#creativekids

‘I am an artist!’ The first Art lesson of the year

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Ha! ‘This was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof!‘ as Hamlet would say. Why? Because first I spend time preparing a post about the good first lessons in the Art Explorers world (which, by the way, is here) and then, the start of the academic year comes and my own first lesson, too and what is it that I do? That’s right, I start from scratch and do something else entirely. Because I had an idea, because I found a cool resource and because I really wanted to do it. But it was a good lesson so I am more than happy to share it here!

The language

This was the first lesson of the year and for a variety of reasons, I got both age groups in one lesson, my second graders and the pre-schoolers and year 1 kids, too, all together now, 15 children, 30 hands. Some of them I know very well, some are new to the school and they are of different ages and, naturally, of different level of language skills. Instead of trying to adjust it to any specific level or age, I just went for ‘let’s do what I want and see what happens’.

For that reason, I did not aim for practising any specific language point, not this time anyway.

The artists

The aim of this lesson was to introduce the students to the world of art and to try to understand and to brainstrom ideas of what it is to be an artist. I based this part of the lesson on the powerpoint which you can find here.

  • we looked at what different artists do
  • we tried to define what makes someone an artists, including my ideas and my students’ ideas
  • we looked at what ‘I’ve got an idea’ was for five of the artists: Picasso, Acrimboldo, Malevich, Vlaminck and Klein in the format of ‘everyone says…’ and ‘the artist says…’
  • I also found a funny cartoon based on Marta Alves storybook but we didn’t have to watch it. We will definitely use it in the following week.

The art

The creative activity in this week was based on a very special notebook that I found in my local stationery shop: a sticker paper notebook. I saw it, fell in love with it and decided to use it.

  • I prepared my own stickers berfore the lesson to show the students the finished product
  • I also made one more, simple sticker during the lesson, to walk them through the process: make a decision about the design, draw with a pencil, trace and colour with the markers and cut out, peel it of and stick (this part was optional and the idea was that the kids might also choose to take their stickers home)
  • We brainstormed a few ideas for stickers. ‘You can make what you like. What do you like?’
  • We got down to work.

It went well and, indeed, there was a huge variety of ideas and the kids understood the assignment, they went for expressing themselves. Among the designs there were: stick people, cards, animals, hearts, stars, a rainbow, a sticker bracelet and a beautiful character from one of the favourite cartoons.

Regardless of how big or how intricate the drawings were, they all worked as they can be cut out in many different ways. Even if the picture itself is very small, the sticker can have a form of a square which is easy to handle.

This kind of a task is also perfect for mixed ability groups in terms of motor skills. Some of the students managed to make one sticker, some went on and created more stickers. It also happened that one or two students were picked up by their parents half-way through the lesson and it did not get in the way of the creative process. They simply picked up their sheets and took them home to finish work.

I am really happy with how it all went. The kids liked working on the stickers, as they were both easy and exciting to make. A perfect choice for a new group, too!

Happy teaching!

Yves Klein. Take two. Printing and roller work.

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The man who can’t see the sun

Somehow, in this academic year, in our Art Explorers adventure, the days are filled with some ‘firsts’. Now and then, and more frequently that I would expect it to happen, we bump into something that we have never done before and something that we are trying for the first time and that we are experimenting with. I love it!

This time round, we experienced a mini-series of the same artist over two consecutive lessons. It is not that Monsieur Yves is such an inspiring artist that we simply had to give him a double Art slot. I mean, he is amazing and I am so happy that I have discovered him for myself and for my students but, surely, there have been many Great Artists that, theoretically, at least, should have been granted with that privilege, Malevich, Goncharova, Warhol or Picasso…A simple coincidence, that’s all it was. I got the amazing set of rollers and stamps but only in time for my older group, the younger kids on Mondays missed their chance. Since we had so much fun with the rollers, I simply decided to let everyone help! Then and only then, did it turn out later that Yves Klein himself loved using different tools…What a coincidence!

The Power of four elements

The language

The language stayed the same and we had a lot of time with the spinner and the verbs (you can read about them here) and, to be perfectly honest, the langauge input was kept short on purpose.

The artist

We just got back to the previous class and looked at some of his paintings again and I told the students that, apart from using the beautiful blue and painting with different body parts, Yves also used a variety of different rollers, stamps and other tools and that it is exactly what we would do.

Colourful frame

The art

The room was set up exactly the way we did last week, with the round table in the centre of the U-set of desks and it was basically our palette (have been covered in paper and painter scotched over before). I showed the students all of the tools and how they can be used. Because it was the last lesson in the series, I was also able to look back at the works created before. My special focus was this one, created by one of my older students because it combines pencil drawing, a variety of prints and a great roller work.

After that, we just got down to work and, in one line, it was just amazing.

Kids really enjoyed working with a new tool and experimenting with everything they had to offer. It was a good idea to cover the palette table with paper because it was the first place to try out rollers and stamps. This is also were they were mixing the colours to get new shades and colours. They were very careful and conscious while choosing the tools and combining them with the paints. We were talking about the process, a little bit in English and mostly in L1 and thanks to that I could see how their ideas were taking shape. That was precious. Or so I thought. Until the artists started to come up with the titles for their work. They did all of that in Russian and I helped them translate but hey, look at them, they are amazing…What is more, they were not created instantly. The kids really did put some work into creating them. Some students made a decision and then, upon more consideration, they changed their mind and came up with even a better, more suitable option. I was speechless and I continue to be. Why? Just look at the photos!

A worrying house

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #78 Making our own songs with kids.

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A paintbrush, that took us all by surprise with how beautifully it caught and preserved the paint. We all kept staring at it for a few minutes, in admiration.

I have already written a lot about things to do with songs. Here you can find a post about the steps to take to properly un-sing a song and to make the language your spoken language and another one on creating your own songs for the use in the YL classroom.

Today, I would like to share with you a project that we have been a part of for the past two months and that I am hoping will continue until the end of the academic year: our own month song.

Ingredients

  • a song and a melody that will be used as a model, in my case it was January Song from Sing Play Create.
  • a group of kids and a teacher to manage
  • optionally: an audio of the melody, ours was Frere Jacques, it was easy to find.

Procedures

  • First, a story: Our lessons in December, with my year 1 kids, started with different Christmas songs as we had already abandoned the regular Hello songs somewhere in December. When January arrived, I wanted to devote a part of the lesson to a chat about things that we do in that month. And to introduce that slot, I was looking for a song. I found it and quite easily and it was perfect – short, call and response style and with a relatively simple melody. We sang this song throughout the entire month. Then, February came and I started to look for a song that we could sing. I did not find anything that would work for us, something easy and short, without too many cultural references that are not at this point relevant. I didn’t find anything that I could use. I decided we are going to create our own.
  • In the first lesson of February, I explained to my students the song situation and encouraged them to think about our own song. They made a real effort and we ended up with a song in 1 a and a slightly different song in 1b. I wrote the songs on the board and we photographed the board. Every day, at the beginning of the first lesson, I would take out my phone and start singing for the kids to repeat. Some of the phrases were familiar to kids, the others I helped to translate.
  • We repeated the procedure in March and ended up with two verses in both groups that we sang for a week.
  • The next step was of course the kids’ versions. I did not prepare them for that in any way and on one of the days, I simply asked: Does anyone have an idea for a new song? And they did. Right now we do it every lesson and there are always some kids who are willing to share their ideas.

Why we love it

  • The song is a perfect choice for creative singing (and speaking). It has got a simple melody which we already know very well. The song follows the pattern of call – response so whatever idea the leader comes up with, the group responds, by simply repeating the line.
  • The lines are short, easy to create and to repeat even for beginner children. It is an advantage, too that the verses of the song follow two patters: either a simple phrase or a short sentence so pretty much anything can be used. Some of the verses we created were like that: ‘March, March’ (only two words repeated), ‘Make snowmen’ (an imperative), ‘Birds and bees are flying’ (present continuous), ‘Flowers grow’ (present simple), ‘We are very tired’ (personalised sentences with the verb to be).
  • Some of my kids have an idea but they don’t have the language and that works, too. They sing the first line, in Russian, and I respond with the equivalent in English. It also helps with some verses that are not appropriate but are, at the same time, a result of my students experimenting with the language. We have had a few cases of a line like that appearing as a call and me replying with ‘La la la’ or with ‘Sasha is not singing’, to signal that some things are not be accepted.
  • Kids love this part of the lesson and, on a typical day, we have about 4 or 5 verses, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. Some of the kids sing the verses, some prefer to say them already and it all works.
  • I am just overjoyed because they are producing the langauge and in this previous week, we have seen an interesting new trend or even two. Some kids (following my example) started to create songs about how they feel on the day (‘March, March. Sunny day. I am very happy. But I want to sleep’) which is their extended and musical answer to ‘How do you feel today?’. Some children sang a song about their favourite month (usually related to their birthday). We had also a few crazy versions of snow in July and another Christmas in the summer. One way or another – lots and lots of language creativity.
  • Another thing that makes me really happy is that this creative activity appeals not only to my stronger students but also to some of my struggling students and, in general, is great for mixed ability groups. It is easy to create your song, for example by changing one or two words in the verses that your teacher or friend sang. That’s easy to do. Plus, all students are creative, even my beginner beginners. They have an idea and they want to share and since some of the ideas are shared every day, they stay. My student Sasha came up with the idea of a sick rainbow two weeks ago and now he remembers himself and encourages us to sing ‘The rainbow is sick’. We do.
  • Last but not least, this is our little tradition, our routine, something that we do as a community. And that makes it precious, too!

I am quite curious what is going to happen to this project in April and in May. It is already good and exciting and worthy of sharing but who knows what else is there for us…I will definitely be writing about it in the future!

Happy teaching!

Monochrome March: White on black! Teaching English through Art

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I have been carrying this idea with me and in me for a very long time. I am a huge fan of black and white and I knew it would be something that I would love to do. I was just waiting for the appropriate time. Our February was dedicated to Fruit and that is partly why, on approaching the month of March, I thought that, yes, following the good principles of alliteration, we are going to have a Monochrome March.

I am developing as an Art teacher, too (well, hopefully) so for the past three months, I have been doing my montly lesson planning, choosing the artists and materials/ techniques to cover. The teacher trainer in me is happy, nodding with approval. That works. Our monochrome series will have four episodes. This one is actually the second one.

The language

As regards the language, I decided that in the month of March, we are not going to focus on any specific vocabulary topic, but, instead, we are going to develop different ways of expressing opinion. With the younger group, that meant learning and practising the set of basic adjectives to express opinion (It’s a good / very good / bad / very bad / crazy / interesting / boring / fantastic / terrible) idea. I have chosen these particular ones to echo the phrases we used with my year 1 kids in our English lessons. I am hoping that they will benefit from that additional practice opportunity and that my pre-schoolers in the Art group will pick up on some of them. These are also the phrases that we will be able to use during other lessons, of course.

The artists

Yes! This week we were visited by a whole big group of artists including Malevich, Goncharova, Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Victor Vassarely or, in other words, some of those who created some paintings in black and white, some of whom we already met before.

This stage was pretty straightforward – we looked at the paintings and shared our opinions. This stage was also relatively short because I wanted to save enough time for the creative part.

The art

This was the most important part of the lesson since we were to interact and to create with a new resource and a new technique.

First of all, I showed the students the resources: black paper for sketching, white pencils, chalk markers and blending stump pencils. I also demonstrated how to use them.

Afterwards, we did something for the first time in our class – I gave out the drawing materials and a small piece of the paper and I asked the kids just to play with them, to see how they work, how they draw, how much pressure you need to apply, how easily it smuges and so on, just to get the feel of the new tool.

Only then did I announce the topic of the drawing and that was: Draw what you want! My students were a little bit surprised and a little bit overwhelmed by that approach so that was something interesting to see and, definitely, something to reflect on. After a while, however, they took to work. I showed them what I created, a heart on the background of different patterns, and I explained that this was my choice just because I wanted to play with the tool and to experiment with how it works. I also demonstrated a slide with some patterns that they might use but I highlighted that they could really do whatever they wanted.

And what did they want? My older students chose to draw their favourite things so we got the white-on-black eddition of the rabbit, the goose, the cats, the still life and they were more creative with the experiments and trying out different options that the chalk pencils and markers offered. They were very excited with the shading options and the glow they managed to create. They chatted (in English) about the outcomes. Some of the pieces were not finished but, I suppose, it is something to take into consideration and to accept, especially with all the new techniques.

My younger were also creative but their creativity went in the direction of creating plot and background for their pictures. Many of them drew a bunch of monochromatic figures, which can be traced to a heart and I am still wondering if they were inspired by the heart that I brought. What is even more important is that they told me of everything that their pictures stood for and these were real stories! Yes, they were told in kids’ L1 as there is not enough language yet but they were such rich plots! Just look at the cowboys attacking the city or the hearts arriving to defend another group of heroes!

Many of the students created more than just one picture and it was lovely to see how their imagination was taking off, with every next picture bouncing ideas off the previous one. I really did think I would run out of paper!

All in all, I am very happy with the lesson. The new resource and the new technique worked well and we will definitely go back to it one day. The experimentation stage worked well and it helped us understand the basics of the resource. It was also interesting to see that the size of the paper also had an impact on the drawing. Some of the A6 pictures are just precious and this inspired me to look into this part of the process more. A lesson on the impact of the space, working with A3 and A6 at the same time? Well, it is a fresh idea, it needs to bubble for some time on the back burner of the brain.

As regards the language, it was not the most productive of our classes but it was a beautiful opportunity for the kids to express themselves artistically. I am just wondering if I can use them to tell stories in the other classes. They are so rich, so beautiful that it would be a shame not to! I am thinking.

Happy teaching!