocking chair and reminded/introduced the students to basic lines and shapes. Then the students each had a handout with the basic shapes and lines on them and we played music “Celebrate” and they walked around the room finding the shapes and lines and marking them off with a crayon when they found them. They really enjoyed this activity!!

One last thing Mrs. R does on the introductory days to art, which is the first 6 days of school because the students come to art on a 6 day rotation. She takes a class photo and the students hold a name tag below their chins. She then keeps this in her binder to remember names more easily and help while taking role.

Well I’ll leave you with that for now, I have some other notes about my first full week jotted down but I’ll add those later tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping in and seeing how my student teaching is going! I’m having a blast!

The Crayon Box That Talked

While walking into a toy store the day before today
I overheard a crayon box with many things to say

"I don't like Red!" said Yellow and Green said "Nor do I"
"And no one here likes Orange but no one knows just why"

"We are a box of crayons that doesn't get along
Said Blue to all the others "Something here is wrong"

Well, I bought that box of crayons and took it home with me
And laid out all the colors so the crayons all could see

They watched me as I colored with Red and Blue and Green
And Black and White and Orange and every color in between

They watched as Green became the grass and Blue became the sky
The Yellow sun was shining bright on White clouds drifting by

Colors changing as they touched becoming something new
They watched me as I colored - they watched me till I was through

And when I finally finished I began to walk away
And as I did the crayon box had something more to say

"I do like Red!" said Yellow and Green said, "so do I"
And Blue you were terrific! So high up in the sky

"We are a box of crayons each one of us unique
But when we get together the picture is more complete"

Author: Shane DeRolf

Illustrator: Michael Letzig