Art this Week

This week in art we have been working on lots of different projects.  I have been so busy with things that I had not reflected until last night about what was I needing to improve.  I realized I was not asking my students any exit questions while they were in line.  You know, ticket out the door type questions.  I was so busy trying to prep for the next class that I had not even asked questions about the lesson or what stuck with anyone.  Will do better today!
Fourth grade is starting the lighthouse project.  I did a one day pre-assessment drawing to figure out where students were in their understanding of how a lighthouse was rendered.  It is fun to see what they come up with.  I finish the class time with a short history lesson on the lighthouses in North Carolina.  Next week they are going to begin drawing a lighthouse of their choice.
Third graders have the dreadful task of writing about art.  The objective to describe a painting is no easy undertaking for some.  I decided we would break it down into 3 class periods.  One day of pre-assessment, one day of instruction and discussion and a final day of assessing what they learned.  I compare the two different writings and see if they are now using art vocabulary and describing the paintings for accurately.
Second graders have created a mosaic style painting that uses warm and cool colors.  This lesson is also one I am breaking down into more class sessions so they won't rush and they understand the concepts and objectives better.
First graders are working on learning to classify art in terms of landscape, cityscape, seascape, portrait and still life.  We have spent the last couple of weeks creating cityscapes with construction paper and this week are loosening up and painting seascapes.  I show them examples, we talk about what you would see at the beach or if they were on a boat, and we listen to the ocean/ waves while we paint.  So far, so good.
Finally, kindergartners are doing the old shaving cream/ glue mixture and creating polar bears.  We paint the mix on with popscicle sticks and fingers and let it dry.  They are learning how the white fur covers up black skin, which works with the white shaving cream and black construction paper.