Using the Alphabet in Art

I'm not sure why, but I love incorporating lessons using the alphabet. One really cool project I did with my students was having them design positive and negative space using an alphabet that I found online. Here is my unfinished (as usual) example. As you can see my letters match the word. C is for camouflage, E for emphasis, F for form, and so on.

I'm sorry that I cannot give credit for the above alphabet, I did this project a while ago, before I started blogging. I have a scanned a blank copy and you can find it on my resource page. I also found the following really cool project after writing this blog and felt an update was needed. Check this out Collaborative collages. It is from a School Specialty blog.  And I just happened to have found a bunch of magazines in my mailbox the other day!

Since the subject of today's blog is using the alphabet in art, check out the cool birthday present from my daughter-

 I can't wait to hang it in my art room. My students are gonna love it!  I don't think my daughter realizes just how obsessed I am with the concept of using interesting photos as alphabet letters. I have been on the search for my own letters and have yet to complete an alphabet. She just knows that when we are out and about that I am always taking weird photographs. She found this shop BGIE (Best Gift Idea Ever) while on vacation in St. Augustine. Click on the name to connect to their site. Amazing!! They have over a dozen shops throughout the United States! And their new product, in some of the stores, is putting the letters on magnets. I am hoping to buy a set this week! I have been in touch with the manager at the St. Augustine shop.

They can be used in so many different ways! Centers? Drawing challenges? Inspiration? My mind is going into overload! I was eating pretzels yesterday and was playing and making letters with them! Think of all the fun my students can have making letters with recycled materials and photographing them with iPads. OH YEAH!! Technology in the art room!

Here are a few of the letter photos that I've taken over the last few years:

 

 

 

I'm planning on having some fun making and photographing letters along with my students to complete my alphabet. One concern I have about a few of my photos is that I know some of the places I took them have all these rules in place so that they can't be used without permission (in regard to profiting from the photo). Just something to keep in mind. It's fun looking around and finding the letters!

I know that doing a photography lesson along with the alphabet has been done before. Since my son, who decided to return to school about 2 years ago, did this photo montage as one of his class assignments. I found it interesting that he could use letters from signs as opposed to letters in nature or in architecture. Or from recycles..........

Photo credit: Peter Depp

I'm really excited to be getting ready for the new school year, being out on medical leave was NOT fun. Students return on August 15 and I have planned so many wonderful lessons!

LET THE ART ADVENTURES BEGIN!!

Thanks for reading! 

I would really love to hear about your lessons using the alphabet!

Practicing Craftsmanship

Sooooo I'm trying to get my head back in the game. I return to work in two weeks to a room that I have not really spent any time in since February, when I went out on medical leave. AND since the room has been used all summer for childcare...........

I won't actually be able to get into my room until after the first day back (floor needs to be done).......

There goes my tradition of getting in the room the week before with my husband to set up the furniture.........

There goes any hope of being ready for Thursday when students come in to visit as they get their back to school packets (not quite completely healed and need to take my time).........

On a brighter note?? I'm at another school one day a week due to the number of students we have...... Which is where I will be on the first day back. Now I gotta tell you I thought for sure I would be on a cart for one day. Kind of got excited for all the stuff I could blog about working off a cart! But low and behold I will share that room with Music (one a day a week) and PE (the other 3 days).

Soooo as I started to think about how to plan out that room I thought about the things I do that work. Last year for the first time I used the Mona Lisa to have students focus in on my lessons.

And I have to tell you that it worked like a charm. Students need a concrete example of your expectations and this poster really works. You should see students assuming the "pose". (For a blog post on other signs that I have click here.) So I purchased a poster to use at the other school.

Seeing how well this worked made me think about what other concepts I could get out there to my students. And it occurred to me how important craftsmanship is. So I ended up making another poster, like this one, to use at the other school.

I try hard to credit others when possible and my poster was inspired by this one- made by Eric Gibbons. He is also the one who along with other art teachers wrote the If Picasso books.

Which all comes from Firehouse Publishing. Click on the name to see their great selection of posters and books.

It's also nice to know that I inspire as well. I found this on Facebook last year when art teachers were showing off their rooms!

Sooooo getting back to the concept of craftsmanship I developed a work sheet to use with students at the beginning of the year.You can find it and print it out from my page of Resources, see the tab above.

I decided to create a number of worksheets to share with students this year. (Which I will eventually share). Part of it comes from my desire/willingness to show proof that I covered the standards. But another reason is that even though I have 50 minutes with students, the first 20 minutes the classroom teachers hold struggling children for intervention. So I'm thinking maybe the worksheets will work as a warmup for the others. We'll see.

Perhaps you'll could give me some feedback on this? Please and Thank you!

I'm excited to be returning, a little nervous since I'm still healing........ but seriously looking forward to it! I have some new lessons to try and some old lessons that I plan to update. You will read about them here, I promise!

AND the best part- my grandson will be with me again, as he returns to enter 1st grade!!

Thanks for reading and enjoy what's left of your summer!

Testing 101

I had the opportunity to be included in a workshop that analyzed the elementary End of the Course exams or E.O.C.'s. I was thrilled to be able to see the inner workings of this test. Last year my principal insisted that the team of specialists give the test even tho it wouldn't count, he wanted a base line. 5 out of 6 grade levels were in the green. Fourth grade was in the yellow. Here is my blog post from last year: E.O.C. Survivor. The art exams had the best overall scores. PE's weak link was that the older students needed to know about pool safety and since we don't have a pool the coaches never did any lessons on that topic. The test results for Music were very low and made our Music teacher seriously upset. We did not know until this year's results that the music test results were low throughout the district and had nothing to do with the teacher as much as it had to do with the test.

But because the Music test results were low and this year I became team leader we agreed to write tests for a mid year assessment.  Having no training in this, and no real knowledge on how to use the computer program to enter the test into, WAS crazy. I don't think any of us were happy with the scores from those tests.

And then I went out on medical leave........... So I was really concerned with how my students would do on the E.O.C.'s. 5 out of 6 grade levels were in the green. Fourth grade was in the yellow. Just like last year....... How is that possible when last year's 3rd graders passed and now that they are 4th graders they didn't do well? And last year's 4th graders who are now 5th graders were in the green???

Well, that is one reason there was a workshop to analyze the tests! And LEARNING what I did over the 2 days I sat with other elementary art teachers was incredible!

Okay, I signed a confidential agreement so I can't get into the questions on the exam, however I got  permission to share with you slides from the training that I had. Thank you Amanda!!

When you write a question with multiple choice answers the distractor is the answer that seems like it could be correct. Not necessarily the right answer but close enough to ring a bell in your head like you heard it before. More about this after few more slides.

 In other words in a multiple choice question, what was the break down of answers? Was there one answer that NO ONE picked??

Armed with this information we went though every question and the breakdown of all the answers.  We did our best to clarify the questions, adjust some answers and change out some photos. Hopefully next year's results will show some improvements. I thought what I learned during those two days was pretty amazing stuff! ALL useful for writing tests in the future. And along with the slide below I should "Master" this in no time!

How do you go about writing a test for the classes you teach? And while I would like to debate the logic for testing elementary students in art (there is none), it would be pointless, as it is here to stay.

Anyway......... Thanks for reading!!!!

Roll a Miró

I was able to return from medical leave the last student contact day of school. So in looking for something that would be fun and easy I came across this online. Here is the link: Once Upon an Art Room. Now the author of the blog, Chani, freely admits to not being able to find the original source for this and neither could I.

I was able to pair this game up with a poster of People and Dog in the Sun by Joan Miró.

I actually started off a discussion about the poster before telling students the title of it and was surprised how many children picked up on seeing a dog. Our discussion included the Elements of Art and because of the background texture students were given both markers and crayons to use.

Then I shared the following book with my classes. Click here for buying info. I actually found my copy on sale at a museum store in DC and was thrilled to tie it into a lesson.

I did this with all grade levels k-5.

 

 

Here are some examples of student work.

 

 

 

This would be an excellent lesson to leave for a substitute! It is also art cart friendly. But, I also wanted this to be kid friendly so I explained to my students that I was very flexible on how they used the directions. If they wanted to do it by themselves that was fine. If they didn't want to roll the dice and just wanted to pick their favorite shape that was fine. But no one was allowed to say "I don't know where to start".  Because all they had to do was roll the die.

Oh and as I read the above book to students, I noticed on the back the author also has written Draw with Pablo Picasso, click here for buying info. I ordered my book last week.

For another great sub lesson involving dice click here.

I was out on medical leave for 15 weeks. I still have healing to do and I don't always feel great. But I will say that sitting in my chair sharing an art lesson with my students just felt so perfect. Like I was exactly where I should be, doing what I love to do. I can hardly wait for fall! And since I'm staying home to heal this summer I have been busy planning! I hope to have some spectacular lessons to present to students and to share on my blog!

Thanks for reading!

Art, Art and More Art!

I have just returned from the most magnificent weekend ever! Here's the itinerary!

 I met and got to talk to Peter Max! YES, that Peter Max! There is currently an exhibit of his work at The Tampa Museum of Art, titled 50 Years of Cosmic Dreaming. The exhibit is sponsored by Park West Foundation, and The Tampa Times. I was able to attend this special event because a good friend of mine was invited as part of a VIP event held by Park West Gallery. My friend Kathy was invited because she enjoys investing in art. It started 3 years ago when we were together on a cruise and we decided to attend the art auction. Apparently depending on what you spend gets you invited on other cruises or weekends away. Who knew???

In addition to meeting Peter Max I met David Najar and David Lebo.

 

We arrived on Friday in time for breakfast AND the opportunity to hear the artist David Najar speak about his art and his inspiration. Najar is a former instructor of Krav Maga, Israeli Martial Arts. He is a soft spoken man with a sense of humor and paints as a way to heal and slow down his world (click above on his highlighted name to read more about him). Najar's paintings are landscapes, since he is inspired by nature, and after checking out his work I just had to have one! The photo on the left shows me with Najar and the work I purchased. It is a framed print titled Beyond the Trees. Unfortunately original paintings were priced out of my comfort zone. I did have the opportunity to speak with him and he told me he had the sense that I was involved in the arts. Chills, I tell you, chills! And then we agreed I need to get back to doing art.......... thank goodness summer is here!

 

Above are examples of Najar's work, I pulled from the internet.

I also had the pleasure of meeting the artist David Lebo. He gave a wonderful presentation of his work and how he thinks of himself as a visual storyteller. Wouldn't that be an amazing concept to share with students? Photos below show him telling the story of that particular painting. BTW check out his reflection to see his art on the back of his jacket! And you can click on his highlighted name, above, to read more about him!

    

Lebo was influenced and inspired by Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy, by artist Antonio Prohías, in addition to other comic books he read growing up. Lebo grew up in Miami and was doing outdoor murals when people asked if he had paintings for sale. Lebo would work on the murals by day and go home and paint at night, then sell the work out of his trunk! Lebo GOT himself out there AND GOT noticed and was commissioned to paint The Norwegian Getaway out of Miami. Let me just say, "WOW!" He is a very intelligent man with a love of history and science in addition to art. Lebo also has a very loving and supportive family that he spoke fondly of.

Peter Max was the first artist that I remember hanging up a poster of his work (I believe it was a centerfold from the Sunday paper) in my room as a teenager. So it was just amazing to be able to meet him. Because of his age and how popular he is we could not take a photo with him. However, they had a professional photographer take photos and I will get a copy in the mail. AND you just know that I WILL post it!!

If you look over the span of 50 years of art by Peter Max, in my opinion, you will see how it evolved from being a graphic commercial style art, the imagery of many of his earlier posters, to a bolder look of rainbows of color, more in style with fine arts or easel painting. Max's inspiration for his work comes from many different sources. Originally he wanted to become an astronomer and believes the universe was his greatest teacher.  He was ALSO commissioned to do The Norwegian Breakaway out of New York.

I'm not sure why the ship commissions impresses me so much- maybe it has to do with the level of recognition. Seriously, think about JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL SEE YOUR ART on the side of a cruise ship!!

Anyway, while at The Tampa Museum of Art, (I love that place) I just HAD to get Peter Max t-shirts!

Thank you Kathy for letting me share such a wonderful adventure with you!

Thanks for reading!