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Our school is participating in a Global Artist Trading Card Swap! An Artist Trading Card, or "ATC", is a miniature work of art that can be traded and collected, kind of like baseball cards. This is our school's first year making and trading ATCs, but our kids are loving it and are excited about making it a Hendrix tradition. Our students have been making and trading cards with each other all year long, but now we have the opportunity to trade with artists outside the Hendrix community! Here's how the swap works: it's hosted by a school in Minnesota, and teachers all over the world send in their students' ATCs. The host school will send our cards to other schools, and send us other cards in return! Click here to see how last year's trade worked- it's a really neat process! One of the things I included in our packages of ATCs was a link to this blog post. I am hoping that the schools who receive our cards will find this page. If you are from one of those schools, I would love for you to leave a comment and tell us where you are in the world! Here are some selections from the two hundred Artist Trading Cards that we mailed. Each card is beautiful and unique, and the product of really hard work from our incredible Hendrix artists! Second grade students made these self-portraits as an extension of the self-portrait projects they recently finished. (See their previous drawings here and here.) For these ATCs, students first made the drawings in permanent marker, then added color with liquid watercolors in either warm or cool colors. These "Rainbow Squiggle Paintings" by second, third, and fourth graders are so pretty. Our students were SO careful and precise when painting them- and they really enjoyed the process! We started by using a tiny brush to paint a squiggly line in the middle of the card. Then, students continued to add lines in various colors, following the contour of the original line as closely as possible. Next are these marker print ATCs. In this post you can see the whole process of making the marker prints using styrofoam and water-based markers. My kids LOVED this process. I had several kids tell me they begged their moms to take them to the dollar store so they could buy styrofoam plates to do more at home. I love when a project is so engaging that my kids want to continue it when they leave the art room! My fourth grade Gifted Art group made this set of prints and embellished them using metallic markers. Fourth graders also made these cards featuring their Color Name Poems. This project was an extension of this painting and poetry project we worked on right before the holiday break in December. We cut their extra paintings down to ATC-size, and students collaged the best line from their poems on top. Both the colors and the poetry are absolutely gorgeous! This next set of ATCs represents the largest portion of our cards- I think 80 of our total 200 cards came from this project. I think these are some of our most beautiful contributions. Rather than creating the cards in the traditional ATC size, students instead made large paintings and then cut them into smaller pieces. Students made the paintings in response to music they were hearing. The focus was on expressive mark-making... for example, the student might have painted fast, zig-zag marks in response to energetic, bouncy music, while choosing slow, swirling, marks in response to a more calm style of music. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of this group of kids painting, but here is a similar project that my kindergartners did earlier in the year. It's one of my favorite lessons for any age student. The last set of cards I want to share are ones that students created independently, rather than as part of a whole-class project. They are of a variety of different media and subject matter. Students worked on these cards as an early-finisher project after their main art projects were completed. These are some of my favorites, as they really capture my students' unique personalities! Our cards needed to be packaged in sets of ten before being mailed. I tried to include as much variety in each set as possible! I wanted each school that received our cards to have some of each type of card, if possible. And here are our 200 cards, each wrapped with a paper telling about our school and our state, as well as including contact information to reach me and to access this blog. Hendrix is reaching out to the world! One last thing, and this is mostly for other art teachers who may be reading this after receiving our cards- I always love seeing how other art teachers have their classrooms set up, especially in other parts of the world. Here is a glimpse inside our classroom at Hendrix Elementary in South Carolina: I hope you'll have a minute to explore the rest of our blog, and I'd love if you could leave us a comment!
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This year Hendrix participated in International Dot Day 2017. On this day each year, artists all over the world celebrate the creativity and inspiration found in Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot. The Dot is the story of a young artist named Vashti who thinks she can't draw. Her teacher tries to help her by saying "Just make a mark and see where it takes you!" Vashti angrily jabs her pencil into her paper, leaving a black dot behind. The next time Vashti comes to Art, she sees her black dot hanging on the wall! She says to herself "Hmmph. I can make a better dot than that!" And she does! Her teacher's encouragement and support was all Vashti needed to be successful. By the end of the story, Vashti has taken on the role of teacher, and the book ends with her helping a little boy learn to "make his mark!" The book has inspired artists all over the world, and each year in September, International Dot Day is celebrated! This year over 10 million artists in over 170 countries were part of the celebration- and our Hendrix artists were included in that number! Hendrix artists celebrated by making their own dot-inspired artworks. These paintings will be on display at our school during the month of September. I am looking forward to this being a new tradition for our school! After we finished our paintings, students loved hearing this message of inspiration from The Dot author Peter H. Reynolds! It was almost like getting to meet him ourselves! We are already excited to celebrate International Dot Day 2018! I wanted to take a minute to explain the behavior expectations for when your children are in the Art room. I always express to students that the Art room is a shared space, and about 700 students use it each week. This means we have to make good use of the limited time we have together and make each class period as productive as possible, as well as take good care of our materials and equipment so everything will be ready for the next group of kids! Each classroom in our school begins the year by developing a list of expectations called an "Essential Agreement." This is IB terminology for behaviors each member of our class agrees are necessary for a functional and pleasant place to learn. I ask each student to sign their name to our Art Room Essential Agreement. This signature creates a contract between each student and the other members of the class. I explain to the students that it's like making a promise. When misbehaviors occur, I can remind each student of the promise he or she made to follow our expectations. In each class session, I select one student to honor for doing a particularly good job. Their reward is a cupcake sticker. Let me explain what cupcakes have to do with making art! It's all based on this rubric: I explain to students that making Art is like decorating cupcakes. Sometimes students turn in work that is like the first cupcake on this poster- it's not even finished. The next category is what we call the "sloppy cupcake". The student made minimal effort and did not take pride in their work. I describe the third cupcake as being "fine". It's finished, all the requirements have been met, but it's nothing special. This represents artwork that's good, but not great. The final category on the rubric is our "fancy cupcake." THIS represents the kind of work I'm looking for- work that goes above and beyond expectations! This quality of work is what I reward with a matching cupcake sticker. So if you see your child bring home a sticker like this, understand that it represents a job very well done! It's important that children understand that this reward is NOT based on talent or skill, it's earned through EFFORT. All students, even those who struggle with Art and may not have a lot of natural talent, will earn a cupcake sticker at least once each year. I make sure that every student in the class is honored one time before any student earns a second sticker. As you may know, Hendrix participates in the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program. The "PBIS" philosophy encourages good choices in our students. PBIS supports the use of a common language between all areas of a school. That common language is evident in what we call our "PACK expectations". We ask students to be "Part of the PACK" here at school. PACK is an acronym for being principled, appreciative, cooperative, and knowledgeable. Each area of our school has a system of expectations using this vocabulary. Our PACK expectations for Special Area classes are described in this chart: Each time students attend a Special Area class, the teacher records their behavior on this chart and returns it to the classroom teacher. This helps us all maintain high standards for our students' behavior in all areas of the school. Each Special Area teacher tracks the points earned by each homeroom class, and the classes work toward earning reward days. In Art, our reward days involve fun activities like playdough, painting with shaving cream, or drawing outside with sidewalk chalk! Occasionally students fail to follow the expected behaviors in the Art room. When that happens, students first receive a warning. I keep cards with a stop sign picture on them, and if a student is making a bad choice (such as talking when they're not supposed to, or mistreating supplies, or not following directions) I place a stop sign card on that student's desk. This is a visual reminder that they need to "stop what they are doing and make a better choice," as the card reads. Usually this is all it takes to get a student back on track! If the problem behavior continues, that student will lose the privilege of making Art for the remainder of the day, and will instead complete one of these "Better Choices Sheets." This form is designed to help a student think about what happened and realize why it was a problem, as well as give them a chance to explain what was going on and how the problem started. I have two versions of Better Choices Sheets- one for older students, and one for younger kids with pictures to circle instead of writing a sentence. The form has a place for me to describe to parents what happened, and asks the parent to sign the form and have their student return it to me the next day. Fortunately these Better Choices Sheets are not a common occurrence here in our Art room- students would much rather be participating in making Art! Parents, if you ever have a question or concern about our routines or expectations in the Art room, please let me know! Second graders are finishing up an IB unit called "Kids.gov". This unit deals with leadership and how a leader's decisions impact the citizens and the community. The students learn about the responsibilities of leaders and the rights of citizens. In the Art room, we talked about how artists form a community of their own. People who love and appreciate Art have a responsibility to inform others about why Art is important in a society. We learned that this is called being an advocate for the Arts. To begin our lesson, I asked the kids to imagine what our world would be like if Art didn't exist. This video really brought that idea to life - Our students were amazed to realize just how much Art is present in everything we do. From the fashion designers who make our clothing, the architects who design our structures, the product designers who make machines and equipment, the interior designers who create the spaces we live in, the packaging designers and graphic artists who design the things we purchase, and even the media artists who create our entertainment, Art is EVERYWHERE!! I asked students to think of something that happens in their daily life. I asked them to illustrate that activity in two ways- one WITH the influence of Art, and one WITHOUT. Students had the opportunity to share their ideas with their classmates. While the first part of the lesson was designed to increase appreciation for the Arts, the second part was geared towards teaching advocacy. Now that students understood WHY Art is important, I wanted them to feel the responsibility for sharing that importance with others. This was the connection to the IB unit- as members of the art-making community, we have the responsibility to help others see why Art is needed in our society. This is advocacy! I shared with our students that there are children all over the country, and even in our own state, who don't get to go to Art class in their schools. Our kids were so sad to hear that! One second-grader even asked if it was because they didn't have art supplies- he volunteered to donate his extra crayons from home! (THIS is the kind of action we want to see in our students!!) I told them that in these situations, the leaders of the schools probably felt that it was important to put the school's money towards other things- likely reading and math. Students were thankful that we live in a part of the state where our leaders see the value of including the Arts in educating our kids! Our second activity was to make these mini-posters stating why Art is important. (These small artworks are actually called Artist Trading Cards, a new activity we are starting here at Hendrix. A separate post on these "ATCs" is coming soon!) Students were to design a card and then trade it with a friend. When trading the cards, they were to tell one reason they felt Art was important for kids. In having these conversations, students are being leaders in the Arts community and advocating for something they believe in! Even the Art teacher made a card to trade!! If you're interested in more information about why advocating for the Arts in schools is a good thing, check out this video! Here's a link to one of my favorite articles encouraging Arts Education, and an infographic full of support for the Arts! This week was "Open House" at Hendrix! I love when families get to visit our Art room. It's important to me that parents understand what their child will truly be learning in Art this year. Yes, we're going to make nice-looking artwork, but there's a lot of important learning happening! Making art involves a lot of science and math, and there are many opportunities to practice writing skills. We also learn to look closely at artwork and interpret the artist's message- which helps build skills used to analyze literature. In addition to all that, students also develop real-world skills like coming up with original ideas, collaborating successfully with others, and learning to persevere through challenges instead of giving up. This is why I think the Art room is one of the most special places in our whole school! Open House allows me to give parents a preview of some of the learning experiences their child will have in Art. I set out examples of some activities we've already completed this year, and have information ready about upcoming projects. I also let parents know the month that each grade level's Art Show will be occurring. And I make sure parents know how to find this blog! Examples of finished projects for parents to see. For parents who were unable to visit during Open House, here's a tour of our Art room! ![]() This is the IB Connections board. Each grade level's current unit is displayed, including the central idea, lines of inquiry and key concepts. Having this information easily accessible helps me easily integrate the learning from the main classroom with the activities and projects in the Art room. It also helps students grasp how their learning is connected- how concepts from one subject area easily transfer to other areas. Students in the art room continue to develop in the IB learner profile. These traits encourage life-long learning. Another art teacher generously shared these posters, which outline characteristics of an IB learner and how they relate to art-making. Attitudes of an IB learner are similarly displayed. This palette-shaped poster is a fun way to remember the attitudes and profile words! Another aspect of an IB classroom is creating an Essential Agreement together. These expectations are ones that the students and teacher agree are necessary for a productive and pleasant classroom environment. An important part of an Essential Agreement is that all members of the classroom sign his or her name. By signing, each student enters into a contract and is agreeing to follow these expectations. This is the display space at the front of our classroom. These posters contain information to help students make decisions about their artwork- when it is completed, how to take artwork from just "good enough" to amazing, and how to fix mistakes that occur in their work. I need to further explain this cupcake poster. You may see your child come home with a cupcake sticker like the one pictured, and your child will explain that they won the "cupcake award" in Art. This cupcake is a symbol for incredible work that day in Art! The different types of cupcakes on this poster function as a rubric for students to check their level of success. When I explain it to students, I say that sometimes students turn in artwork that looks like the first cupcake- their work is not even finished, and they have made little to no effort. The next cupcake symbolizes work that is technically complete- all the necessary parts are there- but the artist was sloppy and did not do their best work. I explain that the third cupcake represents artwork that is "fine". The artist completed everything I asked them to do, but did nothing extra. The artwork may be good, but not great. It stops just short of being special. The last cupcake- we call it the "fancy cupcake"- symbolizes work that is extraordinary. It goes above and beyond expectations. Each week I choose one student in each class who truly gave their all to the day's activity and honor them with a cupcake sticker. I make sure every single student in our school receives the cupcake award at least once each year. It's awarded based on effort, not skill! I often refer to these posters explaining the elements and principles of Art! We call these the building blocks of art-making. You can compare making art to cooking- the finished artwork is the food you eat. The elements are like the ingredients- line, shape, form, color, texture, and value. The principles are the recipe- the way you mix the ingredients together. Artists make decisions about balance, variety, emphasis, unity, proportion, pattern, and rhythm. Just like there are infinite possibilities in cooking, there are infinite possibilities for making art! Did you know that approximately 6,500 works of art are created each year in this art room?! With that many pieces of paper being moved around, organization is a necessity! These tubs are labeled with each classroom teacher's name, and in-progress works of art are stored here from week to week. Students have a good bit of choice and freedom in this art room. While each project has specific expectations, older students are often free to choose the medium (art-making material) that they wish to use. For example, some students prefer the spontaneity and adaptability of painting, while others are more comfortable with the precision and control of colored pencils. The materials on this shelf are available for students to access themselves- including crayons, markers, permanent markers, scissors, glue sticks, rulers, colored pencils, and paint. Students know how to go and get what they need, and they also know the expectations for how each material should be cared for and cleaned up. (They do have limited access to the paint- they can get it out themselves, but have to have permission from me first!) Another way I offer choice to students is through this shelf of resources. The binders on the top are full of reference images. I sorted through my collection of magazines and calendars to find photos of all different types of objects that students may want to draw. It took weeks of organizing one summer, but now if a student says, "How do I draw a giraffe?" or "How do I draw a bridge?" I can tell them to go find a photo in the binder to use as inspiration! The books on the lower shelves are ones I have collected through the years. Some of them are artist biographies or collections of artwork, some are tutorials about different art-making techniques, some are non-fiction books about different countries and cultures. And some are storybooks! Students can also use these books as inspiration, or they can enjoy looking at them if they finish their work early. Another option for students who finish early are the puzzles and games in these drawers. Most of them are designed to build spatial reasoning and pattern-matching skills, which are helpful in art-making. Now I want to share some of the fun and unique things that make our Art room special! This is my wall of color words. My goal is to have the names of the colors displayed in the native languages of all of our Hendrix students. Most of the translations have been given to me by the families of my students, though I've had to do internet research for a few words. I've tried to be as accurate as possible! Currently the languages that are represented are Spanish, Vietnamese, Cambodian, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Japanese, American Sign Language, Arabic, Hindi, Hmong, Thai, Braille, and Dutch. I would love to add more! I've had fun collecting these brightly colored crayons- each of them is 12" tall, so they make a fun display! I think this is the most special part of our Art room. This is my graduation wall... it showcases the graduation poster that our district publishes each year, and I've highlighted the names of each student I've taught- "my" kids. I keep a document listing the name and expected graduation year of every student I've taught- it's currently at 2,717 names, and I haven't yet added the students who are new to me this year!
This wall also displays the group photo of each Art Club group. This is the graduation year for my very first Art Club! They were my fourth graders in my first year teaching, and now they are graduating from high school! I am still in touch with a few of these students, and it's been so fun to watch them grow up! I try very hard to make our Art room a happy place where students feel comfortable and able to succeed. I hope I have accomplished that goal! We spent the last week of the school year enjoying Art Centers Day! Students rotate to different stations in the room to enjoy and explore a variety of activities. Here are some of the materials that are available... Pattern Puzzles: this set came from Target, and comes with a set of pattern cards to recreate with the colorful wooden blocks. Spirograph- a classic toy! I had one of these when I was in elementary school! Playdough- another classic. You never get too old for playdough! An abstract art puzzle- this one came from Barnes & Noble, and is very challenging! I can't remember what this puzzle is called, but it's made of nine 3-D pieces, and they fit together to make three cubes. It's a real challenge of spatial reasoning skills! This is a fun activity called "About Face." You can fit the different cards together to create faces from unusual objects! Foam building blocks Famous Paintings puzzles- I made this puzzle myself, and I have another of a Picasso painting. Kinetic Sand- this was everyone's favorite! I had to set a timer so others could have a turn! Fashion design- this is a Melissa & Doug product. I made some extra bases out of cardboard so more than one student at a time could participate. A Color Wheel puzzle- my aunt found this puzzle for me at a Walmart at Myrtle Beach! iPads with art apps. Our art room has four iPads! A grid puzzle- this one also came from Target, and can be very tricky! I cannot remember the name of this product, but I ordered them from an educational catalog. They connect together and can be built into sculptures. (Of course, it didn't take the kids long to realize they could spin on the table like mini fidget spinners!) "Straws and Connectors"- I ordered these from Amazon. A set of Tangrams- another classic! And a drawing station. Students can use how-to-draw pages to get ideas, or come up with something on their own! Some of these activities, like the puzzles, are available anytime to students who finish their artwork early. Others, like the playdough and kinetic sand, are saved for special Centers Days. We typically do Centers two to three times a year- the last week in December, the last week in May, and sometimes during the week of a grade level's Musical and Art Show. That brings our year to a close! It's been an incredible year. Students created some amazing works of art. I am spending the summer planning and preparing for another great year! Recently our school hosted an event promoting literacy. The theme was "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"- all about baseball. We had baseball books, snacks, games, music- even some real baseball players came to visit! Our art project for the night was inspired by the circular shape of a baseball- we did "Circle Painting"! The concept of Circle Painting was developed as a way to bring harmony and unity to communities through collaborative art-making. (Visit circlepainting.org for more information and to see how Circle Painting has transformed communities all over the world!) The main goal behind our Circle Painting project was for painters to create any design they wished using ONLY circles. Also, the painting is meant to happen in a very respectful and considerate way- you can add to a circle someone has already made, but your additions shouldn't cover up or overtake the original circle. I loved seeing our school community make art together. Students, parents, siblings, grandparents, and even the teachers had a part in making these artworks happen! And here are some of the finished canvases. They are gorgeous! Hendrix is participating in "The Great Kindness Challenge" this week. Each day students are encouraged to do a kind act for someone at our school or in our community. Students have made cards and banners, created homemade gifts, and collaborated on this beautiful display! These colorful cards were created by several 1st and 2nd grade classes. The students explored color relationships and how new colors are made. Each student used only three paint colors (red, yellow, and blue- the primary colors) and mixed them to create orange, green, and violet (the secondary colors). They were encouraged to try different color combinations. The result is this beautifully unique rainbow! Each class has discussed what it could mean to "be a rainbow" for someone. We talked about how if someone is having a hard day, your kind act could be all they need to turn their day around. Just like a rainbow at the end of a storm! * I can't take credit for this idea- the design is based on a bulletin board I saw online, and we made our own version! Here's the original: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/166773992427772517/ It has been a busy but enjoyable month! Students collaborated on some group projects to sell at our school's silent auction. The money we raised went to help one of our families. Third grade students each made a holly leaf for this wreath. Second graders painted strips of paper which were then combined into a colorful tree. And fourth graders worked in teams to create this village of gingerbread houses! Students also enjoyed my collection of art-themed ornaments on the tree in our classroom! They were fascinated to learn that some of these ornaments I have had since I was in elementary school myself. Second graders are talking a lot about traditions in their current IB unit, and I enjoyed sharing with them my family's tradition of collecting ornaments and recording them in a book each year. 2016 has been a very productive year for our classroom, and I am excited for what 2017 will bring!
It was wonderful to meet so many parents at Open House! I love sharing what we do in the art room, and I hope parents are as proud as I am of their students' artistic accomplishments!
Here is a peek into the space where your students create. |
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