One of my very favorites parts of volunteering at Nolan's school is being an art docent in his classroom. I've done it for a five years now and I'm finally at ease being up in front of the class. It was torture for me in the first year or so... Public speaking is NOT a favorite. But I've been fortunate to be able to have the same group of kids for three years straight. If you ask me, his class is worthy of winning an award for being practically perfect in every way. Love them!
Each month I go into their classroom to teach them about a preassigned artist and painting that was chosen by the head mucky-muck art docent leaders. I give a little spiel about the artist's life and then we discuss the painting we are learning about for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then the real fun begins! I have to come up with an art project that somehow ties into the artist/artwork or style of art. We roll up our sleeves and get to work painting, drawing, using chalk, making collages, or whatever medium I've got on the docket for that day's art lesson. Don't worry, I had to go to a couple of classes at the local community college before they unleashed me in the classroom. I have little to no artistic ability, but I do love kids and I like to have fun so it's all good.
This month our school is holding an on-line auction to raise money to buy much needed things for the students. I'm not sure what this year's goal is, but in year's past we've raised $25,000 to buys new playground equipment, library books, etc....
The PTA asked the art docents to create something from each class that could be auctioned off at the auction. I always panic a little when this time of year rolls around. What to make??? What could we possibly create that someone would want to buy with their hard earned moola?
I went to the number one source. The Internet! I stumbled across an art lesson that looked pretty cool so I gave it a go.....
Basically, I chopped up a perfectly good 16x20 poster of Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" into 24 blocks. Gave one piece to each student in the class along with a matching black piece of paper. They were instructed to copy their portion of the poster onto the black paper exactly using oil pastels (very bright, creamy crayons). Then I would assemble the black paper back together to recreate our version of "Starry Night" and frame it! Genius, No? It turned out to be a pretty cool mosaic version of the original. I love it and I hope someone else will love it enough to pay a pretty penny!
1 comment:
Very Cool!
G.
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