First Grade Inventor's Workshop

First Grade Inventor's Workshop

School is winding down, but there is still time for a lot more fun and learning.  I saw a post on the Imagination Tree site about a play dough inventor's workshop.  I thought it would be a great activity to do with the class, as did Ms. Cairns.  She sent an email to the parents to send in odds and ends, and I made a GIANT batch of play dough (eleven cups of flour!).  What resulted was a creative explosion and some fabulous team work!

Spring Break Art Camp

In the workshop

Woodland Storybook Camp at the Little Bits Workshop, day 2

After our inspiring day in the woods, it was time to get writing!  The kids worked hard developing a story with woodland characters.  After their stories were written they used colored pencils to illustrate their pages.

The kids were so proud of their books!  I loved reading their stories with them.

Art and literacy

Colored pencil illustration

Hand written pages

Spring Break Art Camp

Woodland Storybook Camp at the Little Bits Workshop

Helping out at the workshop is always such a blast.  Liita comes up with magical activities for the kids that get their creativity flowing!

While we all wish it was warmer here, we still enjoyed a hike into Thatcher Woods.  We were on a mission to identify places that fairies might live and to pick up items that could be used to build fairy houses back at the workshop.

Time for a story

Home for a fairy?

Fairy hiding spot

Hunting for moss

Choice Based Art

BASA Week 10

This was the last class of our session.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group of kids and I hope I was able to get them to think about art in new and different ways.  I saw a quote today that sums up how I feel. "Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else."

The pedagogy of Teaching for Artistic Behavior supports kids in finding their creative voice in an authentic learning environment.

I promised the class that I would not speak to the whole group which would allow more time to work.  I almost kept my promise.  I read the book "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou and artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat.  The book expresses courage, which I think all of the students have shown in the way they have opened up and shared their artwork with each other.  I also read this book because Basquiat's art is so vibrant and child-like; I knew it would appeal to these kids.

Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 9

Following the interest level of the class, I decided to continue talking about pop art and tie it in with the kids' love of cartooning.  I showed the class images created by Roy Lichtenstein.

Roy Lichtenstein "Maybe"

Roy Lichtenstein "Mickey"

A few of the students were fortunate to see the Lichtenstein exhibit at the Art Institute over the summer.  We had a great conversation about the way Lichtenstein elevated cartooning to "high" art.  We also discussed his use of ben-day dots to mimic old printing techniques.

After my five minutes of talking, the class set off to work.  Some of them went straight to cartooning, while others explored their own ideas.

Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 8

Love is in the air!  Our class this week was on Valentines Day.  I chose three pop artists for us to explore.  These three artists, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jim Dine, all used hearts in their artwork.  We discussed what "pop art" means and how a simple heart, mass produced in popular culture, can be elevated to "high art".

It was interesting to discuss Andy Warhol's heart print with the class.  Our conversation diverged into careers that an artist can have, such as scientific illustrator.

"Graffiti Heart" Keith Haring

Heart print - Andy Warhol

Heart print - Jim Dine

Choice Based Art

BASA Art Class Week 7

I continued our discussion about collage from the previous week.  I decided to show some examples that used simple materials that we have plenty of in our art centers.

We looked at works by Romare Bearden.  Most of the students in the class play instruments and the music theme was one of the first things the students noticed about Bearden's work.

"Three Folk Musicians" Romare Bearden

While looking for collage examples, I found the artist Denise Fiedler.  I really like her simple collages that utilize old pages of text. 

"Lion" Denise Fiedler

As happens every week, a few of the students are interested in pursuing a project based on the "five minute discussion" and others are motivated by their own ideas.