Grade 6 Semester 1 Art projects, Middle School Art

One of the lowlights of teaching at my current school is the lack of contact time I have with my Grade 6 classes. I meet with them on average of 70 minutes/week for a semester (18 WEEKS) equaling about 1.5 classes considering I'm on a 12 day rotation schedule... In Egypt my contact time with Grade 6 was either 180 minutes/week for a semester or 90 minutes a week for a year. But then again the Grade 6 in Egypt was around 15 students because that was size of the entire Grade 6...our current Grade 6 had around 90 students. It's all about the numbers.

Below are examples of 4 of the 6 projects we did in a semester.
1. Oil Pastel mood self portraits (color mixing/theory/texture/lines)
2. Printmaking - insect linocuts 
3. Color Pencil fruit drawing (geometric shapes/color mixing/theory)
4. Drawing eyes and mouths (rendering/value/shading)
5. Ceramics (coil/slab/glazing) NOT PICTURED
6. Digital Photography (rules of thiirds/lines/texture) NOT PICTURED

Selected student outcomes (meets standards examples and exemplary examples) :

Grade 8 Shoe Drawings Middle Schol Art

First project of the school year. 

Project:
Shoe drawings.
Student will draw three different shoes.
Each shoe will use one of the three different drawing medium (6B pencil for rendering, Color Pencils for color mixing and rendering and Black pen for texture).
Each shoe will be drawn from a different points of view.

Step1:
Warm-up drawing exercise (rendering, texture, and color theory)
a. B&W value scale and shape rending. (6B Pencil)
b. Color swatches, blending, and rendering objects. (Color Pencils)
c. Creating texture swatches. (micro Pen)

Step 2:
Shoe drawings.
1. You will be given a 9"x 18" paper. Use a ruler to divide into three sections. Each section will be 6" x 9"
2. You will place one shoe at a time in front of you and draw it first with a pencil. You will use a variety of shoes; one will be yours and the other two will be from your peers in class.
3. One shoe will be done using a pencil. You will be expected to render the object by creating several different values of gray.
4.One shoe will be done using a pen. The emphasis will be on lines and texture.
5. One shoe will be done using color pencils. The emphasis will be on rending, mixing colors and using complementary colors.

Supplies:
Shoe, paper, drawing pencil, color pencils, ink pen, eraser, and ruler.

Selected student outcomes (meets standards examples and exemplary examples) :

High School Drawing assignments: Faces

In the process of developing drawing skills in addition to learning how to see and compose, We reviewed and learned basic picture taking skills (rules of thirds, cropping, angles, etc.). I sent my students outside to take photographs of each other for the project. 

The drawing skills they were going to review/learn were color pencil techniques (along with color theory), rendering with a 6B pencil, and brush and ink. 

The results are below. 

1. Make a color wheel and demonstrate shading with color

2. Make value scale with pencil and render shapes.

Student work in progress.

Making different values with brush, ink, and water.

Final Projects

Quick teacher example.

Middle School drawing project

Grade 8.

We stared this year on drawing skills. We reviewed rendering by producing a Value Scale and Shapes. Next we moved on to drawing eyes (their own) using a 6B pencil, tissue, blenders, and erasers. At the end the projects were taken to the library to be displayed. 

Grade 6 Art Projects. 2D and 3D.

And, we're back. It has been close to a year since my last post...not that anyone has missed me. I do have a couple of good excuses. 
1. I'm new to the world of fatherhood as of last April. 
2. I published my first book. 

Our daughter Ximena

My book, Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks -- A Collection of Stories From the '80s Denver Punk Scene is a unique and seminal kind of localized punk oral history, for it features over 100 vivid, hand-colored illustrations alongside flyers and other artifacts from the era. Eclectic, in-depth interviews with prominent scenesters range from musicians and culture jammers to reformed skinheads and business owners. Grassroots and outgoing, Medina examines the small window of opportunity in which they impacted cultural behaviors and musical styles at large, even reached a global network desiring to know more about the isolated frontier world that sprang Frantix and Bum Kon. You can order by clicking HERE

Let's get down to business. I have returned to my former school in Alexandria, Egypt to teach Art and Drama at Middle and High School level. It's nice to be in familiar territory again. I wanted to take some time off from documenting student artwork as I felt like I over-documented at my former school in Ethiopia. With teaching IB Art, documentation of learning and growth is essential. Between projects and the student's investigation workbooks, I've accumulated 1000's of images in two short years. 

I was going through photos of student artwork during the past week and became a little sentimental. It was encouragement enough for me to dust off the camera and snap a couple of photos of what hasn't already been sent home from their year's projects. 

Below are a few samples of what I've been doing with Grade 6 students. 

1. Group sculpture work with old markers, VHS tapes, books, rulers, erasers. This project is perfect for a class with only 30-40 minutes. Variations can include with different stations, material such as chairs, etc. It is nice to see the students work together to problem solve through trial/error and discussion.   

2. Masking tape paintings (12"x18") with over lapping patterns. 

3. Obligatory show drawings (9"x12") with a 6B pencil. We made values scales prior to the shoes.

4. Oil Pastel Portraits. The main leaning objective was to experiment with blending oil pastels. Prior to this project, students made color swatches by experimenting with mixing 2-3 colors together. 

5. Book/Journal making with paper Batik covers. 

 6. Printmaking-block reduction prints on gray paper. Dia de Los Muertos theme.

 

7. One point perspective with markers.

 

Sadly all the clay projects went home along with the bulk of the other projects.