Mural

 This year, our school allowed me to create an elective mural class.  We completed two murals during the last trimester of the year.  The first was the mission statement in the building, and the second was the mural across the street from our school.  The homeowners asked us to come and paint their wall (that faces our school) and we said, "of course!!"  Next, students and I brainstormed ideas for the mural.  There were so many wonderful ideas that we decided to create a collage of images about our state and community.  Each image on the mural has meaning to our school or our state.  Students worked so hard to complete this and results are beautiful!!! The homeowners are also thrilled with the results and said it has been the talk of the town!

I absolutely love where the students put the paint tray so they wouldn't have to  bend down to get the paint.  The cacti caused us a lot of pain most of the time, but they came in handy here.  

This is one of the painted buildings on the mural which is a small version of the mural.  Students called it the "baby mural!"

Art Timeline

Today was the last day of school at Herrera.  The last day for me is always so bittersweet.  I am sad to see my 8th graders leave, but happy for them as they go to High School and start a new chapter in their lives.  I will definitely miss the smiling faces I get to see every morning when I walk through the halls, but know there will be many more in my future.  This year was truly amazing for myself and my students.
               I have posting pictures all year about my art history timeline, and as the year ends, so does the timeline.  Here are some pictures of the results. 4th and 5th graders started with cave art (where we painted with the lights off in our "art cave") and continued until the 20th century (impressionism).  Junior high students started the timeline at the 20th century to contemporary art.  During this year we painted under our tables like Michelangelo, splattered paint like Pollock, printed like Warhol and much much more.  After each lesson, I chose one student's artwork to display on the timeline (for visual learners, like myself). I believe it is so important to learn about art history at a young age (on a personal note, my grandfather took me the Cleveland Art Museums every month for many years, which is why I am so passionate about art and art history). I cannot count the number of times students have ran up to me in the hallway to tell me how they saw the artwork we studied on their favorite show (many times on Family Guy or Simpsons), movie, commercial, clothing, etc.  I am so proud of my students this year for all they have accomplished and learned.  

THE Phoenix ART MUSEUM!!

Herrera students (along with the rest of our district) got such an absolutely AMAZING opportunity to show artwork at THE PHOENIX ART MUSEUM!!! This year was Arizona's 100th birthday and we celebrated the centennial by creating a large-scale group project. Each school picked one county from Arizona. Next, each school received a wooden cut-out of that county. Each school decorated their county any way they chose (with a copper border to create some uniformity). When all schools counties are complete, it will create a large "puzzle" of ARIZONA!!! We decided to make a copper border because it is one of our most important natural resources from AZ. Also, we designed our counties based on the county we chose. My student's county was LA PAZ (pictured above, written in black on county). La Paz county has a large wildlife conservation, so I chose to showcase that by making a fish, flowers, owl, and a cactus. Also, Paz means PEACE in Spanish, so we divided it up using a peace sign. I chose to use twilled paper to create texture, dimension and just something different. Selected Junior High students worked on this piece.
The finished product was chosen to display at THE PHOENIX ART MUSEUM!!! We had a small little reception with cookies and juice. It was an amazing opportunity for our district and students!

Russian Stacking Dolls

2nd and third graders are learning about ART FROM AROUND THE WORLD!!! This is the project from Russia. We discussed Russian Stacking Dolls (AKA Russian nesting dolls). First, we looked at pictures of traditional stacking dolls and discussed characteristics (what they are made out of, shape, colors, why are the women wearing scarves? etc.). Next, we looked at modern stacking dolls and discussed the differences.

For the art project, I made a template of the three different size dolls. I made sure to remind them that all the lines have to go from one side of the stacking doll to the other (one example is the line on the top of the pants). I also reminded them that nothing can be sticking off of the stacking doll because then they wouldn't fit together.

I let the students choose if they want to make a traditional stacking doll or a modern stacking doll (most chose modern). There were so many great ideas for this project, but here a few...

Also, a few weeks later, a student (above) was soooooo excited to show me that her cousin let her borrow her stacking doll to bring in to show the class!! Another example of those "teacher moment" reasons I LOVE MY JOB!!!

Rainbow Fish 2011-2012

This project is one of those wonderful lessons that have such great results that I have students create a rainbow fish every year. I have a post on my blog from last year's rainbow fish, but we made many more amazing fish this year. Here are just some of them...

Easter Bunnies

This year for Easter Kinders and 1st graders discussed the differences between a circle and an oval. We completed this discussion by drawing an Easter bunny. We used a series of circles and ovals to draw the bunny with a black crayon then colored the background any color (most chose blue) and colored the bunny's ears and nose pink. We also discussed how the sky is not only at the top of the paper, but all the way down to the ground line. Lastly we counted how many ovals and how many circles we used to make the bunny. Hoppy Easter!!!

CoLoR ScHeMeS!!!

Junior High studied different color schemes and created this project based on those color schemes. First, we divided up the paper into 8 5x7 equal rectangles. Next, we used a 5x7 index card and created an abstract design and traced it in sharpie. Then, we traced the index card 8 times on the white paper (flipped around). Next, we learned the 8 different color schemes that they were required to use...

1. Primary

2. Secondary

3. Neutral

4. Warm

5. Cool

6. Monochromatic (primary color)

7. Monochromatic (secondary color)

8. Student choice(any color)

Lastly, we used sharpie to outline the lines a second time to clean it up a bit.

"G" is for Giraffe!!!

We learned that "G" is for Giraffe while reading the book Giraffes Can't Dance. (I posted a copy of the book in earlier in the blog, enjoy!!) This project took three classes to complete. The first day we read the book and created the background using a blue piece of paper, 1/3 of a green piece of paper, and a glue stick. During the next class, each student received three crayons (white, black and brown) and a yellow piece of paper. First we drew stars and night sky on the background. Next, we used ovals and curves to draw a dancing giraffe with black crayon and used a brown crayon to fill in the spots. The last day of the project, we cut out our giraffes and glued them to the night sky!!