Art Adventures Abroad
Welcome to Art Adventures Abroad! This blog is designed to share K-12 art lessons from the perspective of an international visual arts educator. Lessons, projects, and ideas are designed by myself or have been inspired by other wonderful art teachers.
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Imaginary Landscapes
Who We Are Mixed Media Artworks
I love starting off the school year with this unit in art class. It is the perfect way to get to know a new group of students by focusing on identity and a variety of mark making techniques.
The students start off by creating a mind map or brainstorm about themselves in their sketchbooks. They list all of their favorite things, personality, and anything that is important about who they are.
The students then practice a variety of art techniques to create different patterns and textures. They keep track of the materials and tools they use in their sketchbooks and choose which ones they enjoy the most to add to their final piece.
The students also learn about Romero Britto and his fun colorful artworks for some artist inspiration. After mind-mapping, material experiments and artist study, students then beginning designing and planning their final mixed media artwork.
Once their plans are finished, the real magic begins! Here are a few examples of some Grade 5 student work. Aren't they amazing?
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Cultural Artifacts & Clay Techniques
Who doesn’t love creating with clay in the art room? Clay is always a fan favorite for any grade level. I particularly enjoyed this unit as it combines basic clay skills with a study of cultural arts from around the globe.
Grade 1 students inquired into the transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works while investigating the central idea; how cultures manipulate the natural world. The students explored three basic clay skills while learning about three different cultural art forms.
The first cultural art form the students learned about was a type of folk art from Oaxaca, Mexico called Oaxacan Animals. The students observed and discussed a variety of Oaxacan Animals and their bright patterns to design a turtle in their sketchbooks. The clay skill they began exploring to create their Oaxacan inspired turtles was the pinch pot.
The next culture we began exploring was from our host country of China. Grade 1 students looked at a variety of Ming Dynasty ceramic vessels. We compared shapes, styles, decorative patterns, and discussed the blue and white colors used in these types of designs. The clay skill the students used to create their own ceramic vessel inspired by Chinese pottery was coiling. Using a variety of coiling techniques, they created some very beautiful coil pots!
The last cultural art form the students investigated was African Masks. They looked at a variety of masks from different tribes in Africa, comparing shapes, patterns, and color. The students chose shapes and patterns that they liked to design their own African inspired mask in their sketchbooks. The clay skill Grade 1 students practiced when creating their mask was rolling and cutting slabs of clay. Some students even poked holes in their wet clay to ensure that they could add hair or jewelry to their final piece once it was out of the kiln!
Artist Trading Cards
The students started off the unit by investigating a variety of materials and mixed media to find out which mark making techniques they enjoyed working with. They kept a record of their experiments in their sketchbooks to use as a reference.
This year Grade 4 students had an exciting opportunity to trade their cards with a school in Iowa, USA. They were absolutely thrilled to send their cards overseas from China! The students were required to donate one card to send to the United States and donate another card to trade with Grade 4 students at our school. They were able to keep the rest of their collection.
Their next artistic challenge was to create a series of cards based on a specific theme, message, or global issue of their choice. They designed their cards with their message in mind and chose specific materials from their technique investigations.
The students did a fantastic job creating quality Artist Trading Cards with a variety of materials and special messages. They had so much fun trading and receiving cards from a different country and each other. I can’t wait to do this unit again!
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Observational Drawing & Artist Studies
This unit of inquiry is designed for Grade 2 students but could be easily adapted to fit any grade level. The unit focuses on observational drawing skills, composition, color theory, investigating different drawing materials, and discussing contemporary artists and their work for inspiration. The transdisciplinary theme is under How We Organize Ourselves with the central idea "investigation leads to possibilities."
At the beginning of the unit we started tuning in by discussing what drawing is and as a class how we felt about it. Many students shared that they thought drawing "the right way" was very hard. In order for all students to feel successful and be accepting of the fact that everyone is at different levels in the artistic process, we watched this beautifully done video called Austin's Butterfly.
The Grade 2 students really related wonderfully to this video. I paused the clip after each of Austin's draft drawings and the students discussed what could be done better in order to keep trying and "get it right". After numerous discussions during and after the video, the students agreed that they were all capable of improving their drawing skills. As a class it was agreed that they should stay positive and open minded, provide each other with constructive feedback, and keep trying even if they made mistakes. I really emphasized that mistakes are okay, part of the learning process, and that even though they are attempting to capture real life observations, their drawings did not have to be perfect. Perfection was not our goal, only improvement and practicing new skills!
After a lesson of discussion and simple practice drawings, the students started investigating the first focus artist for this unit. Together we watched a short video clip about Georgia O'Keeffe and talked about her famous flower paintings. The students observed that the flowers filled the page and were bright and colorful.
We then began discussing color theory and how colors can impact an artwork. The students learned about complementary and analogous color groupings, filling out the sheet below as a reference for their sketchbooks.
They then chose a flower from a stack of photographs that they found interesting and began doing practice drawings. The students focused on the outside lines and shapes they could see within their flower, avoiding small and complicated details. The students were encouraged to sketch their flowers large and go off the page.
After practicing color theory and flower drawings in their sketchbooks, Grade 2 students were ready to start their final paintings on large pieces of paper. The students drew their flower first and painted their drawing in by blending analogous colors. They chose the complementary color of their flower to paint the background. Aren't these beautiful!
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Creating A Positive Classroom Culture
All classes are involved with deciding on essential art room agreements. We do this through think, pair, share sessions and keep track of everyone's ideas on large pieces of paper. These ideas are then grouped into categories so we can choose 4-5 simple "art room promises" for everyone to remember. After we have decided on which promises we will go ahead with, each grade is responsible for designing something to personalize our special art room for the year.
Grade 1: Essential Agreements
After taking part in brainstorming and discussing important art promises, grade 1 students jump right in to art room routines in order to practice and remember our agreements while getting used to a new classroom and starting our first unit of the year.
Grade 2: Art Action Wall
Grade 2 students also begin with their unit right away, participating in a variety of fun activities. One of the activities that fits in well with our abstract art unit is a focus on Kandinsky. The students listen to a variety of music and paint with colors, lines, and shapes based on how the music makes them feel. They do this in small groups on large pieces of paper and this used for our art action wall where we celebrate students taking their knowledge outside of the art room!
Grade 3: Essential Agreement Display
Once our essential agreements have been narrowed down, Grade 3 students are in charge of designing the art room promise display. They all vote on a theme after we do a group brainstorm. Every year it has been something different but I have to say this year is my favorite! Across both of my Grade 3 classes the theme with the most votes was a Galaxy Theme. After the theme was voted on, the students worked in small groups and decided what should be included within the display. After another vote between both classes, they decided on including a rocket, astronaut, planets, stars, comet, and of course a UFO with an alien.
This takes quite a lot of planning on the student's part but the process they go through sets them up well for art lessons the rest of the year! They thoughtfully plan out materials and color choices, they create a design, they work together, and we have a blast doing it! Isn't their final work incredible?
Grade 4: Learner Profile Posters
Grade 4 students work in small groups and have the challenge of creating a poster that reflects how they will utilize a specific learner profile within the art room. To make things even more fun we take photos with the iPad and use the WordFoto app. Here are some examples of this year's Learner Profile Posters in the art room!
My students and myself love our art room that we have planned for and created together. It's going to be a great year of art ahead!