TGIF!!!!! And early finishers!

Happy Friday!!!!  So I am on my 'C' day (third day in our resource rotation) and I am finding that a lot of students (BUT NOT ALL) are finishing up their Art to Remember Projects and they are bringing them to me what that dreaded query, "I'm finished!  NOW WHAT DO I DO?"  Well most of them are conveniently finishing just near clean up time, so my response is "Start cleaning up!"  But NEXT art class, they will be finished while I want others to keep working.  SO- then comes the dilemma of "Do I introduce a new project with elements of art and directions OR find something for the early finishers to do?
SO- I am thinking about having the students reflect on their work.  The basic template for 'done-ness' that I use is actually a Pinterest find I believe was originally from an AMAZINGLY talented art teacher from this blog http://tabithaannthelostsock.blogspot.com/p/my-art.html   She is SUCH a great teacher and blogger!   I love her work and I hope she doesn't mind that I borrowed her checklist!

SO- basically I took the checklist and added some other information that I wanted the students to identify and comment on in their work.  I am also making learning scales with rows for student names so I can keep track of their progress or 'scores' as they finish.   So here is the check list that I am having them fill out and tape to the back of their work next art class.  Then I am going to let them doodle or draw in their sketchbook- OR maybe have them bring their iPads or laptops so they can go online to my art page links.  http://teachers.stjohns.k12.fl.us/wardley-j/art-links-to-my-favorite-web-
resources/

Here are some of the scales I have made for the fifth, fourth and third grade projects.Fourth Grade Tropical Landscape Scale
Fifth Grade Close-Up Flower
Third grade Winter Landscape Scale

KAHOOT + ART ASSESSMENT= CRAZY JUMP OUT OF OUT OF YOUR SEAT 5th GRADE ART FUN!!!

I so wish I had a tripod with a video camera set up in my art room today!!!  I had EVERY fifth grade class today and I had TWO goals
1.  For students to finish or at least make a good deal of progress on their  Art to Remember (fundraiser) project called Close Up Flowers.
2. To assess their understanding of the Elements we have covered in art so far this year.

I think I knocked those goals OUT OF THE PARK today thanks to technology and KAHOOT!!!  As I have mentioned in previous posts, our school is the first 1 to 1 digital school in the county (or even Northeast Florida).  That means ALL my students have access to devices (lap tops for 3-5 and iPads for k-2)  Today was the first day that I requested that the classes bring their laptops to art.  I prepared a plastic bin for each class to store their laptops when they weren't using them.

Here is how our lesson went:

Classes walked to assigned seats with their laptops.
I went over our goals- to review our the Elements and work on our Art to Remember.
I showed them that we will also be using Edmodo and the resources I have put on my school web page.  http://teachers.stjohns.k12.fl.us/wardley-j/

THEN I told them we were using Kahoot, fun game based assessment to study the elements.  Most of them had played Kahoot before and they SUPER EXCITED!!

So I began projecting the Kahoot on the screen with my laptop to give them the log in number.https://create.kahoot.it/#quiz/b4a650a7-2149-4fc0-a3d9-641e89fc2079

Kahoots are so simple to make - I made the one we used last night in about 30 minutes.  It only had 11 questions and the kids were so excited they were literally jumping out of their seats!!!

I also got to see the data instantly to get an idea of which elements they really knew and which we would have to review more.
All in all, it was such a fun and exciting way to assess their understanding and get them excited about their art.

I strongly recommend Kahoot as a fun, game based way to assess student learning!

Close Up Fifth Grade Flowers - ROW

FIFTH GRADE ROW!! (Resource on Wednesday) IS ROCKIN their Art to Remember Project! Great job learning about the Elements of Art using Kahoot! These Close-Up flowers are awesome!!! We studied lines, geometric and organic shapes and space!

Our school's Pinwheels for Peace Art Installation event MADE THE PAPER!!!!

Yesterday was SUCH an exciting day for our school!  It was our third annual Pinwheels for Peace Art Installation event in honor of the International Day of Peace.  This year, instead of just forming a peace sign with our pinwheels, we made a DOVE!!!  I was so worried that it might not actually look like a dove because when I was spray painting the outline on our PE field on Wednesday, it was SO difficult to decipher how the shape was going to turn out.  I used a grid method in Microsoft Word to measure the dove symbol.  When I went on the field, the grid lined up with the fences around the field.  I used rope and spray paint along with the grid picture for reference to make the shape on the field.  

Our community relations coordinator called the local paper, the St. Augustine Record, and the reporter and photographer came to photograph the entire event from the ground. 

http://staugustine.com/school-news/2014-09-18/palencia-elementary-art-installation-tackles-peace#.VBwxn9JDtM4

http://staugustine.com/slideshow/featured/2014-09-18/pinwheels-peace#slide-1

 It was SO hot outside and not all the students had their pinwheels because we thought the event would have to be postponed for picture day.  Despite all of that, we were able to share a moment of silence, a fourth grader, Lexi, shared a beautiful poem she wrote about Peace, and we sang the Song of Peace that our fabulous music teacher, Ms. Dowdie taught the students during music.  One of our second grade teacher's husband flew his plane over and took the picture for us and I when I saw it this morning, I almost cried with pride, joy and relief!!!   

And AS IF, Pinwheels for Peace weren't enough this week, TODAY was Talk Like a Pirate Day!!  I got the honor of having Captain Mayhem (a real St. Augustine pirate!)  sign sketch for the chalk drawing that I made for the Chalk Walk last May!!!  Such an exciting (and exhausting) WEEK!!!

http://staugustine.com/school-news/2014-09-18/palencia-elementary-art-installation-tackles-peace#.VBwxn9JDtM4

Second grade art lesson for Art to Remember: Undersea Fish Family

My second graders are doing a great job on their Family Families this week! I show them the prezi with the learning goals, we practice drawing an angelfish together in their sketchbook (art notebook they keep in art) and then they get to draw any fish they want on the Art to Remember paper.

International Dot Day!

Happy DOT day everyone!!! I am declaring this to be DOT week since only one day of my art classes got to hear the Dot, Peter Reynolds and practice pointillism! So all week long, we will be incorporating shapes and dots in our artwork in honor of Peter Reynolds inspiration book! We even put dots on our Pinwheels for Peace that we are working on finishing up this week! So fun!

4-H Art & Garden Club!

Our first art club meeting was so AWESOME!!!  This year, I am working with our awesome cafeteria manager/teacher to create a 4-H Art and Garden Club!  I was never part of the 4-H as a kid, so i didn;t know much about it until now.  It is a great organization for almost any interest/talent/ skill.  They have awesome resources and they have a great curriculum and structure for the club meetings that helps students build leadership skills.  We will be voting on Art Club President/ Vice President and other officer positions this Thursday.  Here is the prezi I showed them and a cute video made with animoto that showed some pictures of projects we have worked on in the past!
http://animoto.com/play/1DRoPpoApdanjUQtTgXzhQ

Let it SNOW!! Winter Landscape art lesson For Art to Remember 3rd Grade

So this week, my third graders started on their Art to Remember Art Project, a winter landscape with Birch trees!  So I have been using this lesson for so long that I do not even remember where I originally saw it.  I believe it was Artsonia.  It is a fail proof lesson that focuses on line, texture, parts of a landscape, cool colors and much more!  So of course I 'flipped' the lesson and made a video using iMovie to play for all the other classes (so I am not repeating the same thing for each class each day...)

So here it is......hope they turn out even better than last years!!!

Surgery, Sub and Art Tech Tools

Unfortunately, I already had to have a sub in art because my little guy was scheduled to have surgery today to remove a screw that was placed in his right arm last year after he broke it at the park.

The good news is that sub planning was somewhat easier thanks to all the Art lesson videos I have been recording with the iPad.  I was schedule to have every second grade class today for 40 minutes each.  So I had them all working on making their Pinwheels for Peace.  I couldn't leave my computer for the sub to show the classes, so I had to download the video as an MP4, save it in Moviemaker and burn it to a DVD.  This can process can be a bit time consuming but the result is enabling the sub to simply pop the DVD in the player for each class and then assist them with the Pinwheel-makin.  I will let you know how it went......after tomorrow!!

In the mean time, I have been working on my presentation for the FAEA conference on October 2nd.  I will be presenting for the first time with my 'Elementary Art and Technology' mini workshop.  I started a powerpoint a while ago but a friend shared a Powtoon with me and I decided to play around with it and IT IS AWESOME!!  I found some great FREE templates to work off of and while I will modify my powerpoint a bit, I am definitely going to use my POWTOON because it is so more more fun and engaging.  Check out the two I made for art and the conference and then GET ON THERE and start playing around.  I give it two thumbs up and a glittery snap!  It is really cool!   http://www.powtoon.com/

First Grade Pinwheels - DONE! Pinwheels for Peace!

So this week, on Wednesday, we had our first ROW day which means resource on Wednesday for first grade.  I had first graders ALL working on their Pinwheels for Peace and during music they got to practice The Song of Peace!  It went really well and I would say that about 80% of first grade pinwheels are finished!! YAY!!!  Now to get the other classes on their way and also start our Art to Remember projects!   Busy Busy!  Here is the Youtube video I made for students to watch and also the scale for learning.