Remembering 9-11 Sims Park

OMG!! Tomorrow I am back to work. Gotta go back tomorrow, even though it is my birthday. A really BIG birthday........ SIX-O or 60! When did this happen???? I sit here shaking my head.......

It is all good! I LOVE my chosen career! I LOVE the people I work with AND I have a brand new art room!

Soooo in planning for the new school year, I have many ideas flying around in my head. According to the Art Teacher Facebook page many art teachers plan self portraits for the beginning of the school year and again at the end of the school year. It's a great way to see student progress. I LOVE THIS IDEA! And I actually got a box ready to do this at the end of last year. I even took the box home so it wouldn't get lost in the move.

However, I put an event on my phone for the first day of school: Peter Max Liberty 9/11. This was to remind me about the Memorial Service my school district does every year at a local park. They expect the art teachers to provide student work. Nothing crazy-fill up a poster board.

Here are most of them from years past-in no special order. I always provide a photo of the poster and the event information to each student.

 

 

 

  

As you can see from the variety, I have done something different each year. (The teardrops were from the same year.) Now let's take a good look at the posters. You will notice that with the exception of the "forget me not" flowers, that not many children participate in this project. To fulfill this request for art and only include a few students is tricky. Some years I have done the 9-11 lesson with just one class, but that always puts that class behind the others. It also hurts the feelings of the students I don't pick, sigh.....  Some years, like last year (see top photo) I picked my top artists in the 5th grade. They came in during my planning time and I inspired them with the following:

 I do realize that most of the art was expanding on a shape that I drew and they filled in. It can be debated that it isn't completely original student work. I get that. It is quick AND at that point, at the very beginning of the school year-it NEEDS to be QUICK.

Okay-so here's what I looking at this year. I will see students for two 50 minute classes before I need to send out work for 9-11. (And we all know the first class is all about rules and seating charts.) I REALLY, REALLY want to start the year off with self-portraits. However, my plan this year is to go deep NOT wide. In other words really explore a few themes deeply, not rush through lots and lots of themes.

Soooo we will start out by doing portraits of The Statue of Liberty!  AND since I want to introduce them to the art of Peter Max, I will use photos like the one below that I can grab off the internet. I want to go into a little history and use words like patriotic and symbolism. I think I also want to corrode some copper pennies in front of them......

Anyway, I knew both Peter Max and Romero Britto have done Lady Liberty art. I saw beautiful examples on my last cruise. For further inspiration I Googled: Statue of Liberty art lesson plans and then clicked on images. There is a lot to choose from. Check out this link for step by step directions from Art Projects for Kids.

In addition to Lady Liberty, we will explore other portraits to see what we can learn about the person posing. We will study our facial features and practice drawing them in sketchbooks that I plan to have for them.  Still working out the details. Students don't start until the 24th. I have time?!?

So it remains to be seen what I will be able to do. I will certainly blog about it!

Thanks for reading!