Looking for quick and easy ideas for incorporating Art Criticism into your everyday teaching?

Check out this blog, I put together

Art Criticism in a Pinch

Give your students the opportunity to think, discover, and play, while describing, interpreting, and evaluating art.

As of now there are 21 different ideas and some can be done in under 5 minutes.

The art Criticism Activities are sorted by how you may want to get your students involved. 

Do you want them to collaborate? use technology? act, sing, or dance? 

There's a fun idea just waiting for you to give it a try. 

Red Sings from Treetops

Olive Art's Picture Book Parade introduces... 

Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors        16                             

Published: 2009 Author: Joyce Sidman Illustrator: Pamela Zagarenski 

When I selected this book I was originally thinking maybe there would be a nice music tie it. I didn't realize the seasonal poetry that awaited inside. Each poem flows into the next highlighting a color and it's presence in a each season. The folk art imagery is absolutely beautiful. I especially love the image of the couple, sitting on a dock, with their feet in the water, sipping from a swirly straw. 

I love the idea of connecting feeling to colors and this book is a great example what colors represent to each of us in our hearts. I could see a fun unit where make connections between colors and emotions. Each day they could be given a color and be asked to close their eyes and free write what comes to mind. I think it would be neat to compare the uninterrupted stream of consciousness that flows from each child. Similarly, students could draw what comes to mind when they think of a color. 

This could make a great class bookmaking project. Were pairs of students create and write about the color connections they make. 

*The Picture Book Parade!

This series of posts is designed to meet the needs of graduate class, I am currently enrolled in, titled Teaching Art & Literacy through picture books.

One of my assignments is to read, review, reflect, and be inspired by 20 picture books that are new to me and find a way to share them with my classmates, colleges, & PLN. 

 The Ideas shared will not be ideas I have tried and executed, simply sparks of inspiration derived from a short and colorful read. 

I am hoping that these ideas might develop over time, as I water them in my minds and let what's left of my summer vacation shine and pull out the greatness, that is a totally awesome new lesson for my students. One can hope!

So sit back and enjoy the series of posts I am calling the Picture Book Parade!

The Busy Tree

Olive Art's Picture Book Parade introduces... The Busy Tree               5                                                                 

Published: 2009 Author: Jennifer Ward Illustrator: Lisa Falkenstern

This book is a beautifully illustrated rhyming story about all of the natural functions a tree serves. It's home to many, food for some, cleans our air, and provides shade on a hot day.

The images in this book are lovely and realistic showing many of God's creatures in their natural habitat.

This book could be great for a journaling activity. I did this a few times with sunflowers. I had students plant sunflowers and then make a journal. Each time they came to art we took a little time during class for students to sketch and write what they saw happening with their sunflower.
This might be fun to do with a tree. I wonder if we would be to noisy to see the wildlife? I wonder how it would change from week to week.

*The Picture Book Parade!

This series of posts is designed to meet the needs of graduate class, I am currently enrolled in, titled Teaching Art & Literacy through picture books.

One of my assignments is to read, review, reflect, and be inspired by 20 picture books that are new to me and find a way to share them with my classmates, colleges, & PLN. 

 The Ideas shared will not be ideas I have tried and executed, simply sparks of inspiration derived from a short and colorful read. 

I am hoping that these ideas might develop over time, as I water them in my minds and let what's left of my summer vacation shine and pull out the greatness, that is a totally awesome new lesson for my students. One can hope!

So sit back and enjoy the series of posts I am calling the Picture Book Parade!

Doggone Dogs!

Olive Art's Picture Book Parade introduces... Doggone Dogs!               4                                                                    

Published: 2008 Author: Karen Beaumont Illustrator: David Catrow 

I love dogs & for anyone who knows me this wouldn't come as a surprise. My dogs are my kids! Anyway, that's how I ended up with this book. I purchased it at the book fair a few years ago and tucked it away for my future non-fur children.

This clever counting book uses comedy to look at the mischief, 10 doggone dogs, get into in a day. The words are few but the images say it all!  Every dog has it's own texture and personality, there's so much to look at each and every page.

In my district I have found that my student's have A LOT  of pets. It is not uncommon for students to live on a farm and have a name for every animal their family owns. My students just love animals!

We currently have a partnership with 5 local businesses, where we display student art for the community to enjoy. We are lucky to have the Millerstown Vet as one of those partners. I could definitely see a collaboration where we study animals, maybe bring in some that are looking for homes, from the local shelter, and paint/draw them. We could display the works around town.

Students could write persuasive essays about why one should adopt a particular pet or make rescue posters.

Ok I'm loving this Idea!!! This is one I am definitely exploring more!

*The Picture Book Parade!

This series of posts is designed to meet the needs of graduate class, I am currently enrolled in, titled Teaching Art & Literacy through picture books.

One of my assignments is to read, review, reflect, and be inspired by 20 picture books that are new to me and find a way to share them with my classmates, colleges, & PLN. 

 The Ideas shared will not be ideas I have tried and executed, simply sparks of inspiration derived from a short and colorful read. 

I am hoping that these ideas might develop over time, as I water them in my minds and let what's left of my summer vacation shine and pull out the greatness, that is a totally awesome new lesson for my students. One can hope!

So sit back and enjoy the series of posts I am calling the Picture Book Parade!

Still here?!?! The start of the Picture Book Parade

With all of the other means of sharing what's happening in my classroom, I must admit it has been hard to keep up with this blog. Now that I am totally hooked to my ipad, I rarely open my computer. Though this moment has quickly reminded me of how nice it is to type on a full size keyboard.

I have thought about removing this blog but I feel it unfair to all of you who follow and have Pinned and saved ideas that you wish to come back to in the future. To all of you feeling the same way about your blog's "I understand"

Back in November I did a post called Passionate Posting! , where I wrote about my excitement over utilizing Twitter and Instagram to share student art, lesson ideas, and engage in professional development. 

Follow us on Instagram!!!! @GWDES_Arts 

and me on Twitter @MComp_OliveART

Still the blog is such an amazing way to share larger amounts of information and images. 

Let's face it... Sometimes 140 characters just isn't enough

especially when it comes to sharing the rich learning and creativity happening in art class.

So for those of you who have been awaiting a new post here it goes...

I am currently taking an independent study titled Teaching Art & Literacy through picture books. 

One of my assignments is to read, review, reflect, and be inspired by 20 picture books that are new to me.

I have decided to use Olive Art as a place to share the books I find and my ideas. These will not be ideas I have tried and executed, simply sparks of inspiration derived from a short and colorful read. 

I am hoping that these ideas might develop over time, as I water them in my minds and let what's left of my summer vacation shine and pull out the greatness, that is a totally awesome new lesson for my students. One can hope!

So sit back and enjoy the series of posts I am calling the Picture Book Parade! 

If you have ideas for picture books I should read, send the titles my way!

Until then, check out this post on Flavorwire: The 20 Most Beautiful Picture Books of All Time. 

It's pretty amazing! 

These images are from Flotsam, written and illustrated by David Wiesner.
I had never heard of it, but after seeing these two images on Flavorwire,
I must get my hands on it!

More on 4th Grades 4 Seasons Sculptures

These may not be the most refined or aesthetically pleasing pieces, but I can say with 100% honesty that my students learned more from this assignment than any "step by step to a perfect outcome" project I have taught in the past.

To read more about the assignment see my previous post 4 SEASONS

While students worked in small groups to complete this project I wrote down some things that I heard my students saying. Check it out!

"what ties all of out looks together?"
and "Tim Gunn would say... Make it Work, we have to finish today"

"I wonder if we can just keep this set up here an keep adding buildings"

I didn't catch a direct quote from this group but I did see them consciously turning
 and arranging the parts of their project to decide how to display it in the showcase
so you could see as much of it as possible. 

"Mrs. Comp, I have a lot of fish at home and I was wondering,
since were using real water, if I could bring in goldfish..."

"when she sets this up at Open House it will probably be out on the table
and we don't want people to walk around it and say... I wonder why they didn't finish it back here"

"did you know that there are artists that make art out of Lego's.  Can we bring in Lego's for our project?"

4 Seasons

What on earth are we going to do with this???

I wanted to give my 4th graders a very open ended assignment that would be both sculptural and collaborative.

This is what I came up with...

I have this print of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's, The Four seasons, hanging near the door in my classroom. Out of all of the colorful art images hanging around my room this one peeks the most interest.

I showed my students this work as well as others where the the artist depicted each of the four seasons in one work of art.

Students then formed teams. As a team they brainstormed a list of things that "see" all seasons. I gave them examples such as a tree, fence, and house. I was pleasantly surprised with what they came up with. Some of their ideas included...
cars
fashion
New York City
pets
ponds
mountain
wolves
doors
hands


The teams then chose one idea to develop into a sculpture and drew up a plan. They stretched their imaginations so far beyond my expectations, I was left in total awe.

After introducing the project to my first class, the very next day,  I had children showing up with television boxes. They were thinking BIG!!! I had students coming in with Barbies and fabric to dress in seasonal fashions. They brought in Christmas lights and bubble wrap. I even had a group ask if they could put live fish in their sculpture.

Works in progress

We aren't finished yet, but I couldn't wait to share. This project has peaked student excitement about art in a  truly unbelievable way.

S - Exploration of the seasons
T - Internet research
E - Sculptural construction
A - Aesthetics, Design, Study of famous works of art
M - Measuring, problem solving