Catching Z z z z's in the Art Room?

Sleeping in the art room on on a Monday morning?  NOPE!  Third graders are discussing perspective.  How we view the world.    Third grade students will be beginning an autumn tree drawing in worm's eye view perspective.  To understand the view point better, we laid on our tummies to see how different our world looked.  Many students were surprised at how many things they could no longer see (ceiling, top of tables) and some were surprised at all the details they never noticed before (all the speckles and scratches in Mrs. Allen's art room floor).

Worm's Eye View Perspective

Art Club: Dandelion Abstraction

Middle School Art Club, Dandelion Abstraction Example

Middle school students had their first art club meeting last night. Our project was called Dandelion Abstraction. Students used concentric circles to create their flower designs. We had a great turn out with roughly 20 students.

Art Club is for students in grades 5-8.  Our next art club meeting will be Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 at 3:30to 4:15 pm where we will be working on a Fall Leaf Print Card.

The Most Important Colors

This year, I started my kindergarten classes with the discussion of the three most important colors in the art room.  RED, BLUE and YELLOW.  Students learned that these three colors were called primary colors and they created all the other colors on the color wheel.

We went over my art room expectations for painting, how to clean their brush and palette, where to place their completed paintings and what to do when they were waiting for their friends to complete their tasks.  My kindergarteners IMPRESSED me with their listening skills this year.  It made my heart burst with pride on what a great job they did following directions.



Kindergarten students practicing mixing primary colors and using proper paint techniques.

  

Radial Design Action

Fifth Grade Art

 Fifth grade art students have been busy the first few days of school working on radial design.  A radial design is a circular design that has symmetrical parts arranged around a central axis.  We used an A/B pattern to create this design.

Today we discussed several color schemes for students to pick for their project.  Complementary, Warm, Cool, Neutral, Primary and Secondary.  Once a color scheme is selected students use markers to color their design.

We should be finishing up this project by the end of the week.

Here are a few more examples of work in progress:

Rugged Maniac 5K Mud RUN

I had another race this weekend.  This  race was in Taylor Falls, MN.

It  was a 5K obstacle mud run.  There are a couple things that makes this race so special to me.  The first being that my mother (who will be 63 on Wednesday) did this adventure with us.  She has never ran a race in her life!  I can't even begin to explain how amazed and proud of her I am. My brother also, flew up from Florida to run this race with us and my sister drove over from Minnesota to be there, too!  It was the first time in my life that I had the chance to run with my whole family.  

My brother is taking the picture and I am hugging my mom.

The second thing that made this race really cool, was our team costumes.  Being the artistic one, I had to come up with our theme.  I painted yellow stocking hats to look like Minions and added black pipe cleaners to the top to make the hair.  Once everyone agreed to wear a yellow shirt and blue shorts...PRESTO...we had MINIONS.  We received many compliments on our costumes!

Below are a few more actions shots of me completing the Rugged Maniac.

First Week!

What do I have my K-4 classes work on in art during the first week of school?  PORTFOLIOS!  We will use these portfolios throughout the year to store our artwork.  During parent teacher conferences we will be able to easily share all the creations we have made and it will be a wonderful place to look for artwork for last minute art exhibits and contests!

Cereal Box Bouquets

If you follow my blog you may remember my cereal box sketchbook lesson that I did with my students. This project went so well, that I decided to have my fourth grade students make them again for their sketchbook for this school year.

Yesterday, I had my first fourth grade class.  Those that took summer school were very excited about getting the opportunity to make another cereal box sketchbook, and the students who missed on the opportunity were very excited once they saw my example.  I informed the students that I needed their help in bringing in cereal boxes.  We needed roughly 78 cereal boxes by next week, and even though I eat cereal, I can't eat 78 boxes over the weekend by myself.

I joked with my students that when they bring me a cereal box, it is like bringing me a dozen roses.  It is one of the best gifts I can receive.

Today, I had 3 fourth grade students bring me 14 (dozen roses) cereal boxes.  I was overjoyed!  I can't wait to start on our sketchbooks!  To all my students that have given me cereal boxes so far...THANK YOU!  Keep them coming, they make me so HAPPY!

Mrs. Allen with her cereal box bouquets!

First Day!

I am always so excited for the first day of school.  New supplies, smiling faces and stories of summer adventures.  Today I will get to meet and teach my fifth grade art students and then head over to the elementary building for a full day of meet the teacher (till 7pm).  This marks my 8th year teaching for the Cameron School District and my 12th year teaching total. 


And YES!  I still do take my first day photo.  It's tradition!