I'm trying something new this year, with the kindergarteners and some of my other classes. I put together art journals for them (three prong folders with lots of blank paper). The kindergarten students love them, and enjoy working with them every week.

These first graders are happy and excited to draw new things. We discussed geometric and organic shapes.



A fifth grader who enjoys creating 3-D structures made this for his sister: "It's a ballerina. With a big mouth."

These are a brand new addition to our art choices: Keva planks. The students LOVE them. They are simple planks, that follow the fibonacci sequence . . . students can make all sorts of structures. We have 200 now, and I'm hoping to buy more soon.

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the beauty of student directed artwork

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is that they come up with ideas and creations that I would never think of. This first grader was simply creating, and decided that this was a butterfly. Do you see the symmetry?

watercolor crayons

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First graders were introduced to water soluble media

"I put glue and paper on. Lots of it. I really like the colorful paper."

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"I spent the whole class time

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working on this. It's name is colorful sculpture. I don't know what it is, but it was hard to make!"

~first grader

sixth graders

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"It's an ICU for pencils. You see, I'm emotionally attached to my pencils, and when they break, I HAVE to fix them!"

first graders . . .

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were excited to use slits to construct cardboard towers.

"These are all superheros. And they're friends!"

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kindergarten collage work

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scraps

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"It'snot a cat,

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it's Pikachu, from pokemon!"

monochromatic scheme

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"I like orange. I tore this paper into tiny pieces and put in on this paper."

folding and gluing

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I was fascinated by this artist's ideas. She painstakingly folded each piece before gluing to the paper.

I like these colors, teacher!

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collage

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Created with ripping and tearing.

3-D collage

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piles

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This student was thrilled to glue scraps to one another.

I made a man!

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"here are his arms, and this is his head. I used a crayon for his face."

kindergarten collage artists

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The kindergartners were introduced to the concept of cutting and ripping paper. The idea was for them to create interesting shapes and glue them on a larger piece of paper. This was a new experience for many students.

markers

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Two second graders chatter while they work, "This heart is for my mom." "This is a girl, it's me with long hair."

Second grader

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"It's a food chain, Mrs. Dyer! See, the bottom has bugs and stuff, the top is a killer whale, 'cause it's the biggest animal in the world!"

Happy Man

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Created by a kindergartner, this piece is titled: Happy Man. "He is smiling because he has a puppy."

drawing with metallic markers

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Two second graders told me, "The top one is a UFO watcher. The bottom is an alien from Planet X, a very frozen wasteland."

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This second grader says, "It's a ship necklace. See? Here's the water."

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A second grader drew this. "It's an alien, he's trying to find his home. His home is an island, and it's very stormy."

I don't have my own classroom this year, so I've had to adjust. It's been hectic, but the kids have been supportive and excited.

So far, we have the drawing and collage centers going in most classes, with 3D starting in a couple classes as well.

Life is slow around my house this time of year, just the way I like it. I've set up a sort of portable art studio in my yard, we move it around all day long, following the shade!

Even though it's summer, I'm still knee-deep in the TAB process. I hosted a summer art camp and had a wonderful time. It was three hours a day for seven days, at my house.

Four boys worked on a film project for all seven days. They made the set, props, scenery, and we filmed it in my backyard mud pit.

Battle at the Mudpit part 1

Battle at the Mudpit part 2

Can it get any cuter? A sixth grader made a happy meal, complete with nuggets, fries, drink, box and toy!

front and back views of a box made into a hat

sixth grader's sketch book

the whiteboard is a favorite, especially with the younger students