Carolyn Braden's 4th Grade: Shoe Design

We often discuss art related careers during class. I want students to have a purpose for creating art. Students learned how shoes are designed by shoe designers and if they love shoes, they could grow up to do just that. Students love their shoes, so we painted them. Some designed their own and some used their shoes as inspiration. 

Carolyn Braden: 3rd Grade Embroidery

After studying Peruvian art and viewing their beautiful embroidery, my 3rd grade created their own inspired pieces. These shown are works in progress.

This is a finished piece being critiqued. 

Carolyn Braden's 5th Grade: Quilling

Students completed this quilling project a little while ago. They got super creative with it! After creating the art, we did a gallery walk and my 2 Stars and a Wish critique. 

"Happy" by Schaffner Traditional Elementary

Thank You Schaffner: Square 1 Art Fundraiser

I just received my supplies I was able to order thanks to the large check I received from Square 1 Art. The parents at Shaffner are amazing! They purchased many items from the fundraiser and it helped my art program tremendously. 

Here is what I am doing with the funds:

2nd Grade will go to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and create clay masks. 

Every student will receive a poster with their self portrait project on it.

A mural will be created with the students portraits on it and it will be hung in Schaffner as a permanent art installation. 

Metal tiles were purchased for the 5th grade to embellish with tooling techniques and ink. Each square will be put together to create a large scale art piece to be hung as a permanent art installation.

I purchased these art materials for future art projects:

Class set of Crayola watercolor pencils

Class set of Crayola oil pastels

Class set of Crayola color sticks

Class set of tempera cakes

Crayola Tempera paint

Clay tool set

6 boxes of clay

Glazes in various colors

Edging scissors set

Kraft paper

Waldorf supply of beeswax clay

Magnetic architecture set

Watercolor paint refills

Embroidery floss

and more!

Most art supplies are consumable materials, meaning they are used and then gone. I have to replace materials often so having such supportive parents truly helps the students have art materials that help them create amazing art.

Many, many thanks!

The Big Self Portrait Poster Project

As a thank you to parents and the school for supporting me in my Square 1 Art fundraiser, I am going to give the gift of art to everyone. My students are creating self-portraits in various forms. I am going to have grade level posters made of the portraits to give the students. Each student will receive a poster that has their art along with their entire grade level on it. I am also having a mural created with each portrait on it to hang up as a permanent art installation in the school. I varied the types of self portraits the students created. Kinders created Roger Hargreaves inspired "Little Miss" and "Mr. Men" portraits. 1st grade created abstract portraits. 2nd-4th grade created realistic portraits that showed their individual personalities and 5th grade concentrated on their eyes. Some grade levels did my "2 Stars and a Wish" critique after completing the art. They gave great feedback to each other. 

Here are some photos of their incredible and awesome art. 

I love this students interpretation of the eye focused project. He said it didn't show the eyes yet it was all about the eyes. What an amazing thinker. Some students didn't get it but I totally get it. I told him it's an "artist-thing".

2 Stars and a Wish: Art Gallery Walk for Elementary Students

I am starting 2 Stars and a Wish Gallery Walk critiques with my elementary students. We've done formal, all class critiques before but I thought they may like a chance to move about our classroom "gallery" like people do in real galleries. I created slides with art vocabulary to post during the walk with directions to help guide them. This will also help them with spelling.

I will have students walk the room for a few minutes and then stop at one work of art. (One student per art piece so everyone gets feedback). They will then get my 2 Stars and a Wish paper (I made them small enough to save on paper but large enough to write sentences) and critique the art they are standing in front of. If they don't have a wish for improvement, they don't have to provide one.

Elementary students love showing off their art to their peers so this is a quick way to do critiques when you don't have time for presentations. I plan to do this with grades K-5, with plenty of guidance for K and 1st grade. 

See my example below: