Art History Reproductions

I hated the drowning feeling I constantly had during my first year of teaching. Since then I have been fine-tuning lessons that I teach regularly each trimester. I know, I know, to be a good teacher I should change up my lessons much more often. However, I have kids that say, "I've been waiting to do ________ project like my older sibling!". Plus, there's comfort in knowing what works in a lesson and how to best teach it. Having said all of that, I've been trying out some new projects this year in an attempt to refresh myself. A few of those attempts have gone okay (not good enough to share or brag about), some have fallen on their face, and others turned out FABULOUS! This project is a "Fabulous".

I have been blessed to work with an outstanding group of 6th graders that have great attitudes (the perfect ingredients for a successful new project). However, when I first introduced the lesson I was a little worried. I LOVE studying art history...I'm not normal. On the first day I was practically jumping in the air with excitement over the idea of my students getting to learn about famous artists in the past. When they came to class I had spread out about 40 Scholastic Art magazines featuring 40 of my favorite painters. Each child had to choose someone different and then we headed to the computer lab where we toured a museum and they each set out to research their artist. They then printed out a picture of their artist's work and created a frame. The students then reproduced that work of art by their artist. I then hung all of their work in the hallway and that's where we had class for 1 1/2 days while the kids did their artist presentations. It was SO COOL! Everyday people in the building tell me how much they enjoy looking at them and how much they have learned....I love educating others about art (even when its not in my classroom)!!!!