Art in My Hair and Everywhere!

Today was another full day of art-making in my world. I have been having my students do texture rubbings (frottage en francais), so there are bits of mesh, coins, sandpaper, dots, tiles, feathers, leaves and other odd ball items strewn about my art room this week. Somehow, with a little french here and there, the students understood they needed to put the items under the paper and not on top. The little ones did texture turtles, the fifth graders did texture towns, and the middle school students did texture geometric shapes. 

The middle school students had the most fun because I told them they could go out in the hallway to rub the texture of the bumpy cement floor. They ended up looking all over the campus for texture, but eventually wandered back to the art room. I think. One or two might still be out. No matter; I have plenty of students....I think over 500. I've stopped counting. Artists don't really like facts and figures. They like ideas, dreams, juxtaposition of lights and darks, and deep talks into the night.


I need a place where I can have great discussions about ideas....Rick's Cafe in Casablanca? Wait a minute, what am I thinking! I need to go to Italia for real art discussions. Wake up Marcia, go back to texture rubbings. (I'll load all pictures in the morning; the internet is too slow tonight.

When pausing from texture rubbings this morning, I zipped into K3 to help them celebrate the color blue. I had just found out about an hour before I was to teach, that their color for today was blue. I saw they had colored whales and the sky and blueberries, so I quick found a cute "earth" for them to color. I also had them throw some blue glitter on the project for special effects. (Thanks to my sister-in-law, Nancy, who mailed me the glitter just days ago.) They all looked a little sparkly in the end, so I was pleased. My hair was sparkly blue in spots! 


I also introduced complementary colors in the fifth grade class. I have done color wheels with everyone, so when the fifth graders finished their warm and cool colors fish, I had them do a complementary colors mosaic. The pattens I am using for the mosaics come from a children's coloring book from L'Ahambra in Granada, Spain. I wondered when I bought it last year when I might use it!

So, the fifth graders could pick the complementary color pairs: yellow,purple or blue,orange or red, green. Here is what was started. I think they will end up looking very nice when all put together.


The final project I had the oldest students work on was with scratchboard I had brought from home. All my little supplies are dwindling that I brought from home, and my only hope of supplies is on a boat in the Atlantic. So, I told the students that I had chosen one class for now to do scratchboard due to a lack of scratchboard. (I know one can make it, I hope to have a couple classes do so.) They had never seen it before. 

They loved scratching so much, one girl scratched all the black off! I guess she was having deep thoughts. One girl had a princess, crudely drawn in jail with an evil king looming over her. At first she said it was an angel visiting a woman. (Was she alluding to Mary and Gabriel? Christianity is studied here- did that happen in the previous class?) Then, she put the woman in jail. OK, where are we going here? 


We had just gone over textures, but they did not bring that information into their new work. I think I have to break it down into smaller steps.


One parent, who works at the school, asked for a copy of my curriculum. I mentioned that I was hired to devise a curriculum and that it was being formulated this year. In my head, as I am talking to her, I'm thinking of how I have scrapped several ideas because of where the students are with art skills. Some have never seen watercolors. 

I told her I could give her a list of art terms, and she could read the handout that was supposed to have been given out at curriculum night. She wants to prep and coach her child on the art terms. I marveled because I am not even giving tests in lower elementary due to the language barrier. 


So, it was a full day of art world in my corner in Morocco. I have had to step up my discipline strategies to have quieter classrooms. I personally don't know why one would talk with anyone while making art because I so thoroughly go to the right side of my brain. But, my students think it's get to know your friends better while speaking Arabic time. I have no clue as to what they are saying:-) Maybe that is a good thing? 

This is one of the student's fish that captures my look in art class when they are using loud voices and speaking Arabic. I love that eye! I think I'll toss some blue glitter on the water areas.