All the work shown in this gallery was taken during my student teaching placements.

East End Community school, Portland, Me

Jean-Michel Basquiat inspired Crowns -

This lesson had 4th and 5th grade students create their own crowns inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Prior to the drawing lesson, they had a visiting artist, Yai Deng, come speak to them about his work and his inspiration, Basquiat. This lesson also worked in collaboration with Library staff to read them a few books about Basquiat. Students drew crowns using a pencil and oil pastels based on their own interests and colors that revolved around their emotions.

Figurine Friends -

During this lesson, 5th grade students used their knowledge of arts having emotional qualities from previous lessons to create a friendly figure using model magic, pipe cleaners, and tempera paint. Students were shown a slideshow about figurines both historical and present day, including childrens toys/action figures and artists that create art figurines. They learned about the art in play, by learning that’s artists make work that can be for fun and to be played with. Students were able to create anything they’d like using the model magic and explained how it resonated with them during a share time at the end of class. Many students expressed enjoyment with this lesson and actually began to play with them figures during share time with their table neighbor.

Guided Drawing of Deer and Moose -

Kindergarten and 1st grade students were learning about Maine animals and we were asked by the classroom teachers to reference some of the animals in an art project. Students followed along with a live guided drawing of a white tailed deer, twice, including how to spell the word “Deer.” Next we would do the same for the moose. The drawing activity broke down the deer and moose into simple shapes, such as ovals, and lines that when combined together create the animal. AFter they were finished, we colored them in.

Patricia A. Duran School, Hermon, ME

Clay Pinch Pot Lessons -

During this placement, my school’s unified arts transitioned back to in person classes from being remote for a year. Around this time of year, the PTA funds a special activity for the students that has been going on for years, this activity being clay! The school use to work with a group that brought clay to the students for a couple days out of the year. However, due to some conflicts that occurred, my mentor took up the task of incorporating clay lessons into her curriculum while still being funded by the PTA. This way the students could still have fun with clay! Kindergarten through 3rd were taught how to make pinch pots. The kindergartners made the basic pinch pot. The 1st graders made basic pinch pots but shown how to shape it into a heart if they wanted. The 2nd and 3rd graders made a lid for their pinch pot. Due to time restrains and the need to sanitize tools, we decided to use pasta as our tools as a means to cut back on sharing and disinfecting tools. This way students could still add designs into the clay and score when necessary without adding extra work on top of us as the teachers, they could throw out the pasta at the end of class. When they came back for their next class a week after they made their pot, we had the students glaze. This included a short slideshow and finished pieces on what glaze is and what a kiln was. I left before the pieces were fired.

Virtual 4th Grade Lessons

During this placement, my school’s unified arts transitioned back to in person classes from being remote for a year. However, Pre-K and 4th grade remained remote for their unified arts. So we continued to make Seesaw lessons that included a video for students to watch and follow to do the assignments, they would post an image or video of their completed work. Paper packets were made for each student and passed out the classroom teachers to give to their students to use at home.

Burger Collage -

In the lesson, students learned about patterns and collage. They had to draw patterns on the colored paper before they cut out their shapes for their burger, this way their designs would fill the whole shape. After they drew patterns, they cut out and glued their burger parts onto a separate piece of paper and used a pattern for the table cloth. They could add extras like fries and drinks if they wanted at the end.

Mouthy Clay Monsters -

Even though the 4th graders were remote, we still wanted them to be included in the rest of the school using clay. Like the paper packets, we cut up air dry clay and bagged the blocks up for students to take home. The video lesson showed students how to make a pinch pot into a monster mouth by adding eyes, teeth, tongues, and other parts. Painting with craft paint, if they had craft paint at home, with optional. We had 40 out of 75 students post their completed monster to Seesaw which was a large amount compared to the last few posted lessons.