Art at Home

My sweet Emma made this for me over the weekend. She even got the pink streak in my hair.   I have a JOY file that I keep all the work my students create just for me.  It's awesome that parents allow their children to create art outside of art class.  This one was done in soft pastels.  One tip:  ask, or challenge students to create work at home or to look up an artist you are studying.  They will surprise you!

Homemade Liquid Watercolors

It's second semester, and let's face it, most of the markers we use are running dry.  I took all the dried up markers and placed them upside down in a glass of water and got my own homemade liquid watercolors!  We use these to paint papers!  I love using painted papers in projects, and when kids are done with their work, they head on back to the sink and have fun painting papers for future projects!

Artist Statements

Students in grades 3-4-5-6 took one class period to reflect and write artist statements about the work they did first semester.  Being able to talk about their work is something that takes practice.  I provide prompts such as....

* Tell me how you created this piece.
* What did you learn from creating this?
* What mediums were used to make this?
* What memories or connections are evoked through looking at your work?
* What do you like about your work?

All student work is posted on www.artsonia.com.  Students used Artsonia Classroom to get to their work and write about it by going to www.artsonia.com/class. After typing in an 12 letter access code, they are taken to their creation.  You could just "hear" their brains working as they were remembering and thinking about their work.  Here, Jena is really concentrating on what she wants to say about her piece.