Remember my art class?
It's 2 1/2 hrs once a month for 6 months, excluding December, thank goodness. So as of yesterday, I have attended 3 and because I am a student at UVU, I have been able to attend for free. If I was a full time teacher, I would have to pay for the classes (not sure how much) but I could earn credit towards necessary continuing education hours.
It's called Arts Engage and besides the visual Arts class by Scott Flox that I am taking, there is a dance class and a music class to bring the elements of music and movement into the classroom to build brains, promote creative problems solving skills and have fun learning!
I am really enjoying my class. I have never felt particularly artistic, so it's fun to come away each Saturday with something I never thought I could create and I hope I can find a way to incorporate these projects into the classroom setting. The teacher tells us as he teaches how he incorporates art into his 3rd grade classroom every day to promote literacy.
He says when they start with a project, they are invested in it and are more wiling to write about it. They want to tell you about their Starry starry night. It's easy to find similes and metaphors to tell you the wind is like a ribbon or the moon is like a wedge of melting cheese making a puddle of gold in the sky. If they start a writing assignment knowing they're just going to have to write, and rewrite 6 times, not so exciting. Hmmm.... makes sense!
This was yesterday's project, pastel chalks on black paper. The vocabulary for the day was "contour" and "movement". This painting is all about movement. Which direction is the wind moving? What about the Horizon lines? What about the lines of the bush?
As we filled in our lines and layers of color, we needed to follow the contour to create the feeling of movement. It was amazing to see the different directions each person's creativity took them. There was a moon at our table that was 3 times as large as mine. It was pretty awesome. Did you know you can erase the pastel chalk? You can. I love mine but i can see a place to the right of the wind, above the horizon line where I was in a hurry and my blue sky does not follow the contour, it looks messy and so I have learned a lesson... It does make a difference! Follow the Contour!!!!
Here's my Turkey from the October class. He is pretty funny. I didn't bring my feathers in tight enough at the bottom and they are a little wide for his body. He's not connected so I think I want to redo my feathers. This lesson was about blending chalk and learning how the two colors would blend together to create the look you want. This was not traced. I made him. I followed his directions step by step, as he created one on the board in the front of the room.
Again... so fun!
Can't believe I made him all by myself.
In each of the classes, I took notes as I went and have typed them all up so I hope I can recreate him for my future students.
Can you imagine the cute stories kids could come up with him? They would feel invested in the emotions they created on his face and in his stance... They would be thinking about what he is worried about and his escape plan as they create.
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