Smart Museum

First of all, I wanted to pass along…I bumped into a great physics/drawing program called Phun. It can eb found on my download page.

Now…on with the show. The 3rd graders were drawing still-life’s this week. The still-life’s are going to be used to make prints from. In preparation to draw the still-life’s, Mr. Brown and I talked about background, middleground, foreground, and overlapping. The prints they eventually make from these drawings are going to be part of a fund raiser for the school. Mr. Brown and I are going to be selling art at the St. Thomas Art Fair on Saturday, June 7th.

The 4th graders are done with their self-portraits. I needed to pick two of the portraits to be displayed at the Art Institute over the summer and I chose to the two works above. Ms. Holzhauer and I are hosting a field trip to the Art Institute where we will be looking about other portraits and self-portraits. Also, we plan on looking at how artists use light and shadow in their paintings.

The 5th graders had their final event for the SmART Explorers project this past week.  Thank you to all the students, parents, and family members who attended. Now, we are doing some paintings on small pieces of canvas. The students either have to paint a Chicago or summer scene and they have to use at least two mixed colors. These paintings will also be sold at the St. Thomas Art Fair.

Finally, the 6th graders are still working on their graffiti tags. We have begun to do some airbrushing, so I plan to have all the students use it before we are done with this project. One thing I have been happy about with this project is the new sense of aesthetic I have seen from many of my students. Instead of just sticking with one design, many of them are making the choice to start over or paint something a different way because it did not look right the first. This is one of the first steps to being a very good artist and learning to make artistic decisions on their own without always asking the teacher, “Is this good?”

Until next week.

Let’s get right to it…

The 3rd graders took a trip to the Hyde Park Art Center this week to do some ink painting as part of the Art in Focus project. Next week, they will have their final trip to the museum before we eventually have a final event for both classes.

The 4th graders are still working on their self-portraits. Students that have finished their self-portrait are drawing portraits of their classmates to further practice drawing faces in correct proportion. As a class, we will be finishing these up before the midterms.

The 5th graders took their 3rd trip to the Smart Museum this week. Now, the students have to really apply their knowledge. They needed to pick one artwork in the museum and then describe it, interpret it, and put it into context. The writing will be used as the basis for their presentations that they will be practicing at the museum next week. Both classes will have a final event at the museum very soon. Mr. Bynum’s class will have their event on Tuesday, May 13th at 6:30 while Mr. Rowell’s class will be going at the same time, but on Wednesday, May 14th. I hope to see a lot of students and parents at this event!

The 6th graders finished up their monochromatic portraits this week. They are currently hanging in the hallway near the art room. I think they look great displayed together and it will give the students a chance to step away from their work to see how it looks. We are now in the middle of a graffiti project. The students have painted brick walls on cardboard and foam core to use as the background for their graffiti piece. They needed to choose a nickname for themselves and then paint it in a unique style. Soon, I will give the students a chance to use a airbrush on their piece.

Also, for the 6th grade students working on Scratch with me, I wanted to make sure they know the upcoming schedule for the project. I encourage all of the students to work on this project at home as much possible over the next week. On Friday, we will spend the entire reading period working on Scratch. Before that class, I will be looking at each project individually to see where you each student might need help and what they should try to accomplish in order to have a finished project. I realize that the students have been working at very different paces (some are still trying to figure out how to show the story while others are deep into the game play of their animation), but regardless of where they might be at this point, each student should be prepared to finish something. A final due date will be given on Friday.

Until next week…

I wanted to begin today by talking about the Scratch project Mr. Brookins writing/reading class is working on. Last week, the students wrote narrative and drew storyboards in preparation for animating their stories on a program called Scratch. Scratch is a programming language that could be seen as an “introduction” into the world of computer programming. It has an interface and language that is easier for a student to understand than what some might consider “normal” programming, but it provides students with a great way of understanding how to program. It requires them to problem solve and logically think about how their story is going to look on the screen. It is a tough program to really get a hang of, but I have a lot of confidence in their ability to produce some great work.

With everything else, we do not have many updates, so I will keep this brief. The 3rd graders continue to dive deeper into the Art in Focus program. Each class has now gone to the Smart Museum twice and they will both be going to the Hyde Park Art Center next week. Above, you will see some pictures from Ms. Burkhardt’s class trip to the museum this week. We are expanding their visual language (line, shape, space, non-representational…) by studying these words through activities, discussing the words while looking at artwork at the museum, and visiting the SmARTKids web site.

The 4th graders are continuing with their self-portraits. We continue to hit bumps in the road and feel frustrations, but the students who have put the most effort and concentration into their drawings have done the best job…regardless of their artistic talent. I hope they all know they are capable of success, but they really need to not only believe that they can do it, but they also put forth their best effort.

The 5th graders took a trip to the Hyde Park Art Center this week to create an ink drawing as a part of the Smart Explorers program this week. The trip to the Hyde Pak Art Center is different from past years, so I was happy the students had a chance to try out that medium. Above, you will see some pictures from those two trips. We will continue with the Smart Museum trips next week. Also, we are working on a project in class dealing with the concept of context…not an easy thing to understand…

The 6th graders are just about to finish their monochromatic portraits. They will be hanging up very soon. This week, we began a graffiti project. The students are choosing a nickname for themselves that they will be painting in a graffiti style. With this project, they will also be using an airbrush to add small details to their final pieces. Also, check out the above pictures of the mosaic…we are getting closer.

Until next week…

Not a ton of true updates this week, since we are continuing with a lot of the same projects, so I will keep this short.

The 3rd graders are continuing to expand their visual language through class with myself and Mr. Brown plus their trips to the Smart Museum. Mr. Brown and I have found everything to be moving along quite nicely at this point…

The 4th graders are in the middle of creating their self-portraits. We are certainly hitting some frustrating points with drawing, but I want the kids to know that they can not learn to draw over night. It takes practice, persistence, and the ability to activate their right brain (the visual part of their brain).

The 5th graders have made their second trip to the Smart Museum and we continue to work towards the presentations they will be giving in the middle of May at the museum. Above, you will see some pictures from their trip this past week. Next week, they will be going to the Hyde Park Art Center for some art making as part of the Smart Explorers program.

The 6th graders are continuing to make progress on the mosaic. I was very happy to see some parents this week checking out during parent/teacher conferences. Also, the students are about to finish their monochromatic portraits before starting a project centered on graffiti.

Also, I am working with Mr. Brookins starting this coming week to begin using a program called Scratch. From their site:

Scratch is s a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

The students have been writing creative narratives this week that will become interactive stories with a game component on Scratch. They are working on storyboards this weekend in preparation for our first day with the program on Tuesday.

Until next week…

First thing…I added some new programs to my download page. Blender is a 3D animation program and Pencil is a 2D animation program. They are both open source programs which means that they are free for personal use. Check them out…

Above, you will see some of the 3rd graders during their first trip to the Smart Museum as part of the Art in Focus project. After spending time with Mr. Brown and I learning about many visual language terms, they got a chance to show off their knowledge and learn even more from the docents at the Smart. Abstract and representational art were some of the terms we focused on this week while next week we will be working with the elements of art like line and shape. We want the students to be able to look at a piece of artwork and be able to talk about it intelligently and have an informed opinion.

The 4th graders began working on their self-portraits this week. While we struggled some with creating the grid, we had some great discussions about using your right brain to draw. While your right brain is the verbal part of our brain, the left brain controls how we see things and, essentially, is the artistic part of our brain. We have talked about being quiet during an activity like this because you want your right brain to do all the work. I expect there to be some frustration while creating these self-portraits but mistakes will happen. Like any other skill, it takes practice to get better. Drawing is one of those skills.

Above, you will see pictures from the 5th graders first trip to the Smart Museum as part of the Smart Explorers progra. (Yes…I practically lived there this week.) Since many of the students were part of the Art in Focus program two years ago, they were familiar with the museum, but reviewing never hurts. Like the 3rd graders, they have been enhancing their visual language and learning how to talk about art with intelligence. They spent time at the museum looking at the labels next to the artwork to learn what everything written on those labels actually means. Also, the museum has a video installation called Adaptations that was about to end that the students were able to view this week. Looking at video artwork is very different than looking at paintings and sculpture, so it was interesting to see how they responded to it.

As you can see above, the mosaic is coming along. Mirtes will be visiting the school four more times over the coming weeks to finish off the work. It is amazing to see how much progress they have made in what amounts to about three days of work. Now, that they know what to do, they are making even greater strides over each successive class period. Also, we are almost done with the monochromatic paintings. After finishing them up over the next few weeks, we will be starting a graffiti project.

Until next week….

With spring break ending, my list of projects has risen and my list of “to-do’s” has risen, so let’s get right to it.

Mr. Graves class took their first trip to the Smart Museum today and Ms. Burkhardt’s class will have their first trip next Thursday. Everything Mr. Brown and I do with the students over the next month or so will be focused on the Art in Focus program through the Smart Museum. Above, you will see some of the students working on an abstract artwork in preparation for their first visit. The point of this program is to increase the student’s visual vocabulary. Some of the words we have looked at recently include two-dimensional, three-dimensional, representational, abstract, and non-objective.

The 4th graders had one last activity related to their global warming videos. We watched them in class as a group to get different reactions….from the people who made them and from the people who were watching it for the first time. As we discussed, when you finish something and look at it again, it is normal to think that you could have changed something. Yes, it was turned in for a grade. And yes, we will not be working on it again in class, but it never hurts to think, “I wish we would have….” That is how we build are creativity. Also, we began a project drawing self-portraits. We talkd about self-portraits and how you can convey different personality traits through one picture. So, our first order of business this week was to take some pictures. You can see a few of them above. Next week, we will begin the drawing…

The 5th graders are preparing for their trip to the Smart Museum next week as part of the Smart Explorers program. This week, we talked about what a curator does. Each student created an artwork of their choosing and then we hung them on the wall. We talked about how it is the job of the curator to decide how to organize the artwork. It could be by artist, time period, material, or subject matter. All of the projects we do over the next month will be related to the student’s writing about an artwork at the museum and giving a presentation on that artwork to their family and friends.

Finally, the 6th graders are moving along creating the mosaic and monochromatic portraits. Above, you will see some of the students working on both of these projects. Not much to say other than these projects are going as planned and I am excited to see the results.

Until next week…

A few weeks, I didn’t have much to discuss…today, it is the exact opposite. First, I wanted to pass along a couple interesting articles that talk about the importance of technology in K-12 curriculum. I know it is easy for the computer teacher to notice the “importance” of his subject, but even if I was not responsible for the technological education of Murray students, I would still be screaming from the rooftops that computer literacy needs to be part of any good curriculum. Anyway, here is a link to an blog post about the urgency for computer literacy for teachers. And, here is a link supporting the learning of computer programming in a technology program.

Also, I wanted to mention that we are in the middle of updating the Spanish Flash Cards on the Murray web site. A student from the University of Chicago has been putting in a lot of effort to not only update the Murray site, but to make the Spanish Flash Cards a great addition to the site. Please, check them out! Thanks Chelsea!

Now…on to fine arts. The 3rd graders are preparing for their first trip to the Smart Museum as part of the Art in Focus program. One of the main goals of this program is to increase the student’s use of visual language. In other words, we want the students to learn how to correctly talk about art. Above, Mr. Brown and I worked on an activity with the students utilizing two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. I have a couple examples above. We want the students to learn that different types of artwork have different names. I’m often surprised how students refer to sculptures as “paintings”. This activity was used to help students understand the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional artwork. We also filled out surveys that will be given to the folks at the Smart Museum before our first trip.

The 4th graders worked on a short activity this week. Mr. Brown and I are hosting a student teacher in the fall, so she has been getting her feet wet at Murray recently. She taught a short two day lesson this week to 203 that I duplicated with 207. We read the book The Adventures of a Nose to the students. It is a story about a nose that feels out of place, but all of the illustrations in the book use the background to create a face so the nose looks like it really does fit in. The students had to choose a place that they felt comfortable in, and then, they needed to create a face using the things they would find in that place. For instance, a lot of students use their home and used the windows and doors as the eyes, nose, and mouth. They created these pictures using oil pastels.

The 5th graders began preparing for their first trip to the Smart Museum this week as past of the Smart Explorers program. This program also focuses on visual language, but it is more advanced. Everything we do will be directed toward a final presentation the students will do at the Smart Museum. They will all have to describe a piece of artwork to an audience of their friends and family. They will be doing a lot of the preparation for this with Mr. Rowell. In art, we will focusing more on learning the terminology. Our first activity will be centered learning what a curator is and what they do. All of the students are making an artwork of their choosing that we will be using to “curate” different types of exhibitions.

The 6th graders…are busy. First, I am looking forward to videotaping Motown Madness tonight. I will be putting pictures up here on Monday.  the students have started working on their class mosaic this week. I have pulled some students out of class this week, and will continue to pull kids out over the next month. Above, you will see the students already putting it together. This project is VERY cool…I can not stress that enough. When this gets installed over the summer, it is going to be a great piece of artwork the students can always look back on…because it will be permanent! I’m very excited for them. While we are doing this, the students are working on another project. We are creating monochromatic portraits. This is one of my favorite projects all year long because it involves so many different artistic processes. One of the classes has begun to paint them, while the other class is just about ready to trace the areas of their face. I’m looking forward to putting these up in the hallway.

One last thing…we just got some new computers in the language lab, so it will hopefully be FULLY operational next week…whew…that’s enough for now…until next week…

Let’s get right into it, and then enjoy the break…

The 3rd graders finished up creating their biomorphic sculptures. The students really amazed me with their results. Just by looking at them, I think it looks like much older students created these sculptures. Thanks Mr. Brown for suggesting this project!

Download Anthony, Devonte, Michael H, and Stokely

Thanks to everyone who attended the screening of the global warming public service announcements last night at the Hyde Park Art Center. Our 4th graders were very excited about this showing and I think there creativity and hard work showed. This was certainly a long journey for them. We started this project way back in January by looking at how global warming happens and how it impacts the Earth. Then, the students worked in groups to come up with an idea, script, and storyboard for their global warming public service announcement. Then, they needed to plan, make props, and practice their commercial. Finally, they needed to record and edit the finished videos. They had to use multiple skills and work together as a group. The thing that impressed me the most were the discussions the students had with each other when they were deciding what to do and how to do it. They really had to develop a way to solve their problems and come up with a decision that everyone agreed on. Ms. Walsh and I made a big deal about the brainstorming portion of this project and I was glad that so many students took it seriously. To see ALL of the videos, check them out here.

The 5th graders finished up a short activity based on the artwork of Andy Warhol. The students were photographed in goofy poses and then they colored them in the same way Warhol colored in his famous portraits of Marilyn Monroe or Mao Zedong.  When we return from the break, we will begin Smart Explorers which has been part of the fine arts curriculum for many year. It includes writing, fine arts, and multiple visits to the Smart Museum. Please sign and return the field trip form for this project.

The 6th graders began working on their monochromatic portraits this week.I will talk about this after the break. Also, the students will begin putting together the mosaic with Mirtes. This project will require the students to be taken out of their other classes during the school day, so I urge you to read the following letter that should be finding its way home after the break.

Finally, I just wanted to mention the programs I have linked to this blog. If you go here, I have listed a bunch of free (mostly) art programs that your child can use at home. I’ve worked with all of these, so I’m not listing them just to list them.

Enjoy the break!

First of all, I wanted to say I had a great time with the 5th and 6th graders at Exchange City this past Monday. I know the students learned a lot from their experience there, and it was great to see the students rise to the occasion when real world problems were presented to them. I’m looking forward to continuing this program next year.

Also, the 3rd graders began their trips to the Smart Museum for the Art in Focus program this week. I went with Mr. Brookins class and Ms. Ziegler will be going with Mr. Graves class. They will be visiting a total of 3 times over the next few weeks while they learn about various art principles.

Next, the 5th graders started a project today making public service announcements. I’m very excited about this project because it really pushes the students to think and learn the different programs in the computer lab. I’m looking forward to putting the finished products on the blog.

Finally, Ms. Lager has finished her second week at student teaching and she is really getting the hang of it. She is still in the middle of different types of printmaking with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. And, she is working with the 3rd graders on these great “junk” sculptures.

Until next week…

We had a very successful final events for both Mr. Brown’s class and Mr. Bynum’s class this past week. Thank you to all of the family members that were able to make it, and thank you our students who did such a great job with such a difficult assignment. I have included a couple pictures above of both events. Mr. Brown’s class still needs to turn in their accordion book stories to me on Monday if they have not done so already or it will be marked late.

In the weeks leading up until the winter break, the third grade students will be finishing up their community murals. They will soon be hanging up in the new wing. They will also be working with watercolors. The fourth grade students will be working with the principle of inspiration, and creating their own designs based on patterns and pictures they cut out. I will have their high contrast pictures hanging up very soon. The fifth grade students will be working with a great 3D modeling program called Google SketchUp which can be downloaded from my downloads page for free. Finally, the sixth grade students just started one of my favorite projects. They are creating monochromatic portraits. As I have told the students, these portraits are part of a process. In other words, they need to do many different activities correctly in order to get the desired outcome. They really look fabulous when they are finished, so I’m happy we have started this project.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving break!

I’m looking forward to the SmartExplorers final events over the next two nights. Mr. Bynum’s class will be giving their presentations tonight from 6:30 to 8, and Mr. Brown’s class will give their presentations at the same time tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed being part of this program over the past three years, and the final event is a fun night. The students get nervous having to present in front of their friends and family, but they always do a great job because they are prepared and confident in their abilities.

The third grade students are still working on their community murals. We have talked a lot about different coloring and drawing techniques. Their drawing abilities really flourish at this age.

The fourth grade students have finished up their high contrast pictures. I hope to have them hanging in the hallway before Thanksgiving break. We are starting a new project that deals with inspiration. I feel very strongly about being inspired as an artist. It is very hard to just “come up” with creative ideas without having a starting point. We are learning how to look at things in our visual world that we think look good and use that design or pattern or picture as inspiration for something else to create. I’m looking forward to seeing their creations.

The sixth grade students had a great trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art this past Wednesday. I encourage you to talk to your child about what they saw, and use the family pass they got from the museum to revisit the exhibit Massive Change which will be up until the end of the year.

That is all for now…

As technology continues to move faster and faster, it is hard to keep up with everything. I continue to love working with the students on the blog, but not only does it need a lot of upkeep, but it needs to make sense with the curriculum. I’m learning how to put pictures, sounds, and video up, but you can do all that work, and it doesn’t make any bit of difference with what the kids are learning. I think the Internet is THE most powerful learning tool out there, but the massive nature of it makes it difficult to use in the classroom.

Just this week, I only scratched the surface of searching on Google and Wikipedia with fourth graders. With the amount of information to sift through, it can seem almost impossible. On the other hand, though, it is necessary because the days of finding information strictly through books and magazines is completely gone. We need to update how we look for information now or our students will be left behind.

I’m happy to see all of my classes making a lot of progress with their artwork this week. Both third grade classes are working in groups to create community murals. Not only are we learning how to think about community and how to draw, we are also learning how to work in groups. The fourth grade continued working on their high contrast pictures this week. Some students might have taken their original pictures home. They are also adding winter themed tissue paper so we can have them up during December.

The fifth graders are working on a couple different projects right now. Both classes need to finish their accordion book stories and turn them in if they not have done so already. We have moved on to a new project this week, so it is important that they turn it in soon. The stories will be displayed during the final event for Smart Explorers. I hope you all are able to attend. Mr. Bynum’s class has their final event on Monday, Novemeber 20th and Mr. Brown’s class has their event on Tuesday, November 21st. Both events are from 6:30 to 8:00 in the evening. All of the students will be docents for artwork they picked out on their fifth trip to the museum. They will be discussing the elements of art, what the story of the piece is, and what the function of the artwork might be. It is a fun night for everyone, so please do not miss out.

The sixth grade students have finished up their logos. They can be found here. We are also going to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Wednesday this week to see an exhibit called Massive Change. It is a great exhibit that I previewed this weekend about sustainable design and the global economy. It is not what you would call your “normal” art exhibit, but a tremendous learning experience for the students. I certainly learned a lot when I went there.

Until next time…