Rewards Day - Open Studio & Contest

The first quarter has come to a close which means some of the classes will be celebrating their successes with an open studio day. This free creative day had to be earned by team cooperation and respectful behavior by all. We use a warning system, monitored by "Creepy Cornelius" (my very first painting in college resulting in the odd, creepy eyes).  You'll see the Great, Good, Fair, Oops categories to the right of him in the photo. If the class is on Great or Good, they earn a sticker. If they do not get a sticker twice during the 9 week quarter, they lose open studio. Lose it once or never, the whole class gets to color, read art books, play with modeling clay or homemade playdough, oragami, and other art related activities without a structured lesson or grade.  Everyone has to earn a sticker on the last week. This system really helps with clean up and noise levels during the lesson.

I've just started the Art Maids too. This is about clean-up. It certainly didn't seem fair to punish the whole class for a table's lack of cleaning discretion. Instead, those at the unkempt table become the Art Maids for the next class. They will be responsible for clean up, for everyone, until learning the proper care of our precious art materials. Not only an important life lesson but in art it is imperative that we respect our tools and space in order to craft beautiful work with quality materials in a clean space. If marker and glue caps are replaced, they dry out. If a table is left with wet paint, the next student wears it on his/her clothes or on the now-ruined sheet of high quality art paper.  Brushes need to be cleaned and ready for the next artist. The students think this is fun and hope a table will be messy so they get a "maid". We've tried this for a week and, to their disappointment, this week was by far the most organized and clean at the end of each lesson.  No one has earned the job of Art Maid.

Let's talk about grades. The first quarter grades have gone home. In case you were wondering how I grade, the following is a simple rubric to give you an idea.
S+ = completed all assignments with effort while displaying an understanding of the art technique being taught.
S = completed some of the assignments with effort while displaying an understanding of the art technique being taught or completed all the assignments but could display more effort or control with the technique.
S- = did not complete half of the assignments and/or showed little effort to understand the technique or apply it to the art lesson.
I = completed so few of the lessons that there is insufficient evidence to give a grade.

I only see the students once a week and some assignments can take more than one week to complete.  Art is an academic class--deeply integrated into all the subjects and important to an holistic education.  Often times, are lessons are built in steps and building blocks to future lessons. If one lesson is missed, the child may be missing a fundamental lesson. The color wheel lesson is a great example of this. We refer to it constantly. I do expect missed classwork to be completed at home. If you would like to know what your child missed while at the dentist, home ill, vacation, etc., please pop into class between 8 and 8:30am or send me an email and I'll be happy to fill you in. 

I've thrown in something extra fun for the open studio day. Below are three coloring pages of our Artist of the Month from September and October, Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Starry Night and a Frida Kahlo coloring self-portrait. Take a photo of your child's beautifully colored page (only one) with your phone and share it on our wall on NVartworks Facebook page. We will pick winners for the most beautifully crafted by each grade. If your child's class did not earn open studio in class, feel free to print one of the images below to color and share for the contest. Thank you so much for participating and bringing their art to the web---they think this is so fabulous!!

DEADLINE TO BE POSTED ON FACEBOOK IS NOV 10th 

Gearing up for the Fall Festival

As an art teacher, I have to share how thrilled I get when you visit the art studio and share stories of how your child is inspired to create and is exploring art outside the class room. One parent even shared how her son referenced Van Gogh when he feared he would get his ear ticked during a hair cut.  Yes, this makes me extrememly giddy. Another brought her Dad in as he was "wearing" her own art. He had her sun drawing tattooed on his arm. ART IS EVERYWHERE, in mathematics, english, science, life skills, and in this case, representing the love, dedication, and committment to one's children. I think Jadera's smile says it all :)

Jadera and her Daddy, Robert, of Undead Ink Tattoos and Piercing in Sparks

How we have seen the school-home art connection in class. Students have been encouraged to share the work they are creating at home in front of the class. Public speaking is a difficult task for many adults so why not start at an early age to build their confidence to share their ideas and thoughts with others in a public forum? I offer extra credit for this and beyond the class points, the pride they clearly feel is worth millions of life points. My own daughter loves art but is very shy to share publicly. She is working her way up to feeling "ready". Encourage your little ones to try. I will always stand up with them or they may have a friend come to the front of the class to help calm those nerves. Once they do it, they'll realize it wasn't that scary afterall.

Fall is here and the autumn art projects have begun!
We've been working hard on many art projects as we gear up for the Harvest Festival. I don't want to give too much away as I know you would rather see the childrens' fabulous creations in person when you visit, but here are a few enticing peaks...plus I get to try out the new Panoramic option on the iphone camera!
The "Hall of Bulls" made by 2nd and 3rd grade Paleolithic Cave Artists

The Colorful Culture Mural

Titled by Evan King, Writings by the 3rd and 4th grade, Dimensions guessed by Sonja Boettcher and Ruby Snyder

Visit SmART blog, the blog that inspired the mural,  or our First Art Blog for detailed lesson plans.

This is the very beginnings of our architectural art lesson. The spatial learners rocked this lesson and became wondeful teachers themselves as they assisted the others who were struggling with this..maybe, just maybe, they helped me too ;) They will be adding the architecural features and landscape design over the next week. The houses will be on display during the Harvest Festival.

The Kinders are learning about Nevada rock art and will be creating a piece of varied lines and shapes that celebrates Nevada's ancient artistic roots.

SEMI-FINALISTS for the ART SHOW

Additionally, the K-4th Culture drawings have been completed and the first round of the selection process has been completed. Congratulations to the following students for creating intriguing art pieces that stood out and told a story. The next selection process will be completed by a panel of professional artists and will be hung for display in The Mixed Blessings Art Symposium at TMCC. Good luck semi-finalists!

KINDERGARTEN

Amadeus M

Sterling J

Grace O

India R P

Emma V

Sahara D

Keagan M

Andrea 

Portia A-C

Sehaj T

Baljeet J

FIRST GRADE

Joshaya S

Jed L

James P

Sage V

Taryn K

Dominique C-T

Austyn J

Eric O-G

Amaya G

SECOND GRADEAustin Reif

Mehul P

Kayla S

Ava G

Lisa K

Meleyna V

Andrew A

Sofia B

Tyler F

Jackson F

Nate Y

Bansari P

Jaxon G

Sydney 

Bella P

Maya S

Olivia J

Ruby S

William M

Audre M

Madison H

Kaston B

Ginger S

THIRD GRADE

Allen C

Giovanni S

Annika W

Kailey F

Mitchell B

Ana S

Sophie D

Linda K

Shae J

Yasmin T

Kenny H

Kari S

Genevieve D

Ankush J

Dominic S

Katie A

Willow V

Daniel R-S

Julia K

Monica S

FOURTH GRADE

Emre D

Angelina B

Reyna C

Mary P

Jammie V

Mackenzie C

Micaiah M

Guiseppe C

Soha R

Tyler H

Leigh S

Ethan S

Sean S

Juliana T

Samantha H

Reese W

Connor A

Mckayla F

Megan M

Gavin V

Grace Y

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Finally, I will be hosting an arts and crafts booth at the Harvest Festival. To continue our culture theme, I chose to highlight Dia de las Muertos ( Day of the Dead) by making plaster skulls for the children to paint. Magnet strips can be purchased at any craft store and added to the back for fabulous magnets to hold all that artwork on the fridge! We will also be making decorative goody bags to hold all the kids' winnings from the evening's games.  If anyone is interested in helping me out with my booth, half hour here or there, it would be greatly appreciated and a lot of fun. Leave a comment below or email me at skye@skyesnyder.com.



I Think I Can

Those of you who have visited my room have most likely been victim to my pleads for kindergarten ideas. Yes, it's true, kindergarten is my littlest big challenge (a challenge from a biggest little city teacher ;) The list below is what we have completed thus far; some successful, some funny, and some left a lot of broken pencils.

1) Drawing Different Lines
2) Drawing a Self-portrait
2) Making Color Wheels
3) Making a Train in a scene

For many kindergartners, this is the first formal art class they have ever attended; for others, the first school environment they'll ever participated in which means there is a lot to learn regarding art materials and expectations. I learned this the hard way--but I'm a quick learner and adapted at warp speed--almost as fast as them.  I learned they LOVE to move more than to draw the lines like I initially suggested. Lines on paper = not so successful. Making lines with our bodies = SUCCESS! Ask your kindergartner to show you a zig zag line, a curvy line, a straight line, a dotted line (dotted lines like to bounce), and a wavy line with his/her body. Now, ask them to recreate on paper. This is the proper order. I did it backwards.

Self portraits turned into a discussion of the shapes on our faces. Have your little one trace the shapes of your face using an invisible pencil and then recite the shape names they are discovering. They LOVED this. On paper, their drawings were much more "abstract" and unidentifiable as people. However, this is an important part of art and the world. They learn so many daily life skills in an art class. They are learning to observe their world and apply those shapes and colors into their art, their writing, etc. They are learning to  respect the art materials and their art studio. They are learning how to share supplies and choosing which material will work best for what they are trying to accomplish. They are learning to be imaginative and creative within some guidelines. Most importantly, they are refining their motor skills. It's hard to color within the lines when one cannot maneuver a pencil well.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

I learned they LOVE to be read to. We have enjoyed the story of a wonderfully creative little baby named, Harold, who adventures into the world by drawing the plot along. They, too, wanted to be creative like Harold and really started pulling out the artist in them by week 3 with their color wheels.

They learned there are three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. They learned you can make the secondary colors by mixing them and that colors have opposites! Some children advanced their learning by labeling their wheels with the color names.  {english and science connection }

Now, we're really warming up.  Last week, we read, I Knew You Could by Craig Dorfman. It's a take on The Little Engine That Could.  We connected it to art by stressing that you must "Think You Can" in order to draw well. The students listened to the story and took special note of the backgrounds through which the train was traveling. They created their own trains out of construction paper squares and rectangles, practiced their cutting, and glued them onto a piece of paper. They drew their favorite scenes for their trains to run through. We had cities and deserts, big trains, small trains, steam trains.  I hope their art work is making it home--please ask your child to discuss his/her artwork with you. Here are a few that I managed to photograph in class before they ran off to the next great adventure.

I think I can...I think I can... I think I can...and we did!
SUCCESS :)

Cave Art Lesson

To kick off our culture lessons, we began with prehistoric Paleolithic people and their cave art. The kids were impressed with the story of the Lascaux Caves in France and enjoyed prediciting what a Paleolithic artist would have used for paint, canvas, etc.
To simulate the organic nature of cave art, we used non-perfect, no machine-cut,  ripped paper shopping bags. { thank you parents and students for bringing those in! } We roughed the paper up by "sanding" along the corner of our tables and scrunching into balls. Some of the paper felt more like fabric when they were finished.
We built upon an earlier lesson of drawing animals using basic shapes first and then filling in the form and details. For the cave art, the students could only use:

 o   CHALK ( gypsum, limestone, etc)

o   SEPIA COLORING STICK (red clay dirt) 
o   CHARCOAL (charcoal from burnt wood, coal)

Most of the students had never used sepia coloring stick or charcoal and they LOVED it. Yes, it's messy so have your clean-up materials nearby if you are planning to do this at home. The coloring sticks were purchased at Nevada Fine Arts and the chalk and charcoal at Walmart in the crafts section.$5 worth of supplies that will last a while. If you don't want to introduce the charcoal to your white carpet, try substituting brown, burnt sienna, black, and white crayons. { daily life skills connection }

Some students used the animal books in the room to reference and others drew from memory. The final results have been displayed in our very own "Hall of Bulls" outside the art room. The pieces on display were picked by their peers. This leads to the opportunity to discuss how art is subjective and how people are drawn to different art than others. It doesn't mean the art that was not chosen was bad or wrong; the chosen pieces simply jumped out at them. It appealed to their mood, preference for order, or chaos, etc. Check out that CNN article on Art and Neuroscience. { art and science connection } 

I've been told by a handful of students that they have purchased their own "how-to draw animals" book after this drawing lesson. YAY! Way to go, little artists! Others were inspired to bring in rocks - paleo style - with their wonderful drawings. Awesome!

You may have this video in your home collection. Check out the cave art scene in Ice Age where Manny, Diego, and Sid enter the cave. Manny has an experience with the drawings which gives the viewer insight into his character and foreshadows the events for the sequel. {language arts connection}