I'm a terrible blogger

I thought I could do it, I really did. But, obviously, I'm no better at keeping up with my blog than I am with keeping up with Artsonia this year. Hence, I'm posting pictures all at once of several projects I've done recently and making a New Year's resolution...(hey, I'm a teacher so my new year comes every August, not January) that starting next year, I WILL, I WILL keep my blog up to date and even try to jazz it up a bit :)

Rizzi birds by Third

Third graders were introduced to artist James Rizzi and his colorful multimedia work. They were then given a sheet with step by step directions on how to create their own bird. It was fun to see how students followed the directions to come up with some pretty creative birds!

Mrs. C's Lessons

3rd Grade Symmetrical Aliens

2nd Grade Aboriginal Paintings

Kindergarten Sculpture Houses

Color wheel fish-Mrs. C

Mrs. C. worked with Second grade students to review the color wheel and primary and secondary colors for their annual art assessment.  They studied the color wheel and identified how and why primary colors and secondary colors could or could not be mixed.

Onomatopoiea Art

After finding some amazing lesson plans on Pinterest, I decided to try one out. I adapted a PowerPoint presentation about the work of Roy Lichtenstein and students discussed his comic book style and use if speech bubbles in his artwork. We found that onomatopoeia is used in several of his pictures. First, students created a background using only the primary colors: something Lichtenstein also frequently did. Next, students used pages from an old dictionary to create their speech bubble and finally, markers for their word. Last, they assembled the layers.  This was a two class period project and before the second class, I had received my new iPad.  I found an awesome app called Educreations and created a video-like presentation for the students to help them put their projects together.  Here is my first attempt at this:  Onomatopoeia

Eric Carle with K -Mrs. C.

Mrs. C made some really cool textured paper with K students.  They talked about artist, Eric Carle, and read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  After examining his artwork and collage technique, students followed step by step instruction to create their very colorful butterflies.

My new Dropbox account

Wow!  So, I've discovered  Dropbox through Mrs. Fuglestad's blog and it's great!!  It's super handy to be able to access all of my photos and documents in one place on all of my electronics.  Technology can be soo wonderful!!!...sometimes ;)

Intern: Mrs. C

Mrs. C is interning with me for the next 6 ish weeks in the Art room.  She is currently working with First and Second grade students.  She has some really cool projects planned and started and I'll get the results posted as soon as they are completed!!

Powerpoints Kudos

The Powerpoint presentations that I use to teach with have all been found via Google searches or created by myself or the other art teacher at my school, Mrs. Shayn Smith.  Kudos and Thanks to all Powerpoint creators!!!

Clay with Third and Fourth

Third and Fourth grade students are working on their clay unit.  Third grade students studied the art of Aztec suns.  We began by looking at the history of the sun in relation to the Aztec culture and then watched a demonstration on how to create our suns.  We learned about the "scoring and slipping" technique to attach pieces to our suns.  This week, students will actually be creating the suns using clay.  Aztec Sun Powerpoint
Fourth graders are also studying Mexican art, but from the area of Oaxaca.  We looked at Animalitos and some of the history behind them.  One of our teachers had actually been to the area and let us look at several animalitos up close for students to draw inspiration.  Students watched a demonstration of the "pinch pot" technique and how to pull clay out to make legs, heads, and tails for their animals.  This week, students will also be creating their animalitos with clay.

Animalitos Powerpoint

African Masks and Amulets with First

First grade students began their African mask unit by taking a look at a variety of mask examples.  We learned why people wear masks, what they are made of, and even how they are worn.  Then we looked closer at the masks and decided that they all had two things in common:  Symmetry and Pattern.  To begin our project, we folded some brown construction paper in half to help make our masks symmetrical.  Then, we designed our masks using lots of pattern.  Students used construction paper crayons on the brown and black paper to really make the masks PoP!  When we finished these masks, we decided to make an amulet to go along with them.  We talked about how amulets are usually meant to bring luck or give the wearer a "special power". Students used model magic clay to create their amulets and painted them with metallic watercolors.  While they were drying, we took some time to think and write about what powers our amulets may give us.

Klee "The Seafarer" with Second

Second grade students studied artist Paul Klee.  We learned how he liked to use music for his inspiration.  Looking at his painting, "Battle Scene from the Seafarer," we read part of the comic opera.  Students listened to the opera while looking at the painting and tried to see where Klee came up with the image.  We then talked about vocabulary words: hue, tint and shade.  We learned how to mix them and painted our sea using the three.  On the second day students looked at the pattern in the "sea monsters" and brainstormed a list of sea animals to finish off their works.  

Paul Klee Powerpoint

Laurel Burch with Third

Third grade students began their study of artist Laurel Burch by discussing her childhood.  Students learned that Burch ran away from home at the age of 14 and lived on her own in Southern California for quite awhile.  They found that even though she had a rather hard life, she still enjoyed painting happy, colorful things, such as animals.  She is most well-known for her cat paintings.  Students created a Collagraph print using tagboard.  We printed with silver ink on black paper and added details and a border using oil pastels.

Mondrian with Kindergarden

My most recent completed lesson was with Kindergarden.  Students studied Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.  We noticed how he only used the 3 primary colors and horizontal and vertical lines in his work.  We took a look at a map of New York City and see how he was inspired by the straight lines of the streets and talked about how he loved Boogie Woogie music.  The town where I teach is called Delmar.  So, using a bit of alliteration, we decided to name our artwork, Delmar Doo Wop.  Students worked in teams to create these "maps" of the town while listening to some Doo Wop music.  I loved hearing how the students parents or grandparents listen to "this music" :-) Click here to view the Mondrian Powerpoint Presentation that I used.

New to Blogging

Wow..so after Pinteresting for a couple months, I've found that all of the best lesson plan ideas have come from Blogs.  Never having really paid attention to blogs before, I decided to finally check out what they're all about.  So, please forgive me as I get my feet wet and try to create a blog showcasing my elementary art lesson plans and student work for all to see.....here's to nothing..err...something...cool!


Prior to this blog, I had been really good about keeping up with putting student artwork on Artsonia.  So, if you'd like to see some projects from previous years, check out the Delmar Artsonia Page


I also have a wiki..I was quite ambitious for awhile ;-) Again, I'm not doing soo well in keeping it updated.  Here it is: Delmar Art Wiki