7th Graders Take To The Hallway

7th grade art students took to the hallway last week to work on their one point perspective drawings.

 

 

 

First, we started by learning about the techniques of linear perspective to successfully complete a drawing that looked three-dimensional. Then, we put those techniques into practice by drawing the halls of NCMS.

This website is a really helpful tool in learning perspective.

Student Work: Functional Clay Mugs

Sometimes teachers have a hard time doing the same art projects year to year, so when it came to working with clay, I was at a loss of ideas. I got the inspiration for this project from fellow art teacher Mrs. Leban because I loved how her students finished pieces looked. So, with the 8th graders, I decided to do a ceramics lesson that was a functional clay mug inspired by a favorite book, magazine, or literary genre.

 Students celebrated the completion of their ceramics project by heading down to the library for a hot chocolate party. Some students chose to sit down with a good book and read, while others used their time to catch up with friends. The assistant principal, Mr. Capper, even stopped down to see what our students had created!

  

 

 The guys enjoyed themselves! (It was also Freaky Friday, note Mr. Capper's attire & Michael's glasses.)

Miss Burley, our schools librarian, was nice enough to let us display our finished mugs next to our favorite books & magazines!

  

Although, I have a strong animosity towards Mr. James, I was very impressed with the amount of detail put into Derrick's mug. Overall, EVERY student did a really nice job with these! Just check out the fun details in each one of them!

Artwork from the Classroom: Posterized Self Portraits

Organizing the Art Room

I'm in my second year teaching at NCMS and it's time to make the room my own. Last year I was very busy planning a wedding, so fully organizing and moving into my classroom was kind of one of the last things on my mind. I was there to teach and as long as I could do that successfully I wasn't concerned with what my room and storage looked like.

Well, now I'm realizing how horrible of a system I have and it's starting to wear me down! I'm dealing with probably close to 20 years of supplies and projects that have just been accumulating and now they are my problem. (And trust me, I know that it's that old because I found old projects by students who graduated BEFORE I did!)

Just look at this mess!

As you can see there are areas that are TRYING to be somewhat organizing, but a lot of the containers and cardboard boxes are also 15+ years old and are falling apart.

I'm hoping that by making this publicly known I might actually do something about this overwhelming classroom issue. I've been checking out pinterest and contacting my friends over at Bed, Bath and Beyond to see if they can help a sister out :)

Any teachers have any helpful hints or suggestions about how to even begin tackling this project?! I'm making it my New Years resolution and will likely spend some of my winter break taking this beast head on.

Extra Credit Questions

Over the Thanksgiving break you can answer any of the following questions for extra credit!

In complete sentences.....

1. In your own words, what are some of the meanings interpreted from the Free Stamp?

2. Who donated the Free Stamp and why did they donate it?

3. How big is it and what is it made from?

4. Why was it originally supposed to sit upright instead of on it's side?

in progress look at the 7th grade posterized self portraits

7th grade students are in the process of painting their posterized self portraits. We spent a few days in the computer lab taking digital images and using filters to achieve the look and values we wanted.

The focus of this assignment is an emotive self-portrait. Our backgrounds will be full of color, line weight & pattern to help convey that emotion.

Looking good so far!