Assessment Drawings

On the first and last days of the school year, I have my students draw a simple composition to gauge their 2D skills and creativity. For 2nd & 3rd grades, I use a lion as the main object. This lesson was adapted from the step-by-step directions in the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

On the first day of class, this drawing is used to assess the student’s drawing skill, fine motor control and ability to follow simple directions. These findings help guide my decision on where the student sits and whom they sit with at the classroom tables. I try to have a mix of abilities at each table, with those students who need extra help placed in strategic seats.

This same assignment at the end of the year, when compared to the first, shows the student’s growth. Thought you would enjoy seeing some examples from this year!

Work by Student A in August



Work by Student A in June



Work by Student B in August




Work by Student B in June





Work by Student C in August




Work by Student C in June

Potential Art Helper

One day during those last frantic weeks of school, I had an unexpected surprise when I opened a class drawer to look for wayward projects that I needed to grade.

This was one of my larger 3rd grade classes and the usual drawer is a mishmash of placecards, table folders, unfinished projects, and other assorted debris. This is a pix of what I expected to see:




Instead, in this one particular drawer, I saw THIS:



I meant to interrogate the class at our next meeting so I could sign this student up as my ‘helper’. Unfortunately, due to a field trip, the next class was canceled and by the next meeting, I had forgotten☹. I’ll have to keep my eye on next year’s 4th graders to see who this might be…Maybe I can sign him/her up as an art helper!

End of Year Awards

Finished school a few days ago so will try to catch up on my postings. As I completed the grading for 4th quarter & entered grades, I gathered up the info needed for end-of-year awards.

Our school has an award assembly at the end of every grading period to present certificates for a variety of reasons: perfect attendance, good behavior, honor roll, etc. At the final assembly of the year, additional awards are given which include those bestowed from MAP (music, band, art, PE) teachers.

I have three categories that I work from: Young Artist, Outstanding Young Artist and Exceptional Young Artist.

A Young Artist certificate is awarded to students who have earned B’s (met the state standards in Art) in every grading period. An Outstanding Young Artist cert is awarded to students who earned a mix of A’s and B’s for all four quarters. The Exceptional Young Artist cert is reserved for those who earned A’s in every grading period.

I develop the text for the awards & print them out on ‘fancy’ certificate papers. This year I had only a handful of Exceptionals, so I used the money generated from selling braiding supplies before school to purchase a ‘Summer Sack’ of art supplies for each of them, in addition to the certificate. I was fortunate to find ‘pony bags’ (those drawstring backpack-like bags) in the dollar section of Target which were the perfect size to fit in a 9” x 12” sketchbook, same size pad of colored construction paper, drawing pencil, eraser, watercolor paint set, glue & scissors.

I teach in a low income, urban school so many students come from homes where these items are a luxury. When I presented the ‘sack’ to my Exceptional 3rd grader, he immediately sat down on the floor to pull everything out one at a time with an accompanying “Ooooh” or “Ahhh!” much to the admiration of his fellow classmates.

Made my day…