Research shows that doing art makes people smarter. No surprise there. The good news is, I have my homeroom class at the end of the every day for 25 minutes. This would be the perfect time for a mini art lesson, and I am sensing that they really need this. If you have any resources or ideas for very brief art lessons and projects (though they can certainly stretch over multiple days), please share.
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We don't have an art teacher at our school, either. It's just us, and we do the best we can, though it seems to be harder for me this year than when I taught first grade.
ReplyDeleteThe quickest, easiest art lesson I know of that I often use as a filler is Monart. It's a type of directed drawing and the only supplies you need are a pencil and/or black thin marker and plain white paper. I'm sure you could find info on the internet, but there's also a book, Drawing with Children, by Mona Brooks. In addition to being a lot of fun, it's as much about *active listening* as it is about drawing.
I also like to incorporate writing with art activities. One quick idea that comes to mind is to make a "window" - (one way: cut 4 rectangular pieces from a black piece of construction, leaving behind a "cross' shape that looks the a window. Fill in the panes with wax paper or saran and write a poem or short observation piece about what you see outside the window.
Another easy idea:have kids cut white paper sillouettes of winter scenes on a black background and then have the kids write Winter is... "poems" using the 5 senses. Winter looks like... Winter sounds like... Winter smells like..., etc. If time is short, you could spread the activity out over a week and have the kids do the "art" part while you do read-aloud. The trick would be that they would have to have a folder or something to store all their papers in, if they don't stay with you from day to day.
One more idea that involves paper folding: Read poems from Kris George's (origami) poetry book, Fold a Poem. Then have kids choose an origami animal to make and write a poem about.
These are great. Funny thing -- I have Drawing with Children on my bookshelf, from when I tried to teach myself to draw more than 10 years ago. I'm taking it with me to school today!
ReplyDeleteMy homeroom is origami-crazy. Fold me a Poem would be a real treat for them. I've had to "ban" free-time origami in my homeroom because students were taking folded things (such as claws) into other teachers' classes and getting into trouble folding everywhere.
Love the window project and the winter-shapes/poem project too!
Thank you!