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.