Spooky Radio Plays

 Since it's Spooky Month, students are working on Spooky Radio Plays. Last week I introduced students to the concept of listening to a theatrical production on the radio - some students were surprised by this concept and couldn't imagine having to just LISTEN to their entertainment instead of being able to WATCH it. I shared a short clip of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds as inspiration for this unit. Students are working either solo, in pairs, or small groups to write and perform their own radio plays. Most students are choosing to tell a scary story, but all stories are welcomed for this assignment. A large part of radio plays are the sound effects, so students will also become Foley artists and must provide their own sound effects to help the listeners visualize their story. Students who are working alone are able to voice all the characters themselves, or may employ family members or friends to help act. The radio plays I received last year (while students were all virtual) had a lot of parents and siblings (even cousins and grandmothers) perform and they reported back that it was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to hearing the recordings that students come up with this semester. Once the radio plays are completed, I'll ask students if they want to share their work with the class and I'll play some in the classroom and post some on their virtual art show. 

Elements of Art

 Today is the last day for students to work on their Elements of Art Composition. This project is where students show what they've learned about the 7 Elements of Art - prior to this, the class was split into teams to research and create a slideshow on one of the elements in order to teach the whole class. For the artwork, students were given a choice as to how they demonstrated each element; some students divided their page and drew examples of each one, while others created a composition of their choice and made sure to include each element. I have some works-in-progress to share below, but the final artworks will be added to the Virtual Art Show next week! As of today, the VAS for this semester will be live on my blog - woohooo!

Class Flag Winners

I am thoroughly enjoying being back in school M-F because I forgot how awesome it felt to FLY through projects. Students have already completed their first Draw Something, the personality map, class flag, Elements of Art presentations, and started their first doodle calendar! I will be updating artwork on the Virtual Art Show over the long weekend, so be sure to check back. 

Students were divided into small groups this week to become "experts" on one of the seven Elements of Art. Once they conducted a little bit of research on their element, they created a slideshow to present their findings to the class, as a way to put all the information together like a jigsaw puzzle. Presentations were started today, but will have to be completed when we get back on Wednesday.

Each class had outstanding class flag submissions, making it very difficult to vote for a winning design. I really loved being able to see the collaboration occur in the classroom - I missed the sound of students busy at work! After looking at everyone's personality maps, we created a list of shared interests that the class had in common in order to start establishing our class culture. Groups were instructed to use the class color and the list of interests to create a flag that displayed the things that matter to us most. Here are the winning designs (the others will be included in the Virtual Art Show):

Welcome Back!

 Hello students and families! I am Ms. Strasser and I am so excited to be back teaching FACE-TO-FACE this school year! The 2021-2022 school year will be my seventh year teaching - this is my fourth year at OMS and I absolutely love being apart of this community! Not only do I teach 7th grade creative arts, but I am also the OMS yearbook adviser and the color guard instructor for the OHS marching band.

Creative arts is an 18-week exploratory where students experience several different art forms - visual art, dance, music, and theatre - and see the connections of how the arts are used to express culture. New to creative arts this year will be the implementation of digital media, including digital drawing and video/audio media. During semester 2, students will transfer to Inventions & Innovations taught by Mr. Kinloch in the classroom next door to mine.

Please take a look at the Virtual Art Show tab at the top of the blog to view artworks from previous creative arts classes to get a sense of some of the projects students will be working on this year!

I hope everyone had a rejuvenating summer and is ready for an awesome semester full of ART! 

Last Friday!

 The last two days have been bittersweet. We're getting closer to summer, but yesterday was the last day I saw my 3B I&I class (they'll finish the year in PE) and today was the last day I saw my cohort B classes in person! 

We're winding the year down by sharing the Cultural Identity presentations. Students have seriously exceeded my expectations with this project, and I'm so glad to have been able to push students outside of their comfort zone by not allowing the use of Google Slides. I think Biteable, Canva, and WeVideo were the three most popular tech tools chosen, but a handful of students tried some others, including Scratch, Vizme, and Piktochart. I won't be able to share the full presentations because they include students' personal information, but I can share a few screenshots below:

Since the last month of school is so short, I did not assign a June Doodle Calendar. In its place, students have been drawing for a fun Pear Deck warm-up. I provide a picture of my Bitmoji and a drawing prompt, and give students 5 minutes to draw something. Today's prompt was to provide Ms. Strasser with protective rain gear (since it's a very rainy day) and yesterday's prompt was to help Ms. Strasser with sun safety! I was definitely not disappointed by the drawings. Enjoy!

Cultural Identity Project

 This week students worked on the tech tool playlist, where I gave them tutorials for 6 different tech tools (Biteable, Canva, Lucidchart, Piktochart, Powtoon, and WeVideo), and they had to select three tools to explore and practice using. I had students share simple "about me" information just to get used to using all the features, and the ones that I have seen so far have been great! These tools are so much more interesting than Google Slides, because there are so many customizable elements that are very easy to use.

Yesterday and today I introduced the final product of the Cultural Identity Project, where students must select a tech tool to present information about their chosen country. Students will be working on this over the next couple of classes, with the final product being due on Tuesday, June 8th. Beginning Wednesday, June 9th, students will take turns presenting to the class, either in a live presentation or by playing a clip with pre-recorded audio. I am so excited to see students' research come to life!

Enjoy the long weekend! 

Midterm

I can't believe that after today we only have FOUR more weeks of school left! Midterm was last Friday, so students' official Midterm grades are not posted on Schoology. Students recently completed their Art of Latin America projects, where students were given the option of selecting a visual art, music & dance, or drama pathway to create their own original work. The submissions that I have looked at so far have blown me away! I will be posting artwork to the virtual art show next week, but here is a sneak peek:

For the visual art pathway, students selected a Mexican artist to explore, and created an original composition that was inspired by their style and also depicted a current event. The music & dance pathway project allowed students to learn the Cha Cha dance, resulting in a video of them dancing along to a Cha Cha rhythm they also created. The students who chose the drama pathway wrote and performed a monologue inspired by a dream of an alebrije. I will be sharing some of the recorded performances and more artworks on the virtual art show next week. 

The final project that students began this week is titled "Cultural Identity Project." For this project, students are exploring a culture that is significant to them and will create a presentation to share with the class that provides an overview of the country, with a focus on the arts. This is the first time I have done this project with students, but I'm so excited to see the diversity among students, and have them share a little piece of themselves and their families with each other. Next week, students are going to work through some mini-lessons that teach them how to use a variety of tech tools, because the rule for the final presentation is that Google Slides are not allowed! Depending on the format of the projects, I may be able to share a few of them to the virtual art show at the end of the year. 

19 more days until summer vacation!