I Am What I Learn

This is a video I filmed and edited of Media Literacy students as part of the "I am What I Learn" campaign with the U.S. Department of Education. They did a fantastic job!

Welcome Mural

The motto for the school where I taught is: "Where Every Child Is A Star." Keeping this in mind, I painted a mural where outlines of students (Keith Haring Style) are filled with stars and reaching for one giant star. I used tempera and metallic paints. I pasted the motto in a collage style on the center star outline.

In the Clouds...

First graders went outside where I read them "Little Cloud" by Eric Carle. We talked about how he painted the clouds, using spiral lines. Students then sketched pictures they saw/imagined when looking at the clouds. In the second part of this lesson, students chose one of their cloud creations to paint with a white and blue metallic tempera paint micture on blue construction paper.

Monochromatic Self Portrats

4th grade students chose one color scheme- red, orange, green, blue, or violet and used various shades and hues of that color palette to create their self-portraits. Students used mirrors to study their faces and hair. They used a variety of media including colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolors, and sharpies. These paintings were displayed as a rainbow. Photos of the students were also displayed.

Science and Art Merge

3rd grade students created their own paint out of natural materials such as berries, coffee, and beet juice. They then studied the paint they made under a microscope and recorded what the saw with small drawings. Lastly, students worked together and enlarged their findings in large abstract drawings showing that when looking under a microscope various shapes and forms emerge.

Norman Rockwell Inspired Saturday Evening Post Covers

Norman Rockwell published a total of 322 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over 47 years. 4th grade students learned about Norman Rockwell and recreated his Saturday Evening Post covers, depicting everyday scenes.

Felt Aerial Collages Inspired by Yvonne Jacquette

Contemporary painter, Yvonne Jacquette paints what she sees when looking out from plane windows up high in the sky. 3rd grade students studied her work. They then looked at photos taken from a bird's eye view from Google Maps. Using felt, students created their own landscapes seen from the sky collages.

Can you find Milo?

Kindergarten students watched a clip from the film Milo and Otis where Milo hides from Otis in a variety of hiding spots. After watching this clip, these places were discussed as was how to create different textures. Lastly, students were asked to look at an ordinary brown paper shopping bag and transform it into a cat (Milo) and one of his hiding places. These hiding places included a purse, pipe, and chimney.

Fernand Leger's Celebrations

2nd grade students studied artwork created by French modern artist, Fernand Leger (1881 – 1955). It was discussed how this artist used colors to tell a story, many times this story was showing a circus or party environment. He also used thick black lines to outline forms and show movement. Students chose one of three themes: party, parade, or circus. They were then encouraged to overlap forms and fill up the page with different sized objects and people. Students first sketched in pencil, went over these drawings with black tempera paint, and (when dry) added color using colored pencils.

Mosaic Horizons

3rd grade students learned about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. They first created color wheels identifying these colors. On a separate sheet of paper, students drew yellow lines on one half of the page and blue on the other. This represented the horizon line- the ocean and the sunshine-filled sky. Students then glued their color wheels to this paper followed by pieces of paper to fill the space, showing that the ocean and sky is filled with many colors. The color wheel takes the place of where the sun would be.

I'm a Little Teapot

For this lesson, Kindergartners learned about primary colors. They also looked at cubist paintings to identify shapes in art work. Students then observed a silver teapot and designed their own teapots, complete with red, blue, and yellow crayons and pieces of paper. Students sang "I'm a Little Teapot" before creating their unique teapots.

Finished Early?

If students finish their projects early, they have the option of drawing on a paper shopping bag from the local grocery store. The themes for these drawings are "Our School" and "Save the Earth." I will return the bags to the grocery store for patrons to use. It is emphasized that students are artists and advocates, promoting shoppers to use their bags for other things besides groceries.

Tri-county Art Fair