a tribute to my job

For those who don't know this yet, I am a primary school art teacher 75% of the time. I have such a love-hate relationship with my job. Last week was REALLY bad and I was so unsure about whether I will continue next year. I know I am so privileged to have this job and there are just so many reasons why I say so. I thought I'd make a little blog post about it to motivate me :)

10 reasons why I love my job:

1. Because the rewards are near immediate. After a few weeks of kids being in my class I get to see beautiful results!

2. Because I get to see that proud look on the kids' faces when they've just made something that they know looks good!

3. Because I get to work with beautiful kids of such a variety of ages, shapes and colours!

4. Because the little ones are just so flipping cute!

5. Because I get letters in kids' writing that tell me I'm the best :)

6. Because Kids come to me to show off their art works they worked on at home. I like the fact that they know I will give them affirmation!

7. Because kids come to clean my class after school sometimes because they enjoy it.

8. Because I get more paid leave than any other job I can think of!

9. Because I have the security of a decent and regular salary.

10. Because my job challenges me! It stretches me in ways I did not imagine and forces me to deal with difficult situations in a mature way.

11. Because I get to draw and paint!

12. Because I have my own room that I can do with as I please!

13. Because I am given the right to make a significant impact in the lives of 460 kids!

14. Because some kids get really excited when I walk into the room to do art with them.

15. Because I get hugged a lot :)

Okay, so 10 reasons very effortlessly turned into 15 reasons. These all came out without giving it much thought, so I'm sure if I thought about it some more I'd be able to come up with a whole lot more.
I guess I do have a pretty amazing job :) Thank you, Jesus!

Sea creatures

Here's a nice and simple lesson for little kiddies if you don't have time for much preparation. I did this with my Grade ones not too long ago.

Lessons like these work well if you first read the kiddies a story from a story book. This way, you can show them what different sea creatures look like. (I also did something similar with the Grade 2s where they had to draw wild animals).

First, I encouraged them to fill their page with different sea creatures using wax crayons. They then painted over the entire picture with very runny blue tempera paint.... and voila there you have it - a lovely little scene from under the sea!

Bubbly fish

When your budget is limited, you have to find alternative ways of making 3D art. Here's one way that was quite successful for me with my Gade 5s. Hand out some pictures of different types of fish. Let kids choose a fish they like which they then enlarge on to an A4 sheet of card. You will notice that I like to let my kids outline their artworks with a black cokie (sharpie). This makes everything stand out much more. In this case, I let them choose whether they wanted to paint or use pastels to colour in their fish. (I believe in giving kids some choice when they are being creative!) . They then had to cut out their fish, trace the outline, and colour in the second one so that it is "swimming in the opposite direction". They then glued the edges of the two together and stuffed heir fish with (lots of) tissue to make nice bubbly fish. You can then put some fish wire on them and hang them up together to make a little class Aquarium like this:

Black and white Mandalas

I went to an art teaching workshop at the Tygerberg art centre earlier this year, and they gave us some really lovely ideas! I decided to put this into practice immediately - and absolutely loved the results of this lesson! Again- produced by my very gifted Grade sixes! They are just amazing.

The instruction was to create a mandala using organic shapes (shapes you see in nature). They used A4 paper, their compass, a pencil and a black pen to create their masterpieces. This was a nice lesson, cause I was able to incorporate some theory about rotational symmetry, pattern making and contrast into it. I don't really teach theory in a structured way at primary school level, but rather explain the concepts as they go along.

Painting my feet

This was the very first Art lesson I did with my wonderful Grade sixes. I got the idea off the internet, but unfortunately I can't remember what sight it was!

What the kids had to do is draw their own feet in a way that represented them. So a lot of the boys drew feet playing soccer, and you can imagine many of the girls drew themselves in high heels! They then outlined their drawing with a black cokie (american: sharpie), and painted the surfaces with tempera paint. Part of the instruction was to create a background that suits the feet. I really enjoyed the result and was amazed by how unique they all turned out :)

primary school fun

So I must admit: A LOT of ideas that I use for my art lessons come from none other than my good old friend Mr Google! Truly, I tell you - he is awesome! In fact, most of the pages that Google leads me to are blogs by art teachers like myself. To them, I am largely indebted! Thanks colleagues from far far away for sharing your ideas with newbies like me!! I would love to do the same... I'd love to share some of the things that have worked in MY art room. Who knows, maybe they will work in yours too?

First of all, let me introduce you to some of my awesome (and sometimes terribly naughty) kids. There are 460 of them that I see every week, but Grade 6 really deserves to get a special mention. There is just so much creativity that goes on in this Grade that I find myself genuinely looking forward to these classes!

This is Nosipho - you'll want to watch out for this girl! Creative to the max. I always enjoy seeing what she produces!

This is Nathan. What a nice kid! Again, really dedicated to his art! (Can you tell?)