Thursday, January 16, 2014

Squish Painting


This was a very fun experiment I did with my 6th graders yesterday.  I call it Squish Painting.  Basically, this is an experiment in color mixing.  They take a scoop of paint and put it on their paper, place the wax paper on top, and squish the colors together until the whole background is filled up.  And you may be thinking this is a bit too young for 6th grade.  Yes, it probably is, but I was looking for a fun way to add color to the background of their paper so we can do more surface work next time.  We are currently participating in the Picture The Music art competition for the St. Louis Symphony.  For the contest, students are asked to create a work of art that represents a certain piece of music the Symphony has selected.  Before we began, we discussed the different moods and feelings you can get by listening to music and the moods that certain colors can portray.  Students were to choose colors that they think best represented the music and squish them under the wax paper to mix them together and make new colors.  I'll post pictures of our finished art next week...






2 comments :

  1. Dear Mrs. Keller

    I am also an art teacher and every now and then I pass by your blog!
    I love what your kids do! Congrats!!
    How do you manage your time? do you give art to the whole elementary?
    Personally This is my second year as an art teacher in Elementary school...
    I have 475 students and it is quite stressful. I grade each project with a rubric and barely have time for myself at home. With the common core standards it has narrowed my fun class to do a lot of writing too, and I am okay with that...but my students seem to get frustrated a little. How are you managing common core standards in your class? I hope you answer soon, 7 years of experience are way ahead of me!

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  2. Great questions. First of all, I do not grade every project with a rubric. I do, however, grade them by observation every time they come. So for example, a 2 day project would be graded on their abilities to complete the first set of objectives and the second day I would grade them on the final project. I enter their grades directly on-line so I don't have any paperwork. I see each class only once a week, so when they come to me I try to make their time meaningful and let them experience new and different ways to make art. I just tip-toe through what very little I know about Common Core. I teach my curriculum and if time allows, I address some writing or reading or compare and contrast about what we learned. Art is supposed to be fun.

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