Busy Art Day

Yesterday is my big art day at school. I teach a PreK Art Lunch class (see previous post), and I also teach another "Under the Influence" after school class. There are a lot of students signed up for my Thursday class, so I have a lot of art to show off. Again, we learned about Romare Bearden. I am planning on keeping my Tuesday and Thursday art classes the same. If there is a child who comes to both (like my children), I try to encourage them to take the project a step further. So, we did initials again this time (see Tuesday's post), but my son decided to do a picture collage to shake things up a bit.

I love how all of these turned out!

Thursday is a big class, and this was a fairly complicated project to start the semester, with lots of steps. The kids all did a great job!

Note: In the future, I will probably just combine these two classes to make up one post.

A New Year....and New Art Classes!

I'm so excited to be offering 3 art classes this year at my kids' school this year. I am again teaching "Under the Influence....of Art," but on two days instead of just one (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Because I have some repeat students, and just to keep it fresh, I am changing up some of the artists we learn about. Or, if we repeat some of the big artists, the projects might be switched up a bit. I have a new energy for this class. 

I'm also super excited for a new class that I will be teaching Thursdays during the day, "PreK Art Lunch" for those preschoolers that are in 1/2-day preschool. They will bring a sack lunch and eat while I read them a story. Then we'll work on a small craft project related to the story. I can't wait for our first story tomorrow.

The first day of "Under the Influence" went really well. We learned about Romare Bearden, and then the students made mixed media pictures containing collage, crayon and water color. We started simple, with their initials (or a letter of their choice—for some reason my son chose "W"), but the outcome looks quite complex.  I love the way the final artwork shows so much texture, just like Bearden's work. 

I'm planning on posting more of the same project after Thursday's class, and I am also planning on posting pictures from the new PreK Art Lunch class. I think most kids love seeing their artwork on the web (I know mine do!), and I hope it encourages them as well.