Art!
During each of my placements I was asked to complete at least one art lesson. Sometimes those art lessons were requested on the fly right before the next block, it's always good to have an art lesson or two up your sleeve!
I love art and think it is a wonderful way to get my students thinking outside of the box, which is a great transferable skill for other subjects and everyday life situations.
I love art and think it is a wonderful way to get my students thinking outside of the box, which is a great transferable skill for other subjects and everyday life situations.
Perspective
For this particular art lesson with my grade 1 class we went outside in search of leaves, everyone had to select just one that they would love to draw.
Once inside we discussed:
The students did a great job with this activity and really worked hard to make sure they were paying attention to our success criteria
For this particular art lesson with my grade 1 class we went outside in search of leaves, everyone had to select just one that they would love to draw.
Once inside we discussed:
- covering a whole page, with a BIG drawing of our leaf
- looking for the teeny tiny, medium, and big details that would could spot on our leaves and then drawing them onto our paper
- key details we were looking for - smooth, curvy, jagged edges, different colours, thick and thin veins, little or big rips and tears
The students did a great job with this activity and really worked hard to make sure they were paying attention to our success criteria
Reflecting, Responding, and Analyzing
With my grade 5 class I began the reflecting, responding, and analyzing unit with them with the knowledge that they would be continuing it with the next student teacher once my five weeks were up.
To begin this unit I covered over a large copy of Paris Through the Window by Marc Chagall with white paper, and cut out window flaps over different areas of the painting. One at a time I lifted each flap and had the students look closely at that part of the painting and asked them various questions about what they saw, did it make them feel a certain way or believe the artist was trying to express a particular feeling or emotion. Along the way we discussed what elements the artist used to make us think these things. Finally I asked the students what they believed the entire painting looked like and when I finally showed them they were absolutely enthralled and blown away! I read to them the story that came with the painting about Mark Chagall, who he was and what lead him to paint this painting in particular, which lead to a lot of great discussion as the students analyzed the painting even more and were able to pick out small details they had missed or really wondered about prior.
Finally I had them each come up with their own idea for a painting that needed to involve a reflection of something special to them that was a mix between a dream world and reality that showed one or multiple emotions. The students worked on these pieces of art for multiple lessons and when they were finally done with their hard work they then chose another persons piece of art that was hanging and had to complete a worksheet that had them reflect on what they saw and write about it in detail while considering the elements of design we had discussed each week during art.
With my grade 5 class I began the reflecting, responding, and analyzing unit with them with the knowledge that they would be continuing it with the next student teacher once my five weeks were up.
To begin this unit I covered over a large copy of Paris Through the Window by Marc Chagall with white paper, and cut out window flaps over different areas of the painting. One at a time I lifted each flap and had the students look closely at that part of the painting and asked them various questions about what they saw, did it make them feel a certain way or believe the artist was trying to express a particular feeling or emotion. Along the way we discussed what elements the artist used to make us think these things. Finally I asked the students what they believed the entire painting looked like and when I finally showed them they were absolutely enthralled and blown away! I read to them the story that came with the painting about Mark Chagall, who he was and what lead him to paint this painting in particular, which lead to a lot of great discussion as the students analyzed the painting even more and were able to pick out small details they had missed or really wondered about prior.
Finally I had them each come up with their own idea for a painting that needed to involve a reflection of something special to them that was a mix between a dream world and reality that showed one or multiple emotions. The students worked on these pieces of art for multiple lessons and when they were finally done with their hard work they then chose another persons piece of art that was hanging and had to complete a worksheet that had them reflect on what they saw and write about it in detail while considering the elements of design we had discussed each week during art.
Elements of Design
For a fun rainy day art lesson I decided to work with students on using space and shapes to show depth and movement. We talked about what objects look like in the foreground, middle ground and background to help give the illusion of depth.
They used white oil pastel to first draw their rainy day photo, taking care to draw in a horizon with smaller puddles closer to their horizon and larger ones as they moved closer to the foreground. They drew puddles that were all shapes and that had "ripples" inside of them that showed where the raindrops were falling to show movement.
They then coloured in their rainbow and person standing in the rain with oil pastels before moving onto the final step.
Once all of the oil pastel parts were complete the I had the students make it rain on their pages! They were very skeptical but once we pulled out the water colours and they began painting away, their pictures started to pop right off the pages! The students thought it was very "cool!" to say the least.
Mixing art materials can be a lot of fun and a very rewarding experience for students, it really makes them stop and think about what is possible with just a few simple materials!
For a fun rainy day art lesson I decided to work with students on using space and shapes to show depth and movement. We talked about what objects look like in the foreground, middle ground and background to help give the illusion of depth.
They used white oil pastel to first draw their rainy day photo, taking care to draw in a horizon with smaller puddles closer to their horizon and larger ones as they moved closer to the foreground. They drew puddles that were all shapes and that had "ripples" inside of them that showed where the raindrops were falling to show movement.
They then coloured in their rainbow and person standing in the rain with oil pastels before moving onto the final step.
Once all of the oil pastel parts were complete the I had the students make it rain on their pages! They were very skeptical but once we pulled out the water colours and they began painting away, their pictures started to pop right off the pages! The students thought it was very "cool!" to say the least.
Mixing art materials can be a lot of fun and a very rewarding experience for students, it really makes them stop and think about what is possible with just a few simple materials!