Cultural Dance Fashion

I have been floored this week by all the fantastic submissions students sent in! Their assignment was to select a cultural dance and create an article of clothing or a prop that is used in the dance with materials from their homes. I was sent an array of creations that I've been happily featuring on my Instagram. One student even submitted a VIDEO instead of just writing an artist statement, where he filmed all the information as if he were giving a newscast (so creative!!!). I just wanted to show you some of the highlights:

Apache Crown Dance baton

Chinese Fan Dance fan crafted from sticks and tissue paper.

Regalia from the Navajo Dance of the Deities.

Chinese Fan Dance fans crafted from sticky notes.

Chinese Fan Dance fan crafted from sewn fabric.

A pigs head from the Cabeza de Cochino Dance of Latin America.

Happy Friday!

Wow! I cannot believe that it has been SEVEN weeks since my last post, marking seven whole weeks since I've seen my wonderful students! First of all, I MISS YOU! Secondly, I am so incredibly proud of how well students are adapting to online learning. You are rockstars! Today is the end of week 5 of COL and each week students have shared such incredible artworks with me. I'm so excited that I can provide these kiddos with a creative outlet during this stressful time.

Some of the things I've been working on:

• Completing my Grad school capstone paper (whoohoo!)
• Sewing masks - donated to a local skilled nursing facility
• Making an armful of friendship bracelets
• Practicing my color guard skills so I can teach my team new things when marching band starts up again - I'm teaching myself how to handle a sabre for the indoor season and WOW I underestimated how challenging this piece of equipment was
• I just started a monthly art challenge from my favorite YouTuber Sea Lemon where I draw a different fruit each day - I'm documenting my progress on my Instagram and encourage everyone to give this a shot, too!

May 1st is May Day, the festival of spring! One of my favorite traditions is the May Pole Dance. My high school German teacher (shout out to Frau McDonald, the greatest teacher in all of FCPS!) had this fabulous May Pole that we would use for the dance. The dancers hold ribbons that weave over and under one another, braiding them around the pole. Check out this video I found that demonstrates the dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mqfuNbpP0. I'd love to hear if you have any springtime traditions!

Happy Friday the 13th

This has been a busy week in the art room! At the end of last week, students engaged in a new artist statement activity where they interviewed one another about their artwork. This activity had students think about describing their artwork with extreme detail because they had to convey their thoughts to their partner who was taking notes during the interview. Using the notes from their partner, students generated really strong artist statements at the beginning of this week. I was so impressed to see the improvement between the first and second artist statements!

Wednesday students took their Elements of Art quiz and impressed me with their knowledge there as well! With this understanding, students will be able to consciously incorporate the elements of art in their future artworks, creating stronger compositions. The Elements of Art Composition project that students completed last week are all outstanding! I am updating grades as I receive the last few artworks and I will be adding them to the Virtual Art Show next week.

Students have also been working on their Design An Ad. Each class has been given a specific Frederick-based business to create an advertisement for the Frederick News-Post Design An Ad contest. The best part about this contest is that there is a winner in every classroom! The winning artwork and the student's photo will be printed in a special May issue of the FNP. The businesses my students are creating ads for are Hillside Turkey Farm, Inc., The Frederick News-Post, Clearview CarCare, The Affiliated Barbershop, and I Made This!. I will let students know today further instructions about their DAA artwork, as the contest rules state that final artwork cannot be created at home. Students should plan to create detailed rough drafts at home (if incomplete by today) so they can create their final artwork when we return to school. I will be sending the DAA permission slips home with students AFTER the break.

More details will be shared via email later today regarding any work students are required to complete during the break.

Elements of Art

Students learned about the Elements of Art through a digital scavenger hunt activity. To apply their knowledge of the elements, students are in the midst of creating a composition of their choice that somehow displays all seven elements. This is a great project because it allows students to show their creativity because it is the only project where students are given complete freedom of what their artwork looks like. Students are coming to realize that the elements work hand-in-hand with one another and it is easier than they originally thought to include all of them within one artwork. Yesterday students engaged in a TAG critique to share ideas before starting on their final artworks. TAG is a great critique to give thoughtful suggestions and allow the artist to think about the direction of their artwork.

T - Tell the artist something you like.
A - Ask the artist a question.
G - Give the artist a suggestion.

Next week students will finish up their artwork using any dry medium of their choice (marker, colored pencil, pencil, crayon, or chalk pastel). We will also be reviewing the definitions for each Element of Art so students can study for a quiz.

First Full Completed Project!

This was a spectacular week! Students successfully completed their kaleidoscopes, took part in a critique, and wrote their first artist statement. As I explained today, artist statements are written for two important reasons: 1) for the artist to be able to explain their intent to the audience, 2) to show what they have learned throughout the unit. I am looking forward to reading the artist statements this weekend so I can discover more about their beautiful artwork. I will be taking photos and updating the virtual art show sometime this weekend. For now, here are a couple images of completed kaleidoscopes:

This is a reminder that the February Doodle Calendar due date is quickly approaching - Monday, March 2nd! 

Kaleidoscope Name Design

This week was filled with a lot of art-making! On Monday we looked at examples of Islamic art and learned about radial balance - a type of balance where elements are radiating from a center point and the weight is equally distributed around the center. Each day this week the warm-up prompts related to radial balance to reinforce the concept. Students demonstrated their understanding of radial balance by creating a kaleidoscopic image of their name by tracing a stencil of their name as a flipped tessellation. I've been sharing in-progress photos this week of this fantastic project - each name kaleidoscope looks completely different!

Now that students have created the image, they are working on coloring the artwork using a combination of harmonious colors - colors that have a pleasing appearance.

I will post more pictures all next week and add completed artworks to the Virtual Art Show! The Virtual Art Show is where I showcase student work. There is a tab at the top of my blog where you can click to see the slideshow for my current classes and also the slideshows from all my previous students. Students can look at the slideshows from last semester/last year to preview some of the artworks they will be able to complete while in creative arts. The first thing I am going to upload to the Virtual Art Show are the class flags. It is great to have so much artwork on my walls!

Happy Valentine's Day & enjoy the three day weekend!

Class Flags & First Week Activities

I am thoroughly impressed by all the creativity my new students have been expressing! Last week students were given their first Draw Something activity, where they have to create a drawing using provided lines and shapes. Honestly, this was the first group of students where I received COMPLETELY different drawings and I was in awe! Below are a few of the fantastic artworks I received. I cannot wait to pass out the next one!

For most of the week, classes had been working on their class flag. First, we voted for an overall shape for the flag and the winning silhouettes were Kobe Bryant, rectangle, Baby Yoda, Squidward, and the Vineyard Vines Whale. Next, students brainstormed and shared what was most important to them, realizing that so many students had similar interests and values. We compiled a class list and then selected a topic for each table for students to create an icon for and add to the flag. Each artwork is unique, creating a flag that shows off the class' shared valuables and their artistic talent! Below are works-in-progress. We will finish up the flags next week (a few more students need to complete their contribution) and I will be able to proudly display the flags.

This week I also introduced the Doodle Calendars. Each month students will have a calendar to complete. They have prompts for each day, and students have the option of completing one square each day or as they choose throughout the month. These calendars vary by month as to what the topics are. Usually they will consist of content-related prompts where students are practicing skills, but this month students are drawing pictures of their favorite things so I can get to know them better. Below are a few works-in-progress.