Mrs. Edwards' Art Class

Welcome Artists!!

Thoughts about K-5 Art...
I have a special place in my heart for Kindergarten. I did my student teaching with a group of the sweetest K-5 students! As much as I love these cuties, I have to say it is one of the most difficult art classes! There is so much that is new to them, that I often can easily get frustrated. Thankfully, for me, it's just easier (and way more rewarding) to laugh and pray in those times!! When I first started teaching art, my wonderful and perfect lesson plans for K-5 had to be thrown out the window. I started from scratch and got down to the very basic, and very FUN and exciting lessons for this group of kids. I realized this: What's more important? Teaching the kids to recognize a VanGogh or Seurat painting when they see it? Or teaching them how to appreciate art and get excited about it!? Obviously, at that age, most of them love art anyway... but I want to foster a love for art and desire to be creative in all of my students and it must start in that first year of art. That can't happen if I begin with lessons loaded with technicalities and projects too challenging to enjoy. If a student becomes frustrated to the point of giving up, I have failed as an art teacher! My goal now is to come up with lessons that "secretly" teach the principles and concepts of art that they will need later on! This way, students just see a really fun activity that leaves them craving for more!

Hence... rainbow hair!!! (The actual lesson)

Again, starting with the basics, I get the students excited about color, about the rainbow, and about the absolute beauty of creation- God's masterpiece! We go over the color wheel which actually is slightly different than the rainbow.

• Rainbow= "ROYGBIV" -this is a scientific breakdown of the color spectrum
• Color wheel= Red ,Yellow, and Blue are primary; Orange, Green, and Purple are Secondary.. so basically we don't include indigo.. (which is basically blue, right?)

Gesture Drawing is sketching the basic form of a body in motion. We try to do this lesson early in the year so students can use this technique in other projects. It really helps them learn how to draw people in another form other than standing up straight.

• They start with the direction of the head
• Add the tilt of the shoulders
• A U-shape for the torso
• The arms and legs are added in 2-part lines.
• Hands and feet are represented with ovals in the direction they are pointed.

Greetings to my 2012-2013 art students and parents!

I'm so glad to be back in the blogging world! After a year-long break from blogging, I really missed it and wanted to get it going again! Plus, there is soooo much beautiful art to see! Enjoy the next few blog posts as I have blogging fever and want to show all that we've been doing!

At the beginning of the year, I have to remind my students of all the classroom expectations. I try not to bore them the whole time, so after a quick review, I get to the fun stuff as quickly as possible! This year as an opening activity, some classes listened to a few musical selections then drew scenes depicting what they thought was going on in the music.

This activity is good for a number of reasons:

• We learned that art should have a meaning and story to it. Not just scribbles and chaos!
• We got our brains back to thinking creatively after a summer of no art class!
• This helps our new students feel more comfortable with a stress-free lesson.
• Studies show that listening to music aids in the creative processing when drawing!

Here are the selections as well as a few examples of Second Grade work!
1. Trumpet Concerto in C
2. Op. 289 Persian March
3. Everlasting Gobstoppers (from the soundtrack Willy Wonka{Mrs. Edwards' favorite movie!})
4. The Entertainer


Several students pictured a train of some sort for #3!




I love the evil snake being charmed!

All the students did a super job and their work is being displayed in the classroom now! Thanks for reading and please visit again!

 School is back in session at GCS, and we are already having a blast in art class! We have been reviewing rules, expectations, routines, and beginning our newest art activity! We hope to get these featured on the site this week!
If you aren't familiar with our classroom, take a look at our class policies and routines below!
Most of our rules can fit into one of these four categories:

• Be Kind!
• Don't make fun of others' art work.
• Have a happy and cooperative attitude.
• Don't talk while I am teaching or when a classmate is presenting.
• Be Careful!
• Don't run around the room like a crazy kid! 
• When working with certain supplies, we try as much as possible to keep our hands away from our face and clothes (to avoid blue/orange faces!!)
• Watch out for others' art work to be sure you do not accidentally ruin their work.
• Be Creative!
• Most common phrase in our class is PLAN with your Pencil!
• Do not mindlessly draw without a creative plan in mind. 
• Sketch out ideas before using permanent color.
• Be Original!
• Do your best to come up with an idea of you own
• Never copy Mrs. Edwards' work or your neighbor's work.

There are times when a student may be having a hard day... we'll just leave it at that!! In such cases, they may be given a Warning (Level 1), a "W" (Level 2), or a Check (Level 3). A "W" stands for wait. If you receive a “W”, you must wait 5 minutes away from the art table while everyone else continues to work.

I do reward excellent behavior though! When a student shows kindness, self-control, willingness to follow directions, helpfulness, and creativity they are eligible for Art Star! Art Star is a highly-esteemed award that receives a very cool certificate and CANDY!!

It is super important to me to conserve our supplies to the best of our ability! That's why we have a "no wasting" rule! If we are cutting up paper for an activity, I have the students place any leftover paper into our nicely color coded slots! They are doing a great job at this too!


When we come back after a break, I just assume students were stricken with amnesia and quickly review rules and expectations!! So far so good! They really are a super bunch of kids! I am so blessed to have them in my art class and thank our Lord for giving me the opportunity to minister to them!

Please bare with me as I continue to update the blog a bit. Let me know of any glitches you may find. The comment section should be easier to access now, so please give some positive feedback to our students that I can read to them in our class! They love that! 

Hello again!

Did you know that Grace Christian School is offering awesome summer camps this year? This is something new my husband and I are starting! I am so excited about our first summer camp coming up in just 1 week!

June 6th-10th I will be conducting a Drama Camp for students in Kindergarten through 7th grade!
This will truly be an unforgettable week as we work together at becoming wonderful actors and actresses! We are going to have so much fun performing, wearing costumes and makeup, filming commercials, and more! Throughout the week we will be practicing for our BIG SHOW which is our Friday performance in front of family and friends! If you are in the Huntington, WV area you are invited to attend this super-dee-duper camp!

• Camp will meet 9am-12pm Monday through Friday
• Campers must be registered the Friday before each camp begins.
• Each camper will receive a very "dramatic" t-shirt!
• Awards and certificates will be given out at the BIG SHOW!
• Each camper must bring his/her own daily snack and drink.
• Dress code- loose-fitting pants/jeans or knee-length shorts

Costs:

• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day Campers- $15

I will be offering several other camps and in-depth details will be coming later, but here is a brief summer schedule of the camps.

• June 6th - 10th 9am-12pm: DRAMA CAMP
• Open to students K5-7th grade
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• June 20th - 24th 9am-12pm: ART CAMP
• Open to students K5-3rd grade
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• ALSO June 20th - 24th 9am-12pm: SOCCER CAMP
• Open to students 4th-7th grade (boys and girls)
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• July 11th - 15th 9am-12pm: ART CAMP II
• Open to students 4th - 7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• ALSO July 11th-15th 9am-12pm: SOCCER CAMP II
• Open to students K5-3rd grades (boys and girls)
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• July 18th-22nd 10am-12pm: CHEERLEADING CAMP
• Open to girls in rising 4th-7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $45
• Registered Day-Campers- $10
• ALSO July 18th-22nd 1-3pm: TECHNOLOGY CAMP
• Open to students 4th-7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $45
• Registered Day-Campers- $10

Please note the time changes the week of July 18th-22nd. There is one camp in the morning and one camp in the afternoon (with a break in the middle for lunch!!). We hope you can make it out to these absolutely amazing camps! You will not regret it!

I finally got some time to update the blog! These past few weeks have been some crazy, crowded, and fun times! This week's post will feature the Spring Art Show held last Thursday night. It was an enchanting and beautiful time, and I really enjoyed watching the children run around and point out their artwork to their family. So sweet!!


I really hope you enjoyed this very small representation of our awesome Art Show! To those who were able to attend, I hope you loved it as much as I did!! I look forward to the next show coming in December!! Thanks for all your support!

We have been very busy creating some amazing looking artwork for our Spring Art Show!! Our Spring Art Show will be open the night of the elementary concert on May 19 at 6:15. We held our very first art show back in December the night of the Christmas concert. I hope to continue to have a Christmas and Spring art show every year too! The students and their families really enjoy looking around at all the wonderful art projects. For our first show, each class made a Christmas quilt that was displayed along with several samples of projects we had worked on during that semester.


Since you are a dear and loved blog reader, I will fill you in on some of the exciting things you will see at the Spring Art Show. Last week and this week the students have made and will be painting clay pots. We learned about different techniques to create these pots and now we are going to paint beautiful designs on them! Another cool exhibit will be our wall of self-portraits. You will NOT want to miss this amazing display of each elementary student's self-portrait. You may also see some other famous GCS staff on the wall! Along with these two special exhibits, I will feature some of the exceptional pieces of artwork from weeks past that show all visitors what we have learned this semester.

I am looking definitely looking forward to the unveiling of our awesome clay pots and other artwork! Be sure to come to the BEST art show around!! Also, at 7:00 pm the elementary will put on a wonderful spring concert! It will be a fun and beautiful night for everyone!

I might put some sneak peeks of our pots on here since you are such a great group of blog-readers, so stay tuned for a special surprise later this week!! But you will have to come to the art show to see them in all of their glory!