The students and I used a poetry skeleton borrowed from Hope at Hand ( www.hopeathand.org ) to create the words for our "Visual Poetry" project. We discussed how Art is in absolutely every subject and everything we learn and do and ARE. It's true! Then we thought about the experiences we've each been through in our lives thus far that have shaped us into who we are today in this chapter of our lives right now.
Most of the Artists in my classes used imagery from their poem to make a symbol that represents them in order to make this most recent work of Art. You will notice a few dancers, soccer players, book worms, etc ... see what other symbols you can pick out from the Artwork of these amazing James Weldon Johnson poets and Artists!!!
Maybe I am biased, but I absolutely LOVE these word Art creations these kiddos made.
Don't you agree??!?! I just think these pieces turned out so AMAZING!
The students finished their Fractured Fairy Tales (which I have to say were SOOO FUN to read!!!) and we decided to turn the classroom into a type of round theater so we could have read alouds and share our genius with each other. Isn't the point of learning to be having FUN!!! Why not, right!
The end of the year 2017 rounded out so unbelievably fun, you guys!
So, for the early birds that completed their Word Art Visual Poetry project, Ms. Holloway busted out her boxes of yarn, and we spent our creative down time making super fun fuzzy WOOLY BALLS!
The idea for these fun fuzzy pom pom projects came from my mom (the original Mrs. Holloway who YES, is also an Art teacher, ha!) who makes them with her elementary Art students. Aren't they cool?!
Then I had Kat, our master finger knitter, doing mini lessons on how to create lovely thin scarves! And since we have over fifty kids per class, why not move our creative stations onto the floor so that we actually have the space we really need to get crafty! How much fun are these finger knitters having, y'all! (Thanks so much, Kat!)
This really is my favorite time of year, folks, I'm tellin you!
Mrs. Schmid, our incredible dance teacher at JWJ, hosts the best field trips! This is the second year in a row that I've been lucky enough to chaperone on the Nutcracker adventure, and I am nowhere near quittin now! Holy cow, what a truly tremendous show they put on, for real! It was SOOO good!
And lastly, I have to shamelessly promote for the Northeast Florida Art Educator's Association. This year, I became the secretary on the board of this non-profit association, and although it is pretty hard work, this is the best cause I can think of for devoting my time.
We spend a lot of our meetings figuring out how to raise money for Art students in Northeast Florida, and often we make Artwork to sell at events like this one, the new and awesome Avondale Artwalk that happens every second Thursday of the month.
So, parents, if you ever feel so inclined to add a little coinage to the starving Art teacher funds, come out on a Thursday and purchase some unique Artwork to help fund your Artist childrens' budget :)