Digital Art Open!

This week first through fourth grades are reintroducing the painting studio through watercolors and watercolor pencils.  The kids were having a great time writing secret messages to each other with white crayons and giving them to each other to paint and see the message.

Students help each other tie aprons.

We went over specifically cleaning up routines for painting, since we are "real" artists and have to clean up after ourselves in the Dragonfly Studio!  The students enjoyed painting my arm to test the cleanliness of their paintbrush washing.

I also am introducing the digital art studio, in which I have created a wall on Symbaloo for the students to access art websites using our two new computers.  The idea with TAB is for students to become "experts" in studios and eventually begin teaching and helping each other in different studios while I circulate and interact with students both individually and in groups.  This philosophy allows each student to work individually.  Our goal is to clean up in time to share our discoveries and difficulties during class.  Sometimes we have suggestions to help each other problem solve or sometimes students have discovered a way to work through their issue and want to share the experience. 

I have also made a couple of adjustments for next quarter.  For quarter 2, students are required to create two W.O.W. pieces before December 13, 2013.  A couple students have already submitted one!  This allows students time to experiment with art materials that I introduce before committing to a W.O.W. piece.  Students will also only be able to submit individual artworks for W.O.W. pieces for quarter 2.  

Students have also been enjoying a slide show on the Smartboard of our Pecatonica Elementary school gallery on Artsonia!  Be sure to leave comments!  Young artists love praise for their work!

 I think Art is Awesome, too!

It's amazing when third grade boys are so immersed in creating, they don't notice me taking pictures!