Student curators, goal statements and an elephant parade are just a few ways we've started off to a great year in art class! Each class began the year using my new Curator Board. The bulletin board in my classroom has been transformed into a gallery wall, with several empty frames. Throughout the year students will be curating their own work, the work of their peers and the work of famous artists. 4th Grade: Fourth grade students are currently learning about art from India. We've practiced drawing elephants from a distance and close-up. Students drew an elephant from the side and a frontal view. We looked at images of elephants in India, and noticed the bright decorations used for celebrations. We watched the following video from the Elephant Festival in Jaipur: Students will create two elephant paintings. The first is a close-up elephant portrait, and the second is a landscape painting featuring a side-view of an elephant. Students will decorate both elephants with designs inspired by elephants from India! Here are my teaching examples for each project: Students have started drawing their elephant portraits and I am thrilled with how great they look so far! 5th Grade: Fifth grade students started the year off learning about artist, Kehinde Wiley. Wiley creates contemporary portraits inspired by the poses in traditional Baroque paintings. Students will select their own Baroque pose for an altered photograph project and create a unique overlapping pattern inspired by Wiley. We watched the following Kehinde Wiley interview to learn more about the artist: I asked students to write a goal statement regarding what they hoped to learn, produce, or achieve by the end of this project. The goal statements were written on the student's unit newsletter which will go home to parents shortly. Each class watched the following video to learn more about the history of rose windows: Each student has been sketching ideas for their rose window-inspired artwork on paper. The final project will be done on a round piece of cardboard. They are creating some really amazing designs!
Here are examples of what students have accomplished so far!
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Last Sunday, I enjoyed a great exhibition titled, 30 Americans, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I first learned of this exhibition years ago while preparing an art lesson for the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal. I selected Kehinde Wiley as the artist to focus on and to demonstrate how meaning may be communicated through facial expressions and body language. I began looking for resources to share with the participating children (ages 5-12), and came across an online video promoting 30 Americans. Fast forward to a couple of years later and the exhibition is only a short drive from my new home, teaching at Oregon Elementary School. I was thrilled to see so many artists' work I had studied and admired. Now I am able to share those works with my students. My colleagues and I have been reviewing the latest draft of Common Core Art Standards. One of the priority standards will be to teach students how art may be presented. I decided to take this opportunity to introduce the concept of curating an exhibition to each sixth grade art class. These students are already studying Kehinde Wiley for a photo alteration project. I first defined exhibition and curator for students to take notes in their sketchbooks. We then watched the following video to give us information about the 30 Americans exhibition. After the video, I instructed each group of students to look at twelve images from 30 Americans and arrange them on a gallery map. Each table included a map, exhibition guides and printed images from the exhibition. I encouraged students to think about the following questions:
Below are images of the classroom setup, student collaboration and response activity The student reflections poster was also inspired by the Milwaukee Art Museum. Pictured to the right is a wall within 30 Americans full of visitors' responses to the exhibition. I asked my students to write down what they thought, felt, liked or learned from this activity. The reflections are on display next to a student gallery example in the Oregon Elementary School art hallway and is pictured below: |
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