Art History Research

I'm one of those art teachers that feels it is really important to teach art history. The 6th graders spent 2 days this trimester researching an artist they chose. Then, they wirte a paragraph about what they learned about that artist. Next, they create a reproduction based on a work of art done by that artist and we hang them in the hallway with an example of the artist's original work. The students really gain an appreciation for all that goes into a masterpiece. Plus, its really fun to hear them telling each other about things they learned about their artist as they are all working on their projects. Here are a few of them as they hang in the hallway!

Cave Paintings

I'm teaching a new class this year...Art Appreciation. The class is only offered at the 8th grade level. I also still teach Art Production to 8th graders. I tell the kids that Art Appreciation is learning about art and Art Production is creating art. My plan for the class is to hit on some of the highlights of art history. In our first unit, we learned about cave paintings and then created our own cave art using natural materials. I think the kids thought this would be really easy....it wasn't. Colin and Taylor did a very nice job on their's!