Tints and shades with 3rd grade

I found this picture on my phone and thought I would share it. This was in February when we worked on our Tints and shades!

5th grade Showcase

When I asked my students "what is art" or "How does art make you feel?" Some answers were...

Sebastian-

"When you draw you go on an imagination adventure"

Bryson-

"I like art because if you make a mistake, it makes it unique."

Sawyer-

"Art is a time where you can relax and there is no such thing as a wrong answer."

Marilyn-

Art is a great stress reliever. Whenever I don't feel good, art makes me happy."

Over the years I have tried to reinforce the students with the idea that it's ok to make mistakes and to problem solve creatively solutions to change our accidents into "beautiful oop's" which is based on a book I read them at the beginning of the year. Students could choose to work collaboratively to foster teamwork or independently. Many students spent hours of their lunch recess time excitedly working on their projects. Here are a few pictures of the set up before parents arrived.

2nd grade murals

I thought it might be nice to have second grade paint some summer time murals.

....bring May flowers!

Who said assessments have to be boring! It's the end of the year and it's time for me to assess everything we've learned through the year. From how to make shapes and lines to describing styles of art and the grade level artists, I try to find ways to creatively check for knowledge. Here are some of my Kinder tulips that look adorable but also show me the ease for some students to make ovals, curved lines, angle lines, straight lines, and the motor control to color in one direction and color in a confined space. It might not seem like much but for students in kindergarten who at the beginning of the year might not have had the confidence ( wanting me to draw it for them or afraid to try) or the control to do all this, to now create a picture with ease and understanding of all the vocabulary terms makes me so happy. The simplicity that we learn at this stage will be the foundation for them to build upon in future years and if you've ever been to one of Hudsonville's district art shows, you will see the amazing work we are building up. 

May the 4th be with you! ;)

Happy Star Wars day! I mean May 4th! Today 3rd graders made R2D2 and had a blast doing it. We used geometric shapes and chalk pastel for the lasers. Thanks to the blog dripdripsplattersplash.blogspot.com for the great lesson!