September 2019

Every month I recognize students in grades K-6 for being my famous artists of the month.

These students have demonstrated high craftsmanship and effort in their art creations as well demonstrating how to be responsible, respectful and safe in the art room! Congratulations to Daxford Randall, Quinn Grassmann, Dawson Brown, Hoyt Marshall, Olivia Banky, Nolan Ewings, Payten Severt, Karalee Hibbard.

Congratulations to my first famous artists of the month for the 2019-2020 school year! 

 

 

 

 

Whimsical Chicken

Kindergarten
2 Day Lesson

Whimsical Chicken, Kindergarten Art Lesson

This is a great beginning of the year lesson to assess the ability level of your kindergarten students.

Day 1:

Before the lesson began, I gathered multiple books from our librarian that had a chicken as a main character or had factual information about chickens.  I used these books to help set the theme for our artwork, to create a visual aid for when we began to create the chicken and as a time filler helper.

Each student was given a 12 x 12-inch piece of white construction paper to begin this lesson.  I had painting palettes already set on the table with two color combinations of liquid tempera paint.  For one class I used yellow and green, for another class I used a combination of yellow and orange mixed and green.

Students were given sponges.  Instructions were given on my classroom expectation for when we paint in the art room.  Techniques on how to use the sponge were also demonstrated. 

Painting sky first.

Adding green for grass. This color overlaps the first color.

Kindergarten students love to paint!  It did not take long for them to get absorbed into this process.

Pieces were set on drying rack to dry.  After pieces were dry, I flattened them with heavy books.


Day 2:

On the second day of this lesson, we discussed the parts of chicken: feet, legs, tail, feathers, wing, beak, comb, eye and wattle.

Together as a class we cut out the shape of the chicken's body out of a square that was 6 x 6-inches.  Students were given safety tips about working with scissors in the art room.

The newspaper body was glued to the painting.  Gluing tips, techniques and expectations for the art room were discussed.

Students were then given oil pastels to create the eye, outline the chicken, create the wing, and to create the legs, comb, beak and wattle.

Example piece that is beginning to have details placed on it.  Reminds me of a pigeon...maybe an idea for another lesson or a spin on this one for the future???

I think all of these pieces turned out great.  The best part?  They each have their own personality.  Just love it!

Examples of Student Work:

Greek Vases

Sixth Grade Art
3 Class Periods

Greek Vases, Sixth Grade Art

Day 1
Students had a lesson on Greek pottery design.  We discussed the purpose of pottery to the Greek culture, examined the artwork created on the vessels and looked at the techniques of black and red figure pottery.

Students viewed this clip Ancient Greek Vases after our discussion to help with their understanding of the techniques.

We next took 12 x 18 inch construction paper folded it in half and drew half of the silhouette of a Greek shaped vessel.  I had numerous shape examples for students to look and and choose form.  Once, they drew half the vessel on half of the paper, keeping the paper folded they cut on the lines they drew.  When they opened the paper they had a symmetrical vessel.  This paper vessel was then glued onto black or dark gray 12 x18 inch construction paper.

Day 2
During the next class period students examined numerous Greek patterns and placed them near the top or bottom of their vessel.  Students were then allowed to start drawing a Greek God, mythical creature or scene depicting a mythical story on their vessel.  I had students plan this with pencil before outlining it with sharpie marker.  I did have some Greek God photographs set out for reference or students could bring in their own pictures for reference.

Day 3
On this day students were instructed to use a sharpie marker to create thin and bold lines within their drawing and in their pattern.  Students were shown how to shade areas with hatching and cross-hatching techniques.

Examples:









 

Marker Recycling

The Colorcycle program initiated by Crayola has been around for a few years (2013).  However, I did not really hear about this program until two years ago, and last year when a parent mentioned it to me, I thought to myself I better look into it.  After doing a little research on the Crayola

Colorcycle program I decided that it looked easy enough to do.

Here are the basic steps:

Step 1:  Register on the Crayola Colorcycle web page.

Step 2:  Inform students, teachers, parents and community members about the colorcycle program.

Step 3:  Start collecting dried up markers.

Step 4:  Box markers.

Step 5:  Print shipping label from Crayola Colorcycle website.

Step 6:  Drop off at post office.

I shared the following video with my students to help them understand what was going to happen to the dried up markers. What Happens to Our Markers When We Recycle Them?  Student became quite excited after we discussed the video.

I hope this blog entry inspires some of you to give marker recycling a try in your classroom.

2019-2020 School Year

I can barely believe that another summer as come and gone.  Welcome back to school letters have been sent home and I find myself starting my 13th year at the Cameron School District and beginning my 17th year teaching in total.

There are moments when I feel like a first year teacher.  Nervous butterflies, wondering what the year will bring, learning new names and using my creative energy to figure out how I want to set up my classroom for the school year.

Then there are moments, when I also realize that I have been doing this for quite awhile.  Going over classroom procedures and expectations, making seating charts (after having the same students for several years in a row, I definitely know who can sit next to whom), sitting in the never ending first day inservice meetings and just overall having the confidence of knowing what projects I will be starting with for the school year.

I have lots of plans for the school year, one of the main ones is reconnecting with my students.  Last year I really got wrapped up in the whirlwind of having 565 students.  So much grading!  Two different schedules (6 day rotation in the elementary - 4 day rotation in the middle school)!  I felt like I was on never ending amusement park ride.  I have decided not to grade every assignment this year.  I have been working with administrators to help ease my crazy schedule.  I am going to try to go with the flow more and not get hung up on deadlines and due dates for projects, especially at the elementary level.  I want to talk to my students more.  I want to know more about their lives and what is happening at home.  I want to sit and make art with my students.  This is the school year where I take a deep breath and refocus on why I wanted to become an art teacher in the first place.

Wishing you all an incredible school year!

Love,

Mrs. Cornell

P.S.  I am going to try and be better at blogging this year as well.  My goal is bi-weekly updates.  :)