5th grade legacy mural 2013.

The 5th graders just completed the annual legacy mural at Zamo!

I got to work with many small groups as they left a positive mark on our school with paint, colors, and brushes. All the groups did a fantastic job on the wall:)

This year I also had a group of student volunteers from high schools near and far, to assist with the mural. They were great helpers on the project, cutting in edges, replenishing supplies, and cleaning LOTS of brushes.

The mural was inspired by a project Miss Kathi did with one class of 5th graders. That project was inspired by an art gallery painting done by the late James Rizzi. I modified the design a bit, to make it more manageable for the time we had to paint. Some of the individual panels in the mural were inspired by student panels create for that project with Miss Kathi. Others were inspired by projects the art team did with our 5th graders throughout the year.

legos!

On Friday I tried out my new lego center for early finishers. It was a big hit:) Students who finished their mural designs early could free draw or free build. By the end of class there were 6-7 students building. Some kids even came back at recess.

I got 20 pounds of start up legos from my son. It was great to purge a little from his collection and share

 them with our students at Zamo.

shaping up with room 21.

These are the 2 most recent projects I have done with our moderate severe class. Both focused on using geometric shapes to create something else. The aides and I assisted those students with less motor control by holding glue with them, smoothing out paper, and guiding hands as they drew. The more independent students cut out and drew the shapes themselves.

Today was my last class with them for the year. I'm looking forward to working with them again in the fall:)

The ice cream cone project was sampled from Rina over at k6art.com. The other project was inspired by an illustration done by Eric Comstock. Eric does some very cool work that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

cooling off with Erik.

This week the 2nd graders are looking at the work of LA based artist Erik Abel. During this hot stretch of the summer I thought his images of water and waves would put us all in a cooler state of mind:)

When we looked at a few of his images from his website, we talked about how Erik creates 3d space by using bog shapes in the front and smaller ones in the back. When I showed the students an example of the project we would be doing I also had them identify how the shapes in the front were bolder in color too. As things get further away, they tend to get lighter and softer looking.

Students focused on pressing hard and soft in order to make dark and light areas in their drawing.