Hi! The children have completed their watercolour painting last week. To reiterate the learning outcomes from the previous lesson, they sort the air-dry clays according to warm and cool colours again.
Like most art teachers, preparations are done prior to our classes. The clays were divided and packed into individual bags. Instructions are usually given before distributing them.
Next, to check students' understanding of molding the clay, they made three basic forms. Self-evaluation is done by checking the boxes in a worksheet once they have achieved the forms. Practices such as these will guide them to be more self directed. In this case, it is quite straightforward because the result of the clay work is right before their eyes. Should anyone faces difficulties in making a form, assistance is offered on the spot as I go around to collect the worksheet.
Hi Teachers! The Primary One students have started using watercolour cakes to paint. We watched an instructional video in the previous lesson and talked through the things to bring for the following lesson. The children wrote down the one thing to bring - an empty container to hold water.
Now, there are a few points to make clear when you entrust the children to bring an important piece of material. Because no container = no painting. I've explained that I don't have enough for everyone. So, if they have, they should bring the containers the next day and labelled with their name and class with a permanent marker and kept in the art cupboard lest they forget if they wait until the next art class (weekly art class).
The painting day arrived and some students had forgotten to bring a container. Last week, a boy from one of the Primary One classes came up to me the moment I entered his classroom. He repeatedly thanked me for teaching him an important lesson that day and said that he will not forget to bring important things again. I was quite impressed by his response.
Children without water containers were given a set of coloured pencils instead. I mean what I said. And this reputation goes a long way and essential for classroom management. They could still practise the use of Warm and Cool colours even though the medium has changed.
I mostly rejected the use of lunchboxes as water containers and the best try goes to a kid who wanted to use a pen cap as a container. Yes, anything that looks like a vesselš
Most children had painting experience but they will still enjoy when asked to do it. Thus, asking them to bring something isn't that difficult because responsibility is taught by leveraging on this activity. I do bring a few containers to class in case a child's container has cracked. Sometimes, it irks me to delay the lesson unit due to small hiccups but I try to think of the long-term benefit over the short-term inconvenience.
Towards the end of Term 2, my youngest students learnt about the places of interest locally. They were all excited to share about the places they have visited and I conclude that a high percentage of the children have visited Universal Studio and Sentosa whereas there is less awareness about our historical sites.
We discussed about the activities that happened at Singapore River and the Cleanup that took 10 years. I showed them some black and white photographs of Singapore River in its dire state. Paintings by pioneer artists which is related to the Singapore River were also discussed. Some children volunteered to do a role play on what they would do if they live by the river while the rest guessed.
We spent a lesson drawing and cutting the river out from our painted paper made in the previous art class. Then, the children pasted them in their sketchbooks. The rest of the details were drawn in markers.
Hi! we are excited to participate in this year's SYF. The theme for 2021 is Artist & Technology. In class, we begin with some discussions first to grasp students' understanding about the theme. I've prepared some robot printouts in advance so the children can practise drawing in their sketchbooks. I encourage them to mix and match the robot parts so their drawings do not appear identical to another child's.
This is one strategy to allow children to build confidence in artmaking. If I were to just say use your imagination to draw, I know there will be children who will be stumped in making their first mark. Besides, to fill up the sheer size of their A3-size sketchbook page with drawings is a challenge if you lack stamina in drawing. Because art classes are bounded by time, it is also no excuse for me to say my students took too long to think and therefore they cannot complete the work. Showing them some ideas and simple line work can help them to be more self-directed so that they don't have to keep approaching me to seek approval.
In 2016, I visited the Big Bang Data in ArtScience Museum, Singapore. The show must have left a lasting impression because I saw a statue of Neil Harbisson and of course a lot of others. Neil is the world's first officially recognised cyborg and he had an antenna implanted in his skull š¤Æš±. Watch his TEDtalk here.
Hi! For some years, our school's art sketchbook has a printed cover. My students used to cover the printed cover with coloured papers before starting their design. It was only last year that I found out that I could ask for thicker plain cover for the students to design their own! So, look at the beautiful blank canvas with children's mark making. Our first lesson of the year is learning about making patterns and writing their bubble letter names. Check back again!
Hi! I'm sharing about scissors safety to my students this week. If I've learnt anything about teaching, that is not to make assumptions. Using a pair of scissors might seem like a no brainer to adults but some children struggles with it because they lack practice prior to entering primary schools. Some children can be good at hiding this inability, they opt to tear the paper or say that they just want to limit the cutting needed intentionally. Since most scissors are made for right-handers, children who are left-handers would feel awkward using them (if you're a right-hander, try using your left hand to cut, that's how it feels to them) and thus it becomes a disadvantage when the art task demands cutting competency.
I've made a pair of giant scissors so that the children can better remember my instructions for using scissors. Check out the video below to see the artmaking process.
Whenever I'm doing process art with the children and I anticipated that they might mess up, I would remind them about the story Beautiful Oops that we'd read together in class during our first Art lesson. It works wonder most of the time and the children who had accidentally torn their papers would remain rational and calm when I reminded them of the story in times of 'crisis'.
My students have completed their drawing module in tape art. Watch the video to find out more!
Hi! My students are making drawings with found objects at home. Remember to emphasize that they should use safe items found. I got them to list some items that are suitable before the actual task. We also looked at some examples of artists' work samples. Watch the video to see my examples.
Jazz up the pen and paper drawing by providing children black papers and white pens. We decided on a theme, My Favourite Things, since everyone wanted to do something different. I did a sharing of all their work under the visualiser There was a boy who requested for the spelling of some types of dinosaurs and I replied that I don't know how to spell! Anyway, we looked it up on the search engine and he pointed out the correct words that he saw. Poring over their drawings is so enjoyable š»
These DIY puppets look too cute! If you have missed this lesson, click here. I provided my students with some art materials before the circuit breaker and these are what they have come up with. We did an online gallery view by looking at everyone's puppets on SLS. Some households lack strong adhesives to fix the materials so I applied some white glue before collecting them in a box. I see a lot creative ideas using common household items, it was a pleasure looking at their works.
Hi teachers, building on our previous lesson, my students will be making a DIY book this week. The characters in their stories will be based on the puppets that they have made. For their online learning, they'll also be required to summarise their story in one sentence. I look forward to reading their stories!
Hi! Here is the what the students will be making this week. I introduced a short video about Ventriloquist, Darci Lynne. Then, we move on this. I have plans for students to create a puppet show when school reopens in June. I'll see what they come up with. I've explored with various video-making apps and I think Inshot is so far the best free app I've tried.
I'm finally using my two boxes of recycled stones that a teacher brought to the art room! This year, I'm using these stones as an anchor for my students' artwork. More precise, the pipe cleaners required something to hold onto and I think it's an added interest to the overall display. After treatment, I sort the stones into two sizes. Reason being, my newcomers are still young and I would like to take precaution when giving out materials to the different classes especially when it comes to unpredictable characters. The bigger stones went to classes where I could trust everyone to handle them with care.
Another safety tip is folding the ends of the pipe cleaners over so that the wires will not poke or scratch easily. After a revision on their understanding of the types of lines, the children used the pipe cleaners to make line art. These lessons would be a prelude to their drawing class.
