Today's Lesson: In this lesson, students were asked to create a painting of a monster on a stretched canvas. Students used acrylic paint and were given the opportunity to include various 3-D objects on their project such as yarn, fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, and googly eyes. Teachers introduced color mixing techniques in order for the students to mix new colors for their monster paintings. In today's art experience students experimented with the abilities and limitations of using acrylic paint, and giving a name and story to their paintings. Essential Understandings:
Art can communicate stories and ideas
Artists combine 2-D and 3-D materials into one artwork
Artists will understand the creative abilities and limitations of acrylic paint
Outcomes - Students will be able to:
Mix colors to make a new color
Incorporate 2-D and 3-D materials on one surface
Identify key characteristics of their monster
Create a painting that tells a story
Skills:
Creative problem solving
Innovative ways to manipulate and combine materials to make something new
Complete documentation of this lesson can be found by clicking the image below!
Reflection: What worked well for this art experience? Why? In today’s class period I felt that many things worked well for this art experience that we presented for this group of students. Providing different options for students to create their monsters was a good idea. We provided canvases, paint, and some 3-D items such as yarn, various fabric scraps, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners for students to create their monsters with. While most of the students gravitated towards just using paint, there were a few that expressed interest in incorporating these materials with their painting. Another thing that I felt worked well with our students in this class was giving the students a broad theme (monsters) and allowing the students’ creative vision take over. It was great seeing all of the different ideas each student had. Each student seemed to be really involved with their art work and overall had a good time working today. Everyone took the project in their own direction and allowing students to have that freedom of choice kept the students really engaged for this art experience. The final aspect I would like to address from this class period today was the reflection process. In the last meeting with this group of students, the interest level seemed to drop off during the reflection. Today, however, the students enjoyed giving a name and story to their monsters. I was surprised how involved many of the students were with the story they gave to their monsters. Again, allowing students to include personal meaning and relevance to their art work worked really well today. This idea related back to many discussions we have had in class but seeing it in action today with the students was really valuable. What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? For me, this teaching experience meant a lot to me as I learn more about teaching art to a group of students. I think my biggest takeaway from this meeting was getting to know my students more and their abilities as learners and artists. We have a couple students in this group that are non-verbal or have very limited speech, so I’ve had to become more aware on the best means of communication for these students. I found that providing options for these students to pick from works really well. For example, I asked one student if his monster likes to eat pizza or hot dogs and he pointed to my hand that represented pizza. I found this is a great way to communicate ideas to non-verbal students, and I will use this tool as we meet with this group again soon and for future students of mine. Overall, it has been a great experience getting to know more about these students and their interests. This will definitely influence planning for future projects as we progress through the semester. Seeing how engaged the students were today was really fun to watch. One thing that I felt personally didn’t work as well as I envisioned was the color mixing demonstration I showed a small group of students. Looking back to this part of the class period, I think I talked a little too much. The students I showed color mixing to seemed to lose interest near the end of my little talk. In the future, I will really consider how to engage the students more and try to include some “wow” factor in a demonstration. Also, I will try and keep these types of demonstrations shorter, so my students don’t become bored of me talking so much. What would you do differently? Why? Overall, each time I work with this group of students there is so much that I learn. For my future as an art educator, it is important for me to think about how to keep the magic in art making. Going back to the color mixing demonstration, I need to consider things that students may have never experienced before to hold their interest and add the “wow” factor. I could tell that the students were eager to begin their paintings, so another thing to consider is to talk less and let the students start working. Both of these ideas are something I will have to keep in mind as I progress in the teacher preparation program and as I enter my career as an educator. Another thing that came up in today’s meeting was some of the paint that we distributed to students was pretty old, and as a result, the paint was either really runny or clumpy. This is something that didn’t occur to me as we planned the lesson and set up the classroom. For the future, it will be important to inspect materials that the students will be working with to ensure quality. It was a simple fix, we just replaced the bottle of paint with a new one. While this wasn’t the end of the world in today’s meeting, just taking this extra step in the planning/setting up process will help things go smoother in the future.