Playing Catch-Up!

  Agghh!!! I'm so tardy in posting some of the great stuff we've been doing in Art!!  Time is slipping away.  Before break, the Adaptive Art classes made these adorable slab ornaments for gifts to give to their families:

Making sketchbooks

This year I have  a self-contained EBD class of all boys.  They're very energetic and I'm excited to be working with them.  Art can often be a very important class to all students, but especially for those with exceptional needs.

To begin the semester, I wanted the students to have something they could have ownership of and keep with them to sketch or journal when the mood struck.  I decided to use our school's binder maker to create budget-friendly sketchbooks.  The boys were shown how to create a collage of (school-appropriate) images that represented things that they liked.  They also had to spell their names out with letters from magazines.  I laminated the front and back cover, and we used the binder maker to put it all together.  When they were completed, the kids were very excited to take their sketchbooks with them.

Adaptive Art Pop-up Castles

The balloons were a bit of a bust, pun intended.  I just couldn't find a way to get them to stay up.  So, instead, the Adaptive Art class made these awesome castles!  They look fantastic in the third floor display case.

Adaptive Art Hot Air Balloons

My adaptive art class worked hard building layers of paper mache around balloons.  They really enjoyed feeling their sculptures get harder, and using "elephant snot" or mache paste.  I think they're favorite part of this project was hearing the hiss of their balloons as they popped them. 

Adaptive Art Kadinsky Circles

I found this project on one of my favorite art lesson blogs Art Projects for Kids.  These Kadinsky circles always turn out beautiful for every child.  It's truly a fail safe project.  The Adaptive Art kids spent about a week working on these oil pastel circles.  I've found this is one of those really nice projects that is

 almost meditative to do.  It's so simple but the results are truly stunning.  The kids really liked watching the colors blend when they added a new ring to the circles.  I thought the final artworks looked very professional.

Adaptive Art Chinese New Year

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

Gung Hay Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year."

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions.

The Adaptive Art class learned about Chinese New Year and myths about dragons.  We used our new learning to create some fantastic New Year projects.  The kids especially liked that is the year of the dragon. 

Adaptive Art Winter Display

I love, love, love my Adaptive Art class.  These kids work so hard to create their art projects and their efforts really show their creativity and sensitivities.  I'm fortunate enough to have the pleasure of teaching these kids everyday all year, so we can really dive into units.  Near their regular classroom is a display case that we change throughout the seasons with themed units (see the blowfish one from earlier this year here).  Winter has always been an exciting one.

For this display we focused on the works of Henri Matisse and made faux stained glass cut-outs.  We also recycled water bottles into penguins, and Mrs. Styza our student teacher taught a great lesson on making snowmen (notice the Aaron Rogers hommage).  The other middle school students always respond positively to what these kids create, which is great to witness.  The CD students take a lot of pride in this case and I think it brings lots of smiles to all of us here at West.

Adaptive Art Blowfish

 

 The Adaptive Art class has been working very hard for the past three weeks.  They've been studying oceans and ocean creatures in their classroom, so we extended the learning to a hands-on project.  Using plaster, balloons, newspaper, and paints the students  each created their own blow fish (or puffer fish as they're sometimes known by).  I think the students became really attached to their creations.  One young man addressed his daily as "son".