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.