THE ART ROOM

Art is an integral part of Crocker learning, both in the regular classrooms and in the Art Room.  This year the Art Room theme is split into two areas–cartooning and artist’s trading cards.  With some of the more focused themes in the past, we have skipped over a few valuable artistic topics.  Cartooning will be a way to touch on the drawing and proportion of people, animals, and objects, and it will provide another way to engage in creative ideas.  Interspersed in our cartoon adventures, we will create artist trading cards–miniature works of art (2 1/2” x 3 1/2”).  The original concept comes from Switzerland and the mail art movement.  With these cards, we will expand the use of artistic materials.

I have been the art teacher Crocker since 1989, sometimes on a part time basis and other more recently full time.  However, I now am teaching 2/3 time but am able to see all the classes once a week for fifty minutes.  Each year, with a theme as a guiding tool, the art classes at Crocker learn about art concepts, explore different artistic mediums, study and employ a variety of art techniques used by artists contemporary and historical, learn about the art of various cultures, and practice drawing skills.  Along the way, we are learning vocabulary that is pertinent to our work.  This year, we begin again with reviews of line, shape, and color.  Using these basic concepts, we will focus on some simple cartoon faces and bodies, particularly exploring human facial expressions.  Over the year, projects will expand to include objects, animals, superheroes, and famous familiar cartoon characters. We will also look at the different formats of cartooning–comic strips and books, movies, gag cartoons, and advertising.  With the second theme, we will make artist trading cards.  The cards will be made with a variety of mediums ranging from pencil, pen, and markers to paint and collage.  The goal will be for each student to develop a set of cards and have opportunities to trade with fellow artists.  In the adult art world, it is forbidden to buy or sell these cards.  This format will allow us to stretch our use of materials, learn further art concepts, and explore the work and styles of well-known artists.

Learning factual information, both current and historical, and hearing stories of our world, fiction and non-fiction, are important ways to establish a basis for the art projects we do.  Thus, I read books, show short videos, and give introductory talks to begin each project or introduce a particular artist and demonstrate a technique we are about to use.

Each student has a portfolio of work by the end of the year that will go home.  During the year, art pieces are displayed regularly by class and, when not on the wall, are kept by student name in folders in the Art Room.  We celebrate all of our wonderful accomplishments in May at Crocker’s annual Open House.  The folders are out, the walls are full, the room is transformed, and the library is a buzz of activity. I am not able to predict just now how the room will look with our new themes, but I am sure it will be eye catching!  Student works are on display to encourage the framing of children’s artwork, and we hold a silent auction of class art pieces that are composites of work done by each child in each classroom.  Photographs of these posters are also available for purchase.  The students are eager to show off their work with pride and tell something about what they have learned.

So when you pay a visit to Crocker Highlands, don’t miss the Art Room. We are not hard to find, just off the main hallway.  We would love to show you our latest work!

Sheryl Neely

Note:  You might be interested to know that:

Art facilitates the development of spatial reasoning skills;

Art increases a child’s ability to create abstractions and mental processes in the abstract;

Art helps students visualize the images words represent as they learn to read;

Art develops fine-motor skills, necessary prerequisites for writing;

Art develops patience, sustained attention, and self-regulation (that is, control of impulsivity);

Art serves as a bridge between one’s mind and the real world;

Art cultivates one of the multiple intelligences identified by Harvard University’s Howard Gardner;

Art develops the whole brain and the whole child.

Excerpt from “Drawing and the Brain” by Kenneth A. Wesson