Polar Bears

Art Critique Station

As we study different artists, students have been taught to give verbal and written art critiques using appropriate vocabulary. In one of the stations, students use postcard size copies of various artworks to write art critiques. As a part of their art critiques, the students are required to include the Elements of Art and Principles of Design.

Art Career Station

Another station that the students may choose to work in is an Art Career Station. In this Art Based Station, the Kindergarten and First Graders choose a Bubble Map to record various art careers on. As they take notes, they discuss the jobs with their tablemates. For second through fifth graders, they choose one specific art career and record it in the middle of their Thinking Map. They then brainstorm various tasks that job must do. They record their thoughts about that career on the Thinking Map.

Artist Quotes Stations

One of the Art Based Stations that third through fifth grade may choose to work on when they finish work early or on Fridays is an Artist Quotes Station. In this station, the students choose a quote by a historically famous artist. On a template provided, they write the artist name followed by the quote. Once they have completed their notes section, they discuss with their table group and write down what they think the quote means. This station was created to get the students talking about artists and to promote critical thinking. The cards that I use can be found here and here from Teachers Pay Teachers. I printed them two per page to minimize the size.

Artist Research Station

On most Fridays, the students work in Art Based Learning Stations. One of the stations is Artist Research Writing. In this station, the students choose an artist to read about. The artist cards that I provide are from Teachers Pay Teachers and can be found here. There are several sets of these available. After reading, the students write key facts about their artist on a Thinking Map, typically a Circle Map. They then use the Circle Map to help them write sentences to summarize the information read about the artist.

Read, Write, and Sketch The Art Room

Before teaching Visual Arts, I taught First Grade. With that background, I believe that "Word Walls" are a good reference for students when learning new content related vocabulary words. In one of our Art Based Learning Stations, students "Read, Write, and Sketch" the art room including the Visual Arts Word Wall (located on our cabinets due to lack of wall space). The word wall cards that I use came for Teachers Pay Teachers and can be located here and here. In this station, students may use clipboards or the counter to choose four words to read about. They then take notes on the definition provided on the word wall. They then sketch an example of that word.

Alligator Effigy Vessel: Art Critiques

As a part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the 4th and 5th graders wrote art critiques over Alligator Effigy Vessel from Chorotega, Costa Rica. Art critiques are a part of our curriculum to encourage the students to think and write critically about art using appropriate vocabulary.

Lizard Alebrije: Art Critique

As a part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the 4th and 5th graders wrote art critiques over Pepe Santiago's wood carved sculpture, Lizard Alebrije. Art critiques are a part of our curriculum to encourage the students to think and write critically about art using appropriate vocabulary.

Noun Neighborhhood

This is a lesson I always did when I taught first grade. Now that I'm in art, I extended it to a collaborative project for Kinder through Third Grade. Each student drew their favorite restaurant, their favorite store, and their home. They created roads, grass, trees, clouds, and various vehicles. After all classes had a chance to do this, they worked over the next few weeks to create a giant collage mural out of them. Once completed, their art project covered almost half of our back hallway which is pretty long. As they worked, we talked about what nouns were and how each thing they were creating was a noun. We talked about the role of different parts of a community to tie in Social Studies.

Art and Poetry

I recently attended a training given by my Fine Arts supervisor, Mrs. Judy Nunneley. In the class we cut out various words from magazines and newspapers and then were challenged to come up with an autobiographical poem with the words. This was both challenging and engaging. I plan on using this with my fifth graders during the second semester. Here is my final poem:

Letters to Kindergarten

First Graders wrote letters to Kindergarten last week to tell them what to expect next year. They wrote about their favorite lessons, activities, and more. They then visited Mrs. Huggin's Kindergarten class to read their letters and answer questions. It was a great opportunity for them to be leaders and role models. It was also a great opportunity for them to work on public speaking.

Robot Writing

The students wrote papers about what their robots could do if they were real. They described what problem their robot would solve and how the buttons worked. I displayed their writing with a picture of them holding their robot.

Inventors Research Papers

A few weeks ago the students used PebbleGo to research one inventor of their choose. They wrote their facts on a Circle Map. They then used the facts to help them write a research paper. In the computer lab, they typed up their sentences. In class I called them over to the computer one at a time and we edited them together. We then printed a picture of their inventor from PebbleGo to display with their final product.

An Awesome Dog

Through one of our Empowering Writers lessons, the students wrote about awesome dogs. They could write about their own dog or another dog. They described what their dog looked like, what it could wear, and what it would say if it could talk. We then had a mini art lesson on how to draw animals using simple shapes such as circles and ovals. They then added details of their choosing to match their writing.

Guest Speaker

Friday first grade had a guest speaker to share information about her job in the promotions department of KISS FM radio. Ms. Guterriez, who has a brother in one of our first grade classes, talked to the students about the importance of reading and writing in her job, the reason radio stations do promotions (to persuade - great tie in to author's purpose), and how they use technology (great tie in to our lessons on inventions). Another great tie in was that Friday was also GenTX Day which promotes college readiness. According to their website, "This year’s GenTX Day is a call to action statewide to motivate students with a real-world college experience that inspires them to visualize a career goal and take the steps to achieve it." The guest speaker told the students that she will be graduating soon with  a degree in broadcasting and was able to stress the importance of college. Thank you to our teammate, Ms. Moncibaiz, for setting this up for our students.

Comparing David Shannon Stories

After reading A Bad Case of Stripes and Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the students created Venn Diagrams to compare the stories. After creating their diagrams in small groups, they independently created foldables to show their understanding. On the top flap, they wrote the title "Comparing Stories by David Shannon." On the second flap, they wrote one thing that was the same for both of the stories. On the third and fourth flaps, they wrote how the two stories were different. But, the things that they chose as different had to relate back to how they were both the same. For example, if they chose that they both had a setting, they had to then explain how the settings were different from one another. If they chose that both books had problems, they had to explain the problems for both books. The purpose of this lesson was to build a deeper understanding of the elements that make up fiction stories.

David Shannon Author Study

While reading David Shannon books, we also learned about him as an author and illustrator. We watched a short interview with him from Scholastic and then created a Circle Map about facts learned. The students used the Circle Map to write a shared writing piece about him.

Inventors Research

We visited the computer lab on Thursday so the students could research an inventor of their choice on their own. We use PebbleGo as our main online research tool. I love PebbleGo because the students can choose to have the information read to them and the words are highlighted as it is read which naturally leads them to read along. There are also historical videos imbedded within the biography section. After choosing an inventor to research, the students listened to each section and recorded at least two facts per section on their student-created Circle Maps. Next week they will use their Circle Maps to write a research paper independently. They will get to share their papers with their classmates and become the "expert" on their inventor.

Thomas Edison and The Light Bulb

In Social Studies the students are learning about various inventors and their contributions to society. The first inventor they are learning about is Thomas Alva Edison. To learn about him, the students researched him on PebbleGo, watched a short video about him on Discovery Education, and created timelines of his life. Using the information that they learned, they created a Bubble Map together which they then used to write a shared research paper. I typed their words to save time since this was a last minute, extra lesson but they told me exactly what to say - I think they enjoyed telling the teacher what to do! I printed their paper out on our poster machine. The students also brainstormed various modern day technologies we would not have without the invention of the light bulb. The students illustrated and labeled nine things that use a light bulb.