Upcoming Projects: Fall 2011

Currently all my students are working diligently on projects that will soon be finished. Here's what each grade level is working on:

4th and 5th Grade:
PTA Reflections Contest. The theme this year is "Diversity means....." Students in these grades are truly making their ideas of what diversity means to them translate into picture form amazingly. I will be picking some student work to represent our school in the PTA Reflections Contest. Judging of the entries takes place in October.

3rd Grade: 
Georgia O'Keeffe Beautiful Flowers. I do a guided drawing of an O'Keeffe flower and students have the choice of creating an organic/realistic or a geometric/abstract flower. If you see your student drawing a flower, this is where they got the idea. Some students told me they have been drawing the flower on their own all week. That is so wonderful to hear!

2nd Grade:
When Pigasso Met Mootisse is a book we read in order to understand abstract and realistic portraits. Students are drawing their choice of either Pigasso in abstract style or Mootisse in realistic style. Students are also learning about the friendship between Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, color groups, shape and line types, background, foreground, middle ground and so much more!

1st Grade:
The Rainbow Fish. By reading this book, students learned the concept of sharing and making friends. We are learning to make our own fish friends through a guided drawing. The fish are looking truly beautiful!

Kindergarten:
Students are creating shape mosaics. We are learning how to collage, glue and trace. We are also learning about the vocabulary terms negative space, overlap, outline, tint, shade, dark, light, shape and line.

Next Steps: Upcoming Projects
Like a student, I often get bored if I am not challenged. While it takes a little extra time and work to develop new projects to try with students, sometimes we all need a good change. I recently researched some brand new ideas to add to my portfolio of projects I want to try with my students.

NEW*****
5th Grade: Leapin' Lizards! Chalk Pastel Drawings. I plan to relate the ideas of patterns and shapes in African art to patterns on snake and lizard skins. Students will learn to draw a large lizard and design geometric patterns for the skin. They will learn all about chalk pastel techniques and how to use the color groups to enhance their pattern design. (Idea adapted from www.deepspacesparkle.com)

4th Grade: Pablo Picasso Crazy Self-Portraits. While some students know how to draw their face in realistic style, many aren't aware that they can add interest by mixing it up a bit. Students will use many lines, shapes and patterns to create a crazy mixed-up, abstract self-portrait. Pablo Picasso looked to African art for inspiration and we will do the same. (Idea adapted from a 7th grade unit I did when I taught middle school).

Kindergarten: Bright Lights, Big City. Students will look to the ideas of Vincent VanGogh to create a water color curvy, swirly sky. Then students will create a dark cityscape with lit windows in the foreground of their paintings. They will collage it all together for a spectacular skyline. (Idea adapted from www.deepspacesparkle.com).

Oldies But Goodies
These are projects I've done in the past, but they have a beautiful result so I thought I'd keep them going.

1st Grade: 
African Magical Masks. Students will draw one half of an African style mask that contains geometric shapes and many line types. Students will say a magic spell to have their mask jump from one side of the paper to the other in order to make it symmetrical.

2nd Grade:
Fish and Butterfly Weavings. Students will learn the concept of how colonial artists had to make many things by hand due to not having stores all around as we do today. Students will create paper weavings and turn them into beautiful butterflies or fish.


3rd Grade: 
Rainforest Mixed Media. Students will create a textured background by painting with watercolor tissue paper. The background will serve as a scene for their textured trees and creepy crawly critters. They will learn how important the rainforests are to the world and how African patterns show up in many rainforest creatures skin.

A good idea from Kroger

In a recent mailing from Kroger, there was a section about how to connect with your children. Here is an idea they had for making an "artistic connection."

It's All In the Presentation
"It doesn't take a lot to make school-produced illustrations look terrific. Go to the local craft shop and get some matted frames with protective glass. 'Display your children's work like it is great art,' says Pablo Solomon, an artist/designer who also has degrees in psychology and sociology. 'Some of it is remarkably good. Picasso was often quoted about the need to recapture your inner child's openness and freedom as an artist.' "

Keeping it for Life
"By the time children leave the nest, you're going to want to have these items on hand. Take photos of the artwork and transfer to files for your digital photo archives. Remember to do a "Save As" on the best of the computer generated essays and tuck them into a desktop file. Keep original on-paper work in a nice album that will protect it from dust, moisture and sunlight."

Hope you like these ideas! The suggestion to take pictures of your children's art is great. Take a picture of their art with your cell phone (make sure there is plenty of natural light for a great photo) to share with family and friends. 

Ms. Braden's Back to School "Virtual" Newsletter

Dear Schaffner Parents/Guardians,

I will be giving your students a newsletter the first week of school. Here is my "virtual" version of it. I'm looking forward to meeting your students!

Welcome Back

My name is Carolyn Braden and I am so happy to be joining the staff at Schaffner Traditional Elementary. This will be my 8th year teaching visual art. I plan to excite your student about all the wonderful things art brings to our world.  Bookmark my virtual art room, http://bradensartstars.blogspot.com, on your computers. Throughout the year, I will periodically take photos of your student’s artwork in progress and upload them to this blog site. I also blog about upcoming projects. Thank you in advance for your support to make this year a success! If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact me. You may call me at 485-8217 or e-mail me at carolyn.braden@jefferson.kyschools.us.

Art Class Rules

Be Safe, Be Motivated, Be Respectful, Be a Leader

Behavior Information

My discipline procedures/consequences for the art room:

1: REMIND, Student will receive a warning. (Three strikes).

2. REST, Student will be moved to a time out location and have a verbal reflection with an adult.

3: RESTORE, Student will be moved to a time out location in the classroom with a constructive assignment (Written Reflection), phone call home.

4:  RESTRICT, Student will move to a time out location, receive another constructive assignment that will be sent home for them to complete and it MUST be returned to me the next school day signed by a parent or guardian, phone call home.

5:  REFERRAL, School referral, phone call home.

Grading

For all students, projects are graded based on these guidelines:

1. Uses art media, processes, and techniques carefully.

2. Applies the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design to their artwork

3. Identifies characteristics and purposes of artwork from different cultures and time periods.

Grades 3-5 will take art quizzes and will complete writing assignments after completing projects.  Grades K-2 will have grades based on participation and following project guidelines.

Theme

I like to start each school year out with a theme. This year, my theme is "Just be you!" I will be encouraging the students to be true to who they are and to celebrate their uniqueness. I want students to realize how special their talents are to the world. 

Please send an old shirt (an oversized t-shirt works best) with your student to wear during art class. Our projects are sometimes messy and the shirt will protect their uniforms. 

Carolyn Braden's Article on E-How: Games for a Child at Five Years Old

During W.A.A.S. Friday's (We Are Art Stars) students get to vote on fun activities they wish do do. Classes must have 3 out of 4 stars on my star chart to earn these fun days. Students work very hard to earn them. Kid's need a break in the classroom sometimes and WAAS days provided them with that. When they choose Be Creative Centers, I love watching them play games, play-doh, puzzles and more. I learned what the different age levels love to play just by observing them. Click the link below to go to an article I wrote about some ideas for games you can play with a child at age 5. 


http://www.ehow.com/info_7861023_games-child-five-years.html

VSA Artist in Residency with Michelle Amos!

The gesso stage of the third grade Kachina dolls!

VSA Project Gesso Stage, Third Grade

VSA Project Gesso Stage, Third Grade

Carolyn Braden's How-To: Make Tissue Paper Pom-Poms/Flowers

This is a fun craft!  I've hung these in my classroom and received many compliments on how pretty they were.  I thought I'd share the craft with everyone since it's so easy!  Click the link below to see my YouTube video to learn to make them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCHnUECp3r0

We're Back!

Back in the classroom again.  It's a new year and we have many new projects on the horizon.  My current fifth grade is finishing up their time with our Artist in Resident, Caroline Zama.  The entire project will be a mural (hopefully to be placed in the school lobby) made up of clay tiles depicting the students self-portraits.  The center of the mural will be the Byck sun with the Byck cougar.  The symbols will be made up of tiles that depict the students view of Byck Elementary.  The fifth grade will then complete their Graffiti Arts oil pastel art and then they will visit Egypt by creating pop art pharaoh plaster masks.

My third grade gets an Artist in Resident too!  I am happy to announce I received the VSA grant I applied for. http://www.vsarts.org/ 

Louisville artist Michelle Amos will working with my third grade students to create 3-D Native American Kachina dolls.  That residency starts on January 24th.  

My kindergarten is about to create Japanese Carp windsocks.  We will make them out of paper, watercolor, and tissue paper.  They recently completed their Sole People, which was a printmaking project that introduced how primary colors make secondary colors when mixed correctly.  Through that project, they learned about Jan Ernst Mazeliger.  He was an African American inventor that created the sole lasting machine.  (A machine that was created to attach the sole to the body of shoes).

Each of my first grade classes will be working on different projects to go along with a 1st grade musical we will showcase in the spring.  They will be helping to make background scenes, props, and more for the musical.  

My second grade is working on a weaving unit.  We learn about Kente cloths and create patterned paper weavings.  We then move on to creating yarn weavings on a loom.  They will also create a clay cube head during their visit to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (field trip!)  The trip is scheduled in February.

Fourth grade is involved this year with a large unit on self-portraits.  They are exploring who they are by creating 3 self-portraits that are all created in different media.  The first is an oil pastel portrait, the second is a photo collage portrait, and the third is a 3-D carved cube portrait.  If time permits, they will also create a wire armature of themselves.  

Discover classes start soon.  This rotation, classes will be for K-2nd grade.  My class will be teaching the importance of muraling, prop, and costume design in theater, television, and movies.  In this class, students will be creating a background for the 1st grade show, a prop, and a costume.   

So, as you can see, we have many things going on in the art room.  Students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade are all working on writing about art.  After each project, students are taking an assessment quiz and creating a personal narrative, a letter, or an evaluation of their art.  We are a truly busy art class!

Carolyn Braden is Published!

Go to the link below to see the article I wrote for Davis Publications SchoolArts Magazine!


It's a project I did with my fourth grade class a couple of years ago.  It took 2 years for the article to be published (I wrote and submitted it 2 years ago) but it's finally out there!  It was published in the December 2010 on-line edition of the magazine.  If you are interested in new ideas for art projects, get SchoolArts Magazine.  It's the top art resource magazine in the United States.  If you are a teacher, you can subscribe to get the on-line magazine free!  It's the entire magazine, just on-line!  


http://www.davis-art.com/Portal/SchoolArts/articles/12_10-elementary-studio-art-lesson-trapped-in-stone.pdf