Oh Boy--It's Koi!

Hello, and welcome back to another school year in Sarah’s Art Room.

As you rightly suspected, the summer raced by with lightning speed.

And so here we are, facing another fall—and I use the term lightly. It’s still quite warm but the retailers are putting pumpkin spice stuff everywhere, so apparently it’s fall.

How’s it going, you ask? My first day back teaching involved my losing my voice, at least partially. It seems that over the summer I got out of practice with my Loud Voice. And so another school year has begun. There are the kids who still wear a sweater even when it’s ninety degrees. There are the ones who think art time is break dancing practice. There were erasers thrown on day one. But all in all, it was a creative day and I got some sweet kiddo hugs and some banter with the teens. There are more kids than ever but I’m indestructible.

So what have my students worked on this month? I thought you’d never ask.

Kindergarden: these sweet kiddos did frog art. I gave them blank coloring pages I drew, and they filled them in with marker. We discussed the fact that frogs come in lots of colors, and I encouraged them to go wild with color. 

First grade also colored frogs, and we traced lily pads using paper plates as our templates. Two funny moments happened during first grade art class. A couple of girls returned from the bathroom to tell me there were ghosts appearing and disappearing. I raised an eyebrow. Ghosts? Hmmm…A few minutes later, we discussed sharing of art supplies, and I told them they can say, “Can I borrow your supplies, Mrs. Sarah?” One kiddo immediately chimed in with, “May I borrow them?” Touche. Mateo will be in charge of noting all manners transgressions on my part.

Second grade: there are about a million of them and they have the energy of Olympic gymnasts and the speed of hummingbirds. Good thing I’m indestructible. (But check with me in April.) Second grade began work on a project I’ve been contemplating for a few years: koi fish. Koi seemed like a great subject because their splotchy skin makes for good artistic inspiration. The kids enjoyed starting the project and I always like seeing what they create.

Third grade also made koi fish. Their approach was to cut out pieces of construction paper so that we could use collage techniques. I explained that the splotches on koi are irregular, and that they could think of the shapes like puzzle pieces, “wiggly shapes” as I put it—like camouflage shapes, one kiddo said.

Fourth grade made three-dimensional leaping frogs. We used cardstock, as it is stronger than paper, and this allowed us to fold and bend our frogs so that they appear to be about to leap to their next adventure.

Fifth grade also made koi fish and I love how much detail and shading they added to their koi.

Sixth grade had the privilege of being the only class that got to paint their koi. This particular class is very artistic, and I thought they’d have fun experimenting with watercolor techniques for their koi ponds.

Seventh grade painted frogs, peeking out from reeds. I like that some kids used the wet-on-wet technique. You apply water to your paper and then add paint, which causes the paint to feather out and blend in unexpected ways. Aren’t these frogs fun?

Eighth grade began with abstract art. I had them color in two spirals and experiment with interlocking them or layering them in different ways. I asked them to put pattern and color on their spirals.

That wraps up our first month back at school. I joke about how exuberant these kids are, and there are times when it is exhausting, but I really do feel lucky to teach kids and to see how their imaginations work. This reminds me of my first blog post after I began teaching, six years ago. I wasn’t even sure I’d make it through the first semester back then—teaching felt almost impossible! But now I know to expect a mix of challenges and happy surprises So if there is anyone out there, facing a new challenge, doubting your own ability—be patient with yourself. It takes time to adjust to something new. We are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for. Just look at me—I’m a little older, and a little creakier, but I’m doing something meaningful, and those crazy kids make me laugh. So far their energy hasn’t crushed me. I’m indestructible!  

The Art Teacher has Left the Building...

The art teacher is tired. So tired that she skipped May’s blog post. There was simply too much to do and not enough bandwidth for a blog post.

But I’m back with a look at some colorful creations made by my students before we closed up shop for the year.

Side note: how do you know you are an art teacher? You clean out your purse (weighing in at a million pounds) and find two glue sticks, two pencil sharpeners, one hot glue stick and eleven Sharpies. Yes, eleven, including one blue and one red, in case you wondered. I have to hide the Sharpies because the kids destroy them.

But back to art. Here are some of the things my students made this spring:

With my Kindergarten students, I had them color in a rubber duckie. They cut out their ducks, and then glued them to blue paper, adding small turquoise pieces of paper in the background. This ticked several boxes, including 1) learning collage techniques, 2) mimicking texture in the water and 3) practicing cutting and gluing. And who doesn’t love a rubber duckie? Did you know that rubber ducks were first invented in the late 1800s? They age well.

My first grade class colored pineapples toward the end of the year. I’ll be honest: this was not a project I thought long and hard over—it was a “throw it in at the last minute” kind of project, as it was almost the end of the year and I did not want to deal with paint or glue! But I think they turned out super cute. I encouraged the kids to use naturalistic colors. I recommended that they try adding a tiny bit of brown to the yellow body of the pineapple. We wanted details! Some turned their pineapples into cartoon characters (perfectly fine) and one rebel turned his into an orange and blue jester (also fine—got to give the kid credit for imagination!). Cute, and it set the tone to welcome in summer.

Second grade did a fun project that I invented called Peace Sign Hands. I got my inspiration from a peace sign hand sticker on someone's rear car window. I thought it would be interesting to see how different kids decorated their peace sign. We needed pattern and color, and the kids delivered. Several grades worked on this project, and in some classes we added in the “okay” sign with hands, or a fist bump. In some grades we added traced hand shapes behind our peace sign hand, just to give our art some more dimension. I love how these turned out.

My imaginative third graders had a lot of fun doing Peace Sign Hands and Rubber Duckie art. I encouraged them to decorate their duckies however they wanted. There were no rules about color. 

The fourth graders were extra busy this spring. They are a creative bunch and I had them working on multiple projects in the last two months. They finish things fast, so I had to scramble just to keep ahead of them. Here we have three-d pinwheels that really spin. We also have watercolor hot air balloons with pipe cleaner cables.

My fifth grade students kept creative by doing two projects last month. They made peace sign hand art, and they created name art using a product called Scratch Art. If you are not familiar, scratch art paper looks like a glossy black paper—until you scratch the surface with a popsicle stick, revealing color underneath. Some kids got multicolored scratch paper and some got gold or silver scratch paper. I asked them to scratch patterns in each letter of their name, and I absolutely love how these turned out.

My sixth grade students made peace sign hands, and I like how this creative class came up with really unusual ideas.

The rambunctious seventh graders were given the privilege of using clay. Some ground it into the floor but some actually sculpted with it. (I’ve made a note to self that seventh grade may be too young for clay. Please, someone remind me of this next year, lest I forget how messy it is to scrape clay dust from the floor.)

My graduating eighth graders also did scratch art names and the results were wonderful.

And so, we wrap up another tiring, exhilarating, challenging, colorful year in Mrs. Sarah’s art room. If you need me, I will be tackling tasks I’ve put off during the school year (or ignoring them), possibly napping, hanging with my kids, and dreaming up more fun art projects for next year. Til then, keep calm…and color on!