Art Class: Happy 2020!

Happy 2020! I made a few large banners during the last term of school in 2019 and my students helped to paint them. India ink was used to draw the outline as the effect can't be achieved by any commercial black markers.

Art Class: Last Day of School

On the last day of school, my students played an adapted drawing game which is available online. I used thicker paper to make the dice for durability. I had all but one boy who couldn't grasp the concept of rows and columns despite multiple explanations by his frustrated friend 🤷. They loved this silly game and even requested to bring the materials home.

Art Class: Museum-Based Learning

Museums that work frequently with schools would usually have their own set of museum etiquette that teachers could go through with students prior to the visit. Before we bring our students to the museum, my colleagues and I had a recee session so that we could coordinate our movements and staggered our visits to specific artworks.

While technology affordances allow us to look at images up close with the click of a button or even vitual reality that arouses our stimulus, nothing beats looking at the actual thing. When we see the actual work, we see a lot more subtleties or self-corrected misjudgement. For instance, the classroom projection shows Mono Lisa (by Leonardo da Vinci) almost the size of the projection screen. In real life, it is just approximately one-fifth the size. Her translucent veil could easily be missed if not pointed out. Furthermore, the artist was so technically competent that the paint strokes are hardly visible.

The museum visit is quite fundamental at the primary level. However, frequent museum/gallery goers know that the experience is beside the work. If you visit an art exhibition on the opening night, you can learn something from the collectors, patrons, writers, curators or attend other talks available. You just need to be physically present. There are different kind of dialogues and questions when the contexts are different. You can interact with different people who are as interesting as the artworks shown.

Housekeeping: Early Finishers (New!)

Take these tongue depressors and think of some wacky scenarios! I'm always on the lookout for quick to clean up activities for my early finishers. These activities can be placed at an easily accessible spot and doesn't take up a lot of time for maintenance. Students will draw a stick from a container and complete the task.

Art Class: Art & Music Fiesta

In September, our school held the annual Sports Carnival and Art and Music Fiesta. Timetable was suspended and the students were scheduled for the activities. These activities were planned such that they were not duplicates in the art curriculum so excuse can be given for more noise, action and mess! The older kids used newsprint to create a costume so that they could have a parade in class while the younger ones did outdoor fun like chalk drawing. Obviously we could make do with the non-explicit curriculum where drawing canvas can be larger than them. We always pray for good weather on this day😸. They also made musical instruments with materials found on the kitchen counter. 

Art Club: Chibitronics

The children will be thrilled to receive a circuit sticker sketchbook set to supplement their understanding of ‘circuits’. I'm packing the different components for individual students to facilitate distribution.

 

Art Class: Applied Learning Programme (ALP)

Hi teachers! The ministry recently announced that all primary schools would have an ALP by 2023. I'm happy to be involved in my school's ALP this year and the students have just completed the project. Throwback to last year, the art club students created their game project with similar concept using Littlebits so at least I have an inkling of where this is heading. The initial part of the current project incorporated design thinking guided worksheet for students to generate ideas. For a start, the students used collaborative card game for group discussion. Then, they meddled with raw electronic components to understand more about circuits. 

The students brought their coded Microbits to art class to give them a makeover. Recycled materials and hot glue were used to fix the cardboard pieces.

The students had to write their scripts first to prepare for the presentation. My colleagues, D and F, recorded their presentations so that the teachers can review their projects. These videos will help the following year's students to have a better idea of what they will be doing.

A school-wide approach of such a project uses a lot communication with different channels. Collaboration would hardly happen if left it to chance. I hope by documenting my work, I can see how certain processes can be refined or have been overlooked when I revisit the materials in the future. 

Art Class: Surrealist Paintings

I do wish the P6 students have more time to touch up their Surrealist paintings. Since their PSLE exams have ended, they are now busy attending post-exam activities and doing their final community project. Some artists' works which we looked at were Salvador Dali's, Rene Magritte's and Meret Oppenheim's.

I like sharing the children's book, Dinner at Magritte's by Michael Garland. Got mine, second hand, at Amazon. The illustration contains many references to paintings from Surrealist artists which poses intriguing questions for classroom discussions.

The most challenging part in this unit is idea generation for the students. Some students spent too much time on conceptualising their ideas and compromise on their painting time. I think if I were to continue to collect photos of past year students' works and their write ups, I would be able to share more ideas with current students to hasten the work process. 

Art Club: Making a Coil Plate

My dilemma on whether I should start this project with my students 🤷. As we only have three sessions for this term. The interval between the second and the last session will be five weeks apart. Although their unfinished projects are usually kept in ziplock bags, they are not entirely airtight. I will still need to open the bags every few days and mist the artwork to keep them moist. But I thought it will be nice if I squeeze in a new technique. After some deliberation, I decided to go ahead and see what happens. The risk is that some of the clay might be too dry to work and they need to redo from scratch. Another possibility is that I'm overzealous in misting the artwork and they will be too wet to work with. 😕 

I usually start by showing them the entire process with a time lapse video so I can focus on explaining while pausing the video. I think it's hard to use the visualiser with my dust-coated hands. The projection is also clearer with the video than the live document camera. Stay tune to my update in my next post!

Reads: What the Art Teacher Reads

This book was one of our readings back in NIE. It's useful to early career art teachers as it covers a broad spectrum of information relating to art education. The twenty chapters cover topics from children's artistic development to the technicality of school art programmes and organisation. Pages are adorned with beautiful images of children's artworks from various cultural context. Occasionally, I would still browse through the content to check certain facts. 

A wonderful thing about a teachers' communal library is that teachers in Singapore can borrow this book from READ@academy. We can put up our request online and the books would be delivered to our school at a designated day. Even though there are books available in the public library but most of the textbooks are under the reference section so reading is limited in the library. 

Art Class: Unit of Perspectives

I always thought it was normal...

I have been wearing glasses when I was 10. When I was in primary school, I had always envied my classmates who wore glasses (sigh) and I would often "borrow" theirs to put on. So, my wish was granted when I couldn't really see what my teacher wrote on the whiteboard and the school nurse sent a letter home asking my parents to have my eyes checked. I don't know if wearing people's glasses would worsen my otherwise 20/20 vision but it's definitely not due to doing desk work nor having any screens to stare at. 

Besides being short-sighted, I have astigmatism. I'm too chicken to go for Lasik or deal with its side effects so I have to make do with glasses. It wasn't until years ago that I discovered that people who have astigmatism view night vision differently. Both my parents need not wear glasses so I had to explain to them what I see and it was especially uncomfortable driving at night. The glare from other vehicles create halos and the lights radiating from each headlight/ street lamps make it hard for me to focus. Sometimes, I even need to squint to read the LED road signs. 

If we see everything through our lens, then mutual understanding would not come easily. That means all the more we need to seek first to understand than to be understood. This comes to my point about discussing perspectives in class. I showed some optical illusion artworks that could potentially mess with their perspectives due to preconceived ideas and using that as a common experience for class discussion. If you read this news about vulnerable children unconsciously or maybe consciously spending real cash on virtual games, then I suppose the game developer truly understood the targeted market/ players well to enable the consumers to part with their money willingly. Not all mode of payment require the use of credit cards, I know students who purchased cards from 7-11 stores because they wanted to unlock achievement levels or acquire accessories in the game. 

In the case of the gaming industry, they sure make a point to practise empathy so they can achieve their intended outcomes.

Art Club: Opening the kiln

It's coming to the end of term 3 and the children's ceramics work are fresh off the kiln! There is a lot of anticipation when it comes to ceramics class. In every step of the process, nothing is guaranteed. Things could happen during firing that resulted in failure of pieces which could only be thrown away (so far, nothing like that yet) or it's not even your fault but because the pieces are placed close together, you can't prevent an accident, just cause and effect. 

In every lesson, the children learnt from other children's work and we discussed about the good, bad and ugly. Everyone need to work together to make the lesson happen. The glazes doesn't fill themselves up. Someone has to wedge the recycle clay and ensure it's kept and mist properly. Someone has to plan the schedule to fire and reload the kiln. So, they need to know the work behind the scenes that they won't need to do and all teachers ask for is that they bring a good attitude to class and enjoy. 

Housekeeping: Lesson Packages

Hi teachers! I've been collecting my lesson resources and teachers' samples over the years and keeping them in envelopes like these in the resource room. I think it's essential to accumulate more resources and refine them for future use. Keeping them in opaque envelope would preserve the original colours of the painting. I have some samples of string art and watercolour painting for future reference. It's also useful to prepare simple activities for relief teachers in case there is a need. 

Art Class: Colours (Part II)

To prepare for our mouse paint art, the children will be making three mice on their art piece. It looks very cute given the interactive element. They watched the video and begin their work. Tearing the papers instead of cutting them gave it an uneven finish. I certainly did not anticipate that any of them would tell me it's too difficult to tear the drawing papers! Perhaps they are too afraid to tear the papers or displeasure associated with tearing papers??

Art Club: Recycling Clay

How do you recycle the leftover clay from previous classes? In our class, the children place their remaining clay pieces into a black bag and I pour some water to soften the clay. After accumulating them for a few sessions, they would be soft to knead and wedge. Wedging the clay would prepare it ready for use by eliminating air bubbles and ensure a consistent texture. They would be packed into balls of clay right into the black bag again, sprinkled with some water to maintain moisture. 

Art Class: Abstract Art (Part I)

The P5 students are making their mark in the art room. You can click on this link to see what I collect all year round as art materials. Students observed the marks made with unconventional everyday materials. 

The children studied abstract artists' work such as Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Henri Matisse. We wanted to see how figurative and abstract work play a part in meaning making. And we analysed how the elements of art and principles of design are applicable in their work. 

I created a giant worksheet (A3-sized) using acrylic paper, by printing on the back of it. My initial idea was to use life experience to frame the idea of abstract art but decided against it. Using lines, shapes and colours, I use emotion as the backdrop to scaffold their learning.