Hands, Head 'n Heart in the Artroom: New Art Stuff

Well, I have a week & a half of the '11-'12 school year under my belt! The first classes included the usual 'Art Room Expectations' which included the necessary fire & lockdown drill procedures followed by the start-of-the-year drawing assessments. By the second week of classes, we were on to permanent seating assignments based on the assessments and behavior observations of that first day. In addition, the kids were able to explore 'Art Activities'.

This year, money from the District purchased some new 3D manipulatives: Constructibles.

These are building sets of consisting of 25 interlocking slotted cardboard pieces in 5 basic shapes. We received 4 sets, two of 'Bold Patterns" and two of the 'Painter's Palette'.

The kids really enjoyed the building and you could see their little brain cells trying to figure out how to stabilize their structures by balancing larger pieces with smaller pieces...

The only drawback - and it's a big one - is the durability of the pieces. After only 3 days of use, several of the arch pieces had to be glued/taped because the tabs had torn off or were bent. Others were in great shape so maybe it was the user rather than the materials. We'll see...