Turning our buildings into a city and green screen stop motion movies!!

After we completed all of our lovely 3D buildings, we combined them into a giant city from each classroom. We painted poster board to become the sky behind our city. Then the kids had to collaborate on where their building would fit into their classroom's city. 

After the buildings were installed, the students added "props" that they made with paper and glued onto the city. I used writing as an analogy. The buildings were the characters, the sky was their setting......now what "props" could they add to make their story come alive?

So many adorable faces in the 3D glasses they decorated!!

A completed city.

After the entire city was installed, story lines developed and props made to bring the city's narrative to life......we worked in small groups and made movies with the Stikbot stop motion app using a green screen. SO, super FUN!!!! The city was going to be their background so their stories had to take place in their 3D city.

Each small group developed a mini-problem/solution story map and then brainstormed how they would act it out. We took pictures of our cities and loaded them into the app. Now it looked like we were actually inside our 3D cities.

Reviewing their movie.....look at that cute grin ;).

Movies complete! A classroom photo for the end of our 3D investigation.

Fraction Pillows (1st-5th)

Whew- we are wrapping up spring break and I realize that I haven't posted about projects we made back in November......

Luckily I already wrote up a description of this project for our S.M.A.T.H. night where these fraction pillows were displayed so I'm just going to cut and paste ;).

Art and math intersect almost continuously although it usually goes unnoticed. For this project we focused on quilting and emphasized how much quilting involves using fractions to build a quilt design. The hope is for the students to independently see math concepts in much of the art that they make.

First we reviewed or were introduced to fractions based on their grade level standards. We completed worksheets for practice before we worked with the fabric. Next we collected our fabric and planned our quilt design on a template. Some grades were given a fraction and had to create their design around that fraction. Other grades created their design first and then worked with the fractions within their design when it was complete. Finally, we adhered their fabric down to our quilt square and then stuffed our pillows!

International Studies Banners

 

Mrs. Slats, Mrs. A and I had the pleasure of our principal, Mrs. Guertin, asking us to work on a project with her for the school. We are an International Studies school and each grade level deeply investigates a specific culture, time period or geographical area over the course of the year. In art class we try to extend this focus into our projects.

The students created banners for their respective classrooms to portray what they have been learning about their International Studies focus. They were able to pull from what they learned in their homeroom classes or what they learned in art class to create their image. They each received a banner triangle made out of fabric and recreated their image out of fabric scraps and permanent markers.

It was great to see how they tried to correctly refashion what they learned and listening to them combine knowledge from both classes!!! I sure love it when it all comes together!!!!! Thank you again Mrs. Guertin!

 

 

A second grader recreating a myth from ancient Greece.

Another clever myth recreation from second grade.

Symbols for Zeus, second grade.

Viking ship from third grade.

Interpretation of "creatures" that were told of during Medieval Times, 4th grade.

Medieval Times, 4th grade

Kindergarten studies the continents. These are depictions of all that they learned about Antarctica. Great job Mrs. A!!!!! :) 

 

A first grader who portrayed the image of the Snow Lion, a symbol in Tibet. Our first graders study Asia.

Another depiction of one of the stories of the Snow Lion from first grade.

More, wonderful pieces about Asia from first grade!

The end of the year exhibition....

I painted boards with Chalkboard paint,

      

and then was able to write the student's names underneath-was nice and flexible!

Prints made by a kindergarten class for their non-fiction writings ;)

  The simile paintings that we made on their handmade paper.

 

I printed and displayed tons of photos so the parents were able to see the process and get a glimpse of what we do in class. My hope was that seeing the pictures would prompt the parents and students to talk about what they worked on this year.

       

Young at Art at the Tampa Museum of Art

The Tampa Museum of Art put on an exhibit this weekend that represented K-8 schools fine arts programs in Hillsborough County. Each public, private and charter school was asked to submit a student piece that represented their art program. I was thrilled with the idea and I chose a marionette made by Sarah K in Ms. O's class!

Sarah is in third grade and is inventive, resourceful and hard working. I remember the first few times I taught her at the beginning of her second grade I would see her completely absorbed in her work and I was immediately curious about what she was making. I love watching her process and I love whenever she has a little discovery she always comes to find me to share it with me. While making this marionette she figured out that by wrapping wire around this teeny, fluffy trim she could create a tail that would twist in different positions and hold the position. Art teacher love!!!

Sarah and her marionette are what I dream our art program at LP is all about. I hope the kids are curious about what they can achieve with their hands, I hope they apply meaning to their art making and I hope they feel like little explorers when they come into the art room.

Thank you Sarah and family for your support!!

                                            Seeing her name on the display was so cute! ;)

Sarah's fantastic mongoose marionette displayed in the case

Sarah and I ;)

The crowd listening to the presentation. I was happy to hear the speaker say one of my mantras- "the wonderful thing about art is that there is more than one answer"....amen to that!!

 Sarah and I walked through the exhibit. We viewed and talked about the other student's work. They didn't list the materials used in the information tags so we had fun guessing how they were made. I enjoyed seeing her critiquing. I have to get her ready for all the critiquing she will do in her art program at college!! ;)

           My daughter studying a piece portraying a lion that was done by an 8th grader in the county.

Mosaic fundraiser for our school Gala

 

 

Our school Gala (the PTA's event) was last night and it was so beautiful! Our PTA blew me away- their ideas and effort were incredible!!!

They were very sweet to let me have a large table right at the entrance to place the mosaics on. I made little books to accompany each mosaic that documented the process of each class making them. The PTA made cute signs for me and one dad even designed and printed an awesome sign that explained the project. It was really uplifting to have so much support.

Kids- you never cease to impress me with your work!!