Aerial Views of Mt. Rainier from a Plane

My 3rd grade artists have been studying landscapes for weeks. They have a solid understanding of foreground, middle ground, background, and horizon lines. I knew introducing aerial landscapes and a bird's (or in this case, plane's) eye view would make sense to them when creating their drawn artworks.  This group of artist were way ahead of the other classes, so we cranked out these beauties in one day.

I began by asking them if they've ever flown in a plane or visited Mt. Rainier. Surprisingly, a lot had!

Next, I shared images of Mt. Rainier, the highest mountain in the Cascade range of the Pacific Northwest as well as our state of Washington. This mountain has a prominent place in our school's landscape. When you exit our school, Mt. Rainier is there, gazing down on you. I knew my students would appreciate illustrating the mountain in this unique way.





Then I performed a guided drawing demonstration inspired by the aerial photographs from an airplane. They used colored pencils to finish them.

Some students asked if they could depict Mt. Rainier erupting, since it is a volcano and all, so I said go for it. I left it up to their imagination from there.  Here are some results!

Those are some risk takers right there! Check out the person on the wing!

They were really proud of their results and seemed to enjoy the process.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School Art Games

New room set up for the 2016-2017 school year

We have just wrapped up our 1st full week back at school and I couldn't be more proud of my art students. This is my third year teaching my kids and they have all grown so much in their art education. I was amazed how much they had remembered from past lessons and even more impressed how willing they were to take risks. I wanted our first art classes to be fun and exciting yet also cover the important art room expectations.

Before school began I was researching new ideas to kick off the year and I read an article form the Art of Education site about classroom management. The author, Melissa Purtee, shared a game called "What's in the bag?" I loved how this game is designed to teach classroom behaviors such as teamwork, creative problem solving, and being on task. I adapted it for my teaching setting by requiring each class to disassemble their work at the end of class. This adaption, which was at first a means to have enough supplies for the 480+ kids I teach, but then became a valuable lesson in letting things go. It was really hard for some kids to take their work apart but allowed them to practice coping with this type of process.

5th grade artists creating a super hero costume prompted in the "What's in the Bag" game

Create a playground prompt by 2nd grade artists

Make a monster that can move prompt by 4th grade artists

Become a Rock band prompt, check out that xylophone!

Another game I played was a drawing game I read from Mona Brooks book called, "Drawing with Children". I read commands centered on the 5 basic elements of shape and my students responded by painting the command. I gave them 4 neon color paints, which they loved, to play the game. The results were beautiful. Even though they all had the same commands, each work was authentic in the response. It was a great game in reviewing drawing techniques and practice classroom expectations.

3rd grade work

4th grade work

I love how they look placed together.

I would say these games were successful in achieving my goals of teaching classroom expectations and creating an engaged, lively, and safe space.

Thanks for stopping by!

"The Raven" W.I.P. 2nd grade

The 2nd grade has been studying landscapes and practicing the 5 basic elements of shape in drawing. We have been learning how objects can appear to be bigger or smaller depending on how close they are to the viewer.  In drawing 2-D, the 2nd graders understand that they can visually communicate distance and space by changing the sizes of objects in their art.

To practice their skills I asked them to create an artwork in response to the book, "The Raven: A Trickster Tale From the Pacific Northwest" written by Gerald McDermott. I read them the book with my document camera and asked them if the Raven was close to us or farther away in each picture. This was a really quick way to assess their comprehension of this spatial concept.

I really love the bold "form-line" design in the illustrations.

Is he near or far?

Is he near or far? How do you know?

After I finished the story I guided the class in the drawing of the Raven. We focused on identifying the basic shapes seen in the original illustration from the book. After that, I asked the class to create a landscape in the distance to emphasize that the bird was near the viewer. Here are some "wips" (Works in Progress) from one class.

What a striking looking eye.

This artist used Seattle Seahawks colors.

This artist really wanted to focus on color patterns, saving the landscape for last.

I am pleased to see these kids are growing in their drawing skills. I've noticed that when we do these guided drawings together they are getting better at identifying basic shapes and translating that in their own drawings.  They are beginning to understand that being able to draw is more about seeing than raw talent.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

First blog post!

Hello virtual world!

I can't tell you how excited I am to start this blog. When I started teaching K-5 visual art last year I would surf around the web and read amazing art ed blogs and think to myself, "I could never do that!" These sites would look so polished, the projects looked so wonderful, the teacher bloggers would sound so experienced! Here I was trolling the web trying to piece together a curriculum from scratch a month before school was starting!

One year later I'm happy to say that I am on that blogging train! I intend to use this blog as a way to share my classes' projects, reflect on my teaching practice, and connect to other teachers, parents, and art enthusiasts!

So for my first project I'll share an artwork from a 1st grader named Kyah. We read an Aesop's Fable, "The Bear and Bees" illustrated by Charles Santore.

I used the book Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes and her "Monart" method to guide the students in their drawings of the bear. I really like how she teaches you to break down shape to the 5 basic elements. This is easy for a 1st grader to digest. 

I had the kids draw in pencil first, outline in sharpie fine tip markers, erase their pencil lines, and color their art with water color crayons. I demonstrated the use of the crayons for them. It blew their minds when they saw how the dry "crayon" turned to paint! They kept saying, " It looks so realistic!!"

Here is Kyah's version of the bear and the bee. I like how she gave the bear's claws purple nail polish! Those bees look aggressive in their movement! She isn't quite finished with brushing the water over the colors yet, but you can see she is doing a nice job filling in the appropriate shapes with her intended color.

Ok...I'm going to sign off for now! Thanks!