Hello 2018-2019 School Year!

We are about 2 1/2 weeks into the new school year and so far, things are going great! I started the year with a quick survey about students' ideal art experiences and even gave them a quiz about me, so they could get to know me better. I was happy that my returning students remembered my favorite type of art and that I love Harry Potter. I also added a few new things to the room and I'm really please with how they turned out.

This is my color wheel that my husband cut out of wood and I painted. He also made my pencil holder, which so far has been working to make sure pencils get returned. I also made a sign and passes for when students need to leave the room.

Another new addition is this painting. It's my "why." I participated in a discussion group with fellow art teachers over the summer and we all painted our "whys." The idea was to take why we are teaching and put it in kid friendly terms and then create an artwork out of it. I think it is great for my kids to see and also a great reminder for myself on those tough days.

And last, but not least, my favorite addition to the art room, my new betta fish, Sirius. He's named after my favorite Harry Potter character, Sirius Black.

Within in the first week of school, our principal arranged for Casey McQuillen to put on her You Matter Tour concert for the whole school. It was a great show with a great message. Here's a picture from Casey McQuillen. I'm on the left, 4th row in the green tank top.

I'm excited for the new year and the new art we are going to create! One last thing, I created and Instagram account for quick updates. Follow me at: mrslaplanteartclass

First Annual Art Night

This past Thursday was the First Annual Art Night. Every student in the school had at least one piece of artwork on display. All the art that was displayed was picked by the students. This way it allows the students to showcase the project they are most proud of.

Square 1 Art Projects

This year I took one of the projects and used it for Square 1 Art, which is a fundraiser that allows students and their families to buy items with their artwork on it.The nice thing about this fundraiser is even if the students do not purchase anything, they still get a sheet of sticker with their artwork on it. I'm trying to raise money to purchase a kiln for the school. 

Sixth grade students learned about Chuck Close and how he creates portraits and self-portraits out of smaller shapes/colors/designs. For their self-portraits I took a photo of them. They then traced all the lines of their photo to turn themselves into a line drawing. Next they traced their line drawing onto a new piece of paper and went over their pencil marks in Sharpie. Once they were done with that, students gridded out their paper into 1"x1" squares and filled in each square with 8-10 different shapes/designs. Lastly, they colored in their shapes/designs using two colors for each section, ie: hair, skin, background, clothes. Here's some pictures of students working on the self-portraits. We had to get creative because I only have a few light boxes!

Fifth grade students learned about John James Audubon and how he created hundreds of birds paintings from observation working to document the bird species of North America. Students chose an image of a bird like from a magazine to use as a reference photo. Students created a rough draft and then drew a final draft in pencil. After learning some techniques, students added color with oil pastels.

Fourth grade students learned about Op Art, which is art that creates the illusion of movement or hidden images. Students looked at some examples of different kinds of Op Art and used a step-by-step hand out to practice the different kinds of Op Art. Once they were comfortable, they started on their final drawing and used two colors to finish it.

Students in the Pathways class created artwork incorporating shape, line, and pattern. Students started by tracing shapes, then the added lines and patterns around the shapes. They emphasized their shapes by leaving them white and adding color to their lines and patterns.

Peer Mentoring Program

I have been working with our OT in one of the classes and she asked that I help her with a peer mentoring program in art. This was something she piloted last year and it was a great success. This year, the program has been going great! The 6th grade students who are mentors have been helping with modeling how to do the projects, modeling behavior, giving reminders, and lots more. I just wanted to share a picture of the Winter Tree Collages that both peer mentors and students made. We learned about what a collage is and also practiced our cutting skills.

First Projects of the Year

The first projects of the year are completed and they came out amazing!

The fourth grade students learned about artist Keith Haring and his distinctive style. We talked about about creating movement in art using figures and what it meant if an artwork is figurative. Here are some examples of the Keith Haring Inspired Figure Drawings.

The fifth grade students learned about artist Paul Klee and how he incorporated poems into his art. We looked at his painting, Once Emerged from the Gray of Night. We talked about how he used the lines of the letters to create new shapes and patterns in his artwork. He also used different colors to create the patterns. The students created their Math Patterns using a simple multiplication problem instead of a poem. They created patterns and shapes using the lines of the numbers and symbols.

The sixth grade students created Notans. Notan is a Japanese design term meaning light and dark. In the United States, we tend to use terms like contrast and positive and negative space instead. Students created artwork just from positive and negative space.

New Year, New School

The start of the 2017-2018 school year has been super busy for me. This year I started in a new school district, Belchertown, MA. I'm at Chestnut Hill Community School and I'm full time teaching grades 4, 5, and 6!

It was bittersweet cleaning out my old classrooms. I really did love Granby and was there since I student taught. However, I needed this change for me and my family. Setting up my new classroom has been fun, but challenging. I unfortunately have been doing it all on crutches. I badly sprained my ankle right before school started, so that's been interesting to deal with. My husband was also busy making/re-purposing things for my room.

Also with the change, I decided it would be a good time to reevaluate my class expectations. After reevaluating, I felt the need to change my expectations around rules and routines. So I started looking to see what other art teachers were doing. I really connected with what Cassie Stephens, one of my favorite art teacher bloggers, was doing in her art room, so I adopted her rules and tweaked them a tiny bit.

Just so everyone knows, this blog will be updated at least once a month with pictures, lessons, events, etc. I have updated my class expectations to reflect my new rules. I will be updating the event page for art related events in and out of the classroom as things come up. The projects page will be updated regularly. I will also be adding a "Sketchbook Challenge" page that will have the monthly challenge, the rubric, etc.

Here's some pictures of the room before the first day of school.