Kindergarten Self portraits

I love these.  Look at these smiling little faces. This may be my favorite lesson plan of the year. Six year olds rock!

Suminigashi Prints

I discovered Japanese paper marbling this year and I have been pining to do this project with my classes.  Finally, I got my hands on a kit and we've been going to town in the art trailer.  Here are a few of my favorite Suminigashi prints from 5th grade.  Suminigashi literally means "spilled ink" in Japanese.  Take a look!  The kits cost about 17 bucks online, and here is a link to the lesson plan in case you want to do this too. In my class, we create the Suminigashi monoprints on day one and then over the next several class visits, the students create a drawing that goes with their monoprint.  Lots of students chose to draw Koi fish, the Japanese symbol of love and friendship.

Snow day

Will it snow this afternoon?  I sure hope so!  Here are some snowy landscapes by my second grade artists. We read Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by woods on a snowy evening and then we talked about how atmospheric perspective can make faraway objects look soft and grey.  We also talked about space in terms of foreground, middle ground and background. I didn't tell the kids how to draw the animals, but many of them put in really cute little fawns and bunnies based on the illustrations in my book.

Who do you admire?

In kindergarten class, we created stamps of people we admire.  Here are a few of them.  The funniest thing is that one kid drew a green alien.  He never would tell me why he admired an alien. I tried to get him to talk. (Alien not pictured)

My little tigers.

I have been swamped since August. This is not an exaggeration or a lie-- it just is... when it comes to the life of a first-year teacher who is also trying to take graduate courses. My paintings have been selling faster than I can make them, but instead of painting more I have been helping petite Picasso's make some brilliant work. Check out my favorite second grade tiger collages.  These were made after we looked at Henri Rousseau's jungle art. Since my school doesn't have a big budget, we made glitter paper ourselves.  Check out the personality in these little tigers! Their little faces and expressions make me laugh.

Here are some 5th-grade versions created for a yearbook competition.  The kids are dying to know who won, but I can't tell until June!

The last one is a "Terminator Tiger." Gotta love the creativity.  One of the tigers with tattoos may be gang related, but to an innocent eye like mine, I loved the design and put it smack dab in the middle of the bulletin board... I have a lot to learn!

This is me.

One of my second grade students drew this during class while we studied art about communities.  In second grade, there's a big push to learn all about community helpers like firemen, policemen, teachers, construction workers and even business owners.  We talk about all the community helpers we can think of and I show some examples of Norman Rockwell's illustrated pictures of community helpers from the Saturday Evening Post.

When we got down to business with our pencils and markers,  one of my little kiddos drew ME!  Here I am at my teacher's desk with my pink insulated cup of Diet Coke sitting nearby.  All the students are smiling and busy as they work on their drawings and as you can see, there are lots of drawings hanging up around the room on a clothes line-- just like real life!

Oh how can I begin to describe how happy this makes me?  This is why I'm here-- to nurture, to support, to encourage this kind of sweet innocent talent until it takes off full speed ahead! Have I mentioned that I love my job? I do.

I love my job...

Two weeks before school started, I found a job.  I am a new elementary school art teacher and I love what I do!  Here is a piece from one of my kindergarten students. We studied "Art in the Park" by looking at Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. Then the kiddos drew images of themselves playing at the park.

This kid is SO talented. I don't even know his name--- and no he didn't put it on the paper like I asked him to.  Oh well-- it doesn't matter.  I can't wait to see what he does next. This drawing is inspired by all the playground equipment at my school.  Even though I teach in a trailer that is falling apart and smells like mildew, the kids have nice playground equipment-- as you can see in this meticulous kindergarten rendering.

Enjoy! There is nothing more precious, real or honest than children's art.