Today was day one of week three and man oh man has it been interesting so far (aside from a kindergartener throwing up on my brand new carpet today)! As many of you know I started at a brand new school this year - so I've had to start from scratch with my art program! I'm not sure why I just expected that the county would give me additional money for start up supplies (scissors, rulers, etc.)... cauuuuseee that didn't happen. In fact every art teacher in our county lost $50 each from our consumable budgets! :/ Sooo $400 for 1,200 kids? Awesome. Fortunately for me I have a pretty awesome principal who seems sympathetic to my position. So when day one rolled around and I still didn't have my county money, I had to rely on my own wallet for supplies. I bought some printer paper, crayons, colored pencils, and markers and started brainstorming for lessons. After much thought I landed on 'Creative Letter Drawings' for my 1st graders (a lesson I learned from my supervising teacher during student teaching). I started by reading the book "Louise Loves Art" by Kelly Light. The book is about a little girl who creates her greatest masterpiece (a drawing of her cat) but then her little brother cuts it up and makes it into something else (his greatest masterpiece). Then we talked about the idea of taking something and transforming it into something else. That's when I told my students that I was going to give them a letter of the alphabet and it was their job to turn it into something else (I suggested an animal). After drawing an example on the board, my students got to work! I LOVE LOVE LOVE their creativity!! *Some of these are not yet complete - but I just couldn't wait to post about it! As students finished their artwork.. I gave them the 'Alphabet Challenge.' They got a piece of paper with all the letters of the alphabet on it and were instructed to add a creative drawing to as many letters as they could by the end of class. I got a couple of really cute pieces! :) My teacher's example.
