Placement 1: Four Mile Elementary, Iowa
Mitchellville Elementary, Iowa
Teacher: Cynthia Murphy
Monday, Jan 13 (2 hours) Grade(s): 1st and 3rd
1st Grade:
The students were introduced to a new project where they learned about secondary colors and mixing paint. This served as a review of how certain colors, when mixed together, can create a whole other color. With their mixed colors, students created their own art made out of different sized circles and rings.
3rd Grade:
The students have earned an incentive to reward their good behavior from previous classes. To celebrate, Mrs.Murphy laid out a variety of different art stations at each table. These stations included: stamps, stencils, and clay. The most popular station by far was the clay station. Many of them wanted to design their own clay snowman because of the holidays. Some students used a fork to make textures and to cut their clay.
Tuesday, Jan 14 (5.5 hours) Grade(s): 2nd, 3rd, and 5th
2nd Grade:
In this class, students were introduced to the weathervane project. After the presentation, the students created their own weathervanes to reflect something that they like or are involved in. Many of them did their own pets or a sport that they were involved in. After helping out Mrs.Murphy multiple times with this activity, it has really grown on me. It was a good way to get to know the students for me, and they seemed to really enjoy it.
5th Grade:
The students continued to work on their Claire West animal projects that they’ve started before winter break. Most of them were done with their choosing cutout animal, so a tutorial was given on how to create the background for the project. The materials that made up the background include: paint, chalk, and oil pastels. This was a fun way for students to experiment and combine a variety of different materials into one project. It was also a clever way for students to explore the techniques and style of an artist from the past as well.
3rd Grade:
For this class, the students continued their Frank Stella designs from last week. After coloring both circles fully, students had to cut each circle into fourths and choose six different colored squares to paste their circles on. After following each of the steps completely from Mrs.Murphy, students were successfully able to mimic the design works of Frank Stella. What made this a fun challenge for the students was that they had to problem solve which colors work best with their colored circles, as well as arranging the pieces.
Wednesday, January 15 (3 hours) Grade(s): 2nd and 4th
2nd Grade:The students continued to work on their weathervane projects that they started the week before. Before starting the next step, they were shown a presentation that illustrated the emotions behind color choice. This was to cement the idea that the color of the sky would determine the overall mood of the piece. Knowing this, many of the students chose to do a more colorful background, with either a sunny sky or a rainbow. At the end of class, they were allowed to have a gallery walk with their finished glazed owls. I really enjoyed this part of class, since it was nice for the students to admire their peers’ artwork.
4th Grade: For this class, the students continued to work on their David Hale projects from last week. For the next step, they were assigned to add their own Native American symbols and the animal’s intended habitat onto their pieces. Many of the students seemed to enjoy this part of the project, with some of them creating designs of their own.
