Last of the Portraits, Supersized at Holmes..

Hello! My name is Shanyce and i'm James! Today we finished our self portrait.Then we traced our portraits on plastic paper with dry erase markers.Finally we put it on the projector and enlarged it. When we are done,we are going to cut them out and put them with the Lee school. Then we will make a big mural. Good bye

merle and taria

Hi my name is merle and my name is taria. we learned how to draw and copy it on a  piece of  plastic paper. Also we were using dry erase markers. Today was a super  day in art class. we  had a fun time today and  we were working together and sharing all the markers with everyone else. Me and taria were thinking should   we do  a hard picture that we can't  remember how to do it. but we had a great time in art class. good bye!

ps.we are going to put our drawings together with the Lee school.Its going to be fun.

Self-Portraits for a collaborative Mural!

Overcoming the BLANK PAGE...

Today we worked on drawing a little bit about ourselves so the kids at the Holmes School can know more about us. Maybe we can make some friends with the Holmes School kids. The kids at the Holmes School are doing the same thing. So we get to know them, and they get to know us. It's fun doing this. - Diana

Today in art we did drawings of things that we want to, or a face portrait. We also got a chance to take our clay pots home. I was so happy that we could take our things home. - Antonio

These artists are SERIOUS!

I suggested to the artists that we can use art to connect to kids at the "other" school, so maybe new friendships or just knowing more people in the neighborhood would make for a more peaceful community. We are going to swap photographic self-portraits, to pair kids up. We'll send our "art buddy" a note of positive feedback about their portrait, and try to find them using their picture at a family event for both schools in March. The self-portrait drawings we did today, if all goes well, will be blown up using a projector onto a large mural, putting kids artwork from both schools side-by-side. That part is kind of abstract, even with a sketch of what the final product could look like - I think once we trace a few onto the big paper, it will make more sense. For today, they just enjoyed drawing!

Hi my name is Nytejiah.kemar.
I am 7.8. years old.
Today we learned about how to make stuff with clay. I liked that it was creative and relaxing. I had so much fun playing with clay.and we have so much fun.we get to decorate it and we made anything but not nasty stuff its sooooooooooooo soft in6 days it will be soooooooooooooo hard in 6 days.from nytejiah.kemar.again we had sooooo much fun.  the end.

Clay Pots at Lee

Hi my name is Tanzania and I am 8 years old. Today all of us gathered around and looked at pictures on Ms.Bridges lap top. Then we made terracotta clay in different ways, like make beds, cups, cupcakes, boxes and flowers. We also put our initials on our terra-cotta clay. We had tools to decorate our clay.  

CLAY at Holmes

Good evening everybody Tequawn and I are learning how to  make bowls with clay. well this particular clay is not ordinary.  this clay is  $50 dollars so you have to take care of this clay. It's red.  but let me talk about the clay. It's very squeezey.  So what I did is stick my thumb in the middle and I squeezed it and mushed it out like it’s a bowl and I put my two hands in the water, soaked it up and I rubbed it out a little and I liked essed it out you know what I mean…so um.. Ms.Briget started bringing these kind of things  that were use in a game so I asked her are you sure? These things will get messed up with the clay and get all over the place! So I made a bowl and so have a good night now. I hope you enjoyed my part now it's going to be Tequawn's turn. Here you go Tequawn.

Yeah good evening everybody me and Devina were making bowls with clay. To make the bowl you make it in to a ball in then push a hole in it in then you mush it into a bowl and good by everybody.

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My name is Taria and I am in 3rd grade.I am 9 years old.My group is the almighty sharks and we are almighty.Today we used clay and we mostly made pots.First you have to knead it and add water to make it softer.Then you make it into a shape and just create. What makes clay easier than drawing with a marker or pencil is that when you mess up you can just start over with it again.

Artists used metal stamps to press their initials into their vessels.

...and here's video of our youngest group exploring the clay. I hope it inspires you to let kids finish sharing their thoughts, even when it takes a while!

Abstract @ Lee

Group 1 Thursday...

Hello my name is Amani Sumpter and i am 11 year old and Im Sharline Beechman and Im 11 years old and today in art we did abstract art with oil pastels. Today Amani use tape to smudge the pastel. And 

Sharline used the same thing with oil pastel but i did squares, circles and other random shapes. 

That was all. Thank you for reading this blog by Amani Sumpter and Sharline Beechman. 

Group 2 Thursday...

Hi my name is  Shalysha and i'm 11 years old and today in art we used oil pastels and we all used are minds and tried to be creative and what that got us to was great! i had to rub the oil pastels on the plastic and when were done we put the paper under it to have our artwork pop out. This day was fun. I liked it!

(Shalysha was one of the stars in the Marker Song video)

I'm elated to say we have a REAL art room to use for our program now at Lee Elementary! Nice tables with only two kids side by side at each means plenty of room and a lot more focus than was possible in our last room. We are so lucky!  And the new, clear behavior agreements continue to work wonders. I see CLAY in our future...

Back at Holmes...

Hi my name is Mason Lawson and I am with the All Mighty Sharks and Ms.Bridget doing a paper of abstract work. Abstract art is art that is all shapes and lines. Abstract was hard for me because you have to try to not think of any thing. A strategy, try to clear your mind and have shapes already in your head or just draw. To draw we used oil pastels. We wrote on shiney black paper.

A New Day At Holmes

A new year has begun, and we are enjoying a fresh start at both schools with a fine-tuned class management strategy. In order to give kids a time and place to really relax and enjoy themselves, WITH sometimes-messy art materials, in a BORROWED room... we needed more structure. After spending my  time off studying up on this stuff, I am happy to report that the kids are responding amazingly to a new, clear set of procedures for everything from entering the room to giving feedback on artwork. We also have tightened up our system of consequences for going against one of the five agreements (picture to come). It felt a bit rigid at first, but the experts were right! Kids excel when then know exactly what to do, when. In afterschool programs in particular, balancing structure and consistency with creativity and expending energy is really important for a worthwhile program. 

The video (and the fantastically creative and sophisticated artwork) says it all. Even I almost couldn't believe how quiet and intensely these first graders were working!

After looking at some slides of abstract artwork made with oil pastels, we made our own. I don't direct students toward emulating any particular famous artist - it's not a very diverse group of "chosen ones", and who knows whose work will resonate with any given kid? So I just grabbed about 20 images off a google search, to be sure some "random" work was there, too. Obviously, younger kids have less trouble with abstraction. They could even see much more easily how overlapping shapes create new shapes - kids just a few years older had a lot more trouble with this. Their shapes were more limited (some found it impossible not to draw hearts/starts) and the artists needed more instruction on how to get their work to look "different". All this younger group got was "Start out by drawing some shapes with lines. Maybe the same shape, maybe all different ones. Maybe shapes with straight lines or maybe curvy shapes. Try to overlap them so they make more shapes you can color in, if you liked that look. Invent your own way to make abstract art!" Each table had four very different approaches to their artwork! Awesome!

 
They are using oil pastel on black cardstock with a leathery-plastic finish (intended for use as back covers on spiral-bound booklets).



 

And here is the same young group doing their first "critique."