The 8:55 bell sounds and the first installment of 180 kids spread over 6 periods has already filed in and, hopefully, gotten out their warm up sheets to begin the day in art. A student flips the ceiling lights off so that the students can get a clearer image on the overhead as we draw the cartoon-style warm up. With no natural light, it’s “art in the dark,” or, really, “art in the mostly dark” since there is a little anemic artificial light provided by the corners of the room. Today for warm up we are drawing a modified jack-in-the-box drawing from my Draw Squad book. Jack has a large, bulbous nose.
After second period announcements, I get brave and decide that if Mr. Zahn can pronounce the word of the day, “recalcitrant,” then I can pronounce “proboscis” and the kids will get a “two-fer.” We are learning to draw foreshortened squares, foreshortened circles and shading flat surfaces as well as cast shadows in these little cartoons. Some students are finishing up their pattern designs. I’ve learned that if I just tell them to draw 12 patterns and nothing more, I’ll get boring, unimaginative stripes and zigzags - if I’m lucky. This time the directive for each square is specific but challenging: “Draw a patterned inspired by…. what you’re wearing, …the architecture of the building or ….your favorite animal, etc.” I’m getting much more complex designs as a result!
Other students who are finished with the patterns get the opportunity to work with charcoal. Very few kids have an inkling as to what vine charcoal is. I am caught by surprise when one defines it as “what you use when you grill your hamburgers.” This opens up a discussion on how charcoal is made, how to use it and some of its properties. Using the vine charcoal, we sketch the vases that are displayed around the room, and I listen to a range of reactions to the process from excitement with clapping of hands at the anticipation, to curiosity, to disgust by the black powder all over their hands, to a “thank you for letting us use the charcoal.”
Later one student writes what she has learned in this way, “Charcoal is what I learned. Charcoal helps the picture have some good shadow parts. It does get your fingers dirty. We use the kneaded eraser to help remove some charcoal. This is a really good item to use.”
At 3:55 the bell rings and the last of the students stream out to go to parts unknown. I get to sit down, put my feet up and prepare to do it all over again tomorrow with the best junior high school faculty and staff in Arlington! Let’s make it the best year yet!
Patti Moore
7th/8th Grade Art
After second period announcements, I get brave and decide that if Mr. Zahn can pronounce the word of the day, “recalcitrant,” then I can pronounce “proboscis” and the kids will get a “two-fer.” We are learning to draw foreshortened squares, foreshortened circles and shading flat surfaces as well as cast shadows in these little cartoons. Some students are finishing up their pattern designs. I’ve learned that if I just tell them to draw 12 patterns and nothing more, I’ll get boring, unimaginative stripes and zigzags - if I’m lucky. This time the directive for each square is specific but challenging: “Draw a patterned inspired by…. what you’re wearing, …the architecture of the building or ….your favorite animal, etc.” I’m getting much more complex designs as a result!
Other students who are finished with the patterns get the opportunity to work with charcoal. Very few kids have an inkling as to what vine charcoal is. I am caught by surprise when one defines it as “what you use when you grill your hamburgers.” This opens up a discussion on how charcoal is made, how to use it and some of its properties. Using the vine charcoal, we sketch the vases that are displayed around the room, and I listen to a range of reactions to the process from excitement with clapping of hands at the anticipation, to curiosity, to disgust by the black powder all over their hands, to a “thank you for letting us use the charcoal.”
Later one student writes what she has learned in this way, “Charcoal is what I learned. Charcoal helps the picture have some good shadow parts. It does get your fingers dirty. We use the kneaded eraser to help remove some charcoal. This is a really good item to use.”
At 3:55 the bell rings and the last of the students stream out to go to parts unknown. I get to sit down, put my feet up and prepare to do it all over again tomorrow with the best junior high school faculty and staff in Arlington! Let’s make it the best year yet!
Patti Moore
7th/8th Grade Art