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.

Ordinary to Extraordinary....

The Evolution of a Styrofoam Cup

About a month ago, I came across a Pinterest post (I think) of the DC Sketchers, with the related image of a group of people, gathered around a small table, 

sketching a still life of styrofoam cups.  

I thought, "Oh how fun"!

I then proceeded to think about my students perceptions of common objects and their inherent nature to "know things", just by having some sort of experience with them.  Take the simple styrofoam cup for example.  This simple vessel is used everyday, from the coffee cups at school functions to quenching the thirst of miniature soccer players, to 'pots' that will soon grow beans in our classrooms.  

They are everywhere and by being everywhere, these familiar objects become common and common leads to inattentiveness.

And then I thought, again, "Oh this WILL be fun"!

In preparation for this art unit, I reflected on the numerous art installations I found on Pinterest and Scholastic Art Magazine, created by this very simple object.  With a little 'Googling', I came across Styrogami.  Yes, it's an actual thing and it is AMAZING (Check it out Here)

But my focus was not just to make a really cool sculpture, my focus was to encourage my students to pay attention to details and 'see' how a simple curve can transform something flat into something with volume.  I wanted my students to analyze materials and evaluate their effectiveness when using them.  I wanted my students to see how even simple shapes can be transformed into something bigger and magical.  

I wanted my students to see how something ordinary can become extraordinary, and how something seemingly simple is, in reality, complex.

Throughout this school year, I have been focusing on creating art units that 'test' my students' skills but also demonstrate their growth to them, fostering an understanding for process over product.  After all, how much can we possibly do with a styrofoam cup?  
My overall focus was for students to understand the 'process' of making art, is as important, if not more important than the product.  To illustrate this idea, I referred to the artist Richard Serra.

My speculations were pretty accurate.  To begin the unit, I simply passed out some manilla paper, asked the students to fold it in half, write their name and "Perceptions of Space" on the cover and then draw a styrofoam cup.

With cups already on the table, my confident students took the challenge with full force and began to vigorously draw a styrofoam cup.  I heard, "This is easy" and "I'm done" very often, all the while taking note that the majority of these, very confident, students were not even looking at the cups.  

After stopping them, we took a little gallery walk around the room and evaluated our peers' efforts.  There were a lot of groans.....

My first question was "Does it look like a styrofoam cup?"

The majority offered their responses with a "eeehh...."

Then I asked, "Did you look at the cup?"

The majority offered a "eeeehhhh..."

Then I asked, "Why not?"

"Because it's just a styrofoam cup".

I offered, "Aaaah".

Let's try this again.

The entire instructional sequence spanned 8 weeks (probably more) but you never would have thought it, with all the interest and sheer will to master drawing a cup.  We started with simple line drawings and progressed to larger abstract paintings...to styrofoam cup sculptures...to photography...and back to a simple cup.
All the while building our observational drawings skills, visualization skills, problem solving skills and reflective skills.  
Pretty amazing stuff.




Check out the rest of the snapshots
and the entire Art Unit with "I Can" statements, rubric and discussion sequence!

Follow on our Instagram page:
sanborn_smockroom

xoxo, Smock Room

Contemporary Inspirations for 6th grade Art Projects...

"It was hard to find that perfect word." ~Bobby

Every year I make an effort to create new projects for my 6th grade students, that are new and fresh and contemporary.  Primarily,  I want grasp their attention and then hold on to them, for as long as possible.  A challenge, to say the least.  So....Here goes something....

As all other years, the central theme to the 6th grade art curriculum is "Identity", answering the bigger question "Who am I?"  It's interesting, with all that 6th graders have to say, this question brings a hush over the room (along with some confused looks).  Throw in taking their pictures and they are just about to scream out of anguish and agony.  

I found this amazing photography project that sparked my interest and motivated me to find a way to use the idea of photography and text for the students first project.  The Identity Project: What defines you was the perfect connection (with some slight modifications). 

 The Identity Project: 

"This photography project seeks to explore the labels we choose to identify with when defining our gender and sexuality."  Intriguing but, not entirely appropriate for 6th graders, or my school in general.   BUT, most definitely adaptable for encouraging my students to reflect on their unique characteristics that make each of them special.

 I can't begin to try and explain ARTY FEMME to a group of 6th graders, but we can take a look at their photographs (without the label) and study their characteristics.  With descriptive words, we can 'label' their identity, explore their personality and breakdown some stereotypes.   

Our goal, for this component of the lesson was to take a picture and with one, unique word, capture their identity.

Taking the pictures was not all that challenging, but figuring out the most unique word, was.  My challenge was trying to encourage my students to think outside the box, get out of their comfort zone and think...just a little bit about their internal selves.  

WOW....like....what was I thinking?

Along the way, I was skimming through Facebook and took notice of a post from a long distance friend and her recent artwork: Define Me.  The theme related completely to my students' theme but I found a way to connect their word choice to their art.  Stacy Gibboni used words to emphasize word choice and the lack of words.  So, simple but amazingly powerful.  

Well.

That is what we did.

But how....how was I suppose to encourage my students to put aside common words, "nice", "funny", "smart" and rethink word choice.  

We used dictionaries.

A blast from the past but WOW, it demonstrates how technology, spell check and auto correct have hindered our students' ability to spell.  Not surprising, this activity took a little longer than expected, but the results were incredible.

The goal for component number 2 was to choose 6 different words that "define you" and be able to express why.  In doing so, create 6 different little drawings expressing the word choice, using two elements of art: color and shape.  Sounded simple enough, but I quickly observed the students mindful attention to the connection between drawing and word choice.

Simple tools and materials made the art project more engaging and the students felt a little more independent.  My students used 4x6 inch pieces of paper, traced a 31/2x 31/2 square template and used oil pastels for their drawing and word.

The concluding component to this lesson was a written and typed reflection statement, targeting specific questions about the students' processes and thinking.
The results were thoughtful, reflective and honest.
...And impressive.

This was only a small caption to an 8 week project. 

 It made my students think. 

 It made my students reflect.  

"It makes me feel happy to know about myself more."~Crystal

Check out the power point to this lesson!

SMocKyou.