Model Neighborhood

One class had a project. They had to create and label important things in a typical neighborhood. Here are some of the structures

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is the awareness of something you weren't aware of beforehand. My high school class was given an assignment. Construct a representational model house exploring mixed media. Also there had to be a sign on the house somewhere that was acknowledgement of what they have changed or would like to change. Here is an example.

Resources

Over the year of teaching art to students with special needs, I have used various websites for ideas and inspiration. I also have some tried and true books I refer to on a regular basis. The first is 300 lessons in art. This book provides both two dimensional as well as three dimensional projects. It a great resource for all art teachers. The next book is entitled " Making Sense of Art". This book provides great activities for students diagnosed with autism and other developmental delays. The last book is called " Discovering Great Artists". This book provides some art history lessons about famous artists past and present and activities that correspond with that particular artists' art style.

Limitation

This activity is sure to get the creative juices flowing! Students are given a theme and ask to use what is available on the tables to create. This is a good activity for the beginning of the year to assess students' likes and dislikes and skill level but can be done anytime to assess students'

high order thinking.

Mandalas

This week we worked on mandalas. Mandalas are all the craze right now with adult coloring books so I set out to explain the history behind them.  Mandala in Sanskrit means "circle".Mandalas are used in the country of India for spiritual rituals. They can also be used to calm the mind and help with focus.  We also mentioned how this is an example in art and design of radial symmetry.

We substituted the original shapes used for geometric shapes and used grid lines to help keep track of what belonged in each section.

Wire Contour

Contour drawings are essentially outlines of shapes. To learn about contour we used wire instead of a pencil or paintbrush.

Throwing

Throwing on the pottery wheel is exciting as well as a very demanding event for an artist. In my class, I showed the students the steps to throw a basic cylinder on the wheel.