Art Activities: Paper Airplanes

The Open Studio held in my artroom before school has a smaller crowd these days - weather is getting nicer so more students head straight for the playground nowadays. (The true measure of Fall in Phoenix is driving to work without the AC on.) That's okay - gives the rest of us a quiet space to do artmaking and gets our creative juices flowing.

A small group of boys that visit most days are enthralled with paper airplanes.

Last year, I used a rather grown-up paper airplane book that had fancy decorated papers included. Unfortunately, it was written on an adult level and the designs required more dexterity than little hands could manage. So I ended up making the planes during Open Studio & they ended up flying them. Not exactly what I had in mind...

This year, I started looking for more kid-friendly designs. Books are great but I knew I'd have several wanting to do the work at the same time so I turned to Pinterest for websites or blogs that could help me out. Bingo!

This site has well-written directions (functional/instructional text) and easy to follow diagrams showing the step-by-step process. My third graders occasionally stumble over a word (orient - to align or position) but for the most part are able to work completely independently.

They have mastered all the basic designs and are moving on to intermediate constructions. I make copies of the printed instructions which go in a binder on the activity counter. Basic plane directions are printed on white paper and placed in a page protector. Intermediate and advanced plans are printed on colored paper to distinguish the different levels. Copies of the airplane templates are kept in folders on my desk. I provide one at a time so there's very little waste.

I was thinking this would be a great whole class project for a sub but for now we'll develop our skills in small groups...

It's been a busy week... Shape Man with kinder and 1st...

Jasper Johns-inspired painting with symbols underway...

Jean Dubuffet self-portraits in the home stretch...

Zentangles with 4th graders coming along nicely...

a few 5th graders finished with their Op Art/value studies inspired by a lesson from Mr. E's blog...

One more week (parent conferences week) then Fall Break - Woo Hoo!!

If you had $50 to spend...

I had the good fortune to win a $50 gift card to Walmart at our faculty meeting this past Thursday. So now I have to decide what supplies to buy with it...Any suggestions? I'm leaning towards materials that are not consumable but I need ideas!!! I would love it if you would leave a comment and giving me some possibilities...

Line Assessment

Kinder and 1st grades are winding up their line unit so time for evaluation! Students began their study of line by painting lines on the outside walls with water as a warm-up to using markers. After their line project drawings (which provide evidence of their ability to draw the 4 types of line taught: straight, curve, angle and broken) I assess to see if they know the vocabulary and can identify/sort the varieties before moving on to the next unit...

They play a quick version of the 'line game' I've written about in an earlier post. Directions for the test version are to hold up a card that illustrates the line I've asked them for. I glance to see if it's correct (they can have do-overs and I make note of errors on first attempt) then they place it on their corner of the table. After we've gone through all 4 of the choices, I walk the room & quickly glance to see how many they have correct laid out on the table corners. For kinders, we do the 'test' twice - first time through is a practice.

Next, each student is given one ball of plasticine clay and a placemat. The first class of the day needs to warm the clay by squeezing the ball - so we practice squeezing in the left hand then the right hand and so on until we've done about 10 squeezes. This softens the clay enough for their hands. I show them how to 'pinch' the clay between their thumb and curled fingers to break it into smaller pieces for our work. During this assessment, they are asked to make the lines using clay.

I demonstrate how to roll the clay between their upright hands using 2- 3 pieces of their pinched-off clay to create a coil. The first coil is labeled 'straight' and placed in the corner of the mat. The second coil is torn into pieces to create a broken line.

This is followed by a coil transformed into a curve line. Last is the angle line - I demonstrate how to use the coil to create the letter 'Z' by pinching the corners to make the sharp corners found in an angle line.

I pressed my examples onto the white board for easy reference...

Creating lines in 3 dimensions helps them apply their knowledge in a new way and gives me another opportunity to assess their fine motor skills. Sometimes, it also leads to a conversation with our Occupational Therapist for those students who simply can't manage squeezing and pinching of the clay....

Of course, all this hard work was followed up with extra practice for those little fingers...

Class lists for the Artroom

So let's pretend that I have had all of my Special Needs lists returned (all but 2 at last count). Now I need to enter that info onto my class lists for daily reference.

I use my class lists for grades, attendance and behavior incidents. In addition, my lists include the class code, teacher's name, classroom number and the phone extension for that room.

Here's an example of one of my 4th grade lists:

In the upper left hand corner is:
class code
Teacher name
room #
Ph #

Student names are listed on left hand side. That vast wasteland of empty cells in the spreadsheet will soon be filled with attendance, grade and behavior notations. Dates of class and descriptions of art projects are written at the top of each column.

Now you've probably noticed all the fancy schmancy colors & patterns going on in the student name column so let me explain...it's not just there for decoration (although I may tell the kids that if they go snooping!).

I use different colored fonts to designate different needs of students. This particular class is an SEI group (Structured English Immersion). Students in this room are still learning English - English skills can range from monolingual (Spanish), Pre-emergent, Emergent to Intermediate. Student names in this class are in a medium blue font with the exception of those who are monolingual (dark blue), those who receive Resource or Speech services (violet) or Non-reader (red font).

Several of these students have been identified as far below grade level and are given specific interventions to improve their learning. If there is no improvement over 60 days, they will be tested for SPED. I've designated them by highlighting their name space with pink. For students who are both SPED and non-readers, their name is violet and the background is a red diagonal pattern.

The numbered spaces to the left of names denote medical needs. I use red for allergies (food, bees,etc.), asthma, ADHD w/Rx or any other condition stated on the Special Needs list. Yellow means they may use the restroom as needed per nurse's direction. The specifics of the 'red' condition are written on the sheet directly under this one for easy reference...

This second example is from one of my Gifted Cluster classes - we have one of these designated at each grade level, K - 5. The gifted students in these groups receive services from a certified Gifted teacher who travels to our site once a week.

Gifted student names are in a green font. One of these students also receives Speech services so there is a violet diagonal line pattern in the name space as well. You'll see several kids that are highlighted in pink again because there is quite the range of abilities in these rooms. Something to keep in mind when I'm planning lessons...

Before the days of affordable color printers, colored pencils and highlighter markers were always at my side! Printing in color is a real timesaver but even coloring by hand paid off in the end.

Although this may seem like a lot of work (and it is - initially), the results are well worth it. A quick look through my lists every morning remind me of the learning needs of each of my groups that day which leads to far more successful lessons with each set of learners...