Mrs. Edwards' Art Class

Oh Kindergarten...

In K-5 art we have so much fun, make such messes, and learn soooo many lessons! We have been discussing the color wheel, rainbows, primary colors, secondary colors and such... and this week we talked about cool colors! We celebrated the colors Blue, Purple, and Green by making beautiful peacocks!

Missions Conference is coming!

It's important that elementary students learn the value of missions at a young age. Next week Grace Gospel Church will be hosting their 70th annual Missions Conference. Our school then invites the visiting missionaries to speak in the classrooms about their work on the mission field.

I like for the art students to create some artwork for the missionaries to see when they visit our halls. This year, we talked about a Christian's duty to be a shining light in a dark world. Matthew 5:14 says "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." and 5:16 says "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I used these verses as the basis for our art project.

Fourth and fifth grade students used chalk to sketch the form of a candle. They had to first draw out a cylinder, then add the lumps of melting wax, some black outlines, a wick and a burning flame to represent our responsibility to be that shining light!

Welcome back Art Friends!

Things have been busy in art class at GCS! Students in 1st-5th grade are working diligently on comic books / story books. I will feature those as soon as the last details are finished! This week, second grade finished their comics, so for the remaining class time we played with Moon Sand!

You may be wondering what moon sand is... think of the consistency of wet sand that you can always build sand castles with, but without the water and without the gritty sand! Moon sand is very soft but not squishy like play-dough. If you still don't understand, look at some of the pictures and just trust me that it is verrrry fun to play with!




• 9 Cups of Flour
• 1 1/4 Cup Oil
• Add dry tempera paint for color if you wish!
• Mix together with your hands and in no time you'll be having a blast!

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!