Maternity Leave

I've taken maternity leave until the 2012-2013 school year.  My little girl Emerson Quinn arrived early on August 28, 2011 and I will be spending time away from school for this year.  My hope is to add to the blog when an idea inspires me throughout this busy time... Keep following me!

Grade Five Beyond Reality

The Grade Fives and I are using a resource from the web http://www.artsask.ca/.  This fabulous website takes us through thematic categories, artists, artworks from galleries in Saskatchewan.  It has videos, artist statements, and studio activities that make quality art education easier.  We are exploring the theme Beyond Representation.  To gain an understanding of abstract art they created cardboard sculptures we hotglued and spray painted to be an ode to Douglas Bentham, a metal artist with an artwork titled, Skywalker.  We then looked at the other artists in the theme and came up with four critieria we will include in an abstract artwork.  The critieria was Repetition, Circular Image, using non-traditional painting tools, and using textural items added to paint.  We experiemented today with using non-traditional painting tools which we found around the school/yard.  Check out our video.

Grade One Conversations

I've given my grade ones the task of two teams creating a mural of a farmyard that we would possibly move to as a wrap up to our farm art unit.  The conversations I hear from the two groups at this moment is amazing.  One group is trying to tell the story of the relationships between the animals through the placement of their objects, buildings, and animals.  The other group drew a cat too big and realized it was bigger than the door of their barn.  But to my surprise one student exclaimed, "It's okay because it is in front of the barn and things that are in front are bigger than things that are far away."  What a great comment that shows they actually do retain the little lessons I teach them everyday.  Such a great moment in my teaching day!

Busy Week

Time is winding down at Davison and the busy time is coming to an end.  Club Bravo my musical theatre group will perform "Be A Star" production at our annual Talent Show this Friday.  I look forward to this show every year.  It is always special to see what talent hides in some of our students.  We have selected students off to the University of Regina for the last PLACE activity.  I present my Leadership Academy project to the school division today.  Exciting week, and exhausting!

Holy Cow Time Flies!

I can't believe it is May already.  Here in Saskatchewan we have had flooding due to run off, a blizzard, and now lots of rain..Mother Nature is not finished with us yet.  All classes have wrapped up their Natural Environment projects and I will be posting pictures later. 

I just did a workshop with teachers on Arts Education for their professional development in a research project the University of Regina is doing with our schools.  They worked very hard on all strands of Arts Education to better understand the quality of instruction they can give.  Here is an example of their visual art experience.  We used identity as a jumping off point for idea and a black and white photograph of themselves.  It was very interesting to see what ideas they came up with in a short amount of time (20 minutes).

Choice Based Art Instruction

As I have changed my focus of teaching on giving the students more choice in how they explore many questions in our world through art I am still pondering if the quality of artworks I am getting out of them is the same if I were to give the whole class the same assignment.  My understanding of Choice Based Art instruction is students explore questions and things they are interested in based on a theme.  The theme this month is Natural Environment.  I am trying to get the students to understand there is more to artworks about the natural environment than landscapes.  I have created Inspiration Boxes.  Each tub contains images, actual replicas of natural materials, natural materials collected, and student artwork instructions. Students can create an artworks in whatever medium they choose based on their inspiration from one of the topic boxes.  The topics are Forest, Seaside, Animal Safari/Zoo, Under the Sea, Flowers and Plants, Frogs and Turtles/Rainforest, Mexican Desert, Landscapes, Birds, Bugs, Lakes Streams and Riverside Rocks.

Inspiration Station Pictures

Inspiration Station

At the beginning of the school year I had presented my students with what I called "The Inspiration Station".  At the table there were drawing books, master artworks, student examples and other hands on things to observe and use as inspiration.  Now I have transformed my Inspiration Station to one of medium inspirations so the students have more choices of what is avaliable to use.  I organzied the mediums into warm and cool colours and things are bright and inviting.  I will post a picture once I get my camera card back.

Winter Break

So many things were happening in the Art Room before our Winter Break I hardly had any time to post.  I am posting some of the projects that have been completed in our Themes.  Grades 4 & 5 worked on Fantasy projects, Grade 2 worked with a Dinosaur theme, and Grade 6 were exploring National Identity.

Getting Arts Smart workshops

Every third Tuesday of the month I give a workshop showcasing the many facets of elementary education.  This was started as part of a Leadership proposal I gave to my school division. It has been recieved quite well and I hope that I can get more out.  This month's topic is Arts and Technology and I will be showing my blog and other ways I use technology in my classroom.

Winding Down

So many projects going on at once..this is crazy.  I do it to myself every year..I get the itch to work with 3d projects with my students and then before I know it I have over 90 3d projects going on at once and no room to store them all before they are complete.  It's crazy to keep the room organize so nothing happens to one class's projects during another's class but it is all worth it in the end.  New posts to come: Gr. 2 Dinosaurs are roaring in, Gr. 3 structures are constructing, Gr 4-5 Fantasy projects are nearing their end. They are all due February 18th.

Structures Grade 3 Art

The Grade Three's are working on creating a structure by constructing from their blueprint plan.  This video clearly illustrates the excitement of creating these 3D structures in groups.

Kindergarten Curriculum Day

Such an exciting PD day..exploring invitations to learning, new resources, and how to use "Play with a Purpose".  I am feeling revived and can't wait to get into my room and make a few changes to allow for more learning play in my classroom environment.

A New Beginning

I am taking the leap and beginning a blog.  There is so much that goes on in my art room and my professional life I felt it was time to share.  I will try to post often when there is something exciting going on.  I invite all my students and parents to visit often as there are many discoveries in my art room on a daily basis.