Sand Art!!

As a "reward" project, we did sand art. It's super easy and fun and motivates the students to work on behaviors for an award. We talk about the colors we choose and why. Then we discuss the patterns and shapes the sand makes. We also added glitter to some of the colored sand. 

Every Piece Has a Story

I can't talk about my students. I can't tell you their individual stories on how an artwork is created. I can't tell you any information regarding any specific individual. But I wish I could. Here are samples of artwork that hopefully, (through struggles such as anger, stress, or meds that make you sleepy in the morning) with care and guidance, the artwork will speak for itself. 

The beauty of working at Variety is the student to teacher/SPTA ratio. I can learn each of the students in more detail and work specifically one on one. So, each one of these beautiful artworks have a story of its own and only I know it. That's kinda awesome though...

Working with a student who has Autism. Tempera paint with a paint pen drawing on top. 

Marker drawing. We are coming back to this one every other day and continue to build on it.

Working with stamps and markers. We discussed the word print and repetition.

Landscape painting, tempera and imagination. 

A colorful bumblebee and flowers made from construction paper. We did the bumble bee with painted stripes the first day and the flowers the second day.

I drew a picture of a student in crayon while I asked him to draw me at the same time. So this is me... I really like it!!

Melted Crayon Art

In the first photo there is a melted crayon project that was done at Variety with another earlier group. The second photo was an experiment to see broken bits of crayon (looks spacey, almost). In the third picture, my student glued down the crayon so it would stay in place when being melted, it's an abstract work. One student wanted to spell the word Tick (for whatever reason...) but we couldn't fit the K on so, we just shortened the word. The next one in mostly blue is also an abstract work and the final one is in the shape of a speed boat. The was a fun, simple and surreal form of color field art on a small canvas. Poster board was used initially but we favored the canvas board because the cardboard would warp weirdly.

Scratch Art

Scratch art is such a fun lesson. I should have taken photos of the process because it is so fun. You color the paper with crayons really hard and randomly, or you can make a pattern. Then you slather with a coat of black tempera. The next day the dried black painting is ready to be scratched off (we used popsicle sticks) and reveal the colors below. 

Color Wheel Center

When I first started as an art teacher. I was wholly against centers. Working in a comprehensive elementary school environment, art students must explore art history, aesthetics, and basically try to be on the same page as everyone else. However, I now see the virtue in having something going on all the time that is different. It is a great way to help students work on things that involve various strengths. I will blog more about centers later. Here is one that my colleague had begun (with the first color wheel) before I started at Variety. The color wheel idea is great, we have all these random beads, shells, toy pieces, and more beads. If a student is frustrated with his or her current project that we are working on, this is one great way to break away and calmly work. Center ideas for the future include modeling clay, perler beads, a huge paper color wheel collage, and wire sculptures. 

 This color wheel is still a work in progress. It is showing neutral colors. I like this one a lot, however it's more an exercise in value than in color. I especially like the 3 different colored pennies on 3 different segments of the brown.

 Here is the first color wheel that was finished, how fun is that?

For the second color wheel, we had a lot of lego pieces. The students had a great time making these.

A note on laminating art.

When I first started working here, I was kinda aghast that the artworks were laminated. Not all are, mind you, but the ones put on display in the hallway are laminated. It took me a hot minute, but I realized why. In a community with the majority being special needs students, outbursts happen, stuff gets ripped down, and since we know this, it makes the most prudent sense to protect the artwork in the most sensible way possible. I have started cutting the lamination off, leaving a half inch border of plastic. That makes it perfect for displaying on bulletin boards without damaging the artwork. The lamination tears off cleanly and can be further trimmed to make it neat.

Expressive Painting (with glitter... shudders!)

I sometimes find challenges with such diverse group of students with a huge range between. This class is small with only 4 boys (young men to be more accurate). They are all diagnosed with Autism with varying behaviors. My colleague and I decided that short, easy project would be best for this group. I busted out the paint and talked to the group about favorite colors and shapes and encouraged the students to make colorful brushstrokes. And then for fun, we had the students dust the color with a matching color of glitter. I'm personally not a fan of glitter because it gets everywhere but it seemed appropriate for this lesson. I really love how each one turned out.