What is ART to you? Primary Colors along with ART & MAX!

 

 

Max and Arthur are friends who share an interest in painting. Arthur is an accomplished painter; Max is a beginner. Max's first attempt at using a paintbrush sends the two friends on a whirlwind trip through various artistic media, which turn out to have unexpected pitfalls. Although Max is inexperienced, he's courageous and a quick learner. His energy and enthusiasm bring the adventure to its triumphant conclusion. Beginners everywhere will take heart.

Back to school art lesson with Art & Max!  Love David Wiesner's books...always incredible! 

The 2 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS for the class:

What is ART to you?  

Why do we need ART in the world?

We brainstormed at our tables, made a chart with our ideas and watched these 2 you tube clips to add to our discussion.

ART is...   http://youtu.be/W1zsrlx_c7g

Why ART Matters   http://youtu.be/GURhG6F6F8w

The next step was to design a coffee filter using only black sharpie with 3 things.

1.  They had to answer the 2 essential questions creatively on their filter w/ black sharpie.

2.  Autograph their piece.

3.  Add designs to show their style.

They shared theirs with their tables and next week we will be painting these.  I really was floored with their thinking, answers and creativity.  Here are a few pieces that are in the process:

4.  We used droppers to drop PRIMARY colors onto our pieces.  They were AMAZED!

We discussed how sometimes you felt like MAX and weren't sure where to start with art, but if you just jump in and start...it always turns out to be something special.

You can make the difference!

  

EVERY DAY be sure to use the FAB 4!  In order for students to retain at least 90% of information they must use all of the FAB 4 components.     It's up to YOU to make the difference! 

 

The Finished Literacy Cafe....we LOVE it!

We are so excited with our school's new literacy café!  It is so inviting for parents to sit, eat lunch with their child and READ!  All we need now is our book baskets, and chalk board sign on the wall...but I couldn't wait to post these!

 
 It started as a vision.  Then I used paint.net to create the computer generated idea of the image below.
Then we started!
The red wall, old shutters we painted, PVC pipe awning, chevron curtains, spray painted bakers rack and super cool barrel table & chairs are just perfect!
We used craft paper & letters to make our "Literacy Café" banner that hangs on the top of the ceiling.  Just LOVE IT!

 

 

Cafe, Literacy Cafe & Hallway Makeovers

OK...instead of working in my art room to have it looking spectacular for Thursday nights open house...I have been working on many school improvement projects for our café and halls.

Our school needed some pizazz...so we have been working off and on this summer.  It's crunch time now...so it's a circus at school.  But wanted to share some progress!

First we are wanting to set up a "Literacy Café" outside our cafeteria for parents and students to eat lunch and read together.  We thought we were going to get to set it up in front of the huge windows and doors...but turns our it is a fire hazard so we moved to plan B.  I had an idea of what I wanted in my head...but my team needed an image.  So I used paint.net to throw this together for our starting point...

We have a red wall.  Our team leader stole the old shutters from her mothers house and spray painted them a similar blue...which looks so great when we hold it up in front of the red wall.  One of our parents had their mothers sew some cute café style curtains out of the big hit Chevron material.  One of our teachers made an awning out of PVC pipe and we are going to hang it all hopefully today.

Our academic coach has done a great job putting it all together and using her creative ideas to make it happen!  I can't wait to see her put it in motion!

And we have the best parent support ever that have volunteered much of their summer to help!

More photos to come when finished!

Another project was one of our blank walls.  Our academic coach found the "letter" on pinterest, so we began by painting a wall w/ chalkboard paint.  Instead of using chalk (we were afraid students would wipe it as they walked by) I used paint and tried to give it the "chalk" look.  We added the saying:

Third...we are working to make evidence walls for grade levels in the hall way.  So I made these grade level # signs to hang above black spray painted cork boards for us to display.

Next... the Cafeteria Makeover!  We have had a blah cafeteria and it needed some spice!  So here we go...
End of last year I had a healthy art contest...the winner had their art piece painted large on café wall.  Leah was one of our 2nd graders...and this was a BIG DEAL!  Here you see us recreating her art work...but before we could do it...the walls looked like blah..so we painted everything white.

 

Then we added some more touches...had a teacher make some awnings, Home Depot sent several of their employees over to VOLUNTEER to help us build counter tops and paint for students to sit on bar stools, and we are working on draping the ceiling this weekend.  Final pictures will come later:

This is the ONLY thing I have put together in my ART ROOM!  I made a color block with hot glue and paper on the back of my filing cabinet...ha!