" I Am" in Grade 1

     First graders have been looking at this piece titled "Self Portrait" by Judith Leyster and searching for clues about the woman through the painting.

Leyster, Judith. Self Portrait. 1630. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Web.

     To begin we simply worked on describing what we were seeing. Some observations were very keen. Others were just too funny. One student remarked "there's a napkin on her head!" and another believed she was holding a magic wand. Two students thought that she might be the Mona Lisa's sister. After a bit we realized that she was from a long time ago ( 1630 to be exact ) and that she painted this picture of herself... a SELF PORTRAIT! Not only is she showing us that she likes to paint, she's also showing off! We can tell that Judith has a lot of confidence because of her smile and how she is leaning back in her chair.
     To learn more about this painting visit
     http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highlight37003.html

     Since Judith showed us that she likes to paint we were going to have to show Judith what we like to do. Here is one example by Erin along with an "I Am" poem she completed when she was finished.

I am Erin

I like dancing

I am beautiful

I try doing my hair

I am a nice person

Evan playing soccer in his self portrait

Dylan fishing in his self portrait 

Grade 5 Science Integration

I received this lesson from Mrs. Benjamin which outlined a way to integrate art into the science curriculum on the topic of planets. After looking at some books of the planets in our solar system, the students found they could relate some describing words of these planets to the elements of art. For example, when a students said that the planet they were looking at was red and orange we realized that would fall under COLOR. Some planets had rings or craters. We could draw those using LINE. They could put lines together to make SHAPE, or simply look at the shape of all planets...spheres. Others may appear to be made of rock or even look smooth. These are kinds of TEXTURE. Finally, some planets were hidden in shadow, which is achieved by adding VALUE. 
After looking at the planets in our solar system it was time for students to make up their own. Planets incorporated the elements of art we had previously discussed...

COLOR

LINE

SHAPE

TEXTURE

VALUE

Here is a phenomenal planet created by Jed

And another by Nolan

Even our backgrounds added to the illusion of a real planet in space. After setting up a special "splat box" students came up one by one and with assistance got a nice white-splattered paper that added some dimension to their background. 

These planets were on display at the Celebration of Learning at the end of the year. Here are even more planets! 

Thanks for stopping by!

October in Kindergarten

Brendon's Pumpkin Patch

Dylan's Pumpkin Patch

At first glance this project may seem like a typical cut and paste pumpkin lesson. However, students actually took two weeks just mixing their own primary colors to make the secondary colors.

red + yellow = orange pumpkins

blue + red = purple background

yellow + blue = green grass

We then had to cut out our shapes (circles, ovals, rectangles, and a big zig-zag) and assemble our pumpkin patch. This took another art class. On the back of each painting there is also some "Color Math" which the students filled out to show how they made their secondary colors. Overall, this is a four week lesson! These paintings were inspired by some pumpkin patches the kindergartners had seen on a recent field trip to a farm. Happy October, Kindergarten!

Show Me the Mona!

This classroom management strategy includes auditory, visual, and kinesthetic prompts. When I ask students to "show me the Mona" they will put down their materials, fold their hands, put their eyes on me, and stop talking. I have had great success with this and often times hear students saying it even when they're not in art class! I try to keep the Mona on my cart as a visual of what I expect when I say this as long as I don't need the space for other visuals.

SHOW ME THE MONA!

Another visual that I use is a noise level poster including famous works of art that represent how loud our speaking voices should be at any given time. This is a super helpful tool for the first couple of weeks of school but since it is HUGE I can't bring it with me every day.

Welcome

My name is Kerri Fletcher and welcome to Smartest Artists! I am a second year K-5 Visual Art Teacher in Rhode Island. Here I will post what I am teaching, lesson processes, images of student work, and my adventures in elementary art education. As a first-time blogger this site is a work in progress as I strive to accommodate for students, parents, and educators. Thank you for visiting!