This week in the art room
This week was bonkers (my new favorite word). My school district was entering back into the school from our fall break and I wrote in my planning agenda that my goal for this month was simple 1-2 day art projects. Why? My schedule has been stolen due to testing schedules, assembles, and all of the other stuff that makes elementary school such a unique environment. Projects that I started in the beginning of the year was taking 2-3 weeks longer than expected because of the rearrangement of time. I’m pivoting. Anyway, this week was inspired by Pinterest because I was out of school 3 days this week due to my son catching a cold and I needed something quick and satisfying.
In 5th grade, we made close up pumpkins. We focused on the elements of art: space, value and line. Materials used was tempera cakes, chalk pastels and colored pencils. The kids did a great job indicating the range of value, how the close up of the pumpkin made the space feel cramped and tight and the lines helps guide the eye to understand what the shape is. I had to remind them that pumpkins are organic so the shapes are a bit irregular so if they “messed up” it wouldn’t make too much of a difference because all pumpkins look weird in real life.
In Art Club we made a “fake” jewelry business. I put the quotations around fake because I think this activity did what I secretly wanted it to do by giving them ideas on how to be entrepreneurs. In art club we talked about how most jewelry has a backing card to hold the jewelry and to advertise and represent the business so my students made backing cards and bracelets to go with their amazing creations. This was so amazing to watch, they were incredibly satisfied with their results and I was extremely proud of them. The backing cards were made out of old mat boards that I cut int 3x5 inch rectangles. Absolutely perfect for this project.
It was a fun week even though it was a uniquely chaotic. If you want to stay up to date about any fun things happening in the k-12 classroom sign up for my newsletter.