No.8: Foreshortening

This is a project that I found on-line, which the students loved. It was an excellent way to teach perspective and foreshortening. I had the students finish off their drawings by using watercolor paints.

No.7: Starry Night

This art project is a modern day rendition of Van Gogh's Starry Night. The students, using oil pastels, mimicked the movement that Van Gogh created in the night sky of his famous Starry Night painting. They finished off the composition with a cityscape similar to Chicago's skyline.

No.6: Continuous Lines

The image to the right is an example of a continuous contour line drawing done by a 5th grader. The students were unable to lift their pencils from the paper once they began to draw - talk about challenging! The lesson helped introduce still life, and added to their previous knowledge of line and form.

No.5: Textured Prints

The bulletin board outside the art room displays a handful of multicolored textured prints. The students, using found objects such as cardboard, bubble wrap, feathers, and bottle caps, produced these wonderful abstract faces. The third and fourth graders really enjoyed this project. The experimental element of using common objects intrigued them.

No.4: What is it?

This art lesson entitled, "What is it?" was a great way to introduce my younger students to the art element, shape. Each student received a piece of white paper with a shape, cut from construction paper and glued to the page. The shapes came in a variety of colors and sizes. It was up to the student to use his or her IMagiNatiOn and cReatiViTy to determine how they were going to incorporate their shape into a masterpiece! I love the creativity that was involved in this lesson. Each image was unique and truly an expression of the child.

No.3: Art Show

The picture to the left shows the venue for the 2009 art show at Chiminike Children's Museum in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The space was filled with colorful works of art, excited children, and proud parents.

No.2: Art Show

I began my career as an art teacher in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It was through my students at International School of Tegucigalpa that my love for teaching art grew. Their excitement for art and unique cultural perspective taught me to see the world differently.

The pictures demonstrate the student's talent and hard work. The art show was the first of it's kind. The exhibition entitled, Elements of Design, was held at Chiminike, the local children's museum. There was something whimsical about the playful qualities of the artwork in a setting made specifically with the child in mind.

Each piece, all four hundred and twenty of them, were double matted by hand. The labor intensive process of matting each piece could not have been done without the help of many wonderful volunteers. It was my desire to see that each child had one piece of artwork matted and hung in a venue outside of the school.