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