Rooted in Family...

Rooting Creativity with Trees

in 2nd grade

In their self-exploratory journey, my second grade students venture on a quest to discover a little bit about themselves and how they connect to...well....the world.  
We have, recently, completed our exploration and art-making on our families by creating our family trees, expressing our family's unique characteristics through paint, oil pastels, markers and liquid water colors.  

This art unit encourages the students to ask their mom and dad's questions, understanding the importance of the people in their lives.  The art-making component offers the students the independence to make their own choices, take risks, problem solve and take ownership of their work.  The important component was the process and path the students, individually, took to accomplish their final art work.

The experience opened my students' eyes to the endless possibilities for the use of our art materials and the understanding that I (their teacher) is not going to tell them what to do:) 

Liberating! 

and a bit more challenging....

I loved and love seeing what my students come up with on their own.

Is it a bit harder...sure!  

You have to manage more components in your classrooms, 

you have to allow students to get a little disappointed when something doesn't go their way,

you have to have more than a few materials out all the time,

you have to just let things go......

and that is hard.

I was recently reading and article by Olivia Guide, Playing, Creativity, Possibility offering insight and encouragement for allowing our students to explore, "play" and experiment independently....with whatever they want.  It does sound scary to think about just stepping back and watching.
BUT- the results are better than any well oiled, preconceived lesson.

In the end, each student was beaming with pride!

Check out more on Family Trees HERE
and the Power Point HERE.

xoxo, Smock you.

modern twists....

Looking at the Art of Suzan Shutan....

in second grade

A component to the second grade curriculum engages my students in the theme of community.  Much needed, this theme builds on several important and vital skills in today's world:  cooperation and collaboration.

All that is great but we are dealing with 8 year olds.  Engagement and interest are key elements for creating an environment for 2nd graders to build and grow these skills.  They also need to feel like it is fun.

As their art teacher, I search out new  and exciting artists that will capture the attention of these wonderful students, while "teaching them a lesson".  I came across Suzan Shutan in my search (I can't remember if it was on Pinterest or just a Google search-but I found her).  She is an installation artist!  How often do you use one of those in your classroom?

I was inspired to by her Tar Roofing Paper installations in which thousands of paper are looped to created wonderful undulating designs across walls, floors and ceilings.

I thought to myself, "Well, isn't this just perfect".
"What if all 2nd grade students worked collaboratively towards creating large hanging paper installations in the style/work of Suzan Shutan?"

And that is what we did.



Along the way we had to learn something and along the way we had to use some critical thinking skills.  I created a "sub-lesson" (meaning a lesson within a lesson) for my students to look beyond just rolling paper and explore these installations with an imaginative, exploratory eye (or eyes).

In connection with Suzan Shutan's modern work, I introduced my students to the folk art of quilling.  We looked at the process of quilling in comparison to the process of Suzan Shutan.  With many different examples, we focus on a more contemporary approach to the folk art and reflected on different ways to combine the two.



The results were magical.

Groups of students worked very diligently for an hour, rolling a gluing strips of pre-cut, colorful construction paper.  Everybody had a role, and everybody lent a hand.

These wonderful installations were hung in our school's hallways, receiving amazing reviews by staff, parents and students.

Find the lesson here:)

xoxo, Smock Room

In love with 2nd grade....

Love them!

In the sequence with their "Me in the Middle Theme" , my 2nd graders are delving into their investigation of 'family' and creating their very unique, individualized "Family Trees".

All are different.  

All are working hard.  

All are super excited.

Here are a few snapshots of their work in progress:

Check back soon for more snapshots and a lesson overview.

I mean, SMocK them!

My Family Tree....2nd grade

"My mom cried when she saw it."....Jamese

After thinking about ourselves, we expanded our connection to the second target, Family.  This Art Unit was a wonderful exploration into discovering our roots and, sometimes, connections that we didn't even knew we had. 






The Art Unit's design and instructional sequence is multi-faceted, in which various scaffolded mini-lessons build towards achieving a culminating goal.  The overall goal was for students to develop their own art-making process through the development of an individualized sequence, resulting in a mixed-media art piece, representing their 'family tree'.  
Of course, along the way we needed to learn somethings, build on some skills and do some homework.  (It's no longer a surprise that homework for these little guys is repeated occurrence.) 

 For every target, I create a packet to help the students dig through the surface of the theme and really connect to the process.  I might seem like a lot of work (and it is) but this way, we don't just scratch the surface...we drill  a hole to get to the foundation.
The students started the lesson with a little bit of looking and investigating various paintings with with same theme: Trees, and answering questions that encouraged them to compare, contrast, describe and evaluate different styles and processes.  

For homework they had to ask their families for help, from drawing their families portraits to creating a 'web' showing how they connect to their entire families.  This portion of the lesson aimed for students and their parents to sit and talk about their families.


For my students to become more independent thinkers, I needed to create an activity that prompted their own knowledge of  the artistic process (at least the one we use in the art room).  I wanted them to make the choices and I wanted to see how they would organized their own project.  I showed them 3 different representations of trees and encouraged them to choose one as inspiration.  By choosing one, the students needed to take a step back and think how to execute a tree in a similar fashion.



It was their turn to show me "what you got!"



As the students chose their preferred style, they grouped around a dry-erase poster board with an image of the artwork.  As a group (and with much debate and arguing), they needed to figure out the steps needed to create the tree.  I wanted my students to demonstrate their background knowledge (the foundation of what we do with every project) by articulating the artistic process of decision making, problem solving, organizing, adapting and using art materials.

The rest was up to them....
I found my art room transform into 'their' art space.  I became their guide, as these Second graders took their art-making, their learning and their paths in to their own hands, and the results were fantastic.  

Follow the everyday activities of my students and my art room at our school Instagram page 
Sanborn_Smockroom

As always, thanks for dropping by 
and see you soon in the 
SMocKroom

xoxo, SMocK you.