I found out late summer that I was no longer going to have to teach art off a cart, and I’d have my very own art room! Of course, as you can imagine I was thrilled with this exciting news!! I had been teaching from a cart, rolling it with art supplies for each class, down the hallways to each classroom for 4 years in the district I teach now. So since Sept. 2014!
I couldn’t wait to set up my new space and decorate all the walls! The room is awesome and has huge windows all along one wall, a sink (my other classroom at the other school I teach at doesn’t have a sink) and is pretty spacious but still cozy!
I took the video above in early December before the holidays, so that’s why you’re hearing “Christmas Time is Here” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio in the background.
I bought all my twinkly curtain lights from Amazon, which are not just up for the holidays but I am keeping them up all year round. I think it adds a nice warm, cozy, inviting (and soothing) environment.
I was so excited to show my students once I put them all up and they looved them! I had kids work with only those lights on in the room for the majority of the holiday season. With all the windows, it’s still plenty of light to be able to see while creating art!
Here are some pics of what the room looked like BEFORE below!
Here are some AFTER pics!
So here’s a re-cap snippet of SOME of the things we’ve been working on in the art room since September!
Students at Amvet in 4th and 5th grade drew mini monochromatic self-portraits. Each class had their own designated color of the rainbow. At this school, I have (3) 4th grade classes and (3) 5th grade classes. At Roosevelt I had 3rd, 4th and 5th create them, since there are only 2 classes per grade level.
Students learned a variety of ways to draw different expressions and what monochromatic means. They learned how they can achieve a monochromatic look by pressing hard or light with their colored pencil to achieve various values of one color, and can create a variety of values by using various shades of a colored pencil.
Students in 1st and 2nd grade drew circles creating an abstract collaborative mural inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky (BELOW). They colored using a variety of colorful oil pastels, then painted around the circles filling in the remaining space of the square paper with watercolors. Once complete, I assembled them on a large sheet of black paper and hot glued into place.
Below are some art lessons we did in order by grade level so far. (These are not all of the lessons however we have finished up to this point).
1st Grade:
Hot Air Balloon Collage
To view Hot Air Balloon Collages from previous years – click on 1st Grade Art Lessons under the main menu and scroll down! Or click HERE.
Mixed-Media Alphabet Soup
Here are some cute pics of students working on their soups!
First graders creating their background plaid tablecloths for their alphabet soup!
To view additional mixed-media alphabet soup art from previous years, learn how it was made and what the learning goals are for the lesson, check out the 1st grade art lessons page HERE and scroll down!
2nd Grade:
Birds Eye-View Snowman Collage
To learn more about how we created these adorable snow people and what the learning goals are for the lesson, click HERE and scroll down!
Catching Snowflakes
Click HERE and scroll down to check out previous years “Catching Snowflakes” and to learn more about this lesson!
3rd Grade:
Day of the Dead Skulls
To learn more about this lesson and see additional Dia De Los Muertos Skulls – click HERE and scroll down!
3D WINTER MUGS
To learn more about this lesson and see additional mugs (using paint rather than markers) click HERE and scroll down.
4th GRADE:
Mixed Media Donuts
To view additional mixed media donuts by 4th grade, and learn how we created them, click HERE and scroll down. To view my YouTube video tutorial click HERE and select the video!
5th Grade
Falling For Foreshortening
To view additional Falling For Foreshortening artwork by 5th grade and learn how they created them, click HERE and scroll down!
Holiday Lights
Students at Roosevelt were able to complete this lesson before the holidays but unfortunately, due to time constraints classes at Amvet didn’t have time to create these. Next year I will start this lesson earlier and try to make sure everyone in 5th has a chance to do this fun lesson for the holidays!
This wonderful lesson was inspired by the amazing art teacher artwithmrsnguyen
To view additional Holiday Lights and to learn how these were created -click HERE and scroll down to the lesson!
Here are some fun pics of students creating them! Enjoy!
