Finally..VIDEOS!

Hi everyone, 
This website hasn't been showing videos. Until it's fixed, I posted a movie of our puppet plays here:
http://vimeo.com/40277468


Enjoy! Nice work, everyone!

(SHADOW) puppets

Hi my name is Tanzania. In art class we made chinese puppets from china. first we had to cut out the person; then we had to put stuff on it; next we had cut out the arms and  go to the O/R so Ms.Briget can put the arms together.That is how you make a chinese shadow puppet.

Well, it looks like the "China" part of my introduction stuck! This group hasn't finished their puppets yet - I imagine once they get to use them behind  screen with lights, the "shadow" part will stand out more in their minds!

Apologies for missing video in the last post - Blogger is messed up and many people are having trouble with their videos. Check back soon, because the puppets shows are awesome!

mandala

My name is Ema and I just did a project that is called a "mandala". What you need to get is paper and paint. Then you cut the paper into an octagon. Then you put the paint on to the paper. Then you fold the paper eight times. Then you see what will happen. It will turn into a design. It's very simple to do. warning children under 3 can not use the paint.

Unseasonably hot, sunny days always make for difficult school days... by afterschool hours some of the kids are really exhausted and antsy. Add MCAS testing all week... yikes! Poor kids!  I had to throw in some shiny, messy, easy projects everyone could enjoy even if they walked in the door cranky or stressed out. We even had the lights out. I found this project here on YouTube, and showed the kids this video of Tibetan monks creating a sand mandala. It's never been so quiet in the art room! They really seemed captivated by that amazing process. I felt good about showing them how YouTube can be used for instructions, inspiration, and learning stuff - not just goats in trees and music videos.

P.S. I don't know where these age recommendations are coming from, but I love it.

"engraving"

     BY:NANCY PEREZ            3-15-12

The foil. It's sharp! We folded or taped the edges.

 Today in art  the 5th and 4th graders were engraving copper foil .It was really cool.What I had made was this person looking rite at the sky.At first I thought oh my god how am I going to do this?But by my side was ms.Bridget.And she really did help me a lot.She also taught us how to make the foil look really old.Like a old penny on the streets.We made it old by putting acrylic paint.To make the copper foil work you need to use a pencil or any sharp thing you want.Just make sure you don't press to hard or it mite go threw and will not work. Caution please be careful with the sharp ends kids under 6 can not use the copper foil.Anyways to days was really fun!I really like Art and i hope i could be just like Ms.Bridget.Thank you for reading my blog Nancy Perez out peace.

We put felt underneath, so we were able to push into the foil with pencils.

Pushing our design into the back of the foil, since we can't really carve into metal right now!

Painting over our artwork. We scrubbed most of it off once it was dry.

Meanwhile, 6 blocks away...

Artists at the Lee School began work on their own part of the neighborhood, on an identical base. We used a printed map from the web to split the area between the schools - students from all grades contribute. Some build houses out of cards, some used templates I made for triple-deckers, some were into creating the streets and land others would build on - and some have been adding details like road signs and street lights!

After another session of working on the miniature neighborhood, both schools will get to join their half with the other, at the family event next week!

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!

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.  

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...

Improvising at Lee: a-last-day-of-school anti-craft!

We unexpectedly had to work in a new space our last day before break. It was a classroom of desks with little space for supplies. Schedules were off because of a fabulous, gifty- celebration for the kids before they left on vacation - so printmaking was definitely out. Thankfully, the afterschool program had a bunch of "crafty" materials (pipecleaners, glitter glue, foam shapes, beads, buttons, wikistix) that were beautifully organized by artists a few weeks earlier. So I set up a "buffet" of as much stuff that could be used somehow for a hanging ornament. I am THRILLED that this group didn't bat an eyelash when I said, "use the materials however you want. See if you can have an idea no one else has had. If you want to, use a hole punch so that what you make can be hung up, on a tree, or a window, or whatever. Also, a starting point might be cutting a shape from this thick paper." I had a stash of "mirror sticker sheets" and created a bunch of sheets of cardstock with a shiny side for them to use. They made the coolest, strangest stuff. Again, a sign of success. 

I'm sure some of the parents were looking at these off the wall objects, wishing for a candy-cane shaped ornament or a snowman card. If so, I appreciate the patience. Please, when you see these things, or when kids have nothing at all to show from "art class" - it's because they are learning to be creative. They are learning to experiment, to problem solve, to be courageous, to focus, to think for themselves, to think "out of the box", to recognize and appreciate their uniqueness, to imagine, to deal with failure, and define success for themselves. They are learning to find joy in what they do, besides doing things for the approval of others. This program aims to nurture parts of a child's self that doesn't get much space to grow in a packed school day. 

                                                                                                                   I hope you will support our work, and your young artist, by asking them questions that show you are interested in them as a one-of-a-kind creative genius! What are they doing? What materials are they using? What's their favorite? Why? What do they find difficult? Having a quick conversation like that with a child can have a HUGE impact - I get to see that myself every week, and I hope you do too!

"Me" Posters at Lee

My name is Aria. I made a big poster in art. I drew a creative picture. You should sit with people you're comfortable that you don't fight with, to get more done and have fun doing your art.

It's been really cool to see  Lee students feel focused, inspired, and confident enough about their ideas to approach me after finishing and ask if they can do something artistic that has nothing to do with the project of the day. "Ms. Bridget, do you have any construction paper? Can I use a ruler? Is this a design?" I love it and it's a marker of success in my eyes.

 

The blue guy to the right illustrates another process-breakthrough. This artist was SO proud of his work. "Check your spelling there. 'Awesome" is a tricky one." (Lesson learned - when someone suggests you write your word on another piece of paper to copy from, she's talking from experience!) A typical exchange: "OH MAN.... what can I do?" "Work with it. This is where creativity saves the day." Just as proud as the first time around, the poster comes back with a higher-contrast color right over the blue mess up. Yes, you are awesome.

What great messages someone is offering these artists. "I am beautiful just the way I am, I love myself, I am Yo Soy Latino, I'm unique"...

Lee Kids work on their art journals...

The bloggers.

Today in art we decorated our notebooks and Ms. Brigit let us glue and paste our old work into our notebook as well and she let us bring them home to work on over the weekend and we had fun. -Antonio

Today I learned to just express myself in art by being myself and to not be anyone else and I also got to make my own bio. A bio is like when you learn about someone. - Nailah

 Everyone used the little squares of origami paper in unique ways! Success!

Checking out the goods for the "creative challenges" on the materials table.  

Jean is going to write about her concept for this self-portrait.

"Remember when I said I didn't like it? I just kept going and now I love it."

"Today we drew in the journals and had a good time. We all worked so hard on it. I hope you like our work we love what we all do. Sometimes we don't know what to do so we just draw. It's fun to do drawings of different kinds of things. I wish you can be here and see what we have." (Author, unknown)

Lee artists breakthrough with watercolors...

Hi my name is Luis and we were painting whatever we wanted on thick paper. Miss Bridget said don't draw but experience the paint like mixing the colors together to make new colors.

Hi my name is Antonio and today in art we painted whatever we want. I did a car and I cropped it down to a tiny picture. The way I was able to do it was from learning about composition last time. We did the artwork on thick paper for the paint. We had lots of fun in our class of art with Ms. Bridget!

Never under estimate the difference a space makes. I finally figured out a workable, comfortable set-up of the collection of tables and chairs in our room in the Lee School, cleaned up, bought some "fancy" colored rags, sponges, and magnets for drying/display... and we have a CD player (thanks Ms. Laurie!). Today we painted to Keith Jarrett. Students at both schools are digging that and remark on their own how much better art class is "now that we get focused".  Kids came a long way creatively,  in just 20 minutes - starting out with 8 versions of the same painting, to the last image in the video - two kids at the same table, with paintings that show entirely different styles. That's a big deal!  You also hear and see the deliberate choices artists made about either working alone or socially.  (In the first group, you could hear a pin drop for most of the session!) Lots of smiles, hugs, praise for each other's work, and high fives this week.  Can't wait for next week!