I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach five lessons from the unit plan on "Autumn" (Grade 1) that I wrote for this course. The students really embraced the theme and we have been doing a lot of projects with Autumn leaves. I am consistently amazed at how much the students seem to appreciate the art lessons. I have been doing "Gallery Walks" with them at the end of each project so they can take a moment to appreciate the artwork of their classmates. Now, two weeks in, if we do a drawing activity and this step is omitted, I end up hearing a chorus of little voices announcing, "Miss Mitchell, you forgot the gallery walk!!" The consideration that the students have been showing for their classmates' art projects completely warms my heart. During the gallery walks I constantly hear students telling each other how beautiful their work is or how much they love this or that part of it.
Last week we used leaves to do rubbings with wax crayons, and then turned it into a water colour resistance painting. They were so proud of their paintings! I'm in the process of matting them with black construction paper and I'm making a bulletin board early Monday morning. The kids don't know that I'm doing this; I can't wait to surprise them!
A few things that we've "known" all along but now I've really gotten to see in action:
1. Young students are capable of a much higher level of artwork than we often times give them credit for. Don't assume they can't do it.
2. Creating a beautiful piece of artwork really does boost their confidence more than we can possibly imagine.
3. There's nothing better than helping students that think they aren't "artistic" make a project that they are really proud of.
