Sketching Art History: Stonehenge

Hey there! A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my third and fourth grade kids would be Sketching through Art History in their sketchbooks this year. I go into more detail on this idea, the sketchbooks and the process of making this idea work here. I'll try to give you a quick look-see here: When my students enter the room, they pass a bin of sketchbooks, taking out theirs and placing it on the floor in front of them. Kind of like this:

Once they've watched a Hot Minute of History video, they then watch another one minute drawing prompt video. Here is the one I created for Stonehenge:

The kids now know the drill: during their 5-7 minutes of sketch time, their is no talking. I want them to be mindful, engaged and drawing the entire time. When the timer goes off, they often groan and ask for more time...which is music to my ears. I often splurge and give them a few more minutes. This week, I asked students to share their drawings with their neighbor. I put two minutes on the clock and asked them to spend one minute being a good listener and another being a good explainer. I think they really enjoyed sharing their ideas with their friends. 

I have been putting our art history nuggets into song form to the tune of We Will Rock You! It's been so fun, I actually am a miserable poet but I do love writing these. Here is the PDF if you'd like a copy. 

And here is the one I wrote for Cave Art. Next up: Ancient Egypt! You can stay up to date on these by subscribing here. 

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In the Art Room: Sketching Art History

Hello, party people! I'm excited to share with y'all today some things that are goin' down in the art room...namely, just how my students are using their sketchbooks! I see my third and fourth grade students for an hour (my other classes are 30 minutes in length). For that reason, I decided to introduce them to sketchbooks this year. We created our own sketchbook covers on the very first day of art and had a big time doing so. 

Here's a blog post explaining how they are created. We did these a couple of years ago...and while the kids loved making them and sketching...I dropped the ball. I wasn't super sure how I wanted the kids to use their sketchbooks. Here was my initial thought a couple of years ago:

This time around, I decided to make some changes to how we use our books. Here's the plan:

* We will be taking a journey through art history with our sketchbooks! Every other week, my students will sketch in their books. We will do this every other week so as to not eat into regularly scheduled creative time. To make this process of distributing and collecting sketchbooks easier (because I have two classes at once and things can take a little longer/get a little hairy if I don't have a solid system), I created this video with the help of my awesome co-workers. My kids FLIPPED when they saw their teachers cutting up for the cause. Here's the Do's and Don't's of Sketchbookin':

* On sketchbook days, my students will watch two 1-minute videos. The first one will be a Hot Minute of History (which I've shared here before) and the other will be a sketchbook prompt based on that history. Here's our first installment!

* As they view the videos, students are to silently take their sketchbook from the bin and pass the bin. They did this beautifully. Here's their sketching prompt video:

I made my rules very clear: Silent Sketch Time and One Page at a Time. I then set my timer for 7 minutes and the kids went to work. I was so loving their first sketches! I thought I'd share...

 We used texture plates and fabric for the rubbing. I did end up swapping out the vine charcoal for black oil pastels as the charcoal did not work very well on the oil pastels. 

 I had one student say they had "messed up" and that they wanted to start again on another sheet. I said, "If you were a cave artist, you wouldn't ask for another cave wall...you would make that drawing work!" And they did. It was a fun lesson on beautiful oops'ing!

One of the main reasons I thought it would be good to sketch through Art History is that it is one area that I often fail to teach. There are SO MANY THINGS TO TEACH IN ART that I find I have to squeeze in as much as I can. This is one way I hope to do that. 

 I introduced A Hot Minute of Art History before (more details here) but then it was just me chatting...and I tend to be long winded. Not only that but it didn't really resonate with the kids as they didn't have a creating-connection. So, hopefully, this will help. I am showing the one minute videos to my first through second grade students...they just don't do the sketching portion. 

 I also created a song to go along with this journey. You can find the song here (it's a work in progress). Here's a clip of me teaching it to a group of third graders a couple of years ago:

We still get up and sing the song...but now we do it with a before video and a sketching intro!

 I was so excited by the sketchbook drawings and I know the kids were too. I can't wait to share our next Art History video with them!

 I also loved the variety of drawings. I did do a quick google search of cave paintings and placed a couple of simple sheets on each table for inspiration. My students are used to these Idea Sheets, as we call them. I know that I work best when I have some inspiration so I always provide that for my students. 

  As I create the lyrics to the song, I've been working on paintings myself. Here's my take on Cave Painting:

These paintings will later become posters to hold the lyrics of our Rockin' Art History song!

You can find the pdf for this here if you are interested! Feel free to use in your art room. All I ask is that you share your source when other's ask. I would rather not post what I share to TPT...I would like to continue sharing. However, it is sometimes sad to see folks not give credit where it is due...especially when they got the information for free. So I ask politely and say thank you!

 Getting back into sketchbooks with the kids meant finding a place to store them. Earlier this year, I found this great bookcase that was in an abandoned classroom. After a little bit of paint, I was happy with the result.

 My bins from Target are the perfect fit! It really helps to have the folders divided by class and gender as that makes passing the sketchbooks our much faster and easier.

 I'll be sure to share our sketchbook adventures as they continue!

Until then, have a super week!

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In the Art Room: Art Will Rock You! An Art History Song

Hi, friends! This past weekend, I went all crazy and decided to write an Art History Ballad to the tune of Queen's We Will Rock You. You see, I've had this Rockin' Art History Wall in my room for ages...but I always thought it'd be fun to have a song to go with it. If you follow me and my art teacherin' adventures here, you've seen some images of my magnificent (ahem) song writing attempts. This week, after our sketchbook time, and right before our painting adventures, we took a 5 minute trip to the Art History Wall and I taught my third and fourth graders the first two stanzas (is that what they're called?) of the Art Will Rock You song. I managed to film a class of third graders singing the song and chatting for a hot minute about the art history the song covers. I had to keep it short and sweet as we had a lot of other things to pack into our hour together. 

My sincerest apologies for my voice. And that jib-jab in the middle. feel free to just scroll on to the end to catch the second half of the song. 

I did do a lil reno on the wall this summer as the purple papers were looking a lil faded. 

The first portion of the song is about Rock Painting followed by Ancient Egypt. Here are the lyrics if you'd like!

This one was so much fun to write...I wish the others had come as easily. A songwriter, I am not!

A lil tricky to sing, as you'll notice in the video. We'll get it!

The next portions of our song will include the Ancient Greeks and Romans. I'll be teaching a little more of the song each week...at least, that's the plan. With it only taking 5 minutes, I think it will go well. I did have a couple extra minutes at the end of a first grade class this week and we did it too! They loved it! All that stomping and clapping was a hit with the kids. 

I'm not totes in love with the lyrics for the Romans and Greeks so they are kinda a work in progress. If you've got suggestions, I'll take 'em!

And if you decide to use this in your art room, I'd love to hear from you! You can always comment here or shoot me an email. I'll be sure to update the blog with more of the song as it comes along. And, if you'd be so kind, if you do use this, please share this blog post with your friends so they can as well. Thanks!

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In the Artroom: The Art History Wall

A Rockin' Trip Thru Art History with...Mona Lisa's Masterpieces.

This week in the art room, I thought I'd share with you the backdrop seen in many of my What-I-Wore-This-Week posts. Every school year, I create a theme of study. The year I created the Art History Wall, our theme was Rockin' Thru Art History. I wore this wacky apron and the kids created guitars and rocked their way through the history of art.  I loved the wall too much at the end of the year to take it down. With the exception of a random piece of art falling off the wall, it's held up well through the years and, more importantly, it's proved to be a valuable educational tool in the art room.

Every art room should have a mascot.

I am fortunate in that I have a very large art room. Once upon a time, my art room was the school library. So it is very long with plenty of former book shelves turned cabinets and storage.

The Wall in total. Narrowing down the history of art to fit my wall was the hardest part.

That being said, I have this very large wall space which seemed to be the perfect canvas for a giant display. I began by jotting down the major movements in art history. From there, I rooted through my mountains of visuals: old calendars, postcards, posters -- even cutting up the art history books I'd hoarded since college, to find just the right images.

In the Beginning...we had rock art, no paper, no scissors.

With my art movements and visuals sorted, I began the writing of the Art History Wall. This proved to be difficult as I had to keep it simple and kid friendly. To add a little  three dimensional pop to the wall, I clued a piece of foam to the back of the purple papers as well as some of the visuals.

If you are interested in creating your own wall, feel free to borrow from mine as much as you like. The following are the movements and their simple descriptions:

Rock Painting: The beginning of art...

Ancient Egypt: tombs, pyramids, mummies, OH MY!

Ancient Greece: athletic people that believed in many gods...

Ancient Rome: expanded Greek art ideas (after conquering them)

Middle Ages: Bible stories were told through art

Early Renaissance: Artists learned to paint realistically

High Renaissance: Michelangleo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and sculpted David; Leonardo da Vinci sketched inventions and painted the Mona Lisa

Dutch painting: Dutch artists painted portraits, still lives and genre paintings

Romantics and Realists: wanted to show emotion in their art

Impressionists: group of artists that wanted to show color and light

Famous impressionists were Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt

Post Impressionist: artists that created after the Impressionists and expanded their ideas: van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne

Modern Art: In modern art, artists realized that the possibilities are endless!

The bulletin board beside the art history wall.

What's the point in having a mascot when you don't get to wear a silly costume? I got this idea from one of the most amazing and inspirational art teachers I know, Debi West. You can read more about her and her students here.

And there you have it! We put the wall in action when we are learning about an artist or a certain movement in art. I'll ask the kids to follow me to the Art History wall so they can visually grasp important periods in art. Thanks for reading!

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