7th Grade Projects...

Wow...you'd probably believe me when I say I'm still trying to catch up on grading and getting organized at school three weeks later!  Quite a few projects were complete but ungraded by my sub at the end of my leave and 10 week grades are due tomorrow.  I've been cramming during my prep periods to try and get everything caught up so I could photograph and blog everything that has been done so far...so here goes!

When I left, I had started my 7th graders on a perspective unit.  Much to my dismay, the project flopped.  Well, it didn't flop, but they definitely didn't produce the type of work that I expected...more like their laziness didn't allow them to follow directions properly.  For the most part, they did understand the concept of 1-point perspective, but they did A LOT of complaining about it (even though they were the ones who suggested this as a project at the end of last year!).  From this, I have surmised that I basically need to do extremely simple projects with this group in order to keep my sanity intact.  Anyways, here are some of the better projects that were turned in from the perspective unit.  My sub did only do 1-pp and didn't attempt 2-pp with the students, of which I didn't blame her for not wanting to attempt.

If students chose to do a word, they were supposed to draw the word in 1-point perspective and then illustrate the word to look like itself...so if they did the word "building" the letters were supposed to look like buildings...if they did the word "fuzzy", they should have made the letters look fuzzy.  Unfortunately, they didn't understand that concept.

After completing the perspective project, my sub decided to do tessellations with them.  Despite how simple this project was, they STILL complained about it!  She decided to review color theory with the students.  Each student had to draw out of a hat and whatever color family they picked was how they had to paint their tessellations.  My sub graded them on having an interesting tessellation, tempera painting technique (painting each space opaque), creativity and the color family.  In the end, these projects did turn out really well...it just proves to me that these students do have it in them to use neat painting skills.  You can see the rest of the tessellations on Artsonia.

Studio Art: Finished Pop Art Reduction Prints

This project is also one that students were working on when I left for my maternity leave.  I am EXTREMELY pleased with this project!  Reduction printing is definitely a hard and lengthy process but they stuck with it and completed their prints!  My sub wasn't comfortable with having them mat their artwork, so I taught them that process when I got back.  I have two mat board cutters and it took us all week to complete this project and wrap up the other two that they did with my substitute.  Each student measured out and did the math to cut their boards...even the ones that had a hard time with the process did a great job as matting more than one print on a board is way more difficult than matting one artwork in a frame.

Elective: Ben Heine Inspired Pencil vs. Camera

Hi everyone!  I'm baack! ;)  This week was my first week back to school after my maternity leave...and it was rough!  It was hard leaving my little one at daycare the first day...but I have to admit that my busy day at school every day kept my mind off of that.  It was hard also because my little one has been diagnosed with reflux and it affects her the worst at night.  This week I was lucky to get 3-4 hours of sleep every night.  And of course, she was happy during the day at day care and crabby at home for mommy and daddy!  We're now trying a second medicine and so far it seems to be kicking it and making her feel better...last night she actually slept for two four-hour stretches!  On top of everything else, I was very sick Friday from lack of sleep and such.  I had a fever and a cranky baby!  Thank goodness for my hubby and friends who babysat her yesterday so I could get some much needed sleep!

When I got back to school on Monday, for the most part I was pleased with what was done on my leave.  For the most part, projects were completed at the bare minimum of what I would expect and nothing much about my classrooms were changed.  So, here's my first "post-pregnancy" blog post!

This particular project is what my elective group was working on when I left.  I had seen various examples of Ben Heine's "Pencil vs. Camera" series on Pinterest and loved the idea of using him as a starting point for a project.  So, my elective class was given the assignment to take a variety of photographs as homework.  In class, they used Picassa to edit them and then finally, they had to add a drawing to the photo that changed it.  I also taught/retaught students how to mat their artwork.  Here are some of the finished products!