Sketch books!

This project took a little while to complete because we created our books from the outside in!  Students got to pick their sketchbook covers and they learned how to assemble a book.  We used rafia for the binding, and a great thing about these books is that we can take them apart and add more pages as we need them.

The books have a "hinge" so they fold back and lay flat, which was great for practicing portraits, value scales, and eyes in our books.  There are tons of instructions for books online, so if you're interested in making your own, it's easy to find a quick online tutorial for them.

One day when we had a crazy picture day schedule, we folded envelopes to glue inside their books.  I plan to use these for sub days too, so they can work on them throughout the year.

 They look so good in our display case! 

 Many of their sketchbook drawings were unfinished and they will have a chance to work on those later in the semester.  We did several days of faces, taking notes on the proportions and doing detailed drawings of eyes.

Candy corn, black cats, and pumpkins oh my!

I'm a little behind on my blog posting, so I wanted to go ahead and include everything we've been working on recently into one post.  6th grade created these amazing larger-than-life candy corn paintings, 7th grade painted pumpkins from a little different perspective, and 8th grade created these creepy up close and personal cat faces!  I mixed them in with the abstract trees and our hallways are officially "dressed" for fall!  

Abstract trees

Our first project for art was a quick and easy lesson so I could assess my students and determine where they are in art.  Some of these students I've had for years, but they have grown up a little and their talents have really bloomed!  We began by discussing abstract art and nonobjective art, and we drew the trees together.  We then discussed the color wheel and blending analogous colors so I could see how well they understand blending. I also like to start with a project that students can really feel successful at, and I think this one was a pretty good fit. Not to mention, all these fall trees look beautiful in the hallways!

Moving to the middle school!

So here we are almost at the end of September... and I’m just now writing my first blog post!  It’s taken me a bit to get oraganized, as I have made a change this year!  I’ve taught elementary art for 14 years, and even though I’ve taught middle school age students before, this is my first experience at a true middle school. 

Let me start by saying... my room is like a dream! Over the years I’ve had a lot of not-so-roomy art rooms, as well as nonexistent rooms 😂 when I had to teach on a cart.   I’ve ALWAYS been split between two schools, which is another world of challenges and have shared my classroom with other classes and after school programs as well. It still feels so strange to go to the same school every day! 

While I greatly miss the staff at my two elementary schools, the staff at the middle school is also completely amazing, and I feel so blessed to be able to work with such a fantastic group of teachers.  An extra bonus? I know 2/3 of the students from my two elementary schools! It has been so neat to see them all again! I thought I’d share a few pics of my room that I took before school started!

I have a bulletin board outside my room and TONS of tack strips for artwork in the hallways, which are already FULL of some amazing stuff! I’ll share those soon!

Does it get much better than being able to decorate with all the colors at once?! :)