New 4th Grade Friday Group

This week, I started meeting with a new group of 4th graders on Fridays.  We are excited to start reading Mystery at Blackbeard's Cove.  We started out the session with a team building activity about imagining ourselves on a deserted island where you could bring one piece of music, a book and one luxury item.  We ended the session with bringing out artwork to life!  Check out the fun pictures!

Such a fantastic app!  

Math and Art? Whaaaatttt?!

This week a couple of grade levels were exposed to the amazement of how math and art can be combined in a piece of artwork through the magic of fractions and some hungry students wanting pie slices, "Even Steven!"

Be sure to ask your third grader about it!

Fourth graders are finishing up their masks.  Some chose to tie in the cultural building activity by embracing the Dia De Los Muretos books we read in class two weeks ago.  I can't wait to upload the WOW piece ones to Artsonia!  Students may use their mask as a WOW piece this quarter.

Adding some BLING to our masks!

Some students are painting this week as well.  This week was our last week of plastering the molds.  Some students opted not to create a mask and the wonderful magic of TAB is that is fine.  Everyone does not like to get their hands messy, but they have seen the process. 

Students:  Your second W.O.W. piece for this school year is due November 22nd.  Remember you are to have worked on a W.O.W. piece for at least two full class sessions.  You may begin one at home and finish it in the Dragonfly Studio.  Projects are to be finished in the Dragonfly Studio unless previous arrangements have been made with me.  

I'm happy to report many students have already submitted their pieces and I am getting them uploaded Artsonia!

New mini-studio!

This week in the Dragonfly Studio, students explored the art of printmaking! This is a mini-studio, which means it will come and go as student interest grows.  Students painted rubber leaves with metallic tempera paint and made prints.  

Also be sure to check out your child's Artsonia account and leave them comments!  It's a great way to share your child's artwork with family as well!  You should have received a handout from your child's teacher at conferences with information about the digital exhibits this school year.  Make sure to register and confirm your account.

Busy printmakers in action.

Not too busy to give me a smile, though!

Building with straws and puzzle pieces require great focus!

Some children love to "think BIG!"

Loving the use of technology to explore great art websites, such as The Art Institute of Chicago!

Has your child mentioned the Dragonfly Studio this year?  What are they enjoying the most?  What are they looking forward to?

Short week at PES for me!

Tomorrow morning, I am leaving for the annual IAEA (Illinois Art Educators Association) conference.  It's always fun to connect and network with other art teachers!

Here are a couple pictures from the Dragonfly Studio this week.  We discovered Spirographs in the drawing studio and a couple boys had a great time with wiggle eyes!

The kids all seem to be loving the creative freedom they are given with TAB in the Dragonfly Studio!  What does your child think?

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!

A Grant from the IRTAF!

This week the Dragonfly Studio was the proud recipient of a grant from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association Foundation towards the purchase of two digital cameras and a version of Photoshop Elements!  We were selected as one of "a few" out of 75 applicants!  During Mrs. Lagerhausen's class, a representative  came and presented us with the check.  I look forward to opening a digital photography studio with our fourth grade students soon!

I also had the pleasure of assisting Ms. Durand with the students singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Pecatonica Indians football game Friday night!

We opened the painting studio this week, but have limited it to watercolors at this point.  Students are working on responsibility of setting up and cleaning up after themselves, just as "real" artists do! Cleaning up after overselves has been our biggest challenge this far, however I am optimistic we will get into the routine soon! 

I am working on getting images uploaded to Artsonia as quickly as I can.  I have a wonderful parent volunteer that has been helping me, as many students waited until the last week to submit their first W.O.W. pieces.  My hope is they will become more staggered as the year goes on and the students learn the process of TAB more.  The feedback from students has been very positive!  Make sure to leave comments on your students artwork and share with family and friends!  They love feedback!

October, here we come!

Students have had a great time exploring the drawing, inspiration and collage studios in the Dragonfly Studio!

The tessellations have been a big hit!  Think of them as a stencil drawing puzzle!  The fourth grader above is making his tessellation piece 3D!  How creative!

Many students are finishing their W.O.W. pieces for the first quarter, which are due Friday!  (This does not apply to kindergarten.). Be sure to check out our Artsonia gallery!  Join our students' fan clubs and leave them comments on their artwork!  Artists love feedback!

We also experimented with chalk pastels (very messy and very fun!).  Love her use of blending colors!

My fourth grade "special project" group created a web as a team building activity on Friday, which led into the concept of "One Well."  All of the water on earth comes from "one well."  What can we do to conserve and protect that well?  They are working collaboratively creating posters to hang around the school promoting water conservation!  What an awesome group!