Welcome to a new school year.... OR...Whate happened to term three??? What about term Four?

We had a a server upgrade on our computer at school and as a result I am now no longer able to access this blog at school. This can be remedied but hasn't been a big priority so it hasn't been resolved just yet- a far more pressing problem is a lack of power in my art room this week!  Fortunately I have power in the top half of the room, lights and air con work- well when I say the air con works it runs...it is evaporative and is not terribly effective, but better than nothing in this heat!

SO anyway the blog took a back burner in the last term with Art Blast, reports and an end of year stall at our local farmers market! I am hoping to ensure I update this on a regular basis to share what we are doing as the year goes by, making a habit of downloading images at home from my school camera or onto an external hard drive (I am in trouble for using up too much space on the school computer Ooops! ) or make sure I can update the blog at school- I'll move it up the priority list.

We started the school year off looking at a group this group of art works.

The kids were asked to see if they could find what they all had in common. 

Very cleverly most classes were able to find that each artwork used the arts elements of line, shape/form, colour, texture, tone. But they were quite surprised to find that all of these works were completed in 1913, exactly 100 years ago. What surprised them most was that some of them look very modern even though 100 years ago is a very long time ago and is "the olden days". This prompted some discussion about how long people have been making art works and what that looks like on the time line.

This year will be a big one for us as we celebrate our centenary. Hence the 100 year old art works! ;) We have some great things planned.  I will be making bunting with all the classes to help decorate and make the school festive on our open day in term 4. The idea for this came from the suggestion that we make a quilt and each child make a square. The problem with quilts is where do they go once they are done? They hang in the library for years getting dusty and then someone comes along and wants to get rid of it and then where does it go? Although bunting uses a traditional technique of sewing and applique it is also very very 'now' they are popping up in magazines and on Pinterest by the dozen! They can be strung up for the spacial celebration and pulled down and stored in large plastic zip lock bags until the next event and brought out for that event. So the art works have a real purpose- I love it when that happens. So, bunting made using technology that is old and then for something new, very new!

I managed to organise something very contemporary with VJZoo working with us to create a very modern projection artwork onto the roof top of our eastern wing on our open day celebration. I'm really looking forward to that!

What happened to term Three????

Goodness the time has flown past! This term has been a busy one. One of the highlights has been taking a group of 57 children to the Art Gallery of WA to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibition. It was very successful with both children and parent helpers saying they really enjoyed it and would love to go again. I can see an annual event coming on! 

This year I have been focusing on well known modern artists as a link to arts in society outcomes and to fit in with this exhibition. The kids are beginning to recognise the names and styles of some of the artists we have looked at. The gallery staff all said they could tell from the children's responses that they had been exposed to a proper art education with an art specialist. This is a huge compliment because these ladies see many, many school groups over the year. So well done kids!!!

I personally get a trill to hear kids say things like a comment from a year one child when I showed them a piece of work by Paul Klee. "That looks a bit like Picasso's because it is kind of brownish and all shapes" Indeed it did have some similarities to the works of Picasso that I had shown them a few weeks previously, it gave me goose bumps!

On the excursion we even had a chance to do an activity in the Art Gallery Studio.

We created our own Cubist style still life drawings, just like Picasso.

We have been working furiously trying to get organised for a whole school photography exhibition on September 30th at the Farmer's Market Spring Open Day.

 I have tried to do different things with several classes in order to familiarise the kids with how our new cameras work. Our WONDERFUL LOVELY P&C donated a class set of 12 cameras to the art room.

Some junior classes, especially year ones were given the cameras and asked to photograph some thing they found interesting in the playground. I gave them little instruction as I just wanted to let them go and see what they found interesting. (What is it with boys and toilets?!?!)

Year 2/3's were asked to photograph somewhere they liked to play.

Year 3's chose a little toy and used this as a subject for their photo in order to make them think about what it was they were photographing and have them get in really close to the subject.

Yr 4/5's took photos of collections.

One class had to do drawings that interacted with their hands in some way.

Finally the 5/6 and 6/7 class had a 'Scavenger hunt'. They had to find examples of things like 'rule of thirds' 'leading lines' following instruction about what makes a good photo.

Now I'm going to try to put photos in here again and hope that it doesn't do the same thing as the last post with the photos being so huge!

Some more sewing. (Fixed the large photo problem! It was so very simple really !)

Here's a bit of a gallery showing some of the sewing projects completed from the Picasso printmaking activites from several classes in years 4 to 7. Some classes did potato printing others did collograph printmaking. Both classes had to add stitches in order to decorate their fabric.

What is modern art?

With the excursion to Art Gallery of WA to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibition coming up soon I have chosen to focus on modern art this term. We have already met Picasso earlier in the year so this term we will be exploring the work of Miro, Matisse, Calder, Lichtenstein and of course Andy Warhol.
I found this video- it's a great way to introduce and explain the concept of modern art to the middle and upper primary kids.

Sew simple!

In one room of year 5/6's many of the children were reluctant to participate in a sewing activity. In order to engage them I opted to allow them to negotiate with me as to what they would do in order to demonstrate they can make decorative stitches and construction stitches.

They all jotted down three things they wanted to do. Most of them wanted to make mascots or toys. As these were such a similar concept I decided to allow them to make either one. Some kids wanted to make cushions and a couple wanted to personalise their hats. I couldn't see any reason why they couldn't but a quick trip up to the principal reassured us.

So with the direction of making something about A5 to A4 size (things that are too small are difficult to manipulate for this age group and I don't have enough in the budget to make life size toys!)with stitches for decoration and construction the kids set about brainstorming and sketching their ideas. The kids went home to search for fabric scraps from their folks to bring in to share.

From these sketches they had to create a plan and from the plan a pattern.

These had to be cut from fabric bought in from home ( mostly from my home ;) Luckily I needed to clear out some of my stash from home.- and some bought from the shop to supplement our stash) 

The kids are also learning to use the irons to smooth their fabric for cutting and sewing, and about the safety issues that go with them.

 Then the fun began! The patterns had to be pinned and cut making sure they had two pieces that were mirror image of each other so that they could be fitted together and stitched and stuffed. (Again maths overlaps with art!)

 So we are part way through our project so I will post some of the finished pieces.

"Mystery Mess" is a great game to play after a session like this because it is a very messy activity. Before the kids start to pack up I say "Today is a mystery mess." - sometimes for a faction card, sometimes for a prize. I pick an item that I can see that is out of place but I don't let the kids know what it is. The kids have to rush about looking for things that are out of place, putting them away as they go. When everything is neat and tidy I announce what I had my eye on and the person who attended to it gets the reward.

  

BEST game EVER!!!

looking and seeing...

Every now and then I do a structured lesson where I direct the children with their drawing. Today I used Mona Brookes's book "Drawing with Children". In this book Mona breaks everything you draw into 5 basic elements. Circles (empty closed round shapes), dots (coloured round closed shapes) straight lines, curved lines and angled lines. To start the lesson we all looked at an object and considered what lines and shapes we would need to create a drawing of the object- surprisingly we ended up with the same kind of things that Mona would have suggested! ;)

From there we followed step by step instructions to draw a lion. We talked about how even though we would all be following the same instructions our final products might be quite different.

We also talked about how it is ok to make a mistake and this is not wrong but an opportunity to be a bit more creative to solve the problem of making a line that is not quite the way we want it to work for us in our art work.

Once the kids finished following my instructions they went on a "studio walk" to have a look at everyone else's work and see how they interpreted the instructions and solved any problems they had.

After the studio walk we thought about places we may find a lion and the kids were then able to create the rest of their art work from their own imaginations adding any other details they might need to make their drawings work.

They were given the freedom to select from a number of choices when it came to adding colour. So although we started with a lesson that was highly structured  listen and follow instructions it ended allowing children to explore ideas and medium independently in an unstructured way.

Printing with Picasso

At the end of last term I introduced the kids to Picasso following a long weekend trip to Sydney to visit the NSW art gallery and the Picasso exhibition. (I was disappointed to find that while I was in Europe last year the Picasso Museum in Paris was closed for renovation- only to find that some of the collection had travelled to Australia while I was in France! So I just had to go and see it in Sydney.) I bought several books for kids while I was at the art gallery several of them focused on Picasso. They were fantastic picture books suitable for introducing this significant modern artist to the children from year one to seven.

For the older children I used a book called 'Just Behave Pablo Picasso'by Jonah Winter and another called Picasso and Minou. Both books introduce children to the life of Pablo Picasso and his personality in a readily accessible way in a fun enjoyable story picture book fashion.

With the children in rooms 19 and 20 (yr 4/5) I looked at some really simple line drawings of strange faces that Picasso had drawn. I used a book of step by step draw like Picasso for the kids to follow then they had a go at creating some of their own. From those we used the patterns and lines to create potato prints to decorate the surface of a piece of fabric.
 
The children in Rooms 2 and 3 (years 5-7) created collograph prints based on Picasso's cubist portraits these were then printed on paper and then fabric. These prints have been the basis of a textile project for these classes.

I made up sewing boxes for each group. Each box had a little pin cushion with a needle for each child each needle had to be returned at the end of each lesson before they could leave the studio - I don't think we lost a single needle!!  There were also sets of sewing cards that I had made up showing a variety of embroidery stitches. The children had time to practice and experiment with these stitches on scrap fabric before venturing on to the embellishment of their printed fabric. Most of the children had sewn before in previous years when they made their pencil cases. So apart from a bit of a refresher on knot tying and needle threading techniques the kids were off.
 
 I rarely thread needles for kids or tie knots rather I demonstrate each step by step and tend to show a couple of ways for the kids to choose from. Having said that I do make sure that I buy needles with eyes that are of sufficient dimensions to make threading possible at each year level while still ensuring that they will go through the fabric easily so the sewing process is not too tedious. You can see the kids have been working very well with this project, even though it takes time and patience to learn the skill and get used to the fiddly threads.

Here's a tip for any other art teachers out there. The kids had difficulty pinning their fabric onto the front of their bags in order to sew it on so I used a few dabs of craft glue (not too much as it makes it difficult to sew through.) to keep the pockets on the front of their bags so they could sew them on more easily.