Art and the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program)

Wow!  How has it been almost a month since I posted last?!  Time flies when you are having fun!

The last few weeks have been packed with craziness - I was sick for a bit, field trips, National Testing for the upper grade levels - it's honestly been kind of a mess.

I halted all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade projects for the last two cycles due to MEAP tests.  I realized that their brains were complete toast by the time they got to me and we needed to do some relaxing, other side of the brain thinking in art.  My goal was to not only rest the one side of their brain, but to re-energize and almost reset their day.

My fourth graders were finishing up their collages from their visiting artist and while this is a 'simple' enough task - it wasn't the kind of way I wanted them to use their brains.  Instead we worked on a value project where they needed to mix colors and paint - much more therapeutic. 

We started out by BRIEFLY looking at pictures of the moon at night.  (*Normally I would make the observation part longer, but it is not what the kids needed this week.  Also, the kids are observing the moon in science!  Who knew!).  We talked about what they saw - the colors, the sky... etc.  Next, I showed them how to use a safety compass.  (Honestly, best compasses EVER!).  They drew concentric circles.

At this point some classes were done for the day because I only saw them for 20 minutes - other classes got a chance to get to the paint.  I set out trays with white, black, blue, and purple.  The students painted their moon white, the first ring was their sky color with white, then after that they added a little bit of black for each circle till it got darker and darker and darker.

Students went from loud and squirrel-y to mellow and focused.  I asked the group how their brains felt - many replied with a sigh and a 'much better'.

This lead me to realize that I could help out the grade level teachers as well as the kids.  I sent out an e-mail to the teachers suggesting that they do a little bit of art after their testing.  It wouldn't need to be much 10-20 minutes and it could be as easy as coloring a geometric coloring page.  The rhythm of coloring/painting helps to calm and refocus the brain.  I know that in college during finals I would put out a stack of coloring books and all my crayons in the common area.  Almost everyday I would find the majority of my suit mates bent over coloring books after long bouts of studying or tests.  They would exclaim how much better and more relaxed they felt.

After I sent out my e-mail offering to print some coloring pages - one of the 4th grade teachers e-mailed me back.  She said that their writing assignment that day had to do with some characterization and instead of jumping right into the writing she had them spend some time drawing their character - she said the lesson went smoothly and the students produced a lot of information about their characters!

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My third graders have been hard at work exploring landscapes (horizon lines, foreground, middle ground, back ground... etc).  So, again, I decided that wasn't quite the way I wanted to exercise their brains after a morning of MEAP testing.  So, we took a break and did chalk leaf piles.  I have done this lesson for quite a few years now - and they always turn out beautiful.  The students fold a piece of card stock in half, draw half a leaf, cut out the leaf in one long cut!  They should have two stencils - a positive and a negative.  (Sometimes it takes kids a few tries to get it.)  Next they charge their stencil with leaf colored chalk, place the stencil on their paper, smear the chalk from the stencil to their paper.  The students repeat this process with both stencils and then with each others stencils until their paper is filled - overlapped leaves and leaves that go off the edge.



Again, students start out loud and a little over the top - by the time they start using chalk the energy and noise level evens out.





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5th grade was a little bit different.  They were finishing some 2-point perspective words and then starting their t-shirt designs for 5th grade production.  So, while I didn't restructure their lessons like the other two grades - their assignments already focused on using their brain more creatively.

3rd Grade Chalk Leaf Stencils

I first saw a lesson like this way back in college when I was observing in an art classroom - I can no longer remember which teacher or what grade level did it originally.

I start out this lesson by showing a slide show of autumn leaves and ask the students to raise their hand when they can tell me a color or something else about the pictures.  Since they are 3rd graders and the pictures are really obvious I wait until EVERYONE has their hand in the air.  I call on a few kids and I get answers like, "they are fall leaves" "they all have different shapes" "fall leaf colors: red, yellow, orange, green, brown" "some leaves are multiple colors".  Most of the time I need to freeze the slideshow on a picture with lots of flat leaves and ask them a more guided questions to get to 'symmetrical'.  We talk about how leaves are not always perfectly symmetrical but they are often close.  I then explain that we will be making our own leaf stencils to make a leaf pile picture.

I gather the students around a table to do a demonstration.  I explain that the will fold a piece of card stock in half hamburger style.  Next, I make the biggest deal possible about starting and ending their leaf off the FOLD.  I draw a line off the folded edge a little from the top and another a little from the bottom.  I explain that we are going to draw HALF the leaf - just like when you make a 'heart' at Valentines Days.  We talk briefly that leaves are all different shapes and their leaf needs to be 'leaf-like' but doesn't have to look like a specific type of leaf.  Next, I explain that they must cut their leaf all in one big cut - no coming in off the sides to make it easier!!!

When I unfold the parts I explain that the leaf looking one is a positive shape and the hole it created is a negative shape.  I again try and stress that if they don't start and end their leaves ON THE FOLD then their stencils won't work!

This next part is awesome - so I take the positive leaf shape and place it on the table - then I add chalk pastel around the edges, being fairly liberal but not neat about my coloring.  I then place this stencil on a larger sheet of paper, take a kleenex and wipe the chalk dust off the end of the stencil onto the paper.  At this point I generally hear 'oooo cool' - that is until I lift the stencil revealing a negative leaf space.  This is when the kids get really excited.  I then ask them if my positive leaf gave a negative picture - what do they think will happen when I add chalk to my negative stencil?!  Most get it, some need to see it.  So I repeat the process with the negative stencil.  I wipe the chalk dust into the middle, lift the stencil and hear the gasps and exclaims of excitement.  I quickly explain they can use multiple colors on a leaf and reuse their stencils with any colors and or color combinations.  I also stress that they need to overlap their stencils.

As students work I tell them they may borrow each others stencils and at the end of class they can donate their stencils to a bucket for other 3rd grade classes to use or they can keep theirs safe in their folder.  I also stress no blue, purple or black leaves - I occasionally have a student that will challenge my purple leaf stance and if they can make a good case I'll let them do a few - but most purple leaves are not the color purple we have in chalk.



Depending on your students these take anywhere from 2 to 3 classes to complete.  At one school I teach at kids were done with amazing results in 2 classes and my other building it's going to take 3 - thus is life between two schools!

Spray Paint Self Portraits (6-8)

Spray Paint Self Portraits:

Students Learned/Practiced
- Positive/Neg Space
- Spray Paint (new medium)
- Planning
- Cutting
- Process

This lesson was inspired by a lesson in the magazine Arts and Activities. The article was for an advanced high school art class and was much more complex -- I simplified it for my students and they had a blast!

I first took pictures of them with my digital camera with a strong light source from one side (the overhead). I then opened those pictures in Adobe Photoshop where I made them black and white -- no grey, just black and white. I printed them off and handed them out. I then explained to the students that all the white pieces had to connect -- if the white pieces didn't connect their stencil would fall apart, so in some places they would need to make up lines to connect it all.

To make their stencil I gave them single overhead transparency sheets that they taped over their paper and drew on with permanent/overhead marker to connect all the white spaces. The students then cut away everything that was black -- leaving their stencil.

Many students felt their stencil did not look like anything let alone them. So, we took them outside and taped their stencils to paper. I did a quick demo on how to use spraypaint and let them go at it -- keeping the away from any concrete/building. Almost every student would peal off their stencil and go 'ahhhhh. That is so cool!' and then ran to do another one.