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Drawing, Writing, Learning… Nouns!

4/25/2017

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I teach art in a great elementary school and one of the most exciting parts of my job is co-teaching with classroom teachers during nine week arts integration blocks. In our HOT School, these are called HOT Blocks: once a week sessions with lessons designed so all students, and especially those in need of academic support, can learn through multiple intelligences and the arts in addition to conventional methods.


When I met with the first grade teachers to plan our HOT Block lessons, they mentioned that many students needed to review nouns: a person, place or thing. Proper nouns need a capital letter. Reviewing sentence structure and those all important capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and don’t forget our ending punctuation!


The CCSS for Language in first grade call for students to write, and write often. The National Core Arts Standards call for students to Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with materials. On the first day, the classroom teacher reviewed nouns and had the students start with pictures. Since nouns can be a person, place or thing, that is what we had them do first: choose one of each and draw a separate picture for each one.

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The students cut their pictures apart and glued them down onto a dark piece of construction paper. Under each drawing they wrote “person, place, thing” with a metallic colored pencil. Cool art supplies are mandatory!
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During our next HOT Block, I modeled with my noun pictures how they will use their three nouns together to create a creative sentence and draw a picture. A few students volunteered different ways to use my three words to create different, and sometimes silly sentences. We gave the students their papers from last week and they were excited to create a new illustration and sentences with their nouns!

It is fun for students to play with language and drawing. Reviewing language and art standards in this way is developmentally appropriate for all ages, the student creates their own graphic (art) organizer.

Scroll down for the CCSS and NCAS for this lesson, and let me know how you use drawing to help students remember, practice and learn!


English Language Arts Standards for Language covered in these lessons:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.A
Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.B
Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2.A
Capitalize dates and names of people.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2.B
Use end punctuation for sentences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2.E
Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.

National Core Arts Standards taught in these lessons:
Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
Enduring Understanding: Creativity and innovative thinking are essential life skills that can be developed.
VA:Cr1.1.1a: Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with materials. (Nouns)
 
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work
Enduring Understanding: People create and interact with objects, places, and design that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
VA:Cr2.3.1a: Identify and classify uses of everyday objects through drawings, diagrams, sculptures, or other visual means.

This blog was first published on Education Closet.
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Colorful Arts Integration Ideas

1/20/2016

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So, you want to do some arts integration with your young students, but don’t know where to start? Do you think you are not creative enough to increase student achievement through the arts? Well, don’t believe that for one minute! Here are some easy ideas to do with your whole class or with small groups:

Write sight words with marker! Yes, I know this sounds way too easy to even work, but in my experience, it does! Just imagine if you had to write in drab pencil- Every. Single. Day. And you are age 5, 6 or 7. Boring, right? I had a small group of first graders SO excited about their sight words on drawing paper, they called it a “word wallet” and carried them around in their pockets. And, their teachers reported that this helped them practice and remember more sight words! Awesome.
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Writing sight words is more fun in color!
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A “word wallet”
“Write” your letters, words, numbers or number facts with colored modeling clay! Using this medium will help with letter and number formation, and help develop those little hand and finger muscles. I show the students how to warm up the clay, then roll it to make coils. Students use the coils to make their letters and numbers. It helps to have an alphabet or number line by each student to minimize reversals.
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First grade students love using modeling clay to form letters and numerals.
Use washable finger paint! No? Oh, I know what you are thinking: WAY too messy for a classroom! Well, you can have the finger paint without the mess by putting it inside two gallon size plastic zipper bags. Lay it flat and write letters, words or numbers on it with your finger!
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Or, if you are really daring you can put a tablespoon of finger paint on a tray or directly on the table for students to “write” in it. I have done this on trays in the art room while co-teaching with a classroom teacher. With two of us, it was easy to check everyone’s work and easy to clean up because my art room has four sinks. (Yes, four!) I showed the students how to put their tray down in the bottom of the sink and scrub it with a sponge, then scrub their hands with the sponge. It took about ten minutes to clean up. If I were in a regular classroom I would probably do this in small groups, it would be much more manageable!
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The number lines are laminated, for obvious reasons!
Have you used art materials to help students learn? Using different mediums can help students retain many different concepts. Please share your ideas below, I’d love to try some new colorful ideas with my students. (See, I told you you could do it!)

​This was first published at Education Closet.
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Cave Painting, First Grade Style

4/22/2015

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PictureLook at this talented first grade work!
The Lascaux cave paintings are awesome, and I love teaching this in first grade! I'm so excited to let them know that the caves were discovered by kids! (ok, they were teenagers, but that counts, right?) Here is some background information from a travel site in case you are not familiar with the story. 

I also found this book, The Secret of the Forest of Lascaux at the Field Museum in Chicago a few years ago. The exhibit was really awesome, and I wanted to shoot a video for my students, but of course NO PHOTOS WERE ALLOWED. I can't express how miffed I was! Anyway, that book is written in comic book style, so it is not something you would read to little ones, but I learned a lot from it and showed them some of the historical photos. There is also this story that I read, usually during the second day of the lesson (there is a DVD too, about 8 minutes.)

We start by viewing some of the Lascaux art and visiting the caves via virtual tour (my students don't like the music, they think it is creepy, so I turn it off.) We list the different animals in the caves, and students draw at least four different animals- any animals they like, the ones in the famous caves, or their favorites! 

After sketching, the real fun begins. Each student put their name on their paper. The next step gets them very excited because I tell them that their papers are way too flat to be like a cave wall. So, you will all have to crumple up your paper! And I do this, very dramatically to my own paper. WHAT??? When was the last time a teacher told you to do that to your paper? Their reactions are hysterical, as you can imagine!

Well, not only do I tell them to crumple the paper... but then they have to verrrrry slowwwwly open the paper up and iron it out flat with their hands. Gently. Slowly. Yes.

Then I tell them they have to crumple it again. WHAT??? Yes, first graders love this. Again? So cute. And you must open it verrrrry slowwwwly and iron it out.

I'll cut to the chase and tell you they must do this a total of three times. (And yes, I actually demo it all three times. The demo table is my stage.) Yup, three. Cave walls are not flat, ya know!

The next step is adding earth toned chalk (or Nu-Pastels) to the rough paper and blending it in with your hands, yes, it is messy and they love it! 

Day two is a bit of review, then they get their animal sketches back and need to decide which ones they will paint. Will they paint a few small ones, or one big one? Up to them- they are the artists!

I almost forgot: we do discuss how long ago the paintings in the Lascaux caves were created. Where did these people get their paints? What about their paintbrushes? There is always a lively discussion of what they must have used 17,000 years ago.

After that, I let them paint... with twigs. Yeah, I collect sticks, sometimes pieces of pine tree for them to try out with their tempera paint. I do give them brushes, eventually, but everyone has to try the natural materials! Some use them the whole time, others can't wait for the brushes. 


I'd love to hear how you teach cave art, let me know!
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    Amy Traggianese

    Visual art and arts integration with a techie twist!
     
    I don't like disclaimers, but: none of my ideas expressed in this blog post or website are supported or endorsed in any manner by my employer or anyone else. I just write it as I see it, and that is that.

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