Rubrics

Rubrics are a very important aspect of any class because they show the student what is expected of them and if they met the expectations.  Rubrics also give others insight as to what you are doing in your classroom.

My 1st through 3rd graders know they have certain things I am looking for in every project that they do.  For the Kindergarten and 1st graders I am looking that they complete the project, That they complete it neatly, that they don't copy and are creative, and that they clean up when they are done their work for the day.  I looked at many rubrics online before deciding on these.  I think that for this young age group the happy face and images are relatable and very clear for them.  

As you can see the 2nd and 3rd graders have more details in what is expected of them but they still have the smiley faces (or not so smiley faces) to depict how they did on each category.  

I wanted to make sure it was very clear to the students what was expected of them because that is only fair so I drew up a chart showing what kind of work each smiley face stands for. 

Our Masterpieces

It's the first week of school and I was already starting to accumulate a pile of beautiful drawings from the students.  I started to think of what I could do with all of these drawings that would allow others to appreciate them aside from just me.     I decided to find a special place to showcase these drawings.  I got to work that day on a huge Picture frame.   I hung it in the hallway and it reached from the floor to the ceiling and hung the few pictures I had so far on it.  My idea is for the students to be able to bring in and hang up their own artwork in the picture frame and fill it in until it forms one huge Masterpiece created by the students of School No.  2  

I will keep you updated as the frame starts to get filled up- I am looking forward to it!

Aargh Matey!

As summer approached, I wanted to do a themed lesson, but not the typical fish or beach scene So I decided to do PIRATES with my first graders!!  We read two different pirate stories.  We talked about how Pirates' lives are different than our own lives. The first graders all thought it sounded like the Pirates had a lot of fun!  

We talked about all the different things the Pirates were wearing; eye patches, hooks, bandanas etc.  The students went back to their desks to begin drawing their Pirates.  While the students were working on their pirates (No Stick figures!!!) I called students up to the painting table to do their water.  Students painted their entire paper blue, and then took a plastic fork and scraped in wave designs, this created nice movement in the background.    

 

"The Scream"

For my third graders, I wanted to do a lesson using the shaving cream marbling effect. Yes, Shaving Cream in Art!  When I came across a transparency of Edvard Munch's "The Scream"  a lightbulb went off!  The swirls in the sky are perfect for the shaving cream marbling!

The students loved all of the lines in the painting and really wanted to know what the man was looking at that made him so scared.  I asked them how they knew he was scared and not happy or sad or nervous.  The students and I talked about Expressionism and then I had them write a Descriptive paragraph about what they think the man saw.  I challenged them to use as many adjectives or "describing words" as possible- This is important because they will later be making these creatures out of model magic.  The goal is for the students to make the other half of this picture.    

The next step was the Shaving Cream Marbling because this will be their background.  This is a great technique that can be incorporated into all different projects.  What you need is 

- Acrylic Paint (I use the little tubes of acrylic craft paint from AC Moore- Can usually be found on a good sale!) 

-Shaving Cream 

-Cardboard box lids.. ideally one for each student 

- Pieces of cardboard cut up into squares 

-Sink/Paper Towels for clean up

-Smocks

- Plastic Knives

-Plastic Forks

I did not have enough supplies for each student to do this at their desk, plus I like to contain the chaos/mess to one controlled area.  While the students were doing their writing I called up four students at a time where I assisted them with their Shaving Cream.  

1- Write name on paper

2- Flip over and lay flat inside cardboard box lid 

3- Squirt out shaving cream and smooth flat with the knife, almost like icing a cake

4- Squirt chosen colors of paint I remind the students that they do not want Mud, so they need to plan their colors.  They do sky colors near the top and water colors near the bottom.  

5- With the forks or knives, swirl the paint and shaving cream making designs and patterns.

6- With the Cardboard squares, Wipe off all of the shaving cream, The shaving cream should come off, but the Paint should be left on the paper in the swirly designs that were made with the fork.  

Next, the students began to make their creatures out of model magic.  We talked about how to mix the colors to make new colors and how to roll or cut the clay to make different shapes.  The students loved doing this!  

Color Wheel Flowers

 
It was time for The third graders to learn about Color Theory.  Instead of just making a typical circular color wheel, I wanted the students to make a Color wheel that would turn into a beautiful picture.  So we went with Flowers!

Color Mixing Quiz