Today was our last class before school gets out and we had fun! The Art Carnival was in full swing. The studio was set up with the paint center, the collage center, and clay center. Since it was our last class we used play dough instead of air-dry clay. The students decided to have a contest making turtles (pictured below). I must say there were great looking turtles at the clay center. Some students used the time to finish painting their air-dry clay figures and a few decided to make mask at the collage center. We ended class by passing out our bags of art from the school year--minus the piece that is up for the annual art exhibit tomorrow night.

Monday was the first week of our Art Carnival and students were excited for the fun to begin. The library housed the Inspiration Area. Games were set up to inspire us and get our brains ready to create art. Next, students moved into the Participation Area. Three stations were set up for assemblage, painting, and clay. 

D’Amico (1953) believed clay to be “one of the most adaptable and fertile media for satisfying a child’s creative yearnings” (p. 117). Today we investigated whether this statement was true. After instructions on creating clay figures and looking at a few examples students got right to work. They were very busy artists!

D’Amico, V. (1953). Creative teaching in art. Scranton, PA: International Textbook company. ​

We started our lesson reviewing what makes a person creative, how you develop creativity, and why it is important. Next we looked at examples of collages and talked about them. Students received a large piece of construction paper (black or white) for the background and two smaller pieces of colored construction paper. The assignment was to cut designs out of the colored paper and create a collage on the background paper. I explained that there was a challenge included in the project—they had to use ALL the colored paper. Once all the colored paper was used students could add sequins and felt. They were excited to get to work. I was surprised at how difficult it was for them to use all the colored paper. 

For the past couple of weeks students have been creating hanging wire assemblages.
D’Amico (1972) believed assemblage to be one of the "means for structuring a basic program of creative expression” (p. 4).
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D’Amico, V. & Buchman, A. (1970). Assemblage a new dimension in creative teaching in action. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art.

I am looking forward to art classes this week.. We will be exploring, experimenting, and experiencing creative expression through assemblage! Clothes hangers, glue, tissue paper, string, yarn, beads, and sequins--It's going to be fun!

I remember this student telling me she didn't feeling well. I asked her if she could make it until art class was over. She said she would try. Our D'Amico lesson for that day--paint about how you feel. I would say she nailed it!

​You can see student artwork on Artsonia