Sleeping Selfies: Gustav Klimt Blankets

Hello there!
This lesson is brought to you by the cold weather and some creative third grade artists! I introduced the artwork of Gustav Klimt, and we talked about all of the patterns and textures you can see in his work. We then proceeded to create sleeping self-portraits inspired by Klimt, where our faces are simple but our blankets are full of color and texture. We also got to experiment with an unfamiliar media - colored pencils - learning how to blend them together, and use them in various ways (media,techniques and processes!).  Here are some great results:

This one is unfinished but his textures and blending were wonderful!

Thank you for taking a look! Please stop by again soon! 

Wayne Thiebaud Cakes

I teach this lesson with grade 2 - Cylinder Cakes! We talk about the basic parts of a cylinder (which we learned in 1st grade, lesson coming soon!), practice practice, then we learn how to draw a slice out of our cylinder cakes! There's lots of practice drawing our cylinders and "cutting a piece out" before we move on to our larger paper. I introduce Wayne Thiebaud to the students, we talk about his artwork together before moving on to our own! Here are some great examples:

                                                   They are all drawn on 12x12' paper.

Pointillism!

For this lesson, we talked about drawing from observation and pointillism. The first half of the lesson we observed fall objects that were on our tables - pumpkins, gourds, apples, pears. We talked about making a striking composition with our objects, and created one! Georges Seurat was then introduced, and we talked about the pointillism technique. We used watercolors and cotton swabs - it takes patience, but they come out stunning! 

It's a very successful lesson and they all come out so unique!

Mural Makers!

In one of my three schools this year, I'm running an after school program called the "Mural Makers". This is my first "Art club" of sorts, and these images are from the first week! We made a "Mural Makers Agreement" - guidelines we need to follow to make this successful, and we also talked about Keith Haring's artwork, which is what the mural is based on. In future sessions, we will be painting inspirational words around our dancing people! The kids love the idea of painting on the wall, and it lasting after they go off to middle school! 

The above photo is of the wall before we started painting. I sketched the Keith Haring figures the day before.

cool view!

Painting!!

They couldn't resist the happy faces!

This is at the end of the first session. 15 students can get a lot done in an hour!! I'm hoping our last session can be an opening of sorts, with refreshments and parents and pictures! 

Class Setup!

Hello artists!
So for my first real post, I've decided to tell you about my "home base" Art room. I teach Art at three elementary schools in one district (531 students a week!), and these photos are of the classroom I am in most often. The other two rooms have a similar appearance, but I share one with a music teacher, and the other with another Art teacher. I think about it like this - some Art teachers don't have a single room, I am lucky enough to have 3!

Above is my display for open house this year. "What we do in Art class"... Lots of Bloom's words in there - higher order thinking in the Art room! 

You'll notice I have large boards in my room- I don't have any wall space, so these strong, cardboard-like boards give me a place to create displays! So far, these are the artists we have been introduced to this year, and there's lots more to come!

This is a portion of the front of my room, I have a board to the left that is blank, for the document camera display. I have the Art room rules, a self-evaluation tool, the 5 B's - part of our school's PBIS, and our "We Can" display showing what each grade is learning through their lessons. There is also my N.O.I.S.E. chart. If students become a little noisy, I take down the "e", that's the first chance. Two more chances mean taking down the "s" and "i", leaving the word "NO", which means no talking, or a silent Art room. It seems to work very well so far! I refer to these two boards throughout the school year.

This is my display of the Art vocabulary students learn within each lesson. Its a nice way to refer to past lessons and bring up learned Art words. 

Mondrian door! Grade K is working on identifying the primary colors at the beginning of the school year, so the three strips you see by my door are taped down the hallways! I love hearing the first grade say, "Mrs. Riley is hanging up the primary colors again!"  I will do the same with the secondary colors very soon!

Be ARTiculate! Descriptive words the students and I use when talking about each other's work. I have students catch me saying "nice" and "great" when walking around the room, and they tell me, "Mrs. Riley! Use an Art word!" Very Impressive! 

Many of these posters and visuals come from ideas I found on Pinterest! It is a wonderful resource. 

This is all I have for now, but I will begin posting successful lessons as I collect images of artwork! Last year was a big experiment for me, learning about SLO's, PGG's, classroom management, PBIS, etc. I had successful lessons and not-so-successful ones, so more posts will come soon! Thank you for visiting =) 

First Post!

Hello Artists!
My name is Meg Riley, I am a second-year elementary Art teacher, and I am loving every second of it! My goal for this blog is to post about what I'm learning, teaching, and experiencing throughout my Art-teaching (and life) adventure! I also want to make an effort to connect with Art educators across the interwebs - the internet is a beautiful thing! I am a first-time blogger, so just like me, this site is a work-in-progress.  Thank you so much for visiting, and there will be more to see soon! 
Keep on creating!